I was wondering how and when you would use 'desu'. It is very confusing to me and it seems to be a word I see often. P.S. I'm new here Arigatō gozaimasu!

Linda-san, Konnichiwa! Welcome to Rocket Japanese. It's great to have you with us. ;) ~desu is an essential component of the Japanese language - specifically, it marks the ending of sentences. It is a copula - and can act like the English "to be". So, in a sense, ~desu is used to explain who or what someone/thing is. For example, your name is Linda. To say "I AM Linda" you would say "Watashi wa Linda DESU." (わたしはリンダです。） My name is Sayaka, so you would say "She IS Sayaka" or in Japanese "Anata wa Sayaka DESU". (あなたはさやかです。） So, for example to express "This is [noun]" you would say "Kore wa [noun] desu". In colloquial language, the ~desu part either changes to short forms such as ~da or is simply omitted. -Hope that helps! Sayaka :)

This was great! Thanks!

Linda-san, You're very welcome! Let us know if you have any other questions. - Sayaka ;)

I have a question Sayaka-san, when you talk on the phone do you always have say moshi moshi?

@Keyatta B, No, you can say "Hai" as well ;)

Arigato Pascal-san! :)

Minnasan konnichiwa, Yes - in most cases (as in, when someone calls your home) you would say "MOSHI MOSHI" - but when you call a business/shop, they would answer with "HAI (followed by the name of the company) + de gozaimasu" For example: You: Calling a shop called "Sushi Taro" Someone picks up... "HAI, SUSHI TARO DE GOZAIMASU" -Sayaka ;)

Arigato Sayaka-san!

I got a question on the copula desu....so when you are using desu is it put always at the end of a sentence and only used after a noun??? Arigato gozaimasu.