Daily lessons · Day 3 of 90
You finished this day
This, that & “what is it?”
Point at anything and ask about it
Today you get the single most practical tool for a traveller with limited vocabulary: the ability to point at something and ask what it is, then understand the shape of the answer. You'll learn the ko-so-a system - a tidy pattern that runs right through Japanese - plus how to turn any statement into a question with one syllable.
これ・それ・あれ - this and that
English has two levels of distance (this / that). Japanese has three, and which you use depends on who is near the object:
That ko- / so- / a- opening is a system, not a coincidence. It repeats across whole families of words: ここ・そこ・あそこ (koko / soko / asoko - here / there / over there), この・その・あの (kono / sono / ano - this ___ / that ___ / that ___ over there, used directly before a noun). Learn the three prefixes once and you unlock a dozen words instead of memorising them separately.
Asking what something is
Now combine the pointing words with a question. This gives you a way to learn vocabulary in the wild:
Look closely at これは なんですか and you'll see everything you already know: これ (this) + は (the topic marker) + なん (what) + です (the polite “is”) + か (question). It's the Day 1 pattern with a question word dropped into the blank. Japanese is built from a small number of these frames, refilled endlessly - which is exactly why the first week feels slow and then things speed up.
か - the question particle
Turning a statement into a question in Japanese is easier than in any European language:
No word-order change, no “do/does”, no rising intonation required - just append か. This is one of the genuinely easy corners of Japanese grammar, so lean on it. One nuance: in casual speech among friends, people often drop the か and just raise their intonation, but the polite か form is what you want as a learner and a visitor.
Carry over, from earlier days
Check yourself
9 questions. Nothing is saved unless you finish.