I am really struggling on WaniKani with words like this, that, over there, that one there. They all seem so similar and it is always just a guessing game with me. Is there a pattern I can follow? For example when something like ใใ comes up it is just a guessing game for me if it is going to be between about 8 different similar vocabulary. I am not great at language in general so do these have a name I can research also?
+1 point to WK dev team for kana vocab for making this not make sense to new learners.
For ใใ, it is one 4 words used to indicate the location of a subject. ใใ(this), ใใ(that), ใใ(that over there), and ใฉใ(which).
For the demonstratives, the ones starting with ใ represent something nearby (e.g. ใใ, ใใฎ, ใใ), the ones starting with ใ represent something close to the person youโre speaking with (e.g. ใใ, ใใฎ, ใใ), the ones starting with ใ represent something far away from both you and the person youโre speaking to (e.g. ใใ, ใใฎ, ใใใ), and the ones starting with ใฉ are questions, (e.g. ใฉใ, ใฉใฎ, ใฉใ).
Words ending in ใ are objects (ใใ, ใใ, ใใ, ใฉใ), words ending in ใฎ are adjectival (ใใฎ, ใใฎ, ใใฎ, ใฉใฎ), and words ending in ใ are locations (ใใ, ใใ, ใใใ, ใฉใ).
So thereโs a pattern to them, the start of the word represents how far way from the speaking something is, and the end represents the type of word it is.
Thank you so much
Mostly I think people prefer to learn this kind of word as part of grammar study rather than as raw vocabulary, as you get taught the patterns and get to see how theyโre used. If you havenโt started learning a bit of grammar already alongside WK you might like to think about starting that.
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