What exactly is "なの" (nano)?


I asked a female Japanese friend to translate a sentence for me and it ends in
"nano" which I took to be either an alternative question particle to -ne or
-ka; or possibly two particles I don't know which could come together.

But just now I looked it up in `wwwjdict` and it tells me it's a "feminine
copula". So does this mean "なの" (nano) is a synonym of "です" (desu) that only
female speakers use? Assuming it's not very formal, what should I use instead
as a noun?

Also does this mean it's a verb and if so what kind of conjugation or other
forms does it have?

**EDIT**

Since this has turned out to be quite subtle and even controversial, here is
my sentence:

> (Original English: Why must life be so difficult?)
>
> Japanese translation: なんで[人生]{じんせい}はそんなに[大変]{たいへん}なの？




Everyone's done a great job of answering this one, so I'm just going to add a
quick answer. The なの that you're asking about is really just の. The な is only
there if you use it after a noun or a na-adjective (きれい, 大変, 非常). The most
common way of using this の is as a question marker.

> そうなの - Is it really?

This is the same as そうなんですか but less formal.

> 何をしているの? What are you doing?

The same as 何をしているんですか. Or even less formally, 何してんの?

> 仕事は大変なの? - Is your work difficult?

More formally as 仕事は大変なんですか。

> 元気がないね。どうしたの？ - You don't seem well. What happened?

どうしたの is really common as a way of asking "What's wrong" or "What happened?"

You can use it to answer a question too (高いのよ！ - It _is_ expensive), but I
think the form you were asking about was the question form.

So for your question phrase, なんで人生はそんなに大変なの？, the の is making it a question
(although it would be a question without the の) but also making it more
emotional (in much the same was as のですか adds emotion). I think that women
might use it without the な, even after a noun or na-adjective: 仕事は大変の?

Note here that you should only use this with kids or good friends, and that
there's a rising intonation at the end.




Everyone's done a great job of answering this one, so I'm just going to add a
quick answer. The なの that you're asking about is really just の. The な is only
there if you use it after a noun or a na-adjective (きれい, 大変, 非常). The most
common way of using this の is as a question marker.

> そうなの - Is it really?

This is the same as そうなんですか but less formal.

> 何をしているの? What are you doing?

The same as 何をしているんですか. Or even less formally, 何してんの?

> 仕事は大変なの? - Is your work difficult?

More formally as 仕事は大変なんですか。

> 元気がないね。どうしたの？ - You don't seem well. What happened?

どうしたの is really common as a way of asking "What's wrong" or "What happened?"

You can use it to answer a question too (高いのよ！ - It _is_ expensive), but I
think the form you were asking about was the question form.

So for your question phrase, なんで人生はそんなに大変なの？, the の is making it a question
(although it would be a question without the の) but also making it more
emotional (in much the same was as のですか adds emotion). I think that women
might use it without the な, even after a noun or na-adjective: 仕事は大変の?

Note here that you should only use this with kids or good friends, and that
there's a rising intonation at the end.

