Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainThunder
I'm not sure what you intend to illustrate with this example, since as you yourself stated, there is no "is"/"are" distinction in Japanese; the verbs remain the same across subjects. I'm pretty sure that to make it explicit that you were addressing the listener, you'd need to either throw in a pronoun, or a particle at the end of the sentence like か or ね ("is hungry" and "is hungry?" seems like a pretty clear distinction to me).
Although maybe I just misunderstood you 
EDIT: Yeah, I misunderstood, the fact that you used "are" in the second sentence is coincidental, and the question mark is the critical part, as I alluded to. Sorry about that. |
Let me restate it, and it will either be more or less confusing.
Instead of saying "I am hungry." you would say "[state of being] hungry." as it is less than likely you would know or be talking about someone else's hunger.
When you ask someone if they are hungry you would ask "[state of being] hungry?" as it would be less than likely you are asking about anyone else but the person the question is directed to.
おなかすいた。
ONAKA SUITA. = I am hungry.
おなかすいた？
ONAKA SUITA? = Are you hungry?