Japanese Lesson 60: How to answer questions 英語の質問の答え方

In Lesson 59 we learned how to make questions in the ～ます form. In this lesson you will learn how to answer questions. Here are the same questions from Lesson 59 and the answers:

後で彼と話す？
あと　で　かれ　と　はなす？
Are you going to talk to him later?

うん
Yeah.

or

うん、後で彼と話すよ。
うん　あと　で　かれ　と　はなす　よ
Yeah, I'm going to talk to him later.

or

うん、５時ぐらい彼と話すよ
うん　ご　じ　ぐらい　かれ　と　はなす　よ
Yeah, I'm going to talk to him around 5 o'clock.

The word 「うん」is not pronounced "un", it is pronounced by simply putting the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth and making the "n" sound and drawing it out a little bit.

The word 「よ」is tagged at the end of these sentences to add a feeling of kindness and to emphasize that you are going to do the action.

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1. 後で彼と話しますか？
あと　で　かれ　と　はなします　か？
Are you going to talk to him later?

はい
Yes I am.

or

はい、後で彼と話します。
はい　あと　で　かれ　と　はんします。
Yes, I am going to talk to him later.

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2. 昨日、彼と話しましたか？
きのう　かれ　と　はなしました　か？
Did you talk to him yesterday?

はい、彼と話しました。
Yes, I talked to him.

or

はい、話しました。
はい　はなしました。
Yes, I talked to him

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3. 最近彼と話していますか？
さいきん　かれ　と　はなしています　か？
Have you been talking to him recently?

はい、彼と話しています。
はい　かれ　と　はなしています。
Yes, I have been talking to him

or

はい、話しています。
はい　はなしています。
Yes, I have ben talking to him.

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In the examples above we could have also used the word 「うん」instead of 「はい」. The word 「はい」is quite formal and polite. You could also attach the word 「よ」to then end of these responses and it would soften the formal feeling of these responses.