Preface

The syntax
The kana
The basics --
Writing the
kana --
Pronouncing
Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
Syntax, Grammar & Language differences --
Writing
spoken
by Michiel "Pomax" Kamermans Japanese
Katakana
specific --
Punctuation
Preface and writing --
Kanji
Types of Kanji -
You are reading the online draft revision of the Japanese grammar book that I started writing while I was still taking classes -
Writing Kanji --
in Japanese... and consequently failed at (the book, not the courses). I have to admit, I was a bit overzealous. While I Reading kanji:
enjoyed learning and through the process of explaining the things I had learnt to others via what became furigana --
www.nihongoresources.com, I was still a first year student with not exactly a lot of weight or experience under my belt. The Reading quirks:
compound
first version of my book I offered to my teacher to scrutinise, and scrutinise he did. In retrospect, it's a good thing he did, words --
because it took forever to get from the draft version to an edited final version. Instead, in 2005 I decided that the information Looking up
kanji --
I was offering the world was somewhat out of date, and needed a rewrite. I also knew that I had to do something with the Styles --
book: I had promised many people by now I would finish it and I didn't like the idea of letting those people down. As such, I
Words and
began to write what ended up as a permanent draft copy of a grammar book, freely available from the nihongoresources.com word classes
website, in 2005-2006. Articles --
Verbs --
Three years later, the book has certainly proved its popularity. Well over a hundred thousand downloads later, and with over Nouns --
fifteen thousand hits on it per week still, the time has finally come to revise it, and give everyone what they've been asking Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
for for some time now: a cheap, proper paper version in addition to the digital copy. Adjectives --
Adverbs --
It's taken close to a year to go from deciding to revise the old grammar book to being able to offer you a restructured, Particles --
Prefixes --
reworked, and more than half rewritten book on the Japanese language, but hopefully the wait was worth it. I've spent as Onomatopoeia
much time on it as I could, in between my normal job and spending time on vacations in Canada to be with the person who and mimesis --
Compound
has helped me tremendously in getting this book done and keeping me motivated to do so, and I hope the result is something words --
you feel was worth paying money for. Or, if you didn't buy it but are reading this as a digital copy, then I hope you might
Sentence
find it good enough to want to have it sitting on your shelf as paper copy as well. structure
Word order --
This book was written in several phases, using several programs. The first full-content version was based on the original Emphasis --
"An Introduction to Japanese Syntax, Grammar and Language" written in 2005, which was written in plain text using Pitch and
Textpad, after which it got turned into DocBook XML using XMLmind XML Editor. This was then converted to accents
WordprocessingML using a custom script, and final styling was done in Microsoft Word, before converting that to PDF form Gender roles
using Adobe's Acrobat PDF building tools.
Context
language
This process got changed up for the first real publication, relying on DokuWiki instead. Because DokuWiki stores its data as
plain text files, I wrote a set of conversion scripts to turn the dokuwiki code into LaTeX code, which then gets run through Verb
grammar
the XeLaTeX processing engine, which results in a fully indexed, cross-referenced, ToC-ed and for all intents and purposes
publication-ready PDF file. More
grammar
Particles
The current version is a refinement of that, taking the DokuWiki data but simply rendering it straight to a non-nonsense
Counters
"github-pages" website. This lets me update content even better than DokuWiki would allow, with issue tracking added to and counting
the mix so that any errors, omissions, or ideas can be filed and simply worked through as a TODO list, rather than having to
Language
maintain these things by hand (digitally, but still by hand). patterns
Conjugation
In the end, I have fun working on this book (and putting together the technologies to turn the book content into something Schemes
you can actually read) and I hope you will have fun reading this, and find it aids you in your studies of Japanese. Thank you Set phrases
for making writing this worth while, and good luck! Glossary

— Mike "Pomax" Kamermans

Chapter 1 — The syntax

Syntax in the Japanese language comes in several parts. From the lowest to the highest, we see the kana and kanji, used to
compose words, which are used to compose sentences, which in turn function as the building blocks of the spoken and
written language. We will look at each of these "blocks" in order, and look at how they all come together to form the Liked this
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Section 1-1 — The kana (or coffee)!

§1.1.1 — The basics

What the alphabet is to western languages, the 五十音, "gojuuon", is to Japanese. This Japanese syllabary is a collection of
46 syllables (roughly half of which have 'voiced' counterparts) that act as phonetic building blocks in the Japanese language.
Arranged in the traditional way, and read top-down, right-to-left, these 46 syllables can be written in either of two scripts:
hiragana and katakana:

ん わ ら や ま は な た さ か あ
 (ゐ) り み ひ に ち し き い
る ゆ む ふ ぬ つ す く う Preface
The syntax
(ゑ) れ め へ ね て せ け え
The kana
を ろ よ も ほ の と そ こ お The basics --
Writing the
kana --
ン ワ ラ ヤ マ ハ ナ タ サ カ ア Pronouncing
Japanese --
(ヰ) リ ミ ヒ ニ チ シ キ イ Hiragana and
katakana
ル ユ ム フ ヌ ツ ス ク ウ differences --
Writing
(ヱ) レ メ ヘ ネ テ セ ケ エ spoken
Japanese
ヲ ロ ヨ モ ホ ノ ト ソ コ オ Katakana
specific --
Punctuation
Transcribing these tables into western, and more specifically English, sounds, the table looks roughly as follows: and writing --
Kanji
n wa ra ya ma ha na ta sa ka a Types of Kanji -
(wi) ri mi hi ni chi shi ki i -
Writing Kanji --
ru yu mu fu nu tsu su ku u Reading kanji:
furigana --
(we) re me he ne te se ke e Reading quirks:
compound
(w)o ro yo mo ho no to so ko o words --
Looking up
kanji --
These tables seem to contain 48 syllables instead of 46, but the two syllables 'wi' and 'we', (ゐ/ヰ and ゑ/ヱ) have not been Styles --
in use since the Japanese language was revised following shortly after the second world war. They have been included here Words and
only for completeness, and in modern Japanese do not appear in the syllabaries table. The を is still very much in use, but word classes

only as a grammatical particle that is pronounced as お, and so the only accurate transcription is as 'o'. However, in names it Articles --
Verbs --
may be pronounced as 'wo', and so we find the consonant in parentheses in the table of transcriptions. Nouns --
Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
We can look at these tables in two ways. Firstly, as arrangements in columns. When doing so, the first column (going right Adjectives --
to left rather than left to right) is called the あ—column, the second column the か—column, and so forth. We can also look Adverbs --
Particles --
at them as arrangements of rows, in which case the first row is called the あ—row, the second one the い—row, followed by Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
the う—, え— and お—rows. Thus, the katakana symbol メ for instance can be found on the え—row of the ま—column. and mimesis --
Compound
words --
Some of these columns have 'voiced' variants. Voicing is a linguistic term used to indicate consonants that are pronounced
Sentence
with air running past the vocal cords. In Japanese, the か -, さ -, た - and は —columns (ka, sa, ta and ha) can be given a structure
だくてん
Word order --
special diacritic mark, called 'dakuten' ( 濁点 ) to indicate they are voiced rather than plain, changing their pronunciation: Emphasis --
Pitch and
ば/バ だ/ダ ざ/ザ が/ガ accents

び/ビ ぢ/ヂ じ/ジ ぎ/ギ Gender roles

Context
ぶ/ブ づ/ヅ ず/ズ ぐ/グ language

べ/ベ で/デ ぜ/ゼ げ/ゲ Verb

grammar
ぼ/ボ ど/ド ぞ/ゾ ご/ゴ More
grammar
Particles
Which is transcribed as:
Counters
and counting
ba da za ga Language
bi dzi ji gi patterns
Conjugation
bu dzu zu gu Schemes
be de ze ge Set phrases
bo do zo go Glossary

A note about 'dzi' and 'dzu': while these are technically the correct transcriptions for ぢ and づ, these syllables have been
rendered obsolete in current Japanese, with words that used to use ぢ now using じ, and words that use づ now using ず.
This will be explained in a bit more detail in the section on pronunciation.

In addition to this regular voicing, the は —column has a secondary voicing, indicated with a small circle diacritic mark,
はんだくてん
called 'handakuten' ( 半濁点 ), which rather than producing a 'b' sound, produces a 'p' sound:
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ぱ/パ pa book?
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ぴ/ピ pi author a beer
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ぷ/プ pu
ぺ/ペ pe
ぽ/ポ po

§1.1.2 — Writing the kana

Both hiragana and katakana may be relatively simple scripts compared to the complex Chinese characters also in use in
Japanese, but they both have specific ways of writing each syllable. The following tables show how to write both hiragana
and katakana the proper way. Note that these written versions look different in places from print form.
Preface
The syntax
The kana
The basics --
Writing the
kana --
Pronouncing
Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
differences --
Writing
spoken
Japanese
Katakana
specific --
Punctuation
and writing --
Kanji
Types of Kanji -
-
Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
furigana --
Reading quirks:
compound
words --
Looking up
kanji --
Styles --
Words and
word classes
Articles --
Verbs --
Nouns --
Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Particles --
Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Compound
words --
Sentence
structure
Word order --
Emphasis --
Pitch and
accents
Gender roles
Context
language
Verb
grammar
Stroke diagrams for hiragana
More
grammar
Particles
Counters
and counting
Language
patterns
Conjugation
Schemes
Set phrases
Glossary

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book?
Buy the
author a beer
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 Preface
The syntax
The kana
The basics --
Writing the
kana --
Pronouncing
Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
differences --
Writing
spoken
Japanese
Katakana
specific --
Punctuation
and writing --
Kanji
Types of Kanji -
-
Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
furigana --
Reading quirks:
compound
words --
Looking up
kanji --
Styles --
Words and
word classes
Articles --
Verbs --
Nouns --
Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Particles --
Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Compound
words --
Sentence
structure
Word order --
Emphasis --
Stroke diagrams for katakana Pitch and
accents
Gender roles
§1.1.3 — Pronouncing Japanese
Context
language
Pronunciation wise, each of these syllables is equally long. This is traditionally explained by referring to the pronunciation
of Japanese as mora, a linguistic term meaning "the time required to pronounce an ordinary or normal short sound or Verb
grammar
syllable". In Japan, this concept of mora is usually explained with the easier concept of drum beats: each basic syllable is
More
one beat long, with certain combinations of kana lasting one and a half or two beats. grammar
Particles
The vowel sounds of Japanese, あ, い, う, え and お do not all have English equivalents; あ is actually identical to the Counters
initial vowel sound in "I" or "eye" — that is, the 'a' sound without the finalising 'i' sound. The い is a little easier, sounding and counting
Language
like the 'ee' in 'creep'. The う is particularly annoying, because there is no English equivalent. It is identical to the vowel patterns
sounds of properly Scottish 'you' or 'do', or the Dutch open 'u' such as in 'huren'. え is pronounced like in the English 'help', Conjugation
Schemes
and the お, finally, is pronounced like the 'o' in 'or'.
Set phrases
Glossary
While for most kana the consonant sound is reasonably approximated by the transcribed consonant as listed in the earlier
tables, there are a few notable exceptions. For instance, while romanised as "hi", ひ / ヒ is usually pronounced with a
consonant that doesn't sound like an 'h', but more like the German or Scottish "ch" as found in German words such as "ich"
(meaning "I") and Scottish words such as "loch" (meaning "lake").

