[coldsymphony13]

Thanks for all of your responses and your advice. I'm not in an actual class I'm doing it with a friend from home, I am really glad I found this forum though. -- I will throw out romanji as you guys suggest.

So just to make sure I understand, because the third post threw me off slightly.

If you were stating simply "this is a pen" it would be kore, sore, are.

But stating something more specific about the pen, such as it is mine, it's red, etc... Would use "no"?

Ugh sorry for the confusion.