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こ そ あ ど

Tomii515

やった~!
16 Feb 2006
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Hey everyone~!

OK.

so:

これ - this (one)
それ - that (one)
あれ - that (one) (over there)
どれ - which (one)

どれが本ですか。
これは本です。

Ok. Good.

この - this
その - that
あの - that (over there)
どの - which

どの本ですか。
その本です。

Mk. Good.

ここ - here
そこ - there
あそこ - (over) there
どこ - where

本は、どこですか。
あそこです。

Also, good.

BUT

The thing I don't get, or couldn't find, are these:

こちら/こっち
そちら/そっち
あちら/あっち
どちら/どっち

The one thing I do understand is that the ~っち is less formal than the ~ちら. I tried searching on the forums, on google, Tae Kim's guide, but I still can't find it.

I think I have an idea of what they mean, but I'm not exactly sure. Hopefully, someone can fill me in or correct my mistakes:

こちら/こっち - this way/this person/this (out of two)
そちら/そっち - that way/that person/that (out of two)
あちら/あっち - that way (over there)/that person (over there)/that (over there) (out of two)
どちら/どっち - which way/which person/which (out of two)

1) I got "this way", "that way", etc. from the wwwjdic dictionary. So, hopefully that's right. I don't know if it said that どちら/どっち meant the same, though.
2) I got "this person, "that person, etc. from the Genki book. In chapter nine, it said こちら/こっち meant this person, so I thought the others meant the same.
3) I got "this (out of two)", "that (out of two)", etc. from a website. I don't remember what website it was, though.

Anyways, can someone help me?

よろしくお願いします!
 
Is anyone going to post here?
i dont mean to be impatient, but its been a couple of days >_>
 
こちら/こっち、etc. basically refer to the place based on the direction from the speaker.
Generally Japanese "reference terms" related to place (position, direction, etc.) are also used for persons and then things as well.
It's not easy for me to explain well, but pointing the direction where the person/thing stands is more indirect thus considered more polite than pointing the person/thing directly. (It's more historical and cultural things, I think.)

The translation of こちら/こっち as "this way" can be confusing, because of the definition of "way" in English.

こちら/こっち refer to the place/direction which is not very far from the speaker, or someone/something that is in the place/direction viewing from the speaker.

Here are some examples of usage of どちら こちら そちら あちら

(本屋さんで) at a book shop
英語の辞書はどちらありますか?(Where are English dictionaries?)
あちらにございます。 (They are in that direction/place = over there)

(家の玄関で) at the entrance of a house
こんにちは。 (hello)
どちらさまですか? (who are you?/in a polite way)
私、昨日隣に引っ越してきました田中と申します。 (I'm Tanaka, moved to your next door yesterday.)

(パーティーで) at a party
山本さん、以前お話した私の友人をご紹介します。(Mr. Yamamoto, I'd like to introduce my friends that I've talked about it the other day.)
こちらが佐藤さんです。("the person who is in this direction/here" = This (person) is Miss Sato.)

(店で) at a shop
当店ではいろいろなペンを用意しております。 (We have various kinds of pens to offer.)
こちらは万年筆、そちらはボールペンになります。 ("the pens here" = these are fountain pens, "the pens there" = those are ballpoint pens.)

こっち・そっち・あっち・どっち are more colloquial and very informal compared with こちら・そちら・あちら・どちら which sound very formal/polite.
 
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