We will discuss on using 何(なん)as an interrogative pronoun to ask for something which is translated as ‘what’. The pattern of the problem consists of question and answer which is paired into a conversation. It is a short conversation between two person. The first person will point out an item and ask what is the name of the item. The first person will use demonstration pronoun such as kore, sore or are which has been studied in the previous article. The other person will answer the question by stating the name of the item. We will display an example and also answers for the question which is presented in Minna no Nihongo book chapter 7 practice B part two. The question which is given are in form of pictures of the item.
We are going to present an example similar to the answer and also the pattern : Pattern : Kanji :「これ・それ・あれ」 +は+何 +ですか
Hiragana :「これ・それ・あれ」 +は+なん +ですか
Romaji : [kore・sore・are ] +wa+nan +desuka
Meaning : what is [this・that・that] ?
Example :
Kanji :
これは何ですか。
。。。鉛筆削りです。
Hiragana :
これはなんですか。
。。。えんぴつけずりです。
Romaji :
Kore wan an desuka.
… enpitsu kezuri desu.
Meaning :
What is this ?
… it is a pencil sharpener.
The above example use interrogative pronoun ‘kore’ which is translated as ‘this’. It is used by the first person to ask the item which is being pointed out. The first person use an interrogative pronoun ‘nan’ for asking the item which is translated as ‘what’. The answer which is being given by the other person is the name of the item being asked.
Below are all of the answers of all the questions based on the above pattern. The questions only provided two kinds of activity in a form of incomplete sentence. We can see the full questions in Minna Nihongo book chapter 7 practice B part 2 page 59 :
1.Answer
Kanji :
これは日本語で何ですか。
。。。「穿孔機」です。
Hiragana :
これはにほんごでなんですか。
。。。「せんこうき」です。
Romaji :
Kore wa nihongo de nan desuka.
… it is [senkouki].
Meaning :
What is this in Japanese language ?.
…[It is a perforator].
2.Answer
Kanji :
これは日本語で何ですか。
。。。「セロハンテープ」です。
Hiragana :
これはにほんごでなんですか。
。。。「セロハンテープ」です。
Romaji :
Kore wa nihongo de nan desuka.
… [serohan te-pu] desu.
Meaning :
What is this in Japanese language ?.
…it is [serohan te-pu].
3.Answer
Kanji :
これは日本語で何ですか。
。。。「ステープル」です。
Hiragana :
これはにほんごでなんですか。
。。。「ステープル」です。
Romaji :
Kore wa nihongo de nan desuka.
… [sute-puru] desu.
Meaning :
What is this in Japanese language ?.
… it is [ sute-puru].
4.Answer
Kanji :
これは日本語で何ですか。
。。。「消しゴム」です。
Hiragana :
これはにほんごでなんですか。
。。。「けしゴム」です。
Romaji :
Kore wa nihongo de nan desuka.
… [keshi gomu] desu.
Meaning :
What is this in Japanese language ?.
… it is [keshi gomu].