The core idea: konna holds up a sample
Picture a swatch card in a fabric shop. When you tap one square and say kono iro, you mean that exact colour. When you hold the card up and say konna iro, you mean a colour of this sort: the square is only a sample, and anything close to it will do. That is the whole difference between the two families. Kono picks out an item. Konna picks out a type, using the item as its example.
The distances work as they do for kore, sore and are. Konna is for a sample near you, sonna for one near the listener or one the listener has just mentioned, and anna for one away from you both or one you both remember. In the first two rows below you are in a bag shop with a photo on your phone; in the last two you are walking with a friend.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| こんなかばんはありますか。 | Konna kaban wa arimasu ka. | Do you have a bag like this? |
| こんな色が好きです。 | Konna iro ga suki desu. | I like colours like this. |
| 私もそんな靴が欲しいです。 | Watashi mo sonna kutsu ga hoshii desu. | I want shoes like yours too. |
| あんな家に住みたいです。 | Anna ie ni sumitai desu. | I'd like to live in a house like that one. |
How it is built: straight onto the noun, ni for degree
| Pattern | Reading | Built from | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| こんな店 | konna mise | konna + noun, nothing in between | a shop like this |
| こんなに高い | konna ni takai | konna ni + adjective | this expensive |
| こんなに食べる | konna ni taberu | konna ni + verb | eat this much |
| こんなの | konna no | konna + no standing in for a noun | one like this |
| こんなふうに | konna fū ni | konna + fū ni + verb | in this sort of way |
All four words behave identically, so sonna ni, anna no and donna fū ni follow the same rows. Notice what is missing: no particle stands between konna and its noun. Many grammar books class konna as an irregular na-adjective that drops its na before a noun, which is why konna na hon does not exist. The ni is what turns 'this kind of' into 'to this extent', and that is why it appears before adjectives and verbs but not before nouns.
Donna: asking for a description
Donna asks the listener to describe a type. Donna hito desu ka does not ask who someone is; it asks what they are like. (Literally: what kind of person is it?) The natural answer is a description, such as yasashii hito desu, a kind person, and never a name.
A colleague tells you a new manager started today, and later asks about your own tastes over lunch. Every question below can be answered with an adjective plus the same noun.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 新しい部長はどんな人ですか。 | Atarashii buchō wa donna hito desu ka. | What is the new manager like? |
| どんな音楽が好きですか。 | Donna ongaku ga suki desu ka. | What kind of music do you like? |
| どんな仕事をしていますか。 | Donna shigoto o shite imasu ka. | What kind of work do you do? |
| どんな味ですか。 | Donna aji desu ka. | What does it taste like? (Literally: what kind of taste is it?) |
| どんな質問でもいいですよ。 | Donna shitsumon demo ii desu yo. | Any kind of question is fine. |
Minimal pairs: item against type
| Sentence | Reading | What it says |
|---|---|---|
| この本が欲しいです。 | Kono hon ga hoshii desu. | I want this book: this title and no other |
| こんな本が欲しいです。 | Konna hon ga hoshii desu. | I want a book like this: same sort, any title |
| どの映画が好きですか。 | Dono eiga ga suki desu ka. | Which film do you like, out of a known set |
| どんな映画が好きですか。 | Donna eiga ga suki desu ka. | What kind of films do you like: a genre is the answer |
| その店に行きたいです。 | Sono mise ni ikitai desu. | I want to go to that shop you mentioned |
| そんな店に行きたいです。 | Sonna mise ni ikitai desu. | I want to go to a shop of that sort |
One syllable changes in each pair, and the question being answered changes with it: which one becomes what sort. In a shop this has practical effects. Say kono with a photo of a sold-out bag and the assistant can only apologise. Say konna and they will bring you three similar ones.
Konna ni and sonna ni: measuring how much
Add ni and the sample becomes an amount. Konna ni is the amount in front of you, sonna ni is the amount the listener has stated or is imagining, and anna ni is an amount you both remember. At a homestay dinner your host piles your plate high, then worries that the restaurant you chose for tomorrow is too dear.
