んだ・んですExplanatory, Emphasis, The fact is

Most Recent Replies (40 in total)

• 

  Jake

  explains or indicates, asking for reassurance

  Structure

  • Statement + んです
  • Statement + のです

  View on Bunpro

• 

  Lazlo_Hollyfeld

  I’m really having a tough time differentiating between this ([～んです) and でしょ. Both seem to be asking for reassurance/confirmation. Any suggestions on how to keep them straight?

• 

  mrnoone

  When you ask with ん・の like
  どうしえそこに行ったんですか？
  It means that you ask for explanation, you do not want simple yes/no/very short answer. You want more details.

  When you use でしょ/でしょう(it differs in tone from でしょう - probably in intonation!) in questions it is something like tag questions in English. Asking for confirmation. De facto, English “right?”.

  きみは車を持っているでしょ？
  You have a car, right?

• 

  Andulien

  I also still struggle with this difference between んです and でしょう. As a beginner, I still am not sure I understand the explanation you gave and more than that I have a very hard time getting it right on the Bunpro grammar Reviews

• 

  mrnoone

  No worries!

  I will try my best explaining. Which parts of my previous post do you find unclear?

  Let’s go step by step:
  A: どうして そこに 行ったんですか。
  Why did you go there?
  Why - どうして
  there - そこに
  did go? - 行ったか。
  ん - adds the nuance of explanation and since it is a question, it will be a nuance of asking for an explanation(seeking explanation), if we wanted to put this into words, it would be something like "explain it"or “explain what is going on”.

  So if we want literal translation:
  “Why did you go there, explain what is going on?” (it may sound a bit rude/negative in English, but there is no such nuance with ん/の)

  In an affirmative sentence it could be translated as:
  “the explanation is…”, “the reason is…”, “the situation is”, “it is that”.

  Answer would be:
  B: ともこさんに会わなければならなかったんだ。

  ともこ - Tomoko
  に - with
  会わなければなかった - had to meet
  んだ - explanatory nuance, “the explanation is”

  <...
• 

  Andulien

  Well in the first place, it is difficult for me to see the difference when the question is asked in the reviews to use the correct one.

  I do understand now that there sure is quite a subtle difference between the usage. Probably even more.

  While the でしょう is more used for asking confirmation or keeping something uncertain to not come across as rude, んです is more or less to ask for a concrete explanation of something. です is just stating a fact and だよ making it even more to the point that this statement is a fact.

  Now is ね then just a more rude way to ask for confirmation than でしょう? Or another nuance of asking for confirmation, since we already got だろう.

  I think this is what makes the Japanese Grammar difficult, those subtle differences in usage of some part. But maybe it’s just me as a German trying to learn Japanese via the English language Tho I...

• 

  Kanrei

  I have trouble too with のです and でしょう. Like why is it “いいのですか。” and not “いいでしょうか。”?

• 

  mrnoone

  I think the nuance was misleading so I have changed it. There should be no more confusion.

  Hey
  Have you read this?
  

• 

  Johnathan-Weir

  Japanese Ammo just released a video for this:
• 

  conan

  Could explanations or examples be added for なんです? I had trouble recognizing it since I didn’t realize it was the same thing, just for nouns/na-adj.

• 

  mrnoone

  I will take care of this

• 

  MissDagger

  Did you ever add this? I just looked at んです・のです for noun/na-adjective examples since I just learned they have their own structure, and it still isn’t in the structure or example sentences.

• 

  mrnoone

  Hey

  Done!

  Sorry for the inconvienience

• 

  Pep95

  Hello, this might be a stupid question, but I can’t seem to find out when I have to write のです or んです. Does it matter at all?

• 

  mrnoone

  Hey and welcome on the community forums

  There are no stupid questions!
  In this case, the only difference is that ん is casual, and の is polite.

  So if you are talking to friends etc, you can use んだ, and when to unknown people, you should stick with の。Women and children often use の in casual speech too.

  Casual:
  man/woman: どうして遅れたの？
  Man: バスが遅れたんだ。

  man/woman: Why are you late? (asking for explanation)
  man: The bus was late. (explaining)

  man/woman: どうして遅れたの？
  woman/child: バスが遅れたの。
  man/woman: Why are you late? (asking for explanation)
  woman/child: The bus was late. (explaining)

  Polite:
  everybody: どうして遅れたのですか？
  everybody: バスが遅れたのです。
  everybody: Why are you late? (asking for explanation)
  everybody: The bus was late. (explaining)

  As you noticed, when asking の...

• 

  mrnoone

  Hey 2:grin:

  I added some additional explanation. You should check it out again

  Feel free to ask about everything, we will try to answer

  Cheers,

• 

  rafakun

  Hey guys, I am having some issues trying to understand why 覚(おぼ)える marks it wrong with no desu but it is OK with ndesu? Any explanations :)?

• 

  mrnoone

  Hey and welcome on community forums, sorry for the super late answer

  覚える, 覚えます by themselves are also OK, but do not have the “explanation” nuance that is the focus of this lesson.

  Cheers!

• 

  andrey1267

  I didn’t quite understand the comment to the grammar section for ～んです・のです, which says “Versions without ん/の are also acceptable but sound old-fashioned.” But versions without ん/の will just be the straightforward sentences like “Verb + だ/です,” right? Which are used all the time, just don’t ask for/give an explanation. Why are they old-fashioned? What exactly is old-fashioned?

  Could somebody please help me understand this? Thank you.

• 

  mrnoone

  Hey and welcome on the community forums

  It was written in an confusing way. We will replace it.

  Basically, the idea is that の is more formal and polite than ん (ん evolved from の due to being easier to pronounce, and became the colloquial variant.)

  So, if you use のだ/のです in a declarative sentence in speech (instead of んだ/んです), for some people it might sound “old fashioned” (a bit unfortunate expression), or rather “stiff”/ “formal”/ “overly polite”. There is no rule banning it, and many don’t see anything wrong with that (especially with のです).

  I hope it helps,
  Cheers!

  PS
  There are some other nuances of の・ん, for example
  in casual speech women and children often use の by itself in declarative sentences, but men rarely do that (or rather do not do that at all). Though, all groups use it in questions jus...