Also in the は-column, the syllable ふ/フ does not have an 'h' as consonant sound, or even the 'f' consonant sound that it is
typically transcribed with, but rather uses only pure aspiration as initial sound. This is mostly unknown in western
languages, and will be the hardest to get right for people starting out with Japanese. Rather than being formed in the mouth,
the syllable ふ starts being formed at the diaphragm, while breathing out. Paired with the lips shaped as if casually blowing
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out a match or candle (rather than tightened for whistling), this rush of air is then given a vowel sound, and the syllable is book?
complete. Buy the
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In the つ—column we also see an interesting pronunciation 'quirk': while ち and つ, strictly speaking, have voiced versions, (or coffee)!

written ぢ and づ, over the years the difference in pronunciation between ぢ and じ, and づ and ず, has all but disappeared,
leading to an official move towards replacing these ぢ and づ with じ and ず entirely. However, there are (quite a number
of) exceptions to this move for replacement: if the two first kana of a word are the same, but the second one is voiced, the
same kana are used (for example, つづく and ちぢめる). Also, in compound words in which voicing occurs, the original
かた つ かたづ はな ち はなぢ
kana form is used (for instance, 片 + 付 く → 片付 く and 鼻 + 血 → 鼻血). This exception only applies when the
compound word can be considered a combination of words. Both 片 付 く and 鼻 血 derive their meaning from their
いなずま
constituent words, but in a word like 稲妻 , meaning "lightning", the first kanji refers to rice plants, and the second kanji
refers to (someone's) wife. In these words, even if the affixed compound would normally have a つ or ち, the voicing is
written as ず or じ in modern Japanese, rather than づ or ぢ. Preface
The syntax
That said, voicing in compound nouns is a bit strange in that there are no rules to tell when something will, or will not voice, The kana
so the best strategy — which applies to learning words in general anyway — is to learn words as word first, then learn them
The basics --
as combinations, rather than the other way around. Writing the
kana --
Pronouncing
Finally, the ら—column can be a problem because for most western listeners, different people will seem to pronounce the Japanese --
initial consonant in this column differently. While in many western languages the consonants "d", "l", and "r" are considered Hiragana and
katakana
quite distinct, in Japanese this distinction is far less; any syllable starting with a consonant ranging from a full fledged "l" to differences --
a rolling Spanish "r" will be interpreted as a syllable from the ら —column, with the "standard" pronunciation being Writing
somewhere between a "d" and an "r". spoken
Japanese
Katakana
§1.1.3.1 — Not pronouncing Japanese specific --
Punctuation
and writing --
This sounds like an oddly named section, but some bits in written Japanese are actually not really pronounced at all. In fact, Kanji
not infrequently you will hear Japanese that does not seem to reflect the written form, with the verb "desu" seemingly being
Types of Kanji -
pronounced "des", the adjective "hayaku" seemingly being pronounced "hayak", the command "shiro" seemingly being -
pronounced "sh'ro", and many more of such vocal omissions. Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
furigana --
In fact, many syllables with an い— or う—sound tend to have these vowel sounds left almost unpronounced. I say almost, Reading quirks:
compound
because the vowel sound is typically preserved by virtue of the consonants used. For instance, the word そして, transcribed words --
as 'soshite' is typically pronounced in such a way that it can be considered transcribable as "sosh'te" instead. However, Looking up
kanji --
forming "sh" means also forming a pseudo-vowel sound. In fact, even in this "omitted vowel" there is room for variation, so Styles --
that a "sh" can sound like it was supposed to become "shi" or "shu", and it is this feature that is exploited quite heavily in Words and
Japanese. word classes
Articles --
This leads to a small problem. Because it sounds like the vowel is entirely missing, you might be tempted to mimic this Verbs --
sound, but end up genuinely omitting the vowel entirely because that's what your ears — which are not yet accustomed to Nouns --
Pronouns --
Japanese phonetics — think is happening. However, this also makes your Japanese highly unnatural, because to a Japanese Nominalisers --
ear the vowel is only mostly omitted, not entirely. Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Particles --
The problem then is one of hearing: when learning a new language it is important to "unlearn" how to hear language. Much Prefixes --
like how we have learned to see the world in a way that it's actually not (you will consider a brown table with a light shining Onomatopoeia
on one end, brown, instead of brown on one end, and a completely different colour where the light is hitting it), as infants we and mimesis --
Compound
learn to disregard any and all sounds that don't feature in the languages we're raised with. As such, remarkable as this may words --
sound, we unlearn how to hear things accurately, and instead learn how to map what we hear to what we know the language Sentence
is supposed to sound like. While highly effective when learning a language, or a family of languages with similar structure
pronunciations, it's disastrous when learning a language that has a different phonetic system. Word order --
Emphasis --
The best advice with regards to this is to simply listen to a lot of Japanese. It takes time and effort to unlearn the unconscious Pitch and
mapping your brain does for you. You're going to get it wrong, but as long as you know you are, you'll be on the right track. accents
Gender roles
§1.1.4 — Hiragana and katakana differences Context
language
If hiragana and katakana sound exactly the same, why then are there two different scripts? Verb
grammar
When the Japanese first developed a written system, it was based on the characters used in China for the Chinese language, More
in which for the most part the meaning of the characters were subservient to what they sounded like: if a word had an "a" grammar
sound in it, then any Chinese character that sounded like "a" could be used for it, without any real regard for its meaning. Particles
This "using certain characters for their sound only" became more widespread as the number of characters per syllable Counters
dropped from quite many to only a handful, and as writing became more widespread two syllabic scripts developed. One, and counting
which simplified phonetic kanji by omitting parts of them lead to what is today called katakana. Another, which simplified Language
patterns
phonetic kanji by further and further reducing the complexity of the cursive forms for these kanji, has become what is
Conjugation
known today as hiragana. We can see this illustrated in the next figure, which shows the characters the hiragana came from, Schemes
and the highly stylistic cursive form characters had, highlighting the degree of simplification that cursive writing brought Set phrases
with it. Glossary

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 Preface
The syntax
The kana
The basics --
Writing the
kana --
Pronouncing
Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
differences --
Writing
spoken
Japanese
Katakana
specific --
Punctuation
and writing --
Kanji
Types of Kanji -
-
Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
furigana --
Reading quirks:
compound
words --
Looking up
kanji --
Styles --
Words and
word classes
The hiragana derivations from cursive script
Articles --
Verbs --
Katakana got a slightly different treatment, in that these are actually fragments of characters, rather than stylistic Nouns --
simplifications. The second derivations figure illustrates this, with a note that the fragments were lifted from handwritten Pronouns --
characters, so that the "logic" is mostly found in the cursive line of characters. Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
Adverbs --
These two scripts have differed in roles throughout history, and in modern Japanese hiragana is used for anything Japanese Particles --
that does not use (or need) kanji, and katakana is used in the same way that we use italics in western language, as well as for Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
words that have been imported into Japanese from other languages over the course of history. The only genuine difference and mimesis --
between the two scripts is the way in which long vowel sounds are written, as we shall see in the next section. Compound
words --
Sentence
structure
Word order --
Emphasis --
Pitch and
accents
Gender roles
Context
language
Verb
grammar
More
grammar
Particles
Counters
and counting
Language
patterns
Conjugation
Schemes
Set phrases
Glossary

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book?
Buy the
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The katakana derivations

Section 1-2 — Writing spoken Japanese

Using the kana as basic building blocks, Japanese pronunciation consists of a few more things beyond basic syllables: in
addition to "simple" syllable sounds, it contains long vowels, glides and double consonants.
Long vowels, contrary to the name, do not always mean "the same vowel, twice as long". Strictly speaking, a long vowel in
Japanese is a combination of two vowels, pronounced over two "drum beats". In katakana, long vowels are really just that, a Preface
vowel with a dash to indicate the sound has been doubled in length, but in hiragana the doubling is different. Of the five
The syntax
basic Japanese vowel sounds (あ, い, う, え and お) the first three have fairly simple long vowel counterparts in hiragana,
The kana
simply doubling in writing, but the latter two are more complicated, having two different written forms:
The basics --
Writing the
hiragana katakana kana --
Pronouncing
あ ああ アー Japanese --
Hiragana and
い いい イー katakana
differences --
う うう ウー Writing
spoken
え ええ, えい エー Japanese

お おお, おう オー Katakana
specific --
Punctuation
and writing --
While the pronunciation for ああ, いい and うう are intuitive (same sound, twice as long), the pronunciations for ええ, え
Kanji
い, おお and おう and more subtle. The first, ええ, may be pronounced as a "same sound, twice as long" え, but may also Types of Kanji -
be pronounced as えい, which is similar to the '-ay' in the English 'hay'. For おお, the pronunciation is like "oa" in "oak", Writing Kanji --
-

with おう often sounding the same, but when pronounced slowly, having a distinct hint of "u" at the end. Reading kanji:
furigana --
Reading quirks:
This doubling is the same for syllables with consonant sounds, so that for instance vowel doubling for the syllables from the compound
words --
ま—column look as follows: Looking up
kanji --
Styles --
hiragana katakana
Words and
あ まあ マー word classes
Articles --
い みい ミー Verbs --
Nouns --
う むう ムー Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
え めえ, めい メー Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Particles --
お もお, もう モー Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
In addition to long vowels, Japanese words may contain "glides". Being considered contractions of い—row syllables with Compound
words --
any one of the three syllables や, ゆ and よ, glides are written as the い—row syllable, normal sized, and then the や, ゆ or
Sentence
よ syllable at either half height (for horizontally written Japanese) or half width (for vertically written Japanese). To structure
illustrate: Word order --
Emphasis --

kana pronunciation as glide pronunciation Pitch and

accents
き+や きや kiya きゃ kya Gender roles
し+ゆ しゆ shiyu しゅ shu Context
language
ち+よ ちよ chiyo ちょ cho Verb
grammar
み+や みや miya みゃ mya
More
ひ+よ ひよ hiyo ひょ hyo grammar
Particles
に+ゆ にゆ niyu にゅ nyu Counters
and counting
り+よ りよ riyo りょ ryo Language
patterns
While a written combination of two syllables, the glide it represents is only a single "drum beat" long, just as the regular Conjugation
syllables. Thus, the word キャンプ is three beats long: spelled out, it will be pronounced きゃ, ん and ぷ. Schemes
Set phrases
Finally, the last feature of spoken Japanese reflected in writing is what is known as the "double consonant": a reasonably Glossary
recent change to the way Japanese is written (in the sense that this change occurred sometime during the medieval period,
when written Japanese had been around for a little under a millennium) which indicates that a particular consonant has a
short pause before it is actually pronounced. This consonant doubling is found in a number of western languages as well,
such as in Italian, where words like 'tutti' have a written double consonant while in terms of pronunciation there is simply a
pause before the consonant. In Japanese, because there are no actual 'loose' consonants, the doubling is represented by a
special character: a つ (or ツ) written either half height (in horizontal writing) or half width (in vertical writing) to indicate
the pause. To illustrate the difference between this small つ/ツ and the regular form, a few example words:

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しっけ "shikke" humidity
まっか "makka" intensely red

normal つ pronunciation meaning

はつか "hatsuka" 20 days/20th day
しつけ "shitsuke" upbringing
まつか "matsuka" the 'Pine' family of trees
This "つ/ツ as a pause" is also applied when a glottal stop is needed in for instance an exclamation, "あっ!", which is an
exclamation with a "cut off" rather than long vowel sound. Preface
The syntax
§1.2.1 — Katakana specific The kana
The basics --
As katakana has been used to write out words imported from other languages into Japanese, it has a few extra "rules" that do Writing the
kana --
not apply to written hiragana, including a number of ways to produce normally "illegal" syllables: syllables that do not fit in Pronouncing
the Japanese table of syllables, but are found in foreign words nonetheless. Examples of these are for instance the initial Japanese --
syllable "fi" in the English word "fire", or the "swe" in "Sweden". Hiragana and
katakana
differences --
The table of approximating writing is as follows, observing English pronunciation rules (combinations with normal Japanese
Writing
orthography are omitted): spoken
Japanese
a e i o u Katakana
specific --
ch チェ Punctuation
and writing --
d ディ ドゥ Kanji
f ファ フェ フィ フォ Types of Kanji -
-
fj/fy フィウ Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
furigana --
j ジェ Reading quirks:
compound
q クァ クェ クィ クォ ク words --
Looking up
s セィ kanji --
Styles --
sh シェ Words and
word classes
sw スァ スェ スィ スォ スゥ
Articles --
t ティ トゥ Verbs --
Nouns --
Pronouns --
v (1) ヴァ ヴェ ヴィ ヴォ ヴ Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
w ウェ ウィ ウォ ウ Adverbs --
Particles --
x ックサ ックセ ックセィ ックソ ックス Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
y イェ イ and mimesis --
Compound
words --
z ゼィ
Sentence
structure
Note that 'wo' is not ヲ (as that is pronounced お ), and that for the 'x' series, the leading ッ is the consonant doubling Word order --
symbol. Emphasis --
Pitch and
In addition to these, there are also a number of consonants which, in terms of pronunciation, already have Japanese accents
counterparts: Gender roles
Context
consonant column language

c, pronounced as 's' uses the さ—column Verb

grammar
c, pronounced as 'k' uses the か—column More
grammar
l uses the ら—column Particles
Counters
v (2) uses the ば—column. Preferred to 'v (1)' in the above table.
and counting
Language
Due to the fact that most loan words have come from some specific language, many of which are not English, Japanese loan patterns
words may have a different written form than expected. For instance, Brussels is written as ブリュッセル, "buryusseru", Conjugation
Schemes
rather than ブラセルズ, "buraseruzu", and English (the people) is written as イギリス, "igirisu", rather than イングリッシ Set phrases
ュ, "ingurisshu". Glossary

§1.2.2 — Punctuation and writing

Of course, in addition to a "letter" script, there is interpunction — symbols that indicate pauses, stops, quotes and other such
things. In Japanese, the following punctuation symbols are common:

symbol
full stop 。
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comma 、 book?
single quotes 「 and 」 Buy the
author a beer
double quotes 『 and 』 (or coffee)!
parentheses （ and ）
kanji repeater 々
separators ・ and ＝
drawn sound ～
ellipsis ... (usually written twice: ......)

