The Copula: Desu

In English, we use words like "is", "am" and "are" for saying "to be" something. In Japanese, we only need one magical word, です (desu, but pronounced dess).

You don't need to change or conjugate です. You just keep it the way it is and put it in the sentence.

Another thing to know is that the sentence order of Japanese is different from English:

In English, the basic order is subject, verb, object /adjective ex: Dogs are cute.

In Japanese, the basic order is subject, verb, object/adjective ex. Dogs cute are.

It may seem weird at first, but it just takes some time to get used to.

Another thing about Japanese is that they aren't specific, meaning that they don't have words like "the" or "a". So you could just say (in Japanese) "Sky blue is" instead of "The sky blue is". Japanese does have a thing called "particles", but that doesn't really matter right now and will be covered in a different lesson.

The Japanese also don't specify on whether something is plural or not, so you could say "チーズ" (Cheese) and it could mean the cheese, a cheese, cheeses, the cheeses, etc. Everything really depends on where you are and who you're talking too.

The last thing that you should know is that the periods look different in Japanese. Instead of a small dot, it's a small circle like this -> 。

They also don't use spaces, so everything is written close together.

Here are some example sentences using "です" :

犬わいいです。 Inu Kawaii Desu

(The) dog(s) are/is cute. (lit. translation: dog cute is)

寿司おいしいです。Sushi Oishi Desu

Sushi is delicious. (lit. translation: sushi delicious is)

私カナダ人です。Sushi Kanadajin Desu

I am Canadian. (lit. translation: I Canadian am)

You could also use the copula to introduce yourself in Japanese:

私はジョージです。My name is George. (watashi wa George desu)

アメリカ人です。I am American. (amerikajin desu)

日本が好きです。I like Japan. (nihonga sukidesu)

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VOCABULARY

犬 inu dog

おいしい kawaii cute

カナダ人 kanadajin Canadian

アメリカ人 amerikajin American

日本人nihonjin Japanese (person)

おいしい oishi delicious

私 watashi I/Me

寿司 sushi Sushi

チーズ chi-ju Cheese

好き suki Like (adj.)