Sonna ni with a negative is the one to learn first, because it softens a no: not as much as you are thinking. Donna ni with te mo means however much. Among friends the ni is often dropped before a negative, sonna takakunai yo, but keep it in polite speech.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| こんなに食べられません。 | Konna ni taberaremasen. | I can't eat this much. |
| そんなに高くないです。 | Sonna ni takakunai desu. | It's not that expensive. (Literally: it is not expensive to that extent.) |
| そんなに急がなくてもいいですよ。 | Sonna ni isoganakute mo ii desu yo. | You don't need to hurry that much. |
| あんなに練習したのに、負けました。 | Anna ni renshū shita noni, makemashita. | We practised all that much and still lost. |
| どんなに忙しくても、朝ご飯は食べます。 | Donna ni isogashikute mo, asagohan wa tabemasu. | However busy I am, I eat breakfast. |
Beyond the basics: sonna koto nai as a reply
Sonna koto nai means that is not so. (Literally: a thing of that kind does not exist.) Sonna points at what the other person has just said and koto nai denies it, so the phrase is always an answer. It has two everyday jobs. The first is deflecting praise: a colleague says your Japanese is excellent, and accepting that outright can sound immodest. The second is comfort: a friend says she is hopeless at interviews, and you deny it for her.
The politeness ladder runs from sonna koto nai yo with friends, through sonna koto nai desu, to sonna koto wa arimasen. Be aware that the last one, said flatly and without a smile, is a real denial, the kind you make when accused of something.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| いいえ、そんなことないです。 | Iie, sonna koto nai desu. | No, not at all. |
| そんなに上手じゃないですよ。 | Sonna ni jōzu ja nai desu yo. | I'm really not that good. |
| そんなことないよ。大丈夫だよ。 | Sonna koto nai yo. Daijōbu da yo. | That's not true. You'll be fine. |
| そんなことはありません。 | Sonna koto wa arimasen. | That is not the case. |
The feeling sonna and anna can carry
Holding something up as a sample keeps it at arm's length, and arm's length is where people hold what they dislike or cannot believe. That is why sonna and anna so often carry a feeling that sono and ano do not. Ano hito is that person. Anna hito is a person like that, and unless the context is clearly admiring, the listener hears a judgement.
The feeling is not always negative. Anna hito ni naritai, I want to become someone like that, is admiration, and konna turned on your own situation sounds apologetic. Voice and context decide. When you must stay neutral about someone the listener respects, avoid sonna hito altogether.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| そんなこと言わないでください。 | Sonna koto iwanaide kudasai. | Please don't say things like that. |
| あんな人とはもう働きたくないです。 | Anna hito to wa mō hatarakitaku nai desu. | I don't want to work with someone like that any more. |
| そんなつもりじゃなかったんです。 | Sonna tsumori ja nakatta n desu. | I didn't mean it that way. |
| そんな！ | Sonna! | Oh no, that can't be! |
| こんな時間にすみません。 | Konna jikan ni sumimasen. | Sorry to disturb you so late. (Literally: sorry at a time like this.) |
Neighbours: kō iu, sō iu and kono yō na
Kō iu, sō iu, ā iu and dō iu also go before a noun and mean this kind of. (Literally: said like this.) They classify without the emotional colouring, which makes them the safer choice for explanations, work and talking about people. Kono yō na and sono yō na are the formal versions, found in business email, public notices and the speech of staff to customers.
A workable rule: when you are reacting, konna; when you are explaining, kō iu; when you are writing or serving, kono yō na. One fixed habit is worth copying: to ask what something means, the usual phrase is dō iu imi desu ka.
| Japanese | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| こういう問題はよくあります。 | Kō iu mondai wa yoku arimasu. | Problems of this kind are common. |
| そういう意味じゃありません。 | Sō iu imi ja arimasen. | That's not what I mean. |
| このような場合は、ご連絡ください。 | Kono yō na baai wa, go-renraku kudasai. | In cases such as this, please contact us. |
Common mistakes and where they come from
The first mistake is konna no hon or konna na hon. Both are wrong. Learners produce them because every other noun link they know uses no or na. Konna attaches directly: konna hon.
The second is leaving out ni before an adjective, as in kono kaban wa konna takai desu. This is wrong, and it comes from English, where 'this' in 'this expensive' looks the same as 'this' in 'this bag'. Degree needs ni: konna ni takai desu.
The third is using sonna ni as a plain intensifier, saying sonna ni oishii desu to mean it is so delicious. English 'so' causes this. Sonna ni points back at a degree already mentioned, so with nothing to point at it is wrong; say totemo oishii desu, or konna ni oishii about the dish in front of you.
The fourth is mixing up dono and donna: donna densha ni norimasu ka asks what sort of train, when you wanted dono densha, which train. The last is a tone mistake, not a grammar one: saying sonna hito about a person your listener has just described with affection. Sō iu hito says the same thing without the raised eyebrow.