#grammar この、その、あの、どの＋noun kono, sono, ano, dono | Japanese lessons [EN]

#grammar

この、その、あの、どの＋noun
kono, sono, ano, dono

If you want to be slightly more specific than kore, sore, are you can use kono, sono, ano together with a noun (Note that here the re series must always stand alone while the no series must always be followed by a noun). Thus if you know the item in your hand is a watch (tokee) instead of:

これはいくらですか。
Kore wa ikura desu ka — How much is this?

you can say:
このとけいはいくらですか。
Kono tokee wa ikura desu ka — How much is this watch

Similarly, if you are talking about a watch that is held by the person you are talking to, you can say:

そのとけいはさんぜんえんです。
Sono tokee wa sanzen en desu — That watch is 3,000 yen

And if the watch is far from both the speaker and the listener, you can say:

あのとけいはさんぜんぎひゃくえんです。
Ano tokee wa sanzengohyaku en desu — That watch over there is 3,500 yen.

If you already know that one of several watches is 3,500 yen but do not know which, you can say:

どのとけいがさんぜんごひゃくえんですか。
Dono tokee ga sanzengohyaku en desu ka — Which watch is 3,500 yen.

Since dono is a question word, just like dore discussed above, we cannot use the particle wa with it; we must use ga.