Grammar 2 · — chapter 12's machine, finally named

Pointing, and the shapes of an answer

The second grammar sheet writes down the rules chapter 12's words have been running on: the three pointing words that stand alone, the three that grab a noun — and then the whole answer machine: four ways to say yes, four ways to say no, the question that refuses both, and the little that keeps a conversation moving.

≈15 minutes · the grammar points of Minna no Nihongo I lesson 2, in the sheet's own order · every claim checked against Jisho.org and the course's own pages

Like grammar 1, this sheet brings no new words — every noun in every example already has a card in chapter 12, and the negative machinery is grammar 1's four forms of at work. What it brings is the wiring diagram: which pointing word takes and which must not, and what an answer is allowed to look like.

1.Rule 1 — stand alone

Three words, three distances, and the sheet states their two properties plainly: they point at things, and they are complete in themselves — attaches straight to them. is the thing near me, the thing near you, the thing near neither of us. One noun, three positions:

  1. 1.This is a dictionary — in my hand

    Japanese

    これは じしょです。

    kore wa jisho desu

    Arabic

    هٰذَا قَامُوسٌ.

    hādhā qāmūs

  2. 2.That is a dictionary — near you

    Japanese

    それは じしょです。

    sore wa jisho desu

    Arabic

    ذَاكَ قَامُوسٌ.

    dhāka qāmūs

  3. 3.That over there is a dictionary — near neither of us

    Japanese

    あれは じしょです。

    are wa jisho desu

    Arabic

    ذٰلِكَ قَامُوسٌ.

    dhālika qāmūs

The first sentence is reading 1's own line, wording and all — the sheet's example is the textbook's. And the Arabic column keeps chapter 12's three-word mapping: هٰذَا near me, ذَاكَ in the middle distance, ذٰلِكَ far — Arabic owns a middle word too, and this is the sentence pattern that exercises all three.

2.Rule 2 — grabs a noun

The second row of pointing words cannot stand alone. The sheet's rule, in its own emphatic framing: after a noun must come; that noun is what the sentence is about, and attaches to it — never to directly. And unlike Rule 1's words, these point at people as happily as things:

  1. 1.This book is mine — の holding the noun's place, see Rule 5

    Japanese

    この ほんは わたしのです。

    kono hon wa watashi no desu

    Arabic

    هٰذَا الْكِتَابُ لِي.

    hādhā l-kitābu lī

  2. 2.Who is that gentleman? — the polite pair, person-pointing done right

    Japanese

    あのかたは どなたですか。

    ano kata wa donata desu ka

    Arabic

    مَنْ ذٰلِكَ السَّيِّدُ؟

    man dhālika s-sayyid?

Both sentences keep the course's existing wording — the first is reading 1's line verbatim, the second is reading 1's polite question with both halves polite: for , for . Note what Rule 1 and Rule 2 do together: to point politely at a person, the sheet does not use — it reaches for + . Things get Rule 1; people get Rule 2 with a person-noun.

Trick 1 · One seam runs through the whole chart

This is chapter 6's ／ rule wearing three more prefixes. Down the こそあど chart, the column stands alone and the column grabs a noun — ／, ／, ／, ／. Learn the seam once and eight words follow. It is also lesson 19's rule from the other side: the words that end in or are the ones left waiting for a noun.

3.Rule 3 — the yes machine and the no machine

The sheet then does something genuinely useful: it lists every shape an answer may take, four deep on each side, all run on one question — Is that a telephone card?

Saying yesSaying no
はい、そうです。いいえ、そうじゃありません。
はい、テレホンカードです。いいえ、ちがいます。
はい。いいえ、テレホンカードじゃありません。カードです。
いいえ。

Every cell is machinery the course already owns. is with the all-purpose , so, standing in for the whole thing being asked; is grammar 1's negative form applied to it; is chapter 12's own card, the polite that's wrong; and the long third answer corrects as it denies — not a telephone card, a card. Hear the two workhorses side by side:

  1. 1.Yes, it is so

    Japanese

    はい、そうです。

    hai, sō desu

    Arabic

    نَعَمْ، هُوَ كَذٰلِكَ.

    naʿam, huwa kadhālik

  2. 2.No, that's wrong

    Japanese

    いいえ、ちがいます。

    iie, chigaimasu

    Arabic

    لَيْسَ كَذٰلِكَ.

    laysa kadhālika

Trick 2 · The course's Arabic already had this symmetry

Reading 1 translated as هُوَ كَذٰلِكَ, it is so — and chapter 12 glossed as لَيْسَ كَذٰلِكَ, it is not so. The yes word and the no word are the same Arabic word, كَذٰلِكَ — like that — affirmed and negated, exactly as Japanese runs both answers on the one syllable . Neither language answers with the noun; both answer with so.

The sheet's best slip: drop the ー and you write another word

Rule 3's question is printed — the card in hiragana, with no long vowel. The corrected form is chapter 12's own card, . What makes this slip worth staring at: in hiragana is real Japanese — , corner, and , excessive, both common dictionary words. Lose the katakana and the and you have not misspelled card; you have written corner. The script and the length mark are not decoration — they are what keeps the phone card off the street corner.

4.Rule 4 — the question that refuses yes and no

Ask two questions in one breath — after each — and you have an either/or question. The sheet's rule has two halves: every question carries its own , and this kind of question is never answered with or — you name the winner instead:

  1. 1.Is this a 9, or a 7?

    Japanese

    これは きゅうですか、ななですか。

    kore wa kyū desu ka, nana desu ka

    Arabic

    هَلْ هٰذَا تِسْعَةٌ أَمْ سَبْعَةٌ؟

    hal hādhā tisʿatun am sabʿa?

