Okay, here goes the first part of my Japanese Romaji Project! If you haven’t read the introduction and purpose of this certain endeavor of mine yet, read it by clicking here.

Introduction | I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX | X

Anyway, let’s start with the translation of pronouns. With the help of various sites I’ve come across to, I was able to compile all these for our future use with constructing Nihongo sentences.

Some useful info:

1.) Pronouns really aren’t used much in Japanese speech and writing, unless really necessary. As much as possible, they are to be omitted as long as it is clear on who or what the speaker is talking about.

2.) Unlike the common English pronouns ‘I’ and ‘you’ which have no other meaning, there are certain pronouns in the Japanese language that also indicate the speaker and/or listener’s gender and social status. Meaning, you can’t just randomly choose from the pool of words below. Some pronouns can appeal extreme hostility or rudeness just by saying it, even without you knowing. Thankfully, I was also able to find info on their level of formality, which gender should use it or whom to use it to, as well as additional notes.

3.) There are also commonly used verbs that already indicate the subject of the sentence, therefore making the use of pronouns unnecessary. For example, ‘kureru‘ means ‘give’ in a way that ‘somebody gives something to me or to somebody very close to me.‘ and ‘ageru‘ where ‘someone gives something to someone other than me.‘ For sentences with a single adjective (often ending in -shii), it is assumed that the speaker is the subject. For example, ‘sabi-shii‘ means ‘I am lonely.’

4.) In some contexts, if it is required to state the second person, the listener’s name (suffixed with a honorific e.g. -san) would be more widely used instead of pronouns.

5.) These are only the most commonly used terms, and therefore incomplete.

6.) I roughly got them via internet dive. Feel free to message me if there are corrections! :D