How do you say 'what is this?' in Japanese?

Answer 1

if the object is closer to you than to the person your asking. you say- korewa nan desuka?

if the object is closer to the person you are asking, you say- sorewa na desuka?

if the object is far away from both of you (say at the other side of the room) or in between you, you say- arewa nan desuka?

Answer 2

I think this is really a great question. Unless you are a member in a group of people that speak Japanese, you should use the polite forms これは 何ですか > これは kore ha but pronounced kore wa is the pronoun and pointer word for this. Someone has explained to you that things indentified as your own or within your area receive this pronoun. は ha on the end make kore the topic. If it is clear what what is you may omit the topic. But, that usually refers to something someone has just said to you. 何 is the Chinese character used for what in Japanese nani or nan with the polite copula word です desu. Finally the ka on the end of it makes the sentence a question kore ha nan desu ka ? これは何ですか I believe that it is not so much trouble that you should also know how to say what is that? And, you only need to change the topic kore to sore to express this idea. Probably you won't have much use for are something removed in time and space from the speaker and his audience. "how do you say that in Japanese" is nihongo de nan to iimasu ka. You can use that sore ha here but probably don't need it. Also you can put in an English word as your topic: English to ha nihongo de nan to iimasu ka. Let me just explaing briefly this sentence here since you are so interested. to is used for something that is said and so nan to means what is said (said is iimasu polite). Our topic has an extra word to show that it is something that is said English to ha... Japan is nihon and putting go on the end makes it the language, Japanese: nihongo. English is eigo or sometimes eikokugo (eikoku is England). So now you may change this sentence how do you say that in Japanese to eigo de nanto iimasu ka How do you say that in English. And, remember you can use the pointer pronouns kore and sore for this and that if you need them. I got a lot of milage out these simple sentences in Japanese and I hope you do too.

Later you may need to add How do you write that in Japanese? which is nihongo de nanto kakimasu ka. Ah, you might have a little trouble with that. Japanese uses a system of roman letters, romaji, to transcribe Chinese and native syllables to ones Europens can read.
You could clarify that you want nihon moji Japanese characters or kanji Japanese written in Chinese characters. I feel the intelligence of this question indicates that you will soon be wanting to know these things. A pleasure answering your question.

Answer 3

From watching lots of anime they usually say nan datta or nani kore.

Answer 4

you can have:
kore wa nani - これはなに？
kore wa nandesuka - これはなんですか？

kore=this
wa=Partiacle for introducing the main topic
nan or nani=what

They both mean the same

Answer 5

Kore wa nan-dess-ka

Answer 6

Kore wa nan desu ka. (this is how you spell it, but the first answer is how you pronounce it).

Answer 7

kore wa nan desu ka?. its pronounced the way it is spelled.

Answer 8

The non-textbook answer:

Hold up or point to the object in question and say "Kore, nani?" or "Nani, kore?"

Answer 9

How do you know some smart a** isn't going to put an f word in the answer, however correct? My Greek mate at uni always did when we asked him for a translation.

Answer 10

Nan desu ka, kore (wa)?