こそあど

 I guess it's time to actually describe something I learned.

If you've ever struggled to tell between これ, それ, あれ, or どれ, or even between ここ, そこ, あそこ, or どこ, this is the blog post for you.

I've kind of moved to Duolingo for learning full-time, largely due to generally being busy, but one of the things I've learned from Marumori that's been incredibly useful has been the こそあど mnemonic. Consider these words:

• これ means "this"
• それ means "that"
• あれ means "that, over there"
• どれ means "which"

See the idea? Let's look at the other set to really drill this in:

• ここ means "here"
• そこ means "there"
• あそこ means "over there"
• どこ means "where"

See the pattern? It's always the same. Even though あそこ is a bit weird (of course languages can't maintain a perfect pattern), but the rule of thumb is as follows:

こ refers to something on you.

そ refers to something near you.

あ refers to something "over there"

ど is a question.

I'm sure I'm gonna run into a lot more こそあど patterns during my journey. As of right now, I'm just drilling some of the basics I have learned. I moved a bit too fast in my Duolingo tree, so I'm just making sure I actually got everything down before moving on to the next chapter.

I might move back into Marumori once I finish the Duolingo. I'm still trying to decide if and how I want to approach WaniKani.

Thank you for your time. My next post isn't going to take nearly as long to arrive. This blog was supposed to be daily or weekly, after all.

  -- Keep Exploring