Difference between types of grammar

Hi,
Can anyone help me figure out the difference between ‘あの、その、この’ and ‘あれは、それは、これは’ my text book doesn’t really give any real information on the differences

You want to know the difference between the two sets?

あの is a pre-noun adjectival, which means it has to go in front of a noun and modifies it.

あれ is a noun. It stands in for another noun, rather than modifying one.

あの本 (that book)
あれは本だ (that is a book)

BTW, the は in the second sentence is not part of the word あれ, unlike how it seemed like you were positioning it.

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Ah ok I think I get it.

So you’d use the の version to add more information to a noun?

Well, just like “that book” and “that” aren’t used the same way there are different situations.

Scenario 1:
What is that?
あれはなんですか
It’s a book.
本だ

Scenario 2:
What’s that book?
あの本はなに?
It’s “How to Worship the Crabigator in all Aspects of your Life” by koichi
こういちさんによって書かれた「全面的なクラビゲーター様をあがめる方法」だよ

Edit: I’m now far more concerned about how to translate this book title I made up

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There’s a Youtube series called “Japanese From Zero” which describes really well and pretty quickly the differences between these terms, using imagery as well to help you remember, the teacher is a native English speaker that lived in Japan as a child and has spoke Japanese for something like 30 years. He’s very good at relating Japanese and English because of this, I’d recommend you give him a watch. :slight_smile:

I think you don’t really want the な in there :sweat_smile:

Edit: undeleted because it would make the conversation flow strange otherwise.

Yeah, not sure where that came from.

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