Questions & Answers about sore wa burafu datta.
それ means that or it, depending on the context.
In this sentence, it points to something already mentioned, understood from the situation, or associated with the listener’s side of the conversation. In natural English, it could be translated as either that or it.
Related words:
- これ = this
- それ = that
- あれ = that over there
So それ is a very common way to refer back to something someone just said or did.
は marks the topic of the sentence.
So それは means as for that... or that... as the thing being talked about.
The basic pattern here is:
X は Y だった
= X was Y
So:
それはブラフだった。
= That was a bluff.
A helpful point: は is not exactly the same as the English subject marker. It introduces what the sentence is about.
ブラフ is written in katakana because it is a loanword, borrowed from English bluff.
Katakana is commonly used for:
- foreign loanwords
- onomatopoeia
- emphasis
- some names and technical terms
So seeing katakana here tells you this is not a native Japanese word, but a word adapted from another language.