Less used, but always good to have seen are the following:
 symbol
idem dito 〃 Preface
hiragana repeaters ゝ, ゞ The syntax
The kana
katakana repeaters ヽ, ヾ
The basics --
kanji sentence finaliser 〆 Writing the
kana --
Pronouncing
And then there are western punctuations which have Japanese counterparts, but tend to be expressed differently instead: Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
The symbol ? is written the same way as in English, but typically the particle か is used instead. This particle か serves both differences --
as question mark, as well as a marker for parts of a sentences, indicating they are questioning instead of stating. Similarly, Writing
the symbol ! is written the same way as in English, but typically exclamations are simply avoided. Instead, emphasis spoken
Japanese
particles such as よ or わ may be used for effect, but these do not signify real exclamation.
Katakana
specific --
Finally, not quite interpunction but important nonetheless are the two ways to emphasise parts of written language in the Punctuation
same way we use bold or underlining in western composition: dotting and lining. In horizontal writing, words will have dots and writing --
over each syllable or kanji, or a line over the entire emphasised section. In vertical writing, the dots and lining is placed on Kanji
the right side of text. Types of Kanji -
-
Writing Kanji --
In addition to knowing the basics about which symbols can be used, Japanese (as well as some other Asian languages such Reading kanji:
as Chinese) has the unique problem of deciding in which direction to write. For all its modernising, some things such as furigana --
writing remain unchanged. As such, for the most part printed Japanese (as well as handwritten material) is written top down, Reading quirks:
compound
right to left. In contrast, most Japanese material on the internet is typically written in a western fashion, with the text running words --
left to right, top to bottom. Looking up
kanji --
Styles --
To make matters more interesting, in recent history, Japanese could also be written horizontally right-to-left. This practice
Words and
has pretty much disappeared except in shipping (ship names may still be written in this way) and for 'older style' shop signs. word classes
You will not encounter full texts written in this way in modern or even just post-Meiji older Japanese.
Articles --
Verbs --
There are a few differences between horizontal and vertical writing, most notably in terms of where to place half size Nouns --
characters and interpunction: Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
horizontal vertical Adverbs --
Particles --
half size characters half-height half-width, right aligned Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
comma, full stop lower left: [、], [。] upper-right: [], [] and mimesis --
Compound
opening quotes corner in the upper left (「) corner in the upper right (﹁) words --
closing quotes corner in the lower right (」) corner in the lower left (﹂) Sentence
structure
parentheses left and right: i.e. ( and ) above and below: i.e. ⁀ and ‿
Word order --
dotting above characters to the right of characters Emphasis --
Pitch and
lining above characters to the right of characters
accents
drawn sound, hyphen horizontal (〰, ―) vertical ( ︴,︱) Gender roles
ellipsis horizontal (...) vertical ( ) Context
language

Section 1-3 — Kanji Verb

grammar
More
One of written Japanese's most well-known features is that it comprises three writing systems: the two kana scripts, and a grammar
third script called kanji, translating as "Chinese characters", which are ideographs that over the course of history made their Particles
way from China to Japan. One of the biggest problems with kanji is that there aren't just many, but each one can have a Counters
multitude of pronunciations dependent on which words the kanji is being used for. To look at why this is, a brief history of and counting
how modern Japanese got the kanji that are used today is in order. Language
patterns
Early Japanese evolved as a purely spoken language. Without a written form, indeed seemingly without having discovered Conjugation
writing at all, the first instances of writing in Japan were in fact not Japanese at all, but Chinese: after having come into Schemes
contact with the Chinese and their intricate writing system, writing in early Japan (circa the late sixth century) was restricted Set phrases
to immigrant scribes, who wrote official records in classical Chinese. While initially a rarity, the Taika reform of the mid- Glossary
seventh century changed all that.

Reforming Japan to a more Chinese-inspired state, based on centralisation of government and Confucian philosophy, the
need for a state clergy transformed the largely illiterate Japanese society to one with literacy as an essential part of court and
intellectual life. The prestigious rank of scribe became a hereditary rank, and so as generations of scribes came and went, the
Chinese that was used slowly drifted away from proper Chinese, and more towards a hybrid style of Chinese and the form of
Japanese as it was used at the time. However, the readings used for Chinese characters were more or less fixed, and the
ごおん
readings that survive from that period are known today as 呉音, go'on, readings.
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Then, in the seventh and eighth century, during the Chinese Tang dynasty, there was another cultural exchange between book?
Japan and China, leading to a second influx of readings for Chinese characters. As China changed rulers, so too did the Buy the
dominant dialect for the Chinese language, and the readings that were brought back to Japan from this second exchange author a beer
(or coffee)!
were in some cases radically different from the initial readings the Japanese had become familiar with. Readings for kanji
かんおん
from this period are known as 漢音 , kan'on, readings.

Finally, in the fourteenth century, during the most famous of Chinese dynasties — the Ming Dynasty — there was another
influx of Chinese. This influx came from two fronts: firstly, the merchants doing business with the Chinese brought back
とうおん
home readings that are referred to as 唐音 , tō'on, and secondly from Zen monks who went to study Zen Buddhism in China
そうおん
and brought back readings that are referred to as 宋音 , sō'on. Rather than a single exchange, this was an ongoing effort, and
えどじだい
so 唐音 readings tend to span from the late thirteenth century to well into the Edo period (江戸時代, edojidai), also known

とくがわじだ とくがわ えやす

 とくがわじだい とくがわ いえやす
as the Tokugawa period (徳川時代 , tokugawajidai), named after the first Edo shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu ( 徳川 家康 ),
which lasted until the late nineteenth century. Preface
The syntax
The naming for these readings, however, can be slightly confusing. 呉音 readings are known as "wu" readings. However, The kana
this name does not refer to the Wu dynasty (which spans the first two centuries a.d.) but simply to the region the readings are
The basics --
believed to have come from (呉 being the name of the Wu region in Jiangnan, 江南, in modern China). The 漢音 readings Writing the
are called "han" readings, but have essentially nothing to do with the Han Dynasty, which spanned the late third century kana --
Pronouncing
BCE. Japanese --
Hiragana and
The 唐音 readings, equally confusing, are referred to as Tang readings, even though this name would be more appropriate katakana
differences --
for the 漢音 readings, which actually derive from Tang Chinese. Rather, 唐音 derive their readings from Chinese as it was
used during the Sung dynasty and onward. Writing
spoken
Japanese
In addition to these changes to Chinese readings, the written language itself slowly moved away from Chinese proper,
Katakana
through a Chinese-Japanese hybrid written language, to what is essentially the Japanese we know today: mixed Chinese specific --
characters with syllabic script (itself derived from Chinese characters being used phonetically) with different readings for Punctuation
Chinese characters typically indicating different interpretations of the characters used. and writing --
Kanji
While there had been no written language before the introduction of Chinese, there had certainly been a language, which Types of Kanji -
survived throughout the ages by virtue of the commoners not needing to bother with writing, and thus not incorporating -
Writing Kanji --
Chinese into their language as much as royals and officials would. This eventually led to native Japanese pronunciation Reading kanji:
おんよ
being applied to written Chinese, giving us two different reading "systems": the 音読 み, "on'yomi", which are the Chinese furigana --
Reading quirks:
くんよ
compound
derived readings, and the 訓読み, "kun'yomi", which are the native Japanese derived readings. words --
Looking up
kanji --
A major problem with kanji is that without a knowledge of the kanji in question, it is not always clear when to use which Styles --
reading. There are no rules that state that certain kanji are read in a particular way when used on their own, or when part of a
Words and
word, and so the only real way to make sure you are using the right reading for a kanji is to look it up and then remember the word classes
reading for the context the kanji was used in.
Articles --
Verbs --
This usually leads to the question of why kanji are still being used, when other languages only use phonetic scripts. The Nouns --
Japanese abstracted syllabic scripts from Chinese for phonetic writing, so why the continued reliance on kanji? While it Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
seems odd that Chinese characters are still being used in a language that also has a phonetic script, the main reason it still Adjectives --
uses Chinese characters is because of a key aspect of the Japanese language: it is homophonic. Adverbs --
Particles --
Prefixes --
Words in the English language, for instance, are essentially distinct. While there are a number of words that sound the same Onomatopoeia
but mean different things, the vast majority of words in the English language only mean one thing. In Japanese we see quite and mimesis --
Compound
the opposite: there are only 71 distinct single syllable sounds, but there are close to 300 words which can be written using a words --
single syllable. It is easy to see that this means that for any single syllable word you can think of, there will be (on average)
Sentence
at least three other words that you can write in exactly the same way. How do you know which is meant if you don't use structure
kanji or additional notes?
Word order --
Emphasis --
For two syllable words, we see the same thing; there are a bit over 2000 combinations possible when using two syllables
Pitch and
(not all combinations of two syllables are actually used in Japanese) but there are over 4000 words with a two syllable accents
pronunciation. That means that on average, for every two syllables you write, you can be referring to one of two words.
Gender roles
Even with three and four syllables, the problem persists, with a greater number of words available than there are possible
readings. Context
language
Because of this, Japanese is known as a "homophonic" language - a language in which a large number of distinct words will Verb
share the same pronunciation. For instance, a word pronounced "hare" can refer either to 'fair weather', or a 'boil/swelling'. grammar
The word "fumi" can mean either 'a written letter', or 'distaste'. The word "hai" can mean either 'yes', 'actor', 'ash', 'lung' or More
grammar
'disposition', and that doesn't even cover all possible words that are pronounced similarly: without the use of kanji, it would
Particles
be incredibly hard to decipher written Japanese.
Counters
and counting
Of course, one can argue that spoken Japanese doesn't rely on kanji, so it must be possible to do away with them in the
Language
written language too, but this ignores the fact that just because a simplification can be made, it might make things harder in patterns
other respects. For instance, there are no capital letters, spaces, full stops, or all those other syntactic additions in spoken Conjugation
Western languages either, and yet we still keep those in for ease of reading. Similarly, the use of kanji has clear benefits to Schemes
Japanese as a written language: they act as word boundary indicators, allow readers to get the gist of a text by quickly Set phrases
glossing over them, and solve the problem of needing to apply contextual disambiguation all the time like one has to in Glossary
spoken Japanese.

However, just because they are useful, there have been "improvements" in terms of their use in written Japanese. At the turn
of the 20th century, written Japanese was as complicated as written Chinese in terms of kanji use, and even more
complicated as a written language on its own, because kana did not reflect pronunciation. In this classical Japanese, a word
written as 'sau' would be pronounced as a long 'so', and something like 'kefu' would instead be pronounced as a long 'kyo'.
When, after the second world war, the Japanese ministry of education reformed the written language, they didn't just get rid
of this discrepancy between written and spoken Japanese, they also got rid of some 7000 kanji, restricting the number of
kanji to be used in daily life to around 3500, and designating a set of less than 2000 kanji as part of general education
とうよう じょうよう
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(initially known as the 当用 , 'touyou', kanji, and after refinement to the set in 1981, became known as the 常用 , 'jouyou', book?
kanji). This still sounds like a lot, but given that the average English speaker knows around 12,000 words, with academics Buy the
knowing on average anywhere up to 17,000 words, having to know 2000 kanji in order to understand the vast majority of author a beer
your written language isn't actually that much. (or coffee)!

§1.3.1 — Types of Kanji

One of the things that one notices after having looked at kanji for a while is that a great number of kanji use a great number
of simpler kanji as their building blocks. Similar to how kana syllables can be combined to form words, kanji have
throughout history been combined to form more complex kanji, and complicated kanji have been reduced to combinations of
simple kanji for the sake of remembering them, as well as organising them.

