Lesson 2: Shopping

The 'Ko-So-A-Do' system — Japanese uses distance from BOTH speaker and listener to pick the right 'this/that' word.

The three flavors:

• これ/それ/あれ stand alone as pronouns ('this one')
• この/その/あの must be followed by a noun ('this book')
• ここ/そこ/あそこ point to locations ('here/there')
• The 'do-' versions are the question forms (どれ = which, どの = which [noun], どこ = where)

Distance rule: こ- = near me, そ- = near you, あ- = far from both.

Shopping pattern: 〜はいくらですか (how much is ~?) → answer with number + 円. To buy, use 〜をください (please give me ~).

Question particle か is the Swiss-army-knife: stick it on ANY statement to make a question — no inversion, no auxiliary verbs.

Other staples: 〜じゃないです for noun negation. The particle も ('also/too') REPLACES は (never say はも). だれの X = 'whose X' — the の particle makes possessives.

Sentence-end particles: ね (seeking agreement, 'right?') and よ (new info, 'you know') also show up here — drop them and you sound flat.