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This, That and the Other Thing

Japanese has a large number of frequently used sets of words that refer to things near the speaker (first person), the person the speaker is talking to (second person), not near to either (third person), or are question words. These are like the English "here", "there", (archaic) "yonder" and "where" or "hence", "thence" and "whence".

Notes

  1. The question words "what", "which", should be used only to ask questions, and not as relative pronouns as they sometimes are in English: "What is that?" but not "That is what I mean."
  2. Word order doesn't change in a Japanese sentence the way it does in English. "What is this?" "This is a pen." 「これはなにですか？」「これはペンです。」 The question word simply takes the place of the word it's asking about.
  3. The most common question word 何 (なに, what) does not fit into the table below.
1
Here
near me		 2
There
near you		 3
Over there
away from us		 ?
Where
 		 Notes
Things これ
this 		それ
that 		あれ
that 		どれ
which one 		Don't confuse these two. Use the lower forms before a noun, the upper forms if there's no following noun. この is also used in insults to mean "you" (similar to Spanish "este" or Latin "iste"). 「このやろう！」 can be translated "You bastard!"
この〜
this ~ 		その〜
that ~ 		あの〜
that ~ 		どの〜
which ~
Location ここ
here 		そこ
there 		あそこ
there 		どこ
where 		In regular conversation, the upper forms are used for location ("in this place") and the lower forms are used (with particles meaning "from" or "to" as necessary) for directions ("to or from this place"). In polite conversation, the lower forms are used for both, as well as to refer politely and obliquely to people.
Polite location
Polite person
Direction		 こちら
here
I
this way 		そちら
there
you
that way 		あちら
there
he/she
that way 		どちら
where
who
which way
Colloquial direction こっち
this way 		そっち
that way 		あっち
that way 		どっち
which way 		These forms are used colloquially instead of こちら etc.
Quality こんな
this kind of 		そんな
that kind of 		あんな
that kind of 		どんな
what kind of 		The upper forms are used more often to describe things according to what qualities or attributes they possess. The lower forms are used more often to describe which particular variety of an item that is known to come in several varieties. The lower forms are also slightly more formal, and the upper forms somewhat more amenable to conveying a nuance of bad quality. In many situations, either form will do. When in doubt, use the upper forms in colloquial speech and the lower forms in polite speech.

Historically, the upper forms are just な-adjectives and the lower forms mean "something that is described as being...".

こういう
this kind of 		そういう
that kind of 		ああいう
that kind of 		どういう
what kind of
Informal manner こう
in this way 		そう
in that way 		ああ
in that way 		どう
how
in what way 		The lower forms are just periphrastic, roughly meaning "In this kind of manner" as opposed to "thus". The upper forms are sometimes used where English speakers would expect a "thing" word: "What are you going to do?" is 「どうする」.
Polite manner こういうふうに
in this way 		そういうふうに
in that way 		ああいうふうに
in that way 		どういうふうに
how
in what way