Traditionally, kanji are organised in four classes, and two categories, following the convention that was introduced in the
very first comprehensive Chinese character dictionary, at the beginning of the Western calendar's second century. The four
classes relate to the way in which characters are composed:
しょうけいもじ Preface
Pictographs (象形文字 , shoukeimoji) — Hieroglyphic characters that look like what they mean (numbers 一, 二, 三, The syntax
or 山 for 'mountain') The kana
えもじ
Ideographs (絵文字, emoji) — Characters that represent things in some visual way, divided into two subclasses: The basics --
しじもじ Writing the
kana --
Simple ideographs (指事文字, shijimoji), such as 上 and 下 (for 'above' and 'below' respectively), and Pronouncing
かいいもじ
Japanese --
Compound ideographs (会意文字, kaiimoji), such as 休, 'rest', consisting of the compounds 人, 'person', next to Hiragana and
木, 'tree') katakana
けいせいもじ differences --
Form/Reading combinations (形声文字, keiseimoji) — These characters combine two kanji into a single character, Writing
with one of the two indicating a root meaning, and the other indicating (at least one of) the reading(s) for the spoken
character. Japanese
Katakana
specific --
The two categories are related to how characters are actually used: Punctuation
and writing --
てんちゅうもじ
Derivatives (転注文字 , tenchuumoji) — These are characters of which the meanings are derivations, or extensions, of Kanji
the character's original meaning. Types of Kanji -
かしゃもじ -
Phonetic loans (仮借文字, kashamoji) — These are characters which are used purely phonetically, ignoring their Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
original meaning, or characters that are consistently used "wrongly". This class includes those kanji that had to be furigana --
made up "on the spot" in order to accommodate words and concepts imported into Japanese from foreign languages Reading quirks:
for which no pre-existing kanji form was available. compound
words --
Looking up
To make matters even more interesting, there are also characters which fall in either the third or fourth class, but for which kanji --
Styles --
certain meanings have become tied to certain readings. An example of this is the character 楽 , which can mean "music"
when pronounced as "gaku", but mean "comfort" or "enjoyment" when pronounced as "raku". Words and
word classes
Articles --
§1.3.2 — Writing Kanji Verbs --
Nouns --
Pronouns --
Writing kanji follows relatively strict rules. Because kanji are mostly composed of smaller kanji, there is a uniform way of Nominalisers --
writing that allows people to remember kanji as combinations of simpler kanji, rather than as combinations of strokes that Adjectives --
Adverbs --
only once finished, form a kanji. There are a limited number of strokes that are used for drawing kanji. Particles --
Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
§1.3.2.1 — straight strokes and mimesis --
Compound
words --
stroke drawing order examples Sentence
structure
一 left to right 二, 三
Word order --
㇀ starting at the lower left 冫 Emphasis --

丶 called a "tick mark", starting upper left 冫, 丸, 犬 Pitch and

accents
㇏乀 starting at the top 乂, 又
Gender roles
丿 starting at the top 乂 Context
丨 starting at the top 十 language

starting at the top, with a serif to the left at the end Verb
亅 了, 小
grammar
㇁ starting upper left, and then pulling back at the end 犭 More
㇂ starting at the top, with an upward serif at the end 弌, 戈 grammar
Particles
Counters
§1.3.2.2 — angled strokes and counting
Language
patterns
stroke drawing order examples Conjugation
Schemes
㇄ top to bottom, then left to right, as one stroke 兦, 山
Set phrases
㇅ left to right, then top to bottom, then left to right 凹 Glossary
㇇ left to right, then a hook curving down left 水
㇆ left to right, then top to bottom with a serif to the upper left 刀, 方
𠃍 left to right, then top to bottom 囗
乚 top to bottom, then left to right with a serif upward at the end 礼
乁 top left to right, then down right with an upward serif at the end 虱,丮

§1.3.2.3 — multi-angled strokes

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stroke drawing order examples Buy the
author a beer
㇉ top to bottom, then the same as ㇆ 丂 (or coffee)!
㇈ top left to right, then the same as 乚 九
㇋ top left to right, top to bottom, then the same as ㇇ 乃, 廴
㇌ a connected stroke consisting of ㇇ and ㇁ 阝

§1.3.2.4 — Composition

Several compositional rules apply when a kanji consists of more than one stroke:
 Strokes that do not intersect each other, follow each other in a top to bottom, left to right fashion.
Kanji used to form more complex kanji also follow this rule. For instance, 乴 is written as first 折, which in turn is Preface
first 扌, then 斤, and then 乙 is placed underneath.
The syntax
When strokes intersect, the following rules apply:
The kana
For a vertical/horizontal intersection where the vertical stroke does not protrude at the bottom, such as in 王,
The basics --
draw the top horizontal first, then the vertical (forming 丅), then the rest. Writing the
For a vertical/horizontal intersection where the vertical stroke does protrude at the bottom, such as in 十, 牛 or kana --
Pronouncing
年, draw all horizontals first, and finally the vertical. Japanese --
For 乂 crossed strokes such as in 文 or 父, the stroke that runs upper-right to lower-left is drawn first. Hiragana and
Strokes that intersect complete shapes, such as the vertical in 中 or the horizontal in 母, are written last. katakana
differences --
Box enclosures, such as in 国, are written left｜first, then followed up with ㇆ to form 冂, then have their content Writing
drawn, and are then closed at the bottom with 一. spoken
Semi enclosures, such as around 入 in 込 or around 聿 in 建, are written last, after the semi-enclosed component. Japanese
Katakana
There are a few exceptions to these rules (of course), so when learning kanji, one should always have some reference on specific --
Punctuation
how to draw kanji. and writing --
Kanji
§1.3.3 — Reading kanji: furigana Types of Kanji -
-
Writing Kanji --
One problem with kanji is that there is no "built-in" way to tell which pronunciation of a kanji is being used. For instance, Reading kanji:
when a text has the word 行った in it, then it's clear how to pronounce the hiragana part, "tta", but whether the kanji 行 furigana --
Reading quirks:
should be pronounced as 'i' or as 'okona' is not clear. The context will help, but sometimes for verbs, and often for nouns, compound
that's not enough to figure out how to pronounce a kanji. Because of this, Japanese has a unique aspect to its written words --
Looking up
language: furigana. kanji --
Styles --
ふ がな
Furigana, 振 り 仮名, literally means "sprinkled kana", and refers to phonetic guide text written over or alongside kanji to Words and
word classes
indicate the specific reading a reader should use. You have seen several examples of furigana already in this book, where
Articles --
whenever a Japanese term was used involving kanji, its pronunciation was written above it in small lettering. This is not Verbs --
something particular to this book, but a common occurrence in Japanese written material, used most often to help the reader Nouns --
disambiguate or pronounce "hard" words, but also for stylistic or even comic effect. Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
As an illustration of comic effect, one might consider the case of long words that are used with some frequency in a text. Adverbs --
These words might only be given two phonetic guide texts throughout the writing: a first time with the 'proper' Particles --
Prefixes --
pronunciation, and a second time with the pronunciation 'are' instead — a pronoun with the contextual meaning "whatever I Onomatopoeia
wrote last time". and mimesis --
Compound
words --
While comic effect is perhaps an added bonus to using furigana, it is certainly widely used for stylistic effect. For instance,
Sentence
while the word 首刀 does not exist in Japanese, the kanji mean "neck" and "sword" respectively. A Fantasy novelist could structure
use this "made up" word, and add a phonetic text to note that it should be pronounced as エクサキューシオン・ソード, Word order --
"ekusakyuushion soodo", a transliteration of the English words "execution sword" into Japanese. While this doesn't make 首 Emphasis --
刀 a real word, it does allow a writer to paint with words - using the kanji as "pictures" to instil a sense of meaning, and Pitch and
adding an explicit pronunciation so that the sentence can be pronounced as well as written. accents
Gender roles
ひと きら
Another, even wider used application of furigana is the kind employed in sentences such as あの 奴 が 嫌 い, "I dislike that Context
language
person". In this sentence, the kanji 奴 is used with the phonetic guide text "hito", meaning "person". However, this is not the
Verb
real pronunciation of 奴, which is normally pronounced "yatsu", and doesn't just mean "person", but is a derogatory version
grammar
of the word instead. In essence, while the reading reflects what the speaker is saying, the kanji form of the word expresses
More
what the speaker is actually thinking. This "being able to express both what is being thought and what is being said at the grammar
same time" is something that is impossible without this particular feature of written Japanese. Particles
Counters
§1.3.4 — Reading quirks: compound words and counting
Language
patterns
As mentioned in the section on kana pronunciations, there's an odd quirk involving the pronunciation of compounds words.
Conjugation
This is best illustrated with an example. If we combine the noun 気, "ki", meaning 'spirit', or 'attention', with the verb 付く, Schemes
"tsuku", to form the compound verb 気付く, then its pronunciation is not "kitsuku". In fact, the second compound voices, Set phrases
leading to the pronunciation being "kidzuku" (or according to modern spelling, "kizuku"). Why this voicing occurs is, sadly, Glossary
completely and entirely unknown. There are no rules that say when compound words are "supposed" to voice, nor are there
any rules we can abstract from all the words that do — any rule that seems to explain half of all voicings that occur in
Japanese, seems not to apply to the other half.

The best advice here is simply: "learn compound words as complete words". Even though they can be analysed as
compounds, their meaning is typically different from what the compounds individually mean, so learning them as
combinations of loose, smaller words, makes very little sense anyway.

§1.3.5 — Looking up kanji Liked this

book?
If we wanted to look up kanji like 枚, 梓 and 檥, then one very obvious feature we see is that all three seem to share a Buy the
author a beer
similar structure: 木 to the left, and something else to the right. This is not a coincidence: most kanji can be described as (or coffee)!
some bit that is used by a number of other kanji, plus a unique part that identifies that particular kanji. The bit of kanji that is
shared by several (or in some cases lots of) kanji is called a "radical", and can be used to look up a kanji if you have no idea
what it means or even how to pronounce it.

The very first Chinese character dictionary — the Shuōwén Jiězì (說文解字), published in the year 121 — used 214 such
characters as indexing shapes, calling them bùshǒu. (a name that the Japanese copied to the best of their ability, calling them
ぶしゅ
bushu, 部首). While this scheme was thought up almost two millennia ago, amazingly this method of organising kanji has
not been fundamentally altered ever since: while written Chinese, and later Japanese, changed over the centuries, the only
thing that has really changed is the number of indexing radicals. Current indices list around 400 shapes as radicals,
compared to the original 214, mostly due to many shapes being considered "variations" of the classic radicals these days.
For instance: while originally only 己 was considered a radical (radical number 49, in fact), Chinese characters have
changed over the course of centuries so that now the shapes 已 and 巳 are also used, and are considered variations of the Preface
original 己. Kanji that use any of these three shapes may thus be found grouped together.
The syntax
Some variations on the traditional radicals are simple, such as 牛 changing ever so slightly to become 牜 , the only real The kana
difference being that the lower horizontal stroke is slanted a little. However, some variations are more drastic, such as 手 The basics --
Writing the
becoming 扌 ; the top stroke has disappeared. The most drastic changes we see, however, are those where a radical is no kana --
longer readily recognisable as stemming from a particular kanji. For instance, if you didn't know anything about kanji, you Pronouncing
Japanese --
would be hard pressed to imagine that 犭 is actually considered the radical form of 犬. Or that ⺾ in kanji such as 草 is Hiragana and
actually the radical form of the kanji 艸. Probably the most confusing of all radicals are the radical forms of the kanji pair 邑 katakana
differences --
and 阜, which both turn into 阝, but on different sides of kanji: 降 is indexed by 阜, while 部 is indexed by 邑!
Writing
spoken
§1.3.6 — Styles Japanese
Katakana
There are several writing "styles" for Japanese, each associated with different uses. The most commonly used style by far is specific --
かいしょ Punctuation
the kaisho, 楷書 , style, or "print" style. Textbooks, novels, newspapers, webpages, virtually all material intended for mass and writing --
みんちょう Kanji
reading consumption uses this style. There are a few different variants of this form, of which the Minchou, 明朝 , and
Types of Kanji -
gothic, ゴシック, variants are the most common. The Minchou variant is characterised by fine lines and serifs (the font that -
Writing Kanji --
was used for the Japanese in this book is a Minchou variant of the kaisho style, for instance), while the gothic variant is Reading kanji:
characterised by thick, clear lining without any serifs. This variant is often used for signs and pamphlets, as well as a furigana --
visually offset style contrasted to Mincho (performing the same role italic scripts do for most Western languages). Reading quirks:
compound
words --
To show the difference, let us look at two images using minchou and gothic versions of the kaisho typeface. These examples Looking up
kanji --
use the いろは poem as text, which can be considered a Japanese equivalent of an alphabet song, containing each basic Styles --
syllable only once (although some are voiced). Observing the "proper" writing style and reading top-down, right to left, this Words and
poem is written as follows: word classes
Articles --
い
酔ゑ 浅あ つ
さ 今け 有う 常ね 我 散 色ろ
わ ち Verbs --
ひ き 日 為 な が り は
ふ ゐ Nouns --
も 夢ゆめ
越こ の ら 世よ ぬ 匂にほ
Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
せ 見み え 奥お く む 誰れ る へ
た
Adjectives --
ず じ て 山や ま ぞ を ど Adverbs --
Particles --
Prefixes --
There are many translations possible, given the classical nature of the poem. However, a translation offered by professor Onomatopoeia
Ryuichi Abe in his 1999 work "The Weaving of Mantra: Kûkai and the Construction of Esoteric Buddhist Discourse", and mimesis --
Compound
published by Columbia University Press, is as follows: words --
Sentence
Although its scent still lingers on — structure
the form of a flower has scattered away.
Word order --
For whom will the glory — Emphasis --
of this world remain unchanged? Pitch and
Arriving today at the yonder side — accents
of the deep mountains of evanescent existence, Gender roles
we shall never allow ourselves to drift away —
Context
intoxicated, in the world of shallow dreams.
language
Written in Mincho and gothic styles, this poem looks like: Verb
grammar
More
grammar
Particles
Counters
and counting
Language
patterns
Conjugation
Schemes
Set phrases
Glossary

