です

About

です is a sentence-ender that indicates polite speech. It can follow nouns, い-adjectives, and な-adjectives. Some people view this as the polite version of だ, although, grammatically speaking, they are not necessarily connected in this way.

In spoken Japanese, です is used in conjunction with ます (polite) form verbs to form 丁寧語ていねいご ("polite language"). In written Japanese, です is used in conjunction with ます (polite) form for verbs to form the "です・ます style".

です is often compared to the English verb "to be", but there is no true Japanese equivalent.

Summary

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  です indicates polite speech.

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  です can follow い-adjectives, な-adjectives, and nouns.

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  です and ます-form verbs are used in conjunction to form 丁寧語ていねいご ("polite language") in spoken Japanese.

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  です and ます-form verbs are used in conjunction to form the です・ます form in written Japanese.