Directional Words in Japanese: こ、そ、あ、ど
Summary of Cure Dolly’s “Lesson 20: "Sore/Sono/Sonna/Sou" etc. how directional words REALLY work!"
Like in English too, you use different words to express if something is near you or far away. In Japanese we have the こ/そ/あ row. This all is from the speakers perspective.
こ: near me (think of こころ = heart) そ: near you あ: away from both conversation partners (you have to shout aaa to be heard over there)
ここ/そこ/あそこ/どこ: marks a place somewhere
ここはどこ？ - is a common way to say "Where am I?" in Japanese (Lit. Where is this place?)
これ/それ/あれ/どれ ：marks where a thing is; the れ is related to ある, which expresses that something exists and it usually works for any thing, abstract or physical.
この/その/あの/どの ： act as "adjectives" and are used as descriptors of nouns (and only nouns) ; related to the の particle aka the classifier article
この：this- something described as near me その：that - something described as near you あの：that- something described as over there どの：how- described
こんな/そんな/あんな/どんな ： act as real adjectives, they are decriptive of a quality of something. Remember na-adjectives? This row is related to na-adjectives hence the descriptive character of it. Which one you use is often conceptual, either on how how far away the thing is away from a present perspective, or personal distance.
こんな：like this そんな：like that あんな：like that どんな：like what?
こんなに、そんなに、あんなに：describe adjectives and verbs
こう/そう/ああ/どう：describe a manner of being or doing; similiar to the な group but for actions
Eg そうです - it is that way (the way you have said) These are often used in the construction like どうすればいい？- What should I do? (Lit. What way I will act will be good?)
These are also often in combination with いう：こういう、そういう, etc. and are used for abstract things like conditions, circumstances, think in what way do we describe this condition. eg. どういうこと？： What is going here? (What description of thing is this that's happening here?)
