ＨＥＬＬＯ！ Ｉ　ＡＭ　ＱＵＩＺＢＯ™！I am the computer robot friend of Kiki+Koko as well as resident pronouncer and quiz creator. I welcome you to Kiki+Koko: Let’s NihonGO!! Online’s Japanese Word of the Weekday! This special corner’s instalments will span the month of January during its twenty weekdays leaving the weekends for rest or revision/study of lessons. Despite its original New Year coincidence, you can enjoy this challenge any time of the year during any year! It is here for you whenever you so desire to revise/review.

The purpose of the Word of the Weekday is to help you, as a Japanese language learner or dabbler, determine your best revision/study habits. In order to do this, you will be presented basic vocabulary and phrases that you can use in relation to your future and current revision/study. Though humans have similarities in the way that they learn, each individual has ways that information best clicks in their head using individual codecs. No matter if it is your revision/study environment or the method with which you do so, be sure to use this time to pay close attention to what helps you memorise and maintain vocabulary. And, this same skill will most likely apply to today’s phrase in any language.

What is in a name? What is your name? You can ask others this pressing question using todays question in conjunction with Japanese Word of the Weekday 01 of 20. Vocabulary is already beginning to interlock in a useful map of concepts.

It is important, however, to understand how basic Japanese sentences function in order to get the most out of your language learning session.

The recommended grammatical lessons are「How To: Make Basic Japanese Sentences | Particles は+が…」,「 I Me Mine |Personal Possession|Particle の」, 「この魔法的な「です」とは？｜What is this magical 「desu」?（SIDE A）」as the continuation 「繋辞とは？｜What is a Copula?（SIDE B）」as well as our Kiki+Koko: Let’s NihonGO!! Essentials Lesson: 「How to [really]: Make Basic Japanese Questions | Particles か+の .」 These lessons are sure to be invaluable to your Japanese language learning journey. Learning phrases and vocabulary are of great assistance, but knowing how and why they are used is even more important.

What is in a name? That which we call a 01110010 01101111 01110011 01100101 by any other name would smell as sweet. In the first Word of the Weekday corner, you may have learned how to state your own name, and though introducing yourself may prompt the other conversational party to reply with their name in turn, it is still important to be able to create questions. Questions are a great way to get answers. And, this is the basis of the communication that is language! So, without further ado, let us learn how to ask, ‘What is your name?’ in Japanese! Let us NihonGO!!

Word(s) of the Weekday:

お名前は何ですか？
おなまえはなんですか？
onamae wanandesuka？
What is your name？

Do not go away! Next is our explanation of this vital phrase right after these messages.

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Let us continue by looking at the word(s) of the weekday piece by piece.

お
「お」, or in kanji, 御, a both polite, honorific, and/or humble prefix is used in this case as an honorific to express that it is the other persons name about which you are inquiring.

名前は
namae wa
Noun+topic marker/particle
(名詞＋は)
“(as for)””name…”

名前 was defined in the first Word of the Weekday with a thorough explanation, so it is recommened that you experience that before this. I can repeat information as often as you require, but I try to keep things brief for the sake of organisation. This is important in computer robot culture to prevent the need to defragment my harddrive with redundant files in separate locations.

The particle 「は」, pronounced (わ・wa) when used as a particle, indicates the topic about which you are inquiring. A useful way to think of it in this case is replacing it as 「as for」as in, 「as for」your name, what is it?

何（なん・なに）
nan/nani
Question Word (疑問詞)
“what”

「何」is a question word with a few pronunciations, but here, it is pronounced (なん・nan). We have a thorough explanation of Japanese question words that is part of the Kiki+Koko: Let’s NihonGO!! Japanese Language Learning Essentials’ 「Ask me Why」series found on our website called Basic Japanese Question Words | 基本的な疑問詞 | PART 1 , PART 2, PART 3 and more!

です

Desu

Copula(繋辞)/Verb (動詞)

Expresses affirmation.

( 断定の意を表す。)

The copula 「です」will appear often as it is a multitool with many uses. It is recommended that you read our lessons: この魔法的な「です」とは？｜What is this magical 「desu」?（SIDE A） and 繋辞とは？｜What is a Copula?（SIDE B） in order to gain an understanding of this important magical copula.

か？

This particle indicates the sentence as a question. Though it could be explained at length, here, this is not the nature of Word of the Weekday. If you want to know how to really make questions in Japanese as well as get an understanding of these particles, please read: How to [really]: Make Basic Japanese Questions | Particles か+の. It is truly quite helpful!

There are many ways to ask someone’s name, however here are just a few more:

あなたの名前は何ですか？

あなたのなまえは　なんですか？
anata no namae wa nandesuka?
What is your name?

お名前は？

おなまえは？
onamae wa?
What’s your name?

(私は）（あなたを）何と呼べばいいですか？
(わたしは）（あなたを）なんと　よべばいいですか？
(watashi wa) anata wo nanto yobeba ii desuka?
What should I call you?

何て呼べばいい？(informal)
なんてよべばいい？
nante yobeba ii?
What should I call you?

If you read 「How to [really]: Make Basic Japanese Questions | Particles か+の」, you may be inclined to think that you can change those phrases into questions by adding the particle and adding a different subject. But, this is not the case. Similar to the fact that some of these phrases can be very informal, some of the phrases introduced in the first Word of the Weekday cannot simply be made into a question and asked to another person. Phrases such as ○○と申します( ○○ともうします)(○○to moushimasu) are humble phrases, and humble phrases are not used for others, only yourself and your associates. As you progress in your Japanese language learning journey, you will be introduced to more of the linguistic heirarchy of honorific and humble speech. But, for now, you can keep things simple with「お名前は何ですか？」

That is all for today’s instalment of Kiki+Koko: Let’s NihonGO!! Online’s Japanese Word of the Weekday! We hope that you will continue to join us for more of this special corner as well as more of our Japanese language and culture resources. Just because the activity of today is complete does not mean that your daily learning journey has to stop here. You can have a look at previous Word of the Week articles for even more Japanese vocabulary. You can be sure that you are caught up with the latest by visiting ieindigoeast.com, and clicking the sidebar link labelled 今週の単語 | Word of the Week, or go to ieindigoeast.com/kikiandkokoletsnihongo and scroll down until you see my monitor on the Word of the Week banner, and you can access the archives.

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