It took all the way until strip seventy three to fully cover all of the grammar from the simple “Good morning, nice weather we’re having” example from the beginning of Gengo Girls. Maybe I could have planned this better…
“ne” is actually kind of a weird sentence ending that’s halfway between a question and a statement. A lot of it depends on your tone of voice. Adding “ne” with a questioning voice means “Am I right? Do you agree with me.” On the other hand adding “ne” with a more firm voice is more like saying “I know I’m right” or “I agree with you”.
Once again, just expose yourself to a lot of Japanese and you’ll get an instinct for “ne” in no time at all. It’s really just a way to add emphasis to a sentence and is much easier to understand than it is to explain.
Transcript
言語ガールズ #73
WHAT IS A CAPS LOCK?
Blue: Remember how can turn any sentence into a question by gluing a か onto the end?
Yellow: Yeah. That’s easy grammar.
Blue: You can also put a よ at the end of a sentence, which is like an exclamation point.
Yellow: Now I can be excited about things!
Blue: Or you can use ね. It’s like adding “Isn’t that right?” or “I agree” to the end of your sentence.
Yellow: Like in いい天気ですね from back in strips 4 and 5.
Blue: Exactly. “The weather is nice, isn’t it?” or “I agree, the weather is nice”.
Blue: But be careful not to overuse ね or よ in formal environments. They are both kind of casual.
Yellow: I guess yelling “!” all the time isn’t very professional…