The いろは poem, in the 明朝 variant of 楷書 style

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The いろは poem, in the ゴシック variant of 楷書 style

ぎ うし そうし
 ぎょうしょ そうしょ
In addition to the kaisho style, there are the two "cursive" styles called gyousho, 行書 , and sousho, 草書 , which are
"simplified" forms of written Japanese. The simplification here refers to the fact that these two styles connect many strokes Preface
into single strokes, or in extreme cases, even simplify entire kanji to single strokes. However, this does not make them The syntax
simpler to read - far from it, the simplifications can make it much harder to tell certain kanji apart, or look up in a dictionary. The kana
The basics --
Gyousho is usually associated with handwriting: while we can all write letters the way they come rolling out of a printer, we Writing the
have a special way of writing everything if we do it by hand, and in Japanese this is expressed through a slightly more kana --
flowing form of kanji and kana, connecting strokes but, quite often, preserving most of the looks of a kanji. Sousho, on the Pronouncing
Japanese --
other hand, is the highly stylised simplifications associated with brush calligraphy — shapes are simplified according to Hiragana and
reasonably rigid rules, but these simplifications look drastically different from the original shape, and certain shapes are katakana
differences --
simplified in such a way that it is nearly impossible to tell one from another without having received some form of education
Writing
in reading and writing brush calligraphy. Illustrating this again using the いろは poem:
spoken
Japanese
Katakana
specific --
Punctuation
and writing --
Kanji
Types of Kanji -
-
Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
furigana --
Reading quirks:
compound
words --
Looking up
kanji --
Styles --
Words and
word classes
The いろは poem, in 行書 style Articles --
Verbs --
Nouns --
Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Particles --
Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Compound
words --
Sentence
structure
Word order --
Emphasis --
Pitch and
accents
Gender roles
Context
The いろは poem, in 草書 style
language
れいしょ Verb
Lastly, there are two "traditional" styles that you only find used in very specific applications: reisho, 隷書 , "square style" or grammar
てんしょ
More
"block style", and tensho, 篆書 , "seal style". These two styles are not just traditional but "ancient" styles, in that they are grammar
styles found used far back in Japanese history on official records and seals (respectively). Reisho is associated with the style Particles
of carved kanji on woodblocks (explaining its 'block style' name), and is still in use today for things such as traditional signs. Counters
Tensho is also still used in modern Japan, featuring most prominently in personal stamps — in Japan, you do not sign and counting
documents with a signature, but you put your personal stamp on the document. Everyone who has ever signed something Language
has one of these, and you'll probably know them from the distinctive red-ink kanji-in-a-circle or kanji-in-a-square signs on patterns
Chinese and Japanese paintings and brush works. Illustrating these two styles using the いろは again: Conjugation
Schemes
Set phrases
Glossary

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Buy the
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The いろは poem, in 隷書 style
 Preface
The syntax
The kana
The basics --
Writing the
kana --
Pronouncing
Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
differences --
Writing
spoken
Japanese
Katakana
specific --
The いろは poem, in 篆書 style Punctuation
and writing --
さんたいじてん
Kanji
Special dictionaries exist that list kanji in their different forms. These come in the form of santaijiten, 三体辞典 , which list
ごたいじてん Types of Kanji -
kaisho, gyousho and sousho forms ("santai" meaning three forms), and gotaijiten, 五体辞典, which list all five forms for a -
Writing Kanji --
kanji ("gotai" meaning five forms). There are even reference works which don't so much list the forms in a neatly ordered Reading kanji:
fashion, but show you different interpretation that artists have of the gyousho and sousho forms of kanji, which makes them furigana --
more "artbook" than reference book, even when they are invaluable resources to students of Chinese and Japanese Reading quirks:
compound
calligraphy. words --
Looking up
kanji --
Section 1-4 — Words and word classes Styles --
Words and
With all this talk about lettering, one would almost forget that just letters hardly get us anywhere if we don't know any words word classes
to write with them. However, Japanese doesn't have quite the same words as most western languages have. You may have Articles --
Verbs --
heard the terms "noun" and "verb", and you may even be familiar with terms like "prepositions" and "adverb", but there are Nouns --
quite a number of these word types, and we'll look at all of these in terms of whether or not Japanese uses them, and what Pronouns --
they look like. Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Particles --
§1.4.1 — Articles Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
This is a group of words that you rarely think about as real words: in English, "the", "a" and "an" are articles. They precede a Compound
word to tell you whether it's an undetermined 'something' (by using "a" or "an") or a specific 'something' (by using "the"). words --
Japanese, on the other hand, doesn't have articles at all. It's not just that it uses a different way to indicate the difference Sentence
between for instance "a car" and "the car": there are no simple words you can use to show this difference. This might sound structure
like a rather big stumbling block, but there are many languages which do not have articles, and the people that use those Word order --
languages can get the meaning across just fine without them - as we will see when we talk about context later in this chapter. Emphasis --
Pitch and
accents
§1.4.2 — Verbs
Gender roles

Verbs are words that represent an action either taking place or being performed, and can be modified to show things like Context
language
negatives or past tense. In English, words like "fly" and "float" are verbs for actions that are being performed, and we can
make them negative or past tense: "not fly", "not float", "flew" and "floated" respectively. Similarly, words like "walk" and Verb
grammar
"eat" are verbs for actions that can be performed, and we can make them negative or past tense too: "not walk", "not eat",
More
"walked" and "ate" respectively. Verbs also have a regularity: walk and float are regular verbs in that they follow the same
grammar
rules: past tense is "... + ed", but "fly" and "eat" are irregular: they do not become "flyed" and "eated", but "flew" and "ate".
Particles
Counters
Finally, verbs can be transitive, or intransitive. The verb "walk", for instance, is something that you just do. You walk. When and counting
you see this kind of construction in a sentence, we say that the verb is used "intransitively" - in contrast, "eat" is a verb you Language
can either use intransitively ("What are you doing?" - "I'm eating") or transitively: "I eat an apple". In this use, you're patterns
applying the verb's action to something: "I throw the ball", "I eat an apple", "I fly a plane" are all examples of this. However, Conjugation
there is something funny about transitivity: some verbs, like "walk", you can only use intransitively (we don't say that we Schemes
"walked the street", for instance), but many verbs can be used either intransitively or transitively, like "eat". Set phrases
Glossary
There are also a number of verbs that can only be used transitively, but these are special verbs, typically called auxiliary
verbs. In English, "have" and "want" are examples of these. Without an additional "something", these verbs do not have any
meaning on their own: saying "I have." or "I want." is grammatically incorrect. At the very least, you'd need to say
something like "I have it." or "I want that." for the verbs to be used correctly.

Japanese verbs are characterised by a high degree of regularity as, except for three verbs, all verbs are regular. These regular
ごだん
verbs fall into two categories, namely the "five grade" verbs called godan, 五段, and the "single grade" verbs, called ichidan,
いちだん
一段 . These two categories inflect (take on different tense, mood, etc) in the same way on almost all possible inflections,
but of course differ on some (otherwise there wouldn't be two categories, but just one). Liked this
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With respect to transitivity, Japanese verbs can be a little problematic. Rather than being labelled intransitive or transitive, Buy the
じどうし たどうし author a beer
Japanese verbs are labelled as being 自動詞 or 他動詞, literally "verb that works on its own" and "verb that works paired (or coffee)!
with something". Quite often these two verb classifications map to the roles of "intransitive" and "transitive", respectively,
but sometimes they don't. For instance, traversal verbs (such as 'walk', 'run', 'fly', 'sail', etc.) are intransitive in English, but
are 他動詞 in Japanese: they can be used with an object to indicate what is being walked or run over, what is being flown
through, what's being sailed in, etc. As such, while in English one does not "fly the sky" or "swim the ocean" (at the very
least you'd need a preposition such as "through" or "in" to make those correct English), in Japanese this is exactly what
you're doing.

自動詞 on the other hand do not have a "verb object"; they operate on their own. For instance, in English we can say "I
understand the text", and if we look at the sentence from a grammatical point of view we can say that 'the text' may be
わ
considered the verb object for the verb 'understand'. However, in Japan the verb for understanding, 分 か る , is a 自 動 詞
verb, and so even though you're used to thinking of "understanding" as a transitive verb action, you suddenly have to get
used to it being an intransitive verb action in Japanese. Particularly at first, this can be somewhat confusing, but like all
Preface
foreign languages, exposure to frequently used verbs means you'll quickly develop a sense of how to use them properly
(even if you can't remember the terms 'intransitive', 'transitive', 自動詞 and 他動詞!). The syntax
The kana

§1.4.3 — Nouns The basics --

Writing the
kana --
Pronouncing
Nouns are words that are used to name "somethings", although those somethings don't need to be things you can actually Japanese --
hold in your hand and look at: "car", "New York", "magnification" and "ambiguity" are all nouns, but while you can touch a Hiragana and
car, or point at New York, it's impossible to point at something and go "that is magnification" or "that is ambiguity". A good katakana
differences --
rule of thumb is "if you can say it's 'something else', it's a noun":
Writing
spoken
"This car is old."
Japanese
"New York is hot."
Katakana
"The magnification is high." specific --
"This ambiguity is omnipresent." Punctuation
and writing --
These are all examples where the noun is said to be something else (and that something else is known as an "adjective"). Kanji
This even works with things that you might think are verbs, but actually aren't: "walking" for instance looks like it's a verb, Types of Kanji -
because "walk" is a verb, but there are instances when "walking" is most definitely a noun. Of the following two sentences, -
Writing Kanji --
the first uses "walking" as a verb, while the second uses "walking" as a noun: Reading kanji:
furigana --
"I went to work walking." Reading quirks:
compound
"I like walking." words --
Looking up
We can verify that in the first sentence we're using a verb, and in the second a noun, by replacing "walking" with a word kanji --
Styles --
which we know is a noun, like "cheese":
Words and
"I went to work cheese." word classes
"I like cheese." Articles --
Verbs --
Nouns --
The first sentence suddenly makes no sense at all anymore, while the second sentence is still perfectly fine. This "words can Pronouns --
belong to multiple classes, and which it is depends on how it's used in a sentence" is something quite important to remember Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
when dealing with Japanese, as well as learning foreign languages in general. Adverbs --
Particles --
As a last bit of noun related information, in Japanese (as in English, in fact) nouns do not inflect. They usually need verbs to Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
indicate negative, past tense, and other such things: in English we can say "This is not a book" or "This was a book", but the and mimesis --
negative and past tense comes from inflections of the verb "be", not the noun itself. Compound
words --
Sentence
§1.4.4 — Pronouns structure
Word order --
There is a special class of words called "pronouns" in English, which act as if they're nouns, but are used to replace nouns in Emphasis --
sentences. The best known pronoun in the English language is the word "it", but words like "this", "that" as well as "you" or Pitch and
"we" are all examples of pronouns. Rather than constantly referring directly to what we're talking about, it is far more accents
natural to use pronouns instead: Gender roles
Context
"I bought a really good book. I had already read it, having borrowed it from the library last month, but I saw it in the book language
store on discount, so I decided to buy it."
Verb
grammar
In this sentence, the pronoun "it" is used quite a number of times, replacing "the book" at every instance:
More
grammar
"I bought a really good book. I had already read the book, having borrowed the book from the library last month, but I
Particles
saw the book in the book store on discount, so I decided to buy the book."
Counters
and counting
This sounds unnatural to English ears, even though grammatically speaking there is nothing wrong. In Japanese, pronouns
Language
are part of a class of words colloquially referred to as "kosoado", こそあど, for the fact that they all start with either "ko-", patterns
"so-", "a-" or "do-" depending on their level of proximity (for instance, 'this' vs. 'that') and whether they are stative or Conjugation
interrogative ('that' vs. 'what'). Schemes
Set phrases
Glossary
§1.4.5 — Nominalisers
Japanese has an extra class pertaining to nouns, known as the nominalisers: words that, when used with other words or
phrases, turn these words or phrases into something that can act as if the whole construction is a noun. In English, an
example of this is the collection of words "the way in which":

"The way in which the government is handling the issue of criminal law is questionable."

In this sentence, "the way in which" is used to turn "the government is handling the issue of criminal law" into a single noun
construction. As such we can replace "the way in which the government is handling the issue of criminal law" with a simple Liked this
pronoun if we wish to talk about it in later sentences: book?
Buy the
"The way in which the government is handling the issue of criminal law is questionable. It does not seem to be motivated author a beer
by sound principles, but by back-office politics." (or coffee)!

