adjectives
 

okay i need someerious help. Sono means the right ? and kono means this.

Does this make sense to a regular japanese person.

Ex. kono hana wa kireina desu. or sono hana wa kireina desu. ??

Ex. kore mise wa sugoi desu. iam confused on the sono ,kono, sore, and kore? which do i use?

Nice try. But there are mistakes.

First, we don't say 'kireina desu.' Drop the 'na'.

And we don't say 'kore mise'. We say 'kono mise'.

Sono, kono and ano are ALWAYS followed by nouns.

I 'd love to give good examples if I didn't have to write in romaji. It makes me dizzy.

Kirei is an adjective so you had the correct usage if you were using it to modify a noun. Kirei na hana, A pretty flower opposed to, Kono hana wa kirei desu. This flower is pretty.
Kono and Sono are used with nouns like Nagoyankee said. So if you were not using a noun after kono and sono you would use Kore and Sore. Kore wa Kirei desu. This is pretty. So just remember that if you have a noun following "This or That" you need to use Kore and Sore.
So the example of "Kore mise" is incorrect because "This" has a noun (mise) following it. The correct usage would be Kono mise.
One mistake I have seen is to use Kore or sore when introducing yourself or someone else. You would use Kochira for this and Sochira for that when introducing people. On the phone in english we say "this is so and so" but in Japanese it would be bad to say "kono wa dareka". You would need to say Kochira wa dareka (dareka means "someone"). Confused? Hope not!

I think Owakulukem pretty much explained everything. Kono, sono, and ano are followed by nouns, and kore, sore, and are sort of act as the pronouns "this, that, that over there".

The only other thing is the difference between kono/kore and sono/sore and ano/are. Kono/kore would be something you're holding or is in front of you or close to you. Sono/sore would be something near the person you're talking to or that they are holding. It could also be something that's a little bit away from both of you. Ano/are would be something much more far off from both of you.

At least, that's how I understand it. I might not have the nuances exactly right. Also, the above is an explanation for concrete objects. But you can also use some of these for abstract things, I believe.

thanks i get it now. you basically use the kono and sono for nouns and kore and sore for that thing to describe.

I don't know if you're already cool with this, but the way I like to think about kore/sore/are/etc.etc.etc. is this way:
Prefix ko = this
Prefix so = that
Prefix a = that over there

Suffix ko = implies location
Suffix re = implies object
Suffix no (like in "kono tsukue") = used when replacing 'ko' with a noun.

And I don't know how to explain this clearly, but prefix 'do' implies a question. Like KOno hito means this person. But DOno hito means which person. I like to think that the do prefix functions as the equivalent of the WH interrogative words (is that what they're called?).

With 'na' adjectives, you use the 'na' when it comes before the noun it's describing. For example, 'clean desk' would be 'kirei NA heya'. But if you say 'this desk is clean' it would be 'Kono heya wa kirei desu'.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Where did you learn to devide these little words into prefixes and suffixes? That is completely unheard-of here in Japan. I never learned those words that way in any of the schools I attended in Japan, namely kindergarten to university.

Even by the English standards, I don't think you could call them prefixes and suffixes when there are no stem words in between.

(And 'desk' is 'tsukue', not 'heya'.)

Sumimasen ^0^;;; I guess it was a bad idea to call them prefixes and suffixes. (what should I call them?) It was a little method I used to help me remember. It just seemed a little easier to memorize by dividing into parts, rather than as whole separate words. Although, if this is even more confusing, by all means, you can use whatever method you want. XP I didn't mean to add onto this thread to be detrimental.

Sorry about the typo. Heya = room.

Don't feel bad, Yonsu. We are all here to help each other out.

I had never thought about what a native Japanese could feel in writing romaji hee hee. I guess it is no different from me doing exercises in Japanese...after a while it gets hard to tell words apart.

Junlove, even tho it seems in Japan they don't divide them, whatever text book you buy in English they create a division to help understand. They group them in 3 big families: KO-SO-A, this way you know which kind to use.
The differences are as follow:
KO is used for something you are referring to which is close to the person speaking.
SO is used for something you are referring to which is close to the person listening.
A is used for something you are referring to which is far from both speaker and listener.
KONO, SONO and ANO are demonstrative adjectives (or better this way they are called in latin origin languages) and they require a noun following them.
KORE, SORE and ARE are pronouns, thus they are used alone substituting a noun.
KOKO, SOKO and ASOKO are adverbs which show a place (here and there).

So going back to your example. Saying kono hana ha kirei desu it means the flower is close (if not in the hand) of the person speaking. So if I say kono hana ha kirei desu. sore ha kirei deha arimasen it means this flower (close to the speaker) is pretty, that one (close to the listener) isn't pretty.
KORE, SORE and ARE are also used for the English "it" when while speaking you are referring to something mentioned before.
Hope it is clear.

so you say what applies in the situtation? like can i say " kono onna ha desu."?? that is how you say" that woman is pretty "right?Or is it kore onna ha kerei desu.

Kono onna no hito wa kirei desu = This woman is pretty
Kore onna no hito wa kirei desu would be incorrect.
You are using Kono because a noun comes right after it.
If you are using kore you could say "kore wa kirei desu" = This is pretty, because I am not stating a noun. You can even say "kore wa kirei na hana desu" = This is a pretty flower. I am not using kono in this case because the noun hana does not directly follow "this".
So just remember that any time you use Kono, Sono or Ano, the noun needs to come directly after.

"Kono onna wa desu" doesn't make sense at all. You are missing your adjective. It's like saying "This woman is" but you are completing the sentence with desu.

You mean KONO, SONO, and ANO

And "woman" is "おんなのひと" not "おんな".

My bad, you are correct thanks for catching my mistake.

Dificult question, but, good.　これ if near. All are それ。So, all can have それ、　:rheart:　 ＜－それは　 　それはー＞　:) All それ。　あの if there, その、 maybe for English, the or that.