4.1) Nouns and the Copula
Hello again everyone! 👋🏾 Welcome to another post to help you improve your Japanese!
Over the years, I have done a lot of thinking about Japanese and how the language works. When it comes to parts of speech I think that nouns are the most important one in Japanese. In this post let’s look at why they are so important and the power of nouns-copula pairs.
First, here is the vocabulary that will appear in this post:
【The Importance of Japanese Nouns】
We’ve talked about the 3 main sections of Japanese sentences. If you think about 2 out of those 3 (the topic section and the comment section) you may realize that nouns really do heavy lifting when it comes to communicating ideas.
How do we set up the topic section? Well, we take a noun (or a noun phrase) and attach the particle は to it. Now you or your listener / reader will know what the topic of the conversation is (for the time being). Without that noun part, you don’t have any topic.
Moving over to the comment section, we find that nouns are again very important. Much like the topic, the subject is made up of a noun (or noun phrase) and the particle が. Even though there are times when the subject is not stated, it’s always there - and it always involves a noun.
When you want to end the comment section of any given sentence, you can choose to use an adjective form or a verb form. If you don’t use either of those, your only other option is a noun-copula pair. It’s interesting to realize the several ways that nouns are important forming Japanese sentences.
Take a look at the following three Japanese sentences:
These three sentences are perfectly understandable in Japanese society - despite being very short! The first sentence is an adjective and the second one is a verb form. The third one is an example of a noun-copula pair, and it shows that if you take a noun and attach a form of the copula to it, you are all set; with the right context, you will have a perfectly understandable sentence.
So let’s finally get to talking about whatever this copula is.
A copula is a verb that links or ties two things together. Think of it as a bridge that connects a noun with a description. In English our main copula is the verb “be”. Take a look at these two sentences:
I am a teacher.
My friends are teachers.
“Am” is linking the subject (I) with the noun phrase “a teacher“. In the same way, “are” is linking the subject “my friends” with the noun “teachers”. “Am” and “are” in these sentences are two different forms of the same copula! In this case our copula is the “to be” verb, and the nuance of that copula is that the two sides are equal.
If we used a different copula, the meaning and / or nuance of the connection might change. If we used “became” for example, the two sides would still be equal BUT the nuance would change. The copula “became” adds the nuance that they were not always equal.
Japanese, on the other hand, only has 1 copula. Its positioning is also completely different. In Japanese, the noun-copula pair will always come at the end of the comment section*. First you set the topic and or the subject, then at the end, you finish with a noun-copula pair. No matter how many phrases you have in the middle, the noun-copula pair will always refer to (and describe) either the topic, the subject or both.
Japanese may only have one copula but there are many versions of this copula that all have their own nuances. In this post we’re going to take a look at 8 versions of the copula and how each of their nuances is slightly (or completely) different.
The first 3 versions of the copula are です、でした and でしょう. They are used for formal situations. This may be conversations with or writing for people you don’t know well. If you are talking or texting with someone you just met or someone like a co-worker or manager, you are most likely going to be using some of these 3 versions.
です is used when you want to say the [topic / subject] is / are / am + a description.
The meaning will depend on the topic of the conversation. When someone you don’t know asks you what your name is, they will usually ask お名前は何ですか？ Because they already set the topic to “your name”, example 1 is the most natural way to answer. there is no need to say 私の名前は first, because this would just be repetitive and unnecessary.
② 生徒でした。
= was a student / were students
でした is just the past tense of です. The nuance is that something used to be something else, but is no longer that description.
The last polite version of the copula we’ll be looking at is でしょう. This version has several nuances.
③ このセーター、【いい色でしょう】。
= this sweater, good color don’t you think?
The color of this sweater looks good, right?
In example 3 you can imagine the speaker holding up a sweater that they recently bought and asking if it’s a good color. This version of the copula means that the speaker / writer believes that there is a connection between the topic / subject and the noun, and that he or she wants to confirm that connection. Notice that the Japanese sentence ends in a period, even though we would use a question mark in English.
④ 冗談でしょう！
= It’s a joke / You’re joking, right?
Notice that this request for confirmation of a connection can translate to “don’t you think?” or “right?” in English. Unfortunately, there is one more way that でしょう is used.
⑤ 彼は明日は【暇でしょう】。
= as for him, tomorrow will be free
= He will (probably) be free tomorrow.
In example 5, the speaker is more sure of the connection between the topic and the noun marked with でしょう. However, in Japanese culture it’s not good to speak in certainties so this version of でしょう can be translated as somewhere between “is / will be” and “probably is / will be”. It will depend on the speaker / writer’s level of confidence and how open they are with the listener / reader.
The next 3 versions of the copula are だ、だった and だろう.
だ is the plain version of です. Let’s say that you are very popular in your neighborhood in Japan. You walk into an Izakaya where the regular patrons haven’t seen you in a while. When you walk in, they might exclaim:
⑥ [your name] だ!
= It’s you!
Whereas です would be too formal between friends, だ carries the nuance of closeness. We’ll talk more about だ a little later.
Example 7 is just the plain version way to say example 2. Other than politeness level, だった and でした are the same.
だろう is basically used in the same way as でしょう, except for the politeness level.
Example 8 is very similar to example 3. The meaning is exactly the same but with one key difference in nuance: だろう is more often used by men and boys than women and girls! It also comes off as feeling closer to だ sometimes. In written Japanese it carries the nuance of “I think” or “probably”. On the other hand, when spoken the nuance is stronger, more like “is” or “will be”.
The next version of the copula that we’ll look at is なら(ば).
なら is used in conditional sentences. It carries the nuance of “if”.
⑨ 私が【あなたの立場なら】、…
= I, your position if…
= If I were in your position…
In written Japanese or if you want to make the conditional part sound a bit more formal, use ならば instead of なら. This is not really anything to think about too much though, because the end of the sentence is more important when it comes to politeness level.
Another thing to be mindful of, is that なら carries with it the implication that the listener / reader knows the context of what you are saying. In other words, sentences with なら(ば) usually come towards the middle or the end of conversation and not at the beginning.
The final version of the copula is an interesting one. Let’s say that you and a friend are at a seafood restaurant in Ōsaka. You both are looking at the menu and your friend asks you what you two should order. You say “let’s go with edamame. How about you?” Your friend answers:
Do you think your friend should use です or だ？ ？
The answer is neither! です is too formal for a meal with a friend. BUT だ is too strong for this situation! Imagine if in English someone responded with IT’S OYSTERS! It would be very strange. In example 10, the most natural copula to use is none at all - or the null copula.
Technically, there does have to be a copula but by only saying the noun you have adjusted your speech to the appropriate amount of politeness, casualness and strength for the situation.
This will take some time to get right but I think that now you will notice that native speakers sometime leave out the copula when they are talking. This is the null copula.
So there you have it! All 8 versions of the Japanese copula.
As always I recommend reading native speakers’ Japanese sentences and looking for what you’ve learned from this post. Next try to listen to some natural conversations. Finally try to make your own sentences and see how they feel. Learning this language is a step-by-step process.
As always, feel free to ask me any questions! Thanks so much for reading and see you next time!
* It is possible to have a noun-copula pair NOT at the end of the comment section, but somewhere in the middle. In these cases, the noun-copula pair actually marks the end of a clause. More on this in the next post!
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