Japanese has quite a number of these nominalisers, each with its own meaning and nuance, and we shall look at these
nominalisers in the chapter on language patterns, too.

§1.4.6 — Adjectives
As we saw in the section on nouns, any word that can be used to be "more specific" about a noun is called an adjective.
Words like "big", "cold", "square" can all be used as adjectives to be much more specific about, for instance, the noun "box":

"This is a box."
 "This is a square box."
"This is a big, square box." Preface
"This is a big, cold, square box."
The syntax
In Japanese, there are two types of adjectives, namely "verbal" adjectives and "nominal" adjectives, the difference being that The kana
the first type can — unlike in English — be inflected without relying on a copula verb. In English, we have to say "The car The basics --
was fast", but in Japanese this "was fast" does not use a copula verb such as 'was', but the adjective itself can convey this Writing the
kana --
meaning. In essence, in Japanese we get something akin to "The car is fast-in-past-tense". The copula stays the way it is, but Pronouncing
the adjective itself changes, something which trips up many beginning students of Japanese. Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
The "noun" adjectives behave in the same way English adjectives do, needing a copula to change. "It was a square box" is differences --
the same in Japanese as it is in English, with "is" becoming "was", and the adjective staying the way it is.
Writing
spoken
While we can use adjectives to be more specific about a noun, they cannot be used to be more specific about a verb. As an Japanese
example, in the next two sentences the word "fast" is used as an adjective in the first, but is used as a different kind of word Katakana
in the second sentence: specific --
Punctuation
and writing --
"This is a fast car."
"I walked quite fast." Kanji
Types of Kanji -
In the first sentence, the word "fast" is used to be more specific about the noun "car", but in the second sentence, the word -
Writing Kanji --
"fast" is used to be more specific about the verb action "walk". While they look like the same word, their use falls in Reading kanji:
different word classes. When used to be specific about a noun, a word is called an adjective. When used to be specific about furigana --
Reading quirks:
a verb, it's called an adverb. compound
words --
Looking up
§1.4.7 — Adverbs kanji --
Styles --
Using words to be specific about verbs and verb actions is called using them adverbially. In fact, in that sentence the word Words and
"adverbially" is an adverb, letting us be specific about the way in which "using" is used. While in English it can sometimes word classes
be confusing as to whether a word is being used as an adjective or as an adverb, in Japanese this overlap does not exist: both Articles --
Verbs --
verbal and nominal adjectives are modified (in different ways) so that they can be used as adverbs instead. Because of this, Nouns --
there is no way to mistake whether a word is used as adjective or adverb when you look at a sentence. Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
In addition to adjectives-turned-adverb, Japanese also has words that are only adverbs. The most important of these are the Adverbs --
quantifiers, which include things like "a lot", "not so much" and "often". Particles --
Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
§1.4.8 — Particles and mimesis --
Compound
words --
Japanese has an extra word class that isn't found in most western languages: the particle class. Words in this class fulfil a Sentence
wide variety of roles: denoting grammar explicitly, adding emphasis, disambiguating, marking how parts of a sentence bear structure
relation to each other, supplying reason, contradiction, logical arguments, you name it — there is probably a particle that can Word order --
be used for it. Emphasis --
Pitch and
Most particles are suffixes, so that when you use a particle to indicate for instance a contrast between two things, it gets accents
added after the first thing, rather than adding it in front like in English. Gender roles
Context
English: While (X is the case), (also Y). language
Japanese: (X is the case) while, (also Y).
Verb
grammar
Within this word class, there is an important subclass known as the counters. Like Chinese, but very much unlike most
More
western languages, counting in Japanese requires not just a knowledge of numbers, but also of which particle to use in order
grammar
to describe the category of things you are counting. In the same way that you can ask for two mugs of beer or two glasses of
Particles
beer in English, you need to use the counter for "mugs" or "glasses" in Japanese. However, while you can ask for "two teas"
Counters
in an English establishment, this kind of request is impossible in Japanese. You have to order "two (units of) tea", where the and counting
counter that you chose for your units makes the difference between whether you're asking for two cups or tea, two bags of Language
tea, or are accidentally asking for two sheets of tea. patterns
Conjugation
§1.4.9 — Prefixes Schemes
Set phrases
Glossary
Some particles, as well as some common concept markers, are prefixes rather than suffixes — they are placed in front of
words belonging to certain word classes. A handful of special prefixes are used for things like marking words as honorific,
performing "inherent" negation (an English example of which is "the house was windowless" rather than "the house had no
windows"), indicating repetitions ("rereading a book") and acting as category marker for categories such as "new", "big" or
"most", as well as some more exotic categories such as extents or limits. These will be discussed in detail in the chapter on
particles, in the section on prefixes.

§1.4.10 — Onomatopoeia and mimesis

Two final word classes which are important to know when dealing with Japanese are the onomatopoeia, and the mimesis. Liked this
Quite a mouthful, onomatopoeia (from the Greek onomato-, "name", and poi- "to make") are words that are used to reflect book?
Buy the
the sounds that things make. For instance, "The heavy rock splooshed into the lake" is an example of an onomatopoeic verb. author a beer
It doesn't tell us what the rock actually did — namely, fall into the water — but implies it by virtue of the sound we know a (or coffee)!
rock falling in water makes: "sploosh".

In addition to such "sound" words, there are also "state" words, which do not indicate a particular sound, but indicate a
particular property. Rare in English, an example of this would be the word "gloopy" when describing something. Calling
something "gloopy" doesn't tell you something objective about it, but you can surmise it's probably of a viscous liquid gel-
like consistency, as well as unpleasant to the touch.

While in English (and in most other western languages) using these words is considered a sign of a poor grasp of the
language (after all, why use a word like "gloopy" when you can call something a "liquid, but viscous, unpleasant gel"), and
mainly associated with "children's language", in Japanese using onomatopoeia is essential to natural sounding language:
with thousands of these words available to choose from, each with its own connotations and implications, picking the right
onomatopoeia or mimesis at the right time is something that demonstrates a high level of competency in the language.
Preface
ぎおんご The syntax
Onomatopoeia, called 擬音語 ('giongo', in which the 'gi' part means 'to mimic', the 'on' part means 'sound', and the 'go' part
ぎたいご The kana
means 'word') and mimesis, called 擬態語 ('gitaigo', in which 'tai' means condition or state), are some of the hardest words The basics --
to learn, as they usually carry very specific nuances in meaning. For instance, in relation to a leaking tap, a Japanese person Writing the
kana --
might say "the water was dripping out", picking one specific word from among a great number of possible onomatopoeia to Pronouncing
indicate whether the dripping was intermittent or continuous, whether the drips were light or heavy, whether their impact in Japanese --
Hiragana and
the sink was almost silent or accompanied by backsplash noises, each of these qualities being represented by a different katakana
onomatopoeic word. differences --
Writing
Because of this, onomatopoeia and mimesis are an unofficial yardstick when it comes to learning Japanese: if you can use spoken
the right onomatopoeic expression at the right time, you have mastered a crucial element to speaking natural sounding Japanese
Japanese. Katakana
specific --
Punctuation
§1.4.11 — Compound words and writing --
Kanji
This is technically not a word class, but a language feature: in some languages several words can be combined into single Types of Kanji -
words with more meaning that just the individual parts. This practice, called compounding, is something that some -
Writing Kanji --
languages have a knack for, and some languages simply do not bother with. English, for instance, is a language in which Reading kanji:
compound words are rare — although not unheard of. A common English compound word is the word "teapot", for instance. furigana --
A combination of the nouns "tea" and "pot", this would have to be a pot for tea. However, it's not really a pot, it's more a Reading quirks:
compound
decanter. Similarly, the "tea" in question is never dry tea leaf, even though that's also called "tea" in English; it has to be words --
boiled water infused with tea leaf. So, the single compound noun "teapot" has more meaning than if you looked at the Looking up
kanji --
meaning of just the two nouns it was built from. Styles --
Words and
This "joining up two (or more) words to form new, single words" is one of the major dividing lines we can use when trying word classes
to classify languages: English is a language sparse in compound words, as are French, Spanish and Italian, but German,
Articles --
Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Polish, Hungarian, Arabian, and also Japanese, are languages in which compound words are Verbs --
frequently used. Nouns --
Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
In Japanese, nouns are not the only compound words available — compound adjectives as well as compound verbs are also Adjectives --
quite common. Adverbs --
Particles --
Prefixes --
Section 1-5 — Sentence structure Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Compound
words --
In addition to knowing which word classes are used in a language, we can also look at languages in terms of how sentences
are structured. The most simplistic categorisation of languages in this respect is by looking at the "Subject, Object and Verb" Sentence
structure
ordering. This categorisation looks at how languages order these three words classes, leading to the conclusions that English,
for instance, is an SVO language, while Japanese is an SOV language: in English, most sentences are of the form "we do Word order --
Emphasis --
something", where the subject ("we") precedes the verb ("do") which in turn precedes the object ("something") for that verb.
Pitch and
Japanese, in contrast, follows a different ordering: most sentences are of the form "we, something do" (with the comma accents
added purely for ease of reading) where the subject precedes the object for the verb, after which the actual verb is used.
Gender roles
There are also VSO languages, such as formal Arabic or Welsh, where the sentence structure is predominantly "do, we,
something" and VOS languages, such as Malagasi (used in Madagascar) and Fijian (used in Fiji) where the structure is Context
language
predominantly "do something, we".
Verb
However, while this terminology allows us to broadly categorise languages, based on what the 'typically used' pattern looks grammar
like, it doesn't tell us anything about how correct or incorrect sentences are if they do not adhere to these S/V/O "rules". For More
instance, while "we ate some cake" is a normal English sentence, a slightly less conventional but still grammatically grammar
perfectly valid English sentence could be "cake; we ate some". This sentence does not fall in the SVO category that is Particles
associated with English, but that doesn't mean it's an incorrect sentence — it just means the SVO label doesn't tell the whole Counters
and counting
story. This becomes particularly apparent when we look at what "minimal sentences" may look like in different languages.
Language
patterns
In English, a minimal sentence (that is, one that isn't considered an expression like "hi!" or "hmm") consists of a subject and
Conjugation
a verb: "I ate" or "she runs" are examples of minimal sentences. Trying to shorten a sentence further — without making the Schemes
sentence context sensitive — yields broken English, which is arguably simply not English. This notion of context is Set phrases
important: if we are asked "How many cookies are left?" and we answer with "four", then this "four" is technically a Glossary
sentence comprised of a single word, and sounds natural. However, if we were to use the sentence "four." on its own, it is
impossible to tell what we mean by it. This means that while English is an SVO language, it's really an SV(O) language: you
need an S, you need a V, and if you use an O, it comes last, but you're not obliged to have one.

