A2: Describe nouns with clauses

A2 Course

名詞を詳しく説明する

Elementary
~45 min

I can identify people, places and things using a clause before a noun.

Can-do goal

I can identify people, places and things using a clause before a noun.

A plain-form clause comes directly before the noun; Japanese needs no relative pronoun such as who or that.

A：田中さんはどの人ですか。
B：窓のそばで本を読んでいる人です。

Build: This is the book I bought yesterday. Then adapt it with your own information and say it aloud.

Open the kana only when you need help reading the lesson's core Japanese.

Model dialogue Show kana

A：たなかさんはどのひとですか。 B：まどのそばでほんをよんでいるひとです。

Target sentence Show kana

これはきのうかったほんです。

Meaning: Identify a noun through a preceding description.

Build it: plain-form clause directly before the noun

When to use it: Japanese does not add a relative pronoun such as who or that.

これはきのう買った本です。

Reading help · よみかた

これはきのうかったほんです。

This is the book I bought yesterday.

Watch out: Do not use ます inside a noun-modifying clause.