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Questions & Answers about sutoraiku desu.
What does ストライク mean here?
ストライク is a katakana word borrowed from English strike.
In Japanese, it is commonly used in sports contexts such as:
- baseball: a strike
- bowling: a strike
If the meaning has already been given to the learner, the main thing to notice is that this is a loanword written in katakana, not a native Japanese word.
Why is ストライク written in katakana?
Katakana is usually used for:
- foreign loanwords
- foreign names
- sound effects
- emphasis in some cases
Because ストライク comes from English strike, it is written in katakana.
What does です do in this sentence?
です is the polite copula, often translated loosely as is / it is / this is, depending on context.
So ストライクです。 means something like:
- It is a strike.
- That’s a strike.
It makes the sentence polite and complete.
Why isn’t there a subject like それは or これは?