When we look at Japanese we see the S/V/O category crumbling even further. Rather than just being an SOV language, it's
actually an (S)(O)V language: You need a verb, but you don't need a subject or object at all to form a correct minimal
sentence in Japanese. While in English saying "ate" is considered not enough information to make sense of, Japanese is a
language in which competent listeners or readers fill in these blanks themselves, choosing which subject and object make
the most sense, given what they know about the speaker. This is what makes Japanese hard: most of the time, in every day
Japanese, subjects and objects will be omitted left and right because, as a competent listener, you should know what they Liked this
should have been — Japanese relies heavily on people's ability to guess what someone else is talking about, something book?
which can only come through regular exposure to, and use of, the language. Buy the
author a beer
(or coffee)!
§1.5.1 — Word order
While it's all well and good to know that minimal Japanese is an (S)(O)V language, it's also important to know that in
Japanese, grammar is put directly into the sentence through the use of particles. While in English grammar only becomes
apparent through the positioning of words, in Japanese words are "tagged", as it were, with their grammatical role. To
illustrate this, an example sentence:
きのう いぬ わたし はん た
昨日は 犬 が 私 のご 飯 を食べました。
kinou wa inu ga watashi no gohan o tabemashita.
This sentence is composed of several "blocks": 昨日は, 'kinou wa', indicates the noun 'kinou' ("yesterday") as context. In 犬
が , 'inu ga', the noun 'inu' ("dog") is marked as verb actor, in 私 の , 'watashi no', the noun 'watashi' ("I"/"me") is made Preface
genitive (forming "my") and linked to ご飯を, 'gohan o', the noun 'gohan' ("dinner") marked as direct verb object, with the The syntax
final word 'tabemashita' being the past tense of the verb "eat": The kana
The basics --
"Yesterday, (a/my/our) dog ate my dinner." Writing the
kana --
Pronouncing
In English, there is very little position variation possible in this sentence: "A dog ate my dinner, yesterday" is still okay, but Japanese --
rearranging the sentence to read "Yesterday, my dinner ate a dog" completely changes the meaning of the sentence from Hiragana and
katakana
something unfortunate to something unsettling. In Japanese, the explicit presence of grammar markers in a sentence means differences --
that rearranging the "blocks" doesn't change the meaning of the sentence at all: Writing
spoken
昨日は私のご飯を犬が食べました。 Japanese
kinou wa watashi no gohan o inu ga tabemashita. Katakana
"Yesterday: my dinner, (a/my/our) dog ate." specific --
Punctuation
and writing --
私のご飯を、昨日は、犬が食べました。
Kanji
watashi no gohan o, kinou wa, inu ga tabemashita.
"My dinner — yesterday — (a/my/our) dog ate." Types of Kanji -
-
Writing Kanji --
昨日は犬が食べました、私のご飯を。 Reading kanji:
kinou wa inu ga tabemashita, watashi no gohan o. furigana --
Reading quirks:
"Yesterday (a/my/our) dog ate; my dinner." compound
words --
食べました、犬が、私のご飯を、昨日は。 Looking up
kanji --
tabemashita, inu ga, watashi no gohan o, kinou wa. Styles --
"Ate, a dog (did), my dinner, yesterday."
Words and
word classes
All of these are perfectly valid sentences in Japanese, because all the words with meaning are explicitly tagged with the role
Articles --
they play in the sentence. While some of these sentences will sound more usual than others, they all mean the same thing. Verbs --
However, once we start moving the particles around, pairing them with words from different blocks, the same problem Nouns --
arises as we saw for English: Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
昨日は(犬が)(私のご飯を)食べました。 Adverbs --
Particles --
kinou wa inu ga watashi no gohan o tabemashita Prefixes --
"Yesterday, (a/my/our) dog ate my dinner." Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
昨日は(ご飯が)(私の犬を)食べました。 Compound
words --
kinou wa gohan ga watashi no inu o tabemashita Sentence
"Yesterday, (the) dinner ate my dog." structure
Word order --
In summary, it is not so much word order that inherently gives meaning to a sentence in Japanese, but the 'semantic blocks' Emphasis --
of words, paired with specific particles. Their combination tells you what the block means, and what role it plays in a Pitch and
sentence. As long as the pairings are preserved, you can order these blocks in any way you like and maintain the same accents
sentence meaning. Which blocks go where, finally, depends entirely on what you believe is the most important bit of the Gender roles
sentence, as is highlighted in the next section.
Context
language
§1.5.2 — Emphasis Verb
grammar
Another feature of languages is where emphasis lies in a sentence. In English, we tend to put the most pressing bit of More
information early in the sentence, and then say whatever is further relevant to this information later in the sentence. The grammar
previous sentence is a good example of this: the main point is that "important information comes early", which is found Particles
earlier in the sentence than the additional information. In Japanese, things are the other way around: the more important the Counters
information is, the later it will be placed in a sentence. and counting
Language
patterns
A rather simple example is the following pair of sentences:
Conjugation
Schemes
"I fell off my bike while riding home today."
Set phrases
きょう じてんしゃ かえ ちゅう ころ
今日は自転車で 帰 り 中 で 転 んでしまいました。 Glossary
kyou wa jitensha de kaerichuu de korondeshimaimashita.

While the English sentence is up front with the emphasis, namely that we fell off our bike, the Japanese sentence doesn't
actually tell you what happened until the very last word, 'korondeshimaimashita' — "(I) (regrettably/unfortunately) fell
down".

Being unfamiliar with this difference in emphasis (point, then details in English vs. details, then point in Japanese) can lead
to confusion when dealing with words in which this ordering is important, such as indicating simultaneous actions: in
English, "while". If someone asks "what are you doing?" and we answer with "eating some dinner while watching TV", then
the main activity is eating dinner. The "watching TV" is additional information, but not strictly speaking required for the Liked this
book?
answer to be complete. In Japanese, with the same core information and details used, the placement is opposite: the Japanese Buy the
answer "terebi o minagara, gohan o tabemasu" lists "watching TV" first ('terebi o mi-'), then adds the marker for author a beer
simultaneous action ('nagara') and then concludes with "eating dinner" ('gohan o tabemasu'). Both in English and Japanese, (or coffee)!
the concise answer would simply have been "eating dinner", or "gohan o tabemasu".

Another, more common example is the use of "rather": "I would rather have X than Y" is a well known sentence pattern in
English, listing the thing with most preference first. This becomes even more obvious in the shortened pattern, "I would
rather have X". In Japanese, the 'rather' construction uses the particle 'yori' and, like before, the order is quite opposite:

Y yori X no hou ga ii to omoimasu

Trying to project the way 'rather' works in English onto what 'yori' means can easily lead to confusion: the English word
'rather' assumes that the most important bit is on the left, so if we think 'yori' does the same — because we know it can be
translated as 'rather' — we might mistakenly believe that this sentence says "I would rather have Y than X", instead of what
it really means, "I would rather have X than Y". While potentially confusing at first, this reversal of placement for emphasis
becomes more intuitive the more one practises Japanese.
Preface
However, having important information at the end of a sentence leads to a unique problem when interpreting or translating The syntax
Japanese: how does one deal with trailing sentences? In English, when the latter part of a sentence is left off, the most The kana
important information has already been presented, so when the sentence is cut off we might be missing the details, but only The basics --
the details. In Japanese, and other languages where more important information comes later in the sentence, leaving off the Writing the
kana --
latter part of a sentence leaves a reader or listener with the details, but no knowledge of what these details actually apply to! Pronouncing
Japanese --
While, of course, this doesn't lead to problems for people who grew up using a language in which emphasis comes later in a Hiragana and
katakana
sentence, this 'feature' can be a great pain for people who grew up with "important bits first". To them, it feels very much differences --
like the language is based on the concept of "filling in the blanks", without any indication of what can be used to fill them in.
Writing
Sadly, this too can only be remedied through continued exposure to, in this case, Japanese, so that one becomes intuitively spoken
familiar with which words might be implied if they're left off. Japanese
Katakana
Section 1-6 — Pitch and accents specific --
Punctuation
and writing --
Linguistically speaking, Japanese - like various other Asian languages such as Thai or Chinese - uses syllable pitch to place Kanji
accents in words. Quite often you will find this explained as Japanese being a language with two pitch levels, high and low, Types of Kanji -
which makes it relatively easy to learn compared to a more complicated language (in terms of pitch) such as Chinese, which -
Writing Kanji --
has four pitch levels for Mandarin, and at least six for Cantonese. However, this creates the false impression that there are Reading kanji:
only two tones at which you should pronounce Japanese, which is simply not true. Instead, accent through pitch in Japanese furigana --
Reading quirks:
is best described in terms of tone difference: compound
words --
If a word has its accent on the first syllable, then the pitch of the word starts at a high tone and then drops in pitch at Looking up
kanji --
the second syllable. After this, the pitch may remain either constant, or (slowly) go down as the rest of the word is Styles --
pronounced. Due to this relatively large difference between the first and second syllable, the first syllable is
Words and
considered accented by the Japanese ear. word classes
If a word has its accent on a syllable other than the first or the last, the pitch may remain constant or rise gradually
Articles --
until the syllable after the one that is accented, where the pitch goes down suddenly to create the pitch difference that Verbs --
is considered an accent in Japanese. Nouns --
Pronouns --
If a word has its accent on the last syllable, the pitch may remain constant or rise gradually until the last syllable, Nominalisers --
which is pronounced at a notably higher pitch, marking it as accented to the Japanese ear. Adjectives --
If a word has no accent, the pitch may remain constant or rise gradually. This covers the majority of Japanese words Adverbs --
Particles --
and while the pitch may change, the lack of sudden discontinuous change makes this sound unaccented to the Prefixes --
Japanese ear. Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Compound
The presence and order of pitch change can make the difference between rain (雨) and candy (飴), both pronounced "ame" words --
but with their accents on the first and second syllable respectively, or more drastically between an umbrella (傘) and syphilis Sentence
(瘡), both pronounced "kasa" but again with their accents on the first and second syllable respectively. structure
Word order --
For sentences, too, pitch plays an important role. A sentence ending with a high and then a low syllable, compared to the Emphasis --
same sentence ending with the last two syllables in neutral pitch, will be experienced as a question rather than as a Pitch and
statement, for instance. Anger, lecturing, boredom, and a wide variety of emotions can be told from the pitch pattern of a accents
sentence, not unlike in most Western languages. However, while in western languages pitch only adds emotion, in Japanese, Gender roles
a misplaced pitch may also change the meaning of the words being used. Context
language
Section 1-7 — Gender roles Verb
grammar
More
Due to the different formality levels in Japanese, a particular style of speech is often associated with a particular gender — grammar
the more polite and reserved speech being associated with female speech, and the more brash and forward plain speech Particles
being associated with male speech. While this is an understandable association, the problem with associating speech patterns Counters
with genders is that people often mistakenly apply backward logic: if the female speech pattern is reserved, then reserved and counting
speech is female speech. Language
patterns
This isn't how it works, though. Typically, speech patterns fall into categories such as polite reserved speech, plain informal Conjugation
speech or honorific speech, which are used by a particular gender more than the other by virtue of statistics. However, this Schemes
does not mean that what is considered "female speech" is never used by men, or what is considered "male speech" isn't used Set phrases
by women, as there is no such thing as exclusively male or female speech. A more accurate distinction is to consider speech Glossary
patterns as direct versus indirect or assertive versus reserved. Women tend to be more reserved and use less direct speech,
and men tend to be more assertive and use more direct speech. However, when the situation warrants it, there is nothing to
prevent men from using reserved indirect speech, or women from using assertive direct speech. It's all about what the social
setting warrants.

This said, there are a few words (not speech patterns) that are genuinely effeminate or masculine, such as the effeminate
おれ
dubitative particle か し ら , or the masculine personal pronoun 俺 . It is important to notice that the labels used here are
"effeminate" and "masculine", and not "female" and "male". Very effeminate men (such as transvestites or homosexuals)
may very well use very effeminate words, and hardcore business ball-busting career women may very well use very
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masculine words to demonstrate their dominance. Again, it's all about the social setting. book?
Buy the
author a beer
Section 1-8 — Context language (or coffee)!

As mentioned in the section on sentence structure, Japanese is a context sensitive language, relying heavily on the reader or
listener to be able to keep track of information during a conversation, and omitting any information once it has become
contextual. Before we look at an example of this, we will look at how a "context" differs from a "subject", as this can cause
some confusion: in our day-to-day experience of language, the words 'context' and 'subject' refer to the same thing. If a
public speaker at some convention is talking about the physics of Star Trek, then we can say that "the subject of his talk is
the physics of Star Trek", or that his talk should be interpreted within the context of "the physics of Star Trek", making the
two refer to essentially the same idea — a topic.
Grammatically, the terms are much further apart. Rather than both "subject" and "context" being able to refer to some topic,
the two mean wildly different things. A "context" is the overall topic of some text or conversation; it doesn't necessarily
Preface
have to be mentioned, but it is clear what the text or conversation is all about. A "subject", on the other hand, refers to
specific words in individual sentences within a text or conversation. The best way to indicate the difference when we use the The syntax
words "context" and "subject" from a grammatical perspective is as follows: The kana
The basics --
"A sentence says something about a subject, within a certain context." Writing the
kana --
Pronouncing
For instance, given that this section talks about "context", the sentence "It can be a problematic 'feature' of Japanese for Japanese --
people who only know English" is readily interpreted as meaning "Context can be a problematic 'feature' of Japanese for Hiragana and
katakana
people who only know English". You know what "it" refers to because of the context you're reading it in. Had this sentence differences --
been in a section on the sparsity of language, then you would have understood "it" to refer to "the sparsity of Japanese".
Writing
spoken
In Japanese, this concept of "sentences say things about subjects within a certain context" is taken further than in English. Japanese
The following conversation may illustrate this: Katakana
specific --
み
Punctuation
A: あたしのコップを見かけませんでしたか？ and writing --
み
B: ああ、見てません。 Kanji
も Types of Kanji -
A: おかしいわ。ついさっきまで持ってたんですけど。 -
いま お Writing Kanji --
B: 居間のテーブルに置いてきてしまったのではないでしょうか。 Reading kanji:
furigana --
A: あっ......そうかもしれません、ね。 Reading quirks:
compound
words --
Transcribed, this reads: Looking up
kanji --
A: atashi no koppu o mikakemasen deshita ka? Styles --
B: aa, mitemasen. Words and
A: okashii wa. tsui sakki made mottetandesukedo. word classes
B: ima no teeburu ni oitekiteshimatta no dewanai deshou ka. Articles --
Verbs --
A: a... soukamoshiremasen, ne. Nouns --
Pronouns --
This conversation can be translated to natural sounding English in the following manner: Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
Adverbs --
A: "You haven't seen my cup, have you?" Particles --
B: "No, I haven't seen it." Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
A: "That's odd. I just had it a moment ago." and mimesis --
B: "Perhaps you left it on the table in the living room?" Compound
A: "Ah! That might be." words --
Sentence
In this translation there are a number of contextual simplifications: "you" has been used to refer to a specific person, "it" has structure
been used to contextually refer to the cup in question, and "that" has been used by speaker A to refer to what speaker B said. Word order --
In Japanese, rather than using contextual words like this, they are simply omitted entirely. If we do a literal translation to Emphasis --
English, we see a rather different, context-heavy kind of conversation: Pitch and
accents
A: "Haven't seen my cup?" Gender roles
B: "Indeed, haven't seen." Context
A: "Odd... had just a moment ago." language
B: "Could be left on living room table?" Verb
A: "Ah! Might be so." grammar
More
It's not just "it" which has been omitted, even personal pronouns are typically left out. This makes for a seemingly very grammar
sparse language, which can be hard to interpret, especially when one is just starting out with the language. For this reason, Particles
some textbooks and courses will present Japanese sentences with all the contextual information in them — while this does Counters
not violate Japanese grammar, it does lead to highly artificial sentences, existing only in textbooks rather than reflecting the and counting
language as it is actually used. Because of this, all the examples in this book will try to use "natural" Japanese phrases, with Language
contextual words required for the sentence to make sense in translation added in parentheses. For instance: patterns
Conjugation
A: okashii wa. tsui sakki made mottetandakedo. Schemes
A: (That's) odd. (I) just had (it) (a) moment ago. Set phrases
Glossary
And with that, we are finally able to move on from introductory text to the language itself: let's sink our teeth in some
grammar!

