Starter

〜です

Is; am; are (polite copula)

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Formation

Form	Rule	Example
Noun	+ です	がくせい → がくせいです
Noun + でした (past)	+ でした for past tense ('was; were')	がくせい → がくせいでした

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にほんじんです。

I am Japanese.

The standard polite sentence-ending pattern in Japanese. Attaches to nouns and na-adjectives to form polite statements.

FormalityPolite

Usage

Links a topic (marked by は) to an identity or description. In casual speech, です can be dropped (がくせいだ or just がくせい), but beginners should always use です. For past tense, use でした (がくせいでした, 'I was a student'); the negative past is じゃなかったです or ではありませんでした.

Common mistakes

Forgetting to add です at the end, which makes the sentence sound too casual for polite situations
Trying to conjugate です like an English verb (there is no 'am/is/are' distinction in Japanese)
Using です after verbs (です follows nouns and adjectives, not verbs)

〜じゃないです
〜です is affirmative ('is'), while 〜じゃないです is negative ('is not').

Formation

See it in action

Usage

Common mistakes

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