That それ・その

Oni's picture

This and that. Now we are on the THAT part.  So this THAT refers to objects near the listener (not the speaker)

それ sore - when "that" is not connected to a noun

それ　は　何　です　か？
sore wa nan desu ka?
What is that?

それ　は　ねこ　です。
sore wa neko desu.
That is a cat.

HINT
Begin to think of the words starting with K's as "this" and the S's as "that" words  

その sono - When you put "that" before a noun, it changes to sono

その ねこ　は　ポチ　です　か？
sono neko wa pochi desu ka?
Is that cat, Pochi?.

いいえ。　その　たこ　は　ポチ　です。
iie sono tako wa pochi desu.
No. That octopus is Pochi.

HINT
This is used in the same way as kono

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.
Luv Scarlet's picture

Difference ?

Submitted by Luv Scarlet on Sat, 07/28/2012 - 12:50.

Well, here I have some problems and this is maybe because of my French. I have difficulties to see the difference between This and That uses.

For example :
これ　は　何　です　か？
kore wa nan desu ka?
What is this?

それ　は　何　です　か？
sore wa nan desu ka?
What is that?

When I translate to French both mean : "Qu'est-ce que c'est ?" - What's that/this ? ("C'est" = That/this is). So' I'm worrying about conditions to use これ / それ. If it depends on the closeness of an object, how does this work ?

Can somebody please help me ? :(

PS : In French we also have the "Qu'est-ce que c'est que cela/ça ?" which precisly means "What's that ?" and not "What's this ?" ("ça/cela" = that, "ce/ceci" = this). I'm wondering if this isn't the right translation.

*theveryannoyingFrenchguy...

...withhisveryannoyinglanguage*

夢見てる？何も見てない？　語るも無駄な自分の言葉
悲しむなんて疲れるだけよ　何も感じず過ごせばいいの
東方、 Bad Apple !!

clay's picture

I think you've got it.

Submitted by clay on Mon, 07/30/2012 - 01:30.

I think you've got it. Use "kore" for speaking about objects near the speaker. "sore" and "are" are away from the speaker.

TheJapanShop.com- Japanese language learning materials
Checkout our iPhone apps: TheJapanesePage.com/iPhone

Luv Scarlet's picture

Thank you very much !

Submitted by Luv Scarlet on Mon, 07/30/2012 - 02:58.

ありがとうございます クレイさま。 :D
This is really helpful !

夢見てる？何も見てない？　語るも無駄な自分の言葉
悲しむなんて疲れるだけよ　何も感じず過ごせばいいの
東方、 Bad Apple !!

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

Support those who Support TJP!

Campaign 2 - Banner 1