When browser storage is available, these choices are saved here and applied to other lessons. Audio uses the browser or device speech engine and prefers an available Japanese voice.
です helps complete polite sentences whose main description is a noun or certain kinds of adjective. It is often translated as “is,” “am,” or “are,” but it is better to learn the whole sentence pattern than to treat です as an independent word with one English meaning.
Most importantly, do not add です after a polite verb ending such as ます, covered in the polite masu form. 飲みます is already polite; 飲みますです is not the standard pattern.
Manga scene · Read from right to leftRead from top to bottom
The extra desu on Leo's order
Leo remembers that です sounds polite and adds it after every sentence.
Leoコーヒーを飲みますです。
I drink coffee—desu.
Haru stays in his café role and asks for the order again.
Haruご注文は？
Your order?
A non-diegetic guide card beside Koto separates noun-plus-desu predicates from polite verb endings.
Koto visual guide名詞＋です｜動詞＋ます
Noun + desu | Verb + masu
Leo answers the order question with a complete noun predicate.
Leoコーヒーです。
Coffee, please / It is coffee.
Dialogue remains selectable HTML. The illustrations contain no dependable generated text.
What desu does
In レオです, です completes a polite identification. The sentence can mean “I’m Leo,” “He’s Leo,” or “It’s Leo,” because Japanese often leaves out a subject already clear from context. This is exactly the pattern used to introduce yourself.
Think of です as part of a polite predicate system. It carries politeness and grammatical information such as non-past or past. It does not independently tell you who the subject is, and it does not always correspond to an English form of “be.”
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning | Use |
|---|---|---|---|
レオです | Reo desu | I'm/He's Leo | Identify a person from context |
三時です | sanji desu | It is three o'clock | State time |
これです | kore desu | It is this one | Identify a choice |
大丈夫です | daijōbu desu | It is okay / I'm fine / No thank you | Meaning depends strongly on context |
Use desu after nouns
The basic pattern is [noun] です. Add a topic with は when the listener needs it; omit the topic when the scene already supplies it. See Japanese sentence structure for how topic and predicate fit together.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning | Use |
|---|---|---|---|
私は学生です | watashi wa gakusei desu | I am a student | Explicit topic |
会社員です | kaishain desu | I am an office worker | Topic is clear in an introduction |
今日は休みです | kyō wa yasumi desu | Today is a day off | Time topic plus noun |
これは駅です | kore wa eki desu | This is a station | Identify an object or place |
English may use articles or plural forms that Japanese nouns do not mark in the same way. 学生です does not by itself distinguish “a student” from “students”; number and reference come from context or added words.
Use desu with adjectives
Japanese has い-adjectives and な-adjectives, and they do not behave identically. A な-adjective uses です directly in a polite non-past sentence: 静かです. An い-adjective already has an adjective ending, but adding です makes the sentence polite: 高いです.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning | Use |
|---|---|---|---|
この部屋は静かです | kono heya wa shizuka desu | This room is quiet | な-adjective predicate |
レオは元気です | Reo wa genki desu | Leo is well/energetic | な-adjective predicate |
この本は高いです | kono hon wa takai desu | This book is expensive | Polite い-adjective |
今日は寒いです | kyō wa samui desu | It is cold today | Weather description |
Before a noun, な appears with a な-adjective (静かな部屋) but です does not. Compare 静かな部屋 (“a quiet room”) with 部屋は静かです (“the room is quiet”).
Negative and past forms
For noun and な-adjective predicates, change the です system to express negative and past. Conversational じゃありません is a common polite negative; ではありません is more formal or written.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning | Use |
|---|---|---|---|
学生です | gakusei desu | is a student | Polite non-past positive |
学生ではありません | gakusei dewa arimasen | is not a student | Polite negative |
学生でした | gakusei deshita | was a student | Polite past positive |
学生ではありませんでした | gakusei dewa arimasen deshita | was not a student | Polite past negative |
い-adjectives make their own negative and past forms: 高くないです, 高かったです, and 高くなかったです. Do not form their past by simply changing です to でした: 高いでした is not the standard beginner form.
When not to add desu
A verb ending in ます, ません, ました, or ませんでした is already polite. Do not attach です after it.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning | Use |
|---|---|---|---|
コーヒーです | kōhī desu | It is coffee | Noun predicate |
コーヒーを飲みます | kōhī o nomimasu | I drink/will drink coffee | Polite verb predicate |
飲みません | nomimasen | I do not drink / will not drink | Polite negative verb |
飲みました | nomimashita | I drank | Polite past verb |
Casual forms can combine with explanatory structures that later include です, but that is a different grammar lesson. For now, use this reliable split: noun or な-adjective plus です; い-adjective plus polite です; verb plus the ます family.
Finish a polite statement with desu
- Learn です as part of a complete polite predicate, not one English word.
- Use it after nouns and な-adjective predicates.
- Polite い-adjectives can end in いです, but their negative and past change the adjective.
- Noun negatives and pasts use ではありません and でした patterns.
- Do not add です after a polite ます-form verb.
Street Check · 1–3 minutes
Try the real-world task
Make three polite statements about identity, condition, or description.
Ready means:
- I can complete a polite noun statement.
- I can complete a polite adjective statement.
- I can recognize when です is not a direct translation of 'is'.
Build the route
Before this lesson
Keep exploring