NIHONGO@HIRO

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how to put ね、よ、か at the end of sentences.

In Japanese sentence, the meaning changes only if you change a single letter at the end of the sentence.

 

In this time, I will explain the difference between ね, よ and か. 

 

In Japanese language, it's important which the speaker or the listener has the information.

 

I use this example sentence for this explanation.

東京タワーです。

This means "This is Tokyo tower".

 

 

東京タワーですね

 

When ね is used at the end of the sentence, it means that the speaker knows the information of "This is Tokyo tower" and the speaker assumes that the listener also knows the information, too.

 

The speaker knows the informaiton "This is Tokyo tower".

The speaker assumes that the listener knows it, too.

 

So, the speaker tries to make sure if "this is Tokyo tower" with the listener because the speaker assumes that the listener knows it, too. Or, the speaker wants to share his feeling when he finds the tower with the listener.

 

  

東京タワーですよ

 

よ is used in the different way. The speaker assumes that only the speaker knows the information and the listener doesn't know it. 

 

The speaker knows the informaiton "This is Tokyo tower".

The speaker assumes that the listener doesn't know it.

 

So, the speaker trys to tell the information to the listener.

 

東京タワーですか

 

か is used when the speaker doesn't know the information of "this is Tokyo tower".

 

The speaker doesn't know the informaiton "This is Tokyo tower".

 

So, the speaker says this sentence to somebody, and this sentence becomes a question sentence asking "Is this Tokyo tower?". And, if the speaker says this sentence to himself, it becomes a sentence of his wondering. It can mean "I am wondering if this is Tokyo tower".

 

 

For next, let's look at a dialog.

 

Aさん:暑(あつ)いですね

Bさん:寒(さむ)いですよ

 

 A says "It is hot" to B with the sentence ending with "ね". A assumes that B is also feeling the same feeling of "it's hot" as A. So, A says it to B to share his feeling with B.

 

However, B replys "It's cold" to A. B ends his sentence with "よ". Because B feels the temprature in a differnt way to A's. B tries to tell to A that B has a different feeling.

 

A:あなたは、頭がいいです ね

B:いいえ、よくないです よ

 

頭(あたま)head

 

Let's go to the next dialog!

 

Aさん: 子供(こども)が入院(にゅういん)しまして… 

Bさん: それは大変(たいへん)でした ね

 

A says, "My child has entered the hospital...".

B says, "You must have had a hard time".

 

B ends her sentence with "ね". B assumes that A must have had a hard time. With this sentence, B wants to show her empathy to A.

 

Next is a situation with か.

 

Your friend has been playing with video game and says, "そろそろ止(や)めるか". "止める" means "Stop" and "そろそろ" means "within a short time" in English.

 

And "か" is put at the end. "か" is usually taught to be used for making the sentence question. So, you might think that your friend said "Stop within a short time?" asking you if you want to stop it or not.

 

However, this is not that mean. Your friend says it to himself. The sentence actually means "It's about time I stop it" which is not a question form even the sentence ends with "か".