  2. 2.— It's a 7. (No yes, no no — just the answer)

    Japanese

    ななです。

    nana desu

    Arabic

    سَبْعَةٌ.

    sabʿa

Trick 3 · Arabic has a dedicated or for exactly this

Where Japanese repeats once per alternative, Arabic switches conjunction: an either/or question is هَلْ … أَمْ … — and أَمْ is a question-only or, reserved in the grammars for offering alternatives. The deeper match is the answer rule: in both languages an either/or question is answered by naming the choice, never with yes or no — the same restriction, on both sides of the mission.

One boundary, grammar 1's kind: the sheet says is the only way to ask a question. That is true of this course's polite register — Minna's Japanese asks nothing without it — but spoken casual Japanese also asks with a rising tone alone. File the rule as the register's rule, exactly like "no verb without ".

5.Rule 5 — , three jobs now

Grammar 1's rule 5 joined two nouns. This sheet's examples quietly show doing three distinct jobs, and the middle one is new as a stated rule:

  1. 1.Whose bag is that over there?

    Japanese

    あれは だれの かばんですか。

    are wa dare no kaban desu ka

    Arabic

    حَقِيبَةُ مَنْ تِلْكَ؟

    ḥaqībatu man tilka?

  2. 2.— It's Sato-san's. The bag goes unsaid; の holds its place

    Japanese

    さとうさんのです。

    Satō-san no desu

    Arabic

    هِيَ لِلسَّيِّدِ سَاتُو.

    hiya li-s-sayyidi Sātū

  3. 3.Is this bag yours? — No, it's not mine

    Japanese

    この かばんは あなたのですか。──いいえ、わたしのじゃ ありません。

    kono kaban wa anata no desu ka — iie, watashi no ja arimasen

    Arabic

    هَلْ هٰذِهِ الْحَقِيبَةُ لَكَ؟ ──لَا، لَيْسَتْ لِي.

    hal hādhihi l-ḥaqībatu laka? — lā, laysat lī

  4. 4.Is Miller-san an IMC employee? — Yes, an IMC employee

    Japanese

    ミラーさんは IMCの しゃいんですか。──はい、IMCの しゃいんです。

    Mirā-san wa IMC no shain desu ka — hai, IMC no shain desu

    Arabic

    هَلِ السَّيِّدُ مِيلَر عُضْوُ شَرِكَةِ IMC؟ ──نَعَمْ، هُوَ عُضْوُ الشَّرِكَة.

    hali s-sayyidu Mīlar ʿuḍwu sharikati IMC? — naʿam, huwa ʿuḍwu sh-sharika

The Arabic keeps the course's own conventions throughout: the whose-bag question is reading 1's line verbatim, ownership rides on لِـ as it has since هٰذَا الْكِتَابُ لِي, and keeps chapter 11's عُضْوُ الشَّرِكَة.

6.Rule 6 — , and the そう triangle

The last rule is one word long and does more conversational work than the other five together. , said with a falling tone, is the receipt you hand back when someone tells you something: I see. Is that so. The sheet's example is a whole exchange:

  1. 1.Is this umbrella yours?

    Japanese

    この かさは あなたのですか。

    kono kasa wa anata no desu ka

    Arabic

    هَلْ هٰذِهِ الْمِظَلَّةُ لَكَ؟

    hal hādhihi l-miẓallatu laka?

  2. 2.— No, that's wrong. It's Schmidt-san's

    Japanese

    いいえ、ちがいます。シュミットさんのです。

    iie, chigaimasu. Shumitto-san no desu

    Arabic

    لَا، لَيْسَ كَذٰلِكَ. إِنَّهَا لِلسَّيِّدِ شُمِيت.

    lā, laysa kadhālik. innahā li-s-sayyidi Shumīt

  3. 3.— I see.

    Japanese

    そうですか。

    sō desu ka

    Arabic

    آهْ، فَهِمْتُ.

    āh, fahimtu

Trick 4 · One そう, three endings, three jobs

The course now owns the whole family, and it is one stem with three tails. asserts — that's right (Rule 3). receives — I see, new information accepted (this rule). And lesson 19's shares — a pause over something both speakers can see. The particle is the whole difference: takes in what you did not know, holds up what you both do. Watch the endings, not the stem.

Five slips on this sheet, all of one family

Every slip on the sheet is a small kana or a lost length — the classes lessons 8 and 9 predicted. for (script and ー — see Rule 3's callout); for — small where the word needs small ; for in Rule 6's own closing line, two lines under the correctly printed rule title; and two names short of a vowel — for (reading 1 hand-marks ) and grammar 1's returning for . All taught corrected here, per the grammar-1 precedent.

7.Sources

  1. Minna no Nihongo I, 3A Corporation — the sheet's six rules are 's grammar points. Read the book's own for lesson 2 if you read one thing — it is these rules with the book's example sentences, several of which the reading chapter reproduces line by line, translations and all.
  2. Jisho.org, over JMdict/EDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0) — checked 2026-08-26: as two common words ( corner, excessive) behind the sheet's best slip; as the common headword the sheet's misses; and , whose second sense — a letter of resignation, read the other way — is a bonus homograph the course did not order.
  3. Lesson 12 — the day the pointing words arrived as vocabulary, with the Arabic three-way mapping (هٰذَا／ذَاكَ／ذٰلِكَ) this sheet's rules now formalize — and the original card.
  4. Grammar 1 — the four shapes of that Rule 3's is built from, and the rule this sheet extends.
  5. Lesson 19 — , the third corner of Trick 4's triangle, taught two days ago in the leaving dialogue.