JLPT 3 Review: ～んです、～のです

A poster announcing the upcoming Japanese Language Proficiency Test in our company’s bulletin board can only mean one thing for me: it’s time to start reviewing for JLPT 3. Unfortunately, due to our project group’s hectic work schedule, I have not been able to go to my Nihongo classes as often as I should. Fortunately, though, I have re-discovered this blog that gives Japanese lessons . The blog’s name is “Japanese for you Everyday”, a Yahoo! 360 blog owned by a Japanese language teacher . I have added her blog to my blogroll since I think I will be visiting her blog from time to time from now on.

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 In the “Japanese for you Everyday” blog, I found a post that teaches the first (or second?) lesson we had for the second half of our basic Japanese elementary course: ～んです. The post also mentioned that the usage for  ～んです and ～のです are similar. The main difference is that the former is often used in conversation while the latter is often used in written communication. In this post, I will write down what I remember about ~n desu based from the lesson taught to us by our Nihongo teacher as well some parts of the post in the “Japanese for you…”  blog that I have mentioned earlier. Since lunch break is almost over (meaning, blogging time is almost up), I will just write most of the lesson in Romaji since writing in Kana/Kanji takes time.  

Uses of  ～んです、～のです

Note: The “Japanese for you…” blog mentions many and more specific uses, but for now, I’ll be listing what I remember from our Nihongo teacher. Perhaps I’ll update this part of the post when I have more time.

1.  asking for the reason/cause, stating the reason/cause

Example:

Tanaka-san: Dou shitan desu ka. (What happened?)

Katou-san: Chotto, kimochi ga waruin desu. (I feel a little sick. Literally, I feel a little unpleasant.)

2. emphasize something in a question or statement

Example:

Tanaka-san: Ii tokei desu ne! Doko de kattan desu ka. (Nice watch! Where did you buy it?) 

Katou-san: Timex shop de kattan desu. (I bought this in the Timex shop.)

Note: In the above case, Tanaka-san uses the ~n desu form to emphasize that he really likes the watch that Katou-san is wearing.

How to form  ～んです、～のです words

1. For verbs (doushi)

Plain form + ～んです

Plain form + ～のです

Example: 

Making the -n desu form of the verb “tabemasu” (eat)

Taberun desu (positive non-past plain form)

Tabenain desu (negative non-past plain form)

Tabetan desu (positive past plain form)

Tabenakattan desu (negative past plain form)

2. For i-adjectives (ikeiyoushi)

i-adjective + ～んです

i-adjective + ～のです

Example:

Ookiin desu (positive non-past i-adjective)

Ookinakunain desu  (negative non-past i-adjective)

Ookikattan desu  (positive past i-adjective)

Ookikunakattan desu  (negative past i-adjective)

3. For na-adjectives (nakeiyoushi)

For positive non-past na-adjective:

na-adjective plain form + na + ～んです

na-adjective plain form + na + ～のです

For other forms/tenses of na-adjective:

na-adjective plain form + ～んです

na-adjective plain form  + ～のです

Example:

kireinan desu (positive non-past plain form of na-adjective)

kireijanain desu (negative non-past plain form of na-adjective)

kireidattan desu (positive past plain form of na-adjective)

kireijanakattan desu (negative past plain form of na-adjective)

4. For noun-particles (meishi doushi)

Forming the ~n desu/~no desu for m for noun-particles is similar to  na-adjectives so I’ll just write the examples.

Example:

yasumi nan desu

yasumijanain desu

yasumidattan desu

yasumijanakattan desu