Lesson 15 - This, That, Which

There are four different pronouns (with adjective forms) that mean this, that, that over there, and which. The first is kore, which means this. You use kore alone as a noun, while you use its adjective form, kono, with another noun. You use kore when you are referring to something near yourself. For example, if you wanted to say "This is a dog", you would say Kore wa inu desu, while if you wanted to say "This dog's name is Buddy", you would say Kono inu no namae wa BUDDI desu. 

The next pronoun is sore, which means that. You use sore when referring to an object near the person you are talking to. The word sore is used alone as a noun while its adjective form, sono, must be used with another noun. To get the idea, we'll have a few examples: to say "That is not a classroom", you would say Sore wa kyoushitsu janai desu, while to say "That classroom is the teacher's", it would be Sono kyoushitsu wa sensei no desu.
You already know part of the next pronoun are, which has the adjective form ano (used in previous lessons). Are means "that over there" and is used to refer to an object that isn't near you or the person you are conversing with. If you were to say "That over there is a map" it would be Are wa chizu desu while to ask "Who is that person over there?", it would be Ano hito wa dare desu ka.

The last pronoun is dore which means "which", not to be confused with dare, which is "who". While dore stands alone as a noun, dono is the adjective form you would use with another noun. For example, to ask "Which one is it?", you would say Dore desu ka, while to ask "Which dog is it?", you would say Dono inu desu ka. 
Let's have a sample conversation between Taisuke and Kazuhiro.

Taisuke: Konnichi wa, Kazu san.
Kazuhiro: Konnichi wa, Tai san.
Taisuke: Ogenki desu ka.
Kazuhiro: Okage sama de, genki desu. Anata wa.
Taisuke: Genki janai desu. Sore wa zasshi desu ka.
Kazuhiro: Iie, kore wa manga desu. Ano seito no namae wa nan desu ka.
Taisuke: Ano seito no namae wa Daniko desu.
Kazuhiro: Doumo. Ja mata, Tai san.
Taisuke: Ja mata.

In this conversation, Taisuke and Kazuhiro address each other with informal nicknames. Kazuhiro says he is fine, while Taisuke replies he is not fine. Taisuke then asks if that is a magazine, or zasshi. Kazuhiro replies, "No, that is a comic book. (Manga means comic book) What is that student over there's name?" Taisuke replies the student's name is Daniko. Kazuhiro thanks him and says "See you later", Taisuke saying the same. While we're on the topic of magazines and such, the word for newspaper is shinbun.