This is a book.

Part 1 This is a book.

When you indicate something nearby, you use " kore ". How far should it be from you ? When you can hold it with your own hand, or in other words, in your territory, then you can use " kore ". Anything no larger than yourself, no farther than 50cm or 1.5feet can be called " kore ". If you and the other party are within that distance, both of you may call it " kore ".

Note; Since all the Japanese nouns are uncountable, you don' have to think about plural forms for the time being. I'll tell you about it later.

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Part 2 It is a pen.

When you want to indicate some object that is near you, you use " kore ", but to the other party, "sore" instead of "kore" is usually used.

Note; Anything in your territory can be called "kore", but you can call anything in the other party's territory "sore". Therefore, "it" and "sore" are not always the same.

We have the other way of using "sore", that is, when something is outside of your and the other party's territory, but at the same time when both are looking at ( or listening to ) the same object that is not too far away from them.

Note; Examples 1 are far more important than Examples 2.

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Part 3 That is the station.

When you want to indicate something that is far away and outside of your territory, you use "are" ; from the clock on the wall to mountains, buildings, flying objects, boats, etc.

Note; Be careful when you pronounce "a-re". You have to separate "a" from "re".

Let's practice using these words below.

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Part 4 What's this ?

When you see something you don't know, or when you want to know the name of a nearby object, you will ask like this.

Note; You don't have to put " korewa " unless you want to indicate it clearly. You can also say " sorewa nan-desuka " and " are wa nan-desuka ".

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Part 5 my key.

There is another "no" whicn means possession. (Compare <Taro is a salesman> Part 3) When you want to say "my, your, her, his, our, their", then put "no" after the owner.

Note; In conversation, you can drop the name of an object if it is known in advance. Example; これはわたしの鍵です( kore wa watgshi-no kagi desu ) →これはわたしのです（ kore wa watashi-no desu ）

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Part 7 Which ?

If you want to make a question about choosing something among several things, you can use "dore".

Note; Masako can answer either "sore desu" or "kore desu", according to the stuation I have explained above.

Note; "dore desuka" can be used as "Which is yours?","Which do you like?","Which do you take?" and " Which do you choose ?", etc.

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Part 8 This mobile phone

As you see "this" and "this book", the word this has two ways of usage; independetly as a pronoun and combined with a noun. "kore, are, sore" also have their adjective usage " kono, ano, sono" respecitively.

Note; "the" sometimes coincides with " sono ".

Note; A train or bus ticket is called "kippu （切符）", not "chiketto".

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Part 8 Which pencil ?

The word " dore " also has adjective usage " dono ".

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Part 9 ko-so-a-do

Did you get what "ko-so-a-do こそあど" means ? Yes ! This is an initials of "kore/kono" ( something very near ), "sore/sono" ( something neither too near nor too far ), "are/ano" ( something very far ) and "dore/dono" ( which ? ). These 4 kinds of expressions will be applied to places, directions, ways and manners later.

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