Week 1 · understand & speak · Day 5 of 100

Asking where things are

The last hiragana lands today, and so does the question that saves travelers everywhere: “Where is ___?”

Understand this — tap “Hear it”
toire は doko desu か
Where’s the bathroom?
トイレ toire — toilet wa — (topic)どこ doko — whereです desu — is ka — ?
えき は doko desu か
Where’s the station?
えき eki — station wa — (topic)どこ doko — whereです desu — is ka — ?
konbini は doko desu か
Where’s the convenience store?
コンビニ konbini — convenience store wa — (topic)どこ doko — whereです desu — is ka — ?
The pattern you can now use
___ は どこですか
___ wa doko desu ka
Where is ___?

どこ = “where.” It drops straight into the です/か frame you already know — put the topic in front of は. The same slot takes other question words: なに (what), だれ (who), いつ (when).

Words to use today — tap a row to hear
toire toiretoilet
えき ekistation
konbini konbiniconvenience store
hoteru hoteruhotel
doko dokowhere
なに naniwhat
dare darewho
いつ itsuwhen
Your turn — say it, then check
Say: “Where’s the hotel?”
hoteru は doko desu か hoteru wa doko desu ka
Say: “Where’s the toilet?”
toire は doko desu か toire wa doko desu ka
Quick check
What does どこ mean?
where
Where does the topic go?
in front of は
⤷ Kana side-quest — ~2 min · tap to hear, watch the strokes
ma
mi
mu
me
mo
ya
yu
yo
ra
ri
ru
re
ro
wa
wo
n

Drill these in the quiz →

👀 Today’s input · ~5 min — where fluency actually comes from
Train your ears
You can’t read much yet — so listen. Put on one “Complete Beginner” video from Comprehensible Japanese: all visual, all Japanese, zero English. You’ll understand more than you’d expect, and this is where real fluency actually comes from — a little every day.
Comprehensible Japanese — Complete Beginner (free, YouTube) →

All of hiragana is yours. Look back at today’s sentence — it’s almost all real characters now. Tomorrow: your first verb.

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