こんにちは！
元気ですか？ (Basically, are you well? Are you healthy?)
A breakdown of the kanji: 元 - げん 気 - き = 元気 - げんき (healthy, lively, full of spirit)
です = copula. I still don't exactly know what that means... But the VERY simplified explanation is that it is the 'to be' verb in English. It is a linking verb. Sort of. This is the best explanation I found in a couple of google pages. です. It is used frequently. One last thing about the word. The 'u' is either silent, or extremely soft. When we get to ます, the same thing happens. The 'u' is dropped. But we will talk about that later.
か = in this case, is the particle for question. The question marker.
And that is EXACTLY how easy it is to make a question in the Japanese language.
Sentence + か = question.
Examples:
いちごですか = Is it a strawberry?
いちごです = It is a strawberry.
As you may have guessed, いちご = strawberry
犬ですか = Is it a dog?
いぬです = It is a dog.
犬 = いぬ = dog
(Yes, I mean to use 漢字 (かんじ）kanji where I can. I don't think it it ever to soon to start learning it. If I had started when I started my studies, I think I would be a lot further along.
猫ですか = Is it a cat?
ねこです = It is a cat.
猫 = ねこ = cat
But what if you have no idea what "it" is... ?
なに/なん = what.
なんですか = What is it?
There are rules for when to use なん vs なに. This explains it very well なん vs なに
This may all seem daunting at first, but the more you walk around talking to yourself, the easier it gets.
And I definitely recommend talking to yourself. No matter the stares you may get!
Okay, so, that wraps up my impromptu lesson for today. Please feel free to comment with any questions. If I don't know the answer, I will find it. Let us learn together!
がんばってください (Do your best, please)
P.S.
I almost forgot to link to this. It is a fantastic collection of words. It has come in very handy for learning new vocabulary! 1000 words. Have fun!
