70050
I kept seeing the word sono その but apperently it means "this". does anyone
know what "the" is?
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-08-13T00:45:07.317
70049
2019-08-16T14:57:27.500
34998
question
english-to-japanese
How do you say "the" in japanese?
Have you ever heard an English language learner complain that the usage of the
definite article, _the_ , was hard and confusing? That might be in part
because it _does not exist_ in their native language.

That's the case in Japanese: the articles "the" and "a" do not exist. In order
for you to think about a sentence in those terms, you would have to deduce the
article _from context_.

I found a little example
[here](https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/08/definite-indefinite-
articles.html):

> Definiteness of Nouns  
>  In Japanese, the definiteness and plurality of a noun is **implicit**. That
> means you can't tell without context if a noun is singular or plural, or if
> it's definite or indefinite. A single Japanese noun can be translated in
> five different ways. For example:
>
>   * neko 猫  
>  Cat.  
>  A cat.  
>  The cat.  
>  Cats.  
>  The cats..
>

That's not to say you can't specify. You can, for example, use [the
demonstratives](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/35836/why-when-
should-i-use-the-different-forms-of-this-and-that) この・その・あの: このほん (this book).
However, just because you can doesn't mean you _have to_. If it's clear from
context, then it's not necessary.

I couldn't quickly find a post regarding the Japanese language specifically,
but here are some related readings on the matter (Linguistics SE):

  * [Do some languages have articles besides the definite and indefinite articles?](https://linguistics.stackexchange.com/questions/16/do-some-languages-have-articles-besides-the-definite-and-indefinite-articles)
  * [Does Japanese have determiners?](https://linguistics.stackexchange.com/questions/85/does-japanese-have-determiners)
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-08-13T01:47:40.563
70050
2019-08-13T01:47:40.563
11792
70049
answer
There is no definite "the" in the Japanese language. What you could say is:

  1. この犬 （This dog) ...
  2. 犬が好きですか。（Do you like dog **s** ）
  3. 小さい犬です。（The dog is small)
  4. 犬はうるさいです。（Dogs are noisy / The/That dog is noisy.)

As you can tell, there is really no definite way. The only way to convey your
meaning clearly is to use specific terms (eg. この）. However, not using specific
terms does not normally change your original meaning by a lot.

Hope this helps! :D
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-08-16T14:40:21.890
70153
2019-08-16T14:40:21.890
35049
70049
answer
The other answers are correct in that Japanese does not natively have
articles. However, for what it's worth, you will often find many
businesses/products/etc. that will use **「ザ」** in the name to sound more
modern/western/trendy/whatever.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-08-16T14:57:27.500
70156
2019-08-16T14:57:27.500
78
70049
answer