Japanese/Lessons/Sentence ending particles

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To express speaker's emotions, particles may be put at the and of a sentence. They usually do not have any grammatical meaning, and, thus, used mostly in speech.

か

Question mark, used to indicate the sentence is a question. Note that か replaces だ instead of appearing after it, so you can either omit the copula at all, or use a full form (で ある).

あのひと は だれ か？ - Who is that man?

たなかさん は せんせい か？ - Is Mr. Tanaka a teacher?

The particle may also follow question pronouns with the meaning of some as in someone:

だれ か - somebody

どこ か - somewhere

な

prohibition (when placed after verbs). In direct speech, this sounds rude and angry.

いく な！- Don't go!

みる な！- Don't look!

ね・ねえ

polite, expresses a) the speaker's desire to receive confirmation (rising intonation), or b) the speaker's agreement (falling intonation). Often translated as "isn't it so", "don't you think so" or "don't you agree with me". Also used as a polite or friendly sentence ending. Some people end virtually every sentence with "ね".

それ は むずかしい ね。↑ - It's difficult, isn't it?

それ は むずかしい ね。↓ - That sure is difficult.

たなかさん は すごい ひと だ ね...↓ - Mr. Tanaka is a great guy...

Also works as "phrase softener", i.e., it makes the phrase sound softer.

The longer ねえ is more emphatic than just ね:

きれい だ ねえ↓ - It's so beautiful!

な・なあ

Informal, used when emphasizing an opinion. Male speakers tend to prefer using "な" instead of "ね".

たなか は ばか だ な... - Tanaka's a fool...

さむい なあ - It's so cold.

なあ also has other, polite, uses (to express deep thinking or rhetoric questions)

かな, かしら

indicate that speaker is not sure about something. かしら is used mostly by women.

どこ に ある の かな - I wonder, where was it?

よ

used when providing new information with emphasis, or like an exclamation mark, especially for commands:

わかる よ - I understand.

ぞ

similar to よ. Used only by men.

いく ぞ - I'm going.

ぜ

expresses agreement, used only by men in conversations . Also sometimes used as a vulgar よ.

おい、にげる ぜ - Hey, I'm getting out of here!

の

used mostly by women or children, the emphatic question mark:

いい の？ - Is it okay?

わ

like よ but softer. Used by women, but also by men in some parts of Japan.

あした いく わ - I will go tomorrow.

さ

filler particle, used to emphasize the sentence (unlike よ, not implying any command or new information is communicated):

あの　さ - hey