A は B です
The most useful pattern in beginner Japanese. A is the topic, B is what it is. B can be a noun, a name or a place.
Negative, past and plain forms
です changes its ending for “not” and for the past. The middle column is more formal and common in writing and business; the plain column is for friends and family.
| Polite | Formal polite | Plain (casual) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| is | です desu | です desu | だ da |
| is not | じゃないです ja nai desu | ではありません de wa arimasen | じゃない ja nai |
| was | でした deshita | でした deshita | だった datta |
| was not | じゃなかったです ja nakatta desu | ではありませんでした de wa arimasen deshita | じゃなかった ja nakatta |
Saying what something is not
じゃ is the spoken shortening of では. Both are correct; じゃないです is everyday polite speech, ではありません is careful or written.
Questions with ですか
Add か to the end and the sentence becomes a question. There is no change of word order.
です after adjectives: politeness only
い-adjectives like 高い (expensive) already mean “is expensive”, so です after them adds politeness, not meaning. That is why the past of 高いです is 高かったです, with the past on the adjective, never 高いでした.
だ and dropping です
Among friends, です becomes だ or disappears. Women and men both drop it in questions and soft statements; a bare だ can sound blunt or masculine, so many speakers leave it off.
でしょう: probably, and “right?”
でしょう (plain だろう) adds “probably”. Said with a rising tone, it asks for agreement: “right?”. Weather forecasts end almost every sentence with it.
What です can follow
です follows nouns, adjectives and the explanatory の. It never follows a plain verb directly; verbs have their own polite ending, ます. The one exception is でしょう, which can follow anything.
| Example | Meaning | Before です |
|---|---|---|
| gakusei desu | I am a student | noun |
| shizuka desu | it is quiet | な-adjective |
| takai desu | it is expensive | い-adjective (politeness only) |
| iku n desu | I’m going, you see | explanatory ん/の |
| ikimasu | I go | verbs use ます, not です |
Four levels of “is”
The same meaning, from casual to very formal. Choose by who you are talking to and whether you are speaking or writing.
Short answers with です
Japanese answers often repeat just the key word + です, or use one of these set replies.
Check yourself
Put each sentence into the form shown, then open the answer.
- Make it negative学生です → negativegakusei desu
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学生じゃないです (or ではありません). - Make it past学生です → pastgakusei desu
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学生でした. - Past negative静かです → past negativeshizuka desu
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静かじゃなかったです. - Make it past高いです → pasttakai desu
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高かったです, never 高いでした. - Make it casual学生です → casualgakusei desu
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学生だ, or just 学生 with friends.
僕はうなぎだ: “I am an eel”
Japanese grammar books love this sentence. In a restaurant, 僕はうなぎだ means “I’ll have the eel”, not “I am an eel”. です and だ link the topic to whatever is relevant in context, not only to what the topic literally is.