Pronouns are not as commonly used as in English, especially not the personal pronouns for other people. In most cases you would use to say a person's name if you know it, or if it is fully clear who you speak about, you may just omit the subject/pronoun.

Personal Pronouns

Here is a list of some basic Japanese personal pronouns. There are some additional, most of them used for other levels of politeness than the normal. You can find additional personal pronouns further down in this article.

Avoid using anata whenever possible, and use the person's name with -san instead. Similarly, when referring to a third person, use the person's name.

• スミツさんは映画を見ましたか
  Sumitsu-san wa eiga o mimashita ka.
  Did you (Mr. Smith) see the movie?

• 田中さんは何を買いましたか。
  Tanaka-san wa nani o kaimashita ka.
  What did she (Mrs. Tanaka) buy?

The indefinite pronouns, often called question pronouns in daily speach, are used to point out something unknown. Such as who, where or what.

誰か［だれか］	dareka	someone		誰も	daremo	no one
どれか	doreka	something		どれも	doremo	nothing
どこか	dokoka	somewhere		どこも	dokomo	nowhere
何か［なにか］	nanika	something		何も	nanimo	nothing
幾らか［いくらか］	ikuraka	some, a little		幾らも	ikuramo	not much
幾つか［いくつか]	ikutsuka	some		幾つも	ikutsumo	many
なんでも	nandemo	anything		なにも	nanimo	nothing

Examples

• 誰か来ました。
  Dareka kimashita.
  Someone came.

The negative indefinite pronouns take a negative verb.

• 誰も来ませんでした
  Daremo kimasen deshita.
  No one came.

The one reflexive pronoun is 自分, jibun (myself, yourself etc).

• 自分で働きます。
  Jibun de hatarakimasu.
  I am working by myself.

There are no relative pronouns in Japanese, and the relative clause precedes the word it modifies.

• あそこに座っている若い女性は娘です。
  Asoko ni suwatte iru wakai josei wa musume desu.
  That young lady sitting over there is my daughter.

Credits

This page is based on a part of "Some Notes on Japanese Grammar" published for your personal use, with the kind permission of Keith Smillie (http://www.cs.ualberta.ca/~smillie/)