Chapter 2 — Verb grammar

As mentioned in the introductory chapter on syntax, there are two classes of verbal words in Japanese: verbs, and verbal
ごかん
adjectives. Both of these can be considered to consist of two parts: a verbal stem, called the "gokan" (語幹), which indicates Liked this
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what the core meaning of a verb or verbal adjective is, and some additional hiragana called "okurigana" ( 送 り 仮名), which Buy the
is used to indicate inflection. author a beer
(or coffee)!
Unlike English, where verb stems are already usable on their own — the verb stem of "walk" is "walk", for instance — verb
stems in Japanese require an inflection indicator in the form of okurigana, so before we move on to the actual rules of
grammar concerning Japanese verbs and verbal adjectives, we must look at how verbs and verbal adjectives are composed in
Japanese. We will first be deconstructing the verbs, after which we'll deconstruct the verbal adjectives.

Note that in this chapter, as well as all following chapters, Japanese will no longer be romanised. So, if you haven't learned
the hiragana script yet: now would be a good time to start!

Section 2-1 — Inflecting

In English, we are used to thinking of verb inflections in terms of 'the verb' plus some text that indicates the inflection. We
consider "walked" to consist of "walk" with "-ed" tacked on the end, and "passing" as being "pass" with "-ing" added to it.
Preface
However, many verb forms in English actually use helper verbs, so things like "will help", "let's dance", "be able to dive" are
considered verb chains, with the helper verb(s) indicating the tense, mood and aspect. The syntax
The kana
In Japanese, all verb inflections are in fact chains of helper verbs and verbal adjectives, but rather than being a long list of The basics --
separated verbs like in English, they are added to the base verb one by one until all the tenses, moods and aspects have been Writing the
ま kana --
dealt with. For instance, the verb construction 待たされていました means "(I) had been made to wait". While hard to tell Pronouncing
Japanese --
without spaces or a knowledge of verbal grammar at this point, this is actually a series of six verbs chained together in a Hiragana and
very specific way: katakana
differences --

First, we see (ま)た, the imperfect base form for 待つ, "wait". This base form is used when forming the negative, passive, Writing
spoken
causative or 'pseudo-future' form of a verb. Then we see され, the continuative base for the helper verb for causatives, され Japanese
る. This base form is a general purpose 'intermediate form' for a great number of inflections. Then て, the continuative base Katakana
specific --
for the helper verb for conjunction, つ . Then い , the continuative base for the verb い る , "to be" for animate objects. Punctuation
and writing --
Combined with て it forms the "-ている" form, which marks a verb as present progressive. Then まし, the continuative
Kanji
base for the helper verb for politeness, ます. Then finally た, the terminal base for the helper verb for past tense, た. Types of Kanji -
-
We can see two things in this decomposition. First, the 'core' verb is all the way at the beginning, and the helper verbs follow Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
each other in inflection order: first the causative of "wait" is formed, then that is made a present progressive, this is then furigana --
made polite, and then finally the whole construction is turned from present to past tense. Second, all the verbs are in some Reading quirks:
compound
"base" form; this is the crucial difference between Japanese verbal grammar and most other languages. words --
Looking up
There are five "base forms" which are used in combination with specific inflections, and knowing how to identify these base kanji --
Styles --
forms makes verbal grammar significantly easier, because it lets us view complex verb conjugations in terms of a series of
simple "base form" + "helper" rules. For the past tense progressive causative for instance, we see a huge inflection that's Words and
word classes
really composed of four fairly simple rules, applied one after another:
Articles --
Verbs --
inflection rule example Nouns --
Pronouns --
causative imperfect base + される 待つ → 待た + される Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
progressive continuative base + ている 待たされる → 待たされ + ている Adverbs --
Particles --
polite continuative form + ます 待たされている → 待たされてい + ます Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
past tense continuative form + た 待たされています → 待たされていまし + た Compound
words --

All complex verb constructions can be described in this way, being a series of fixed-order simple rules being applied. What's Sentence
structure
more, because the two different verb classes in Japanese mostly differ in what their base forms look like, inflecting verbs in
Japanese is mostly a matter of picking the right base form, and then applying the same rules for both verb classes, making Word order --
Emphasis --
most inflections the same for the two. Verbal adjectives also rely on this concept of "base form" + "helper", and as will
Pitch and
become apparent when looking at the rules of grammar for verbal words, some inflections are formed by adding verbal
accents
adjectives to verbs, while others are formed by adding verbs to verbal adjectives.
Gender roles
Without getting ahead of the material, let us first examine which base forms are used by verbs and verbal adjectives, and Context
what they look like for each of the verbal word classes. language
Verb
grammar
§2.1.1 — Inflection bases
More
grammar
Traditionally, there are six "base forms" for Japanese verbal words, of which five are still used in modern Japanese. This Particles
ぶんご
traditional scheme is called 文語, literary style, and is associated with classical Japanese, while the modern scheme is called Counters
こうご and counting
口語, colloquial style, and is associated with normal modern Japanese. Because it is always a good idea to look at where a Language
language has come from, in order to understand why it does what it does in its current form, the relation between classical patterns
and modern Japanese will be mentioned wherever possible. Conjugation
Schemes
First, let's look at which base forms are used in classical and modern Japanese: Set phrases
Glossary
文語 口語 Base for...
みぜんけい
未然形 未然形 Imperfect constructions, such as negative form and
'pseudo-future', as well as passive, potential, honorific
and causative forms.
れんようけい
連用形 連用形 Continuative and conjunctive constructions, covering the
majority of constructions involving helper verbs, as well
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as joining up sentences and forming nouns.
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しゅうしけい
no longer used Finalising form. In modern Japanese, this role has been Buy the
終止形 author a beer
assumed by the 連体形 instead. (or coffee)!
れんたいけい
連体形 連体形 Attributive constructions (using verbs like adjectives), and
in modern Japanese, finalised form.
いぜんけい かていけい
已然形 已然形 (仮定形) Perfect constructions. In modern Japanese this form is only
used for hypothetical constructions, which is why it's
colloquially known as the 仮定形, "assuming" form.
めいれいけい
命令形 命令形 Imperative constructions, such as commands and
 prohibitive commands.
Preface
The way these bases are formed for the two classes of verbs and the verbal adjectives is the major difference between these
The syntax
verbal classes. Verbs in Japanese are mostly regular (there are only a handful of verbs with irregularities), and fall into one
ごだん いちだん The kana
of two classes: "godan", 五段, or 'five grade' verbs, and "ichidan", 一段 , or 'single grade' verbs. Both verb classes end, in The basics --
their "dictionary" form, on one of the う—row syllables (although not ず, and consequently づ, and not ふ or ぷ), so that Writing the
kana --
any verb you may encounter can be found in a dictionary to end on う, く, ぐ, す, つ, ぬ, ぶ, む or る (the "dictionary" form Pronouncing
れんたいけい Japanese --
mentioned here is a common descriptor used in literature on Japanese, and is synonymous with the 連体形 form of verbs Hiragana and
katakana
or verbal adjectives. differences --
Writing
The 五 段 verbs (also referred to as "class I", "type I" or "u verb" in literature) can end on any of the aforementioned spoken
syllables, but 一段 verbs (also referred to as "class II", "type II" or "ru verbs" in literature) only end on る. Verbal adjectives Japanese
— the class of adjectives in Japanese that inflect just like regular verbs do — only come in one class and always end on the Katakana
specific --
syllable い, which is why they are also referred to in literature as "i-adjectives" (a second class of adjectives, the adjectival Punctuation
nouns, are commonly referred to as "na-adjectives"). However, while it is useful to know on which syllables verbs and and writing --

verbal adjectives can end, bear in mind that just because verbs end on う—row syllables and verbal adjectives end on い, Kanji
Types of Kanji -
not everything ending on an う—row syllable is a verb, and not everything ending on い is a verbal adjective — "all cats -
have four legs, but not everything with four legs is a cat". Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
furigana --
Let us look at how the bases for both verbs and the verbal adjectives are formed. Looking at them as a combination of verbal Reading quirks:
stem and some final syllable(s), the following table describes each of the bases for these word classes: compound
words --
Looking up

五段 verbs 一段 verbs
ごだん いちだん kanji --
Base verbal adjectives Styles --
ごかん Words and
stem (語幹) remove う—row syllable remove る remove い word classes
未然形 stem + あ—row syllable stem stem + く Articles --
Verbs --
Nouns --
連用形 stem + い—row syllable stem stem + く Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
連体形 stem + う—row syllable stem + る stem + い Adjectives --
Adverbs --
已然形 stem + え—row syllable stem + れ stem + けれ Particles --
Prefixes --
命令形 stem + え—row syllable stem (+ ろ/よ *) (stem + かれ*) Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Compound
words --
In this table, the 命令形 for the 一段 verbs and verbal adjectives are starred, to indicate there's something special about
them. First, the 一段 verb 命令形 is a bit of a problem: the word 命令形 can refer to either the grammatical base form, or to Sentence
structure
the actual verb inflection as it is used in sentences. In classical Japanese, both interpretations of the 命令形 were "stem +
Word order --
よ"; the grammatical base form was the same as the final inflected form. However, in modern Japanese the final inflected Emphasis --
ひょうじゅんご
form is either "stem + ろ", if you're in an area that adheres to 標準語 , 'standard Japanese' (the kind spoken in Tokyo), or Pitch and
accents
fairly uniformly "stem + よ", if you're not. This raises the problem that either the 命令形 is listed as two separate forms —
Gender roles
something I'm not too fond of — or listing it as just the stem, and then telling you the final inflected forms are either 命令形
Context
+ ろ or 命令形 + よ depending on where you are. In this book, I've taken the latter approach. language
Verb
In addition to this, the verbal adjective 命令形 is a point of contention. In classical Japanese, verbal adjectives came in two grammar
types: く adjectives and し adjectives. Both of these had a regular form, as well as a form involving a contraction with the More
grammar
verb ある, meaning "to be", forming 〜かり adjectives. Because of this, the し and く versions were 'pure' adjectives, in
Particles
that they had no imperfective or commanding form; for adjectives those would make no sense. However, because of ある, Counters
and counting
the かり variants did have these forms, instead missing a finalising and perfect form. This gave rise to the following rather
Language
elaborative set of bases in 文語: patterns
Conjugation
Base 〜く form 〜かり form 〜し form 〜しかり form Schemes
Set phrases
未然形 - stem + から - stem + しから Glossary
連用形 stem + く stem + かり stem+しく stem + しかり
終止形 stem + し - stem+し -
連体形 stem + き stem + かる stem+しき stem + しかる
已然形 stem + けれ - stem + しけれ -
命令形 - stem + かれ - stem + しかれ

This is a lot of inflectional potential, but as classical Japanese transitioned to modern Japanese, all these forms have Liked this
book?
essentially become merged, leading to a single inflectional scheme that mixes forms from the 'pure' versions of adjectives Buy the
with the ある-contracted versions of those adjectives, leading to the question of which forms are to be considered belonging author a beer
(or coffee)!
to the adjective as it exists now, and which belong to the verb ある, which happens to work together with verbal adjectives a
lot. In this book, we'll consider the final inflected 命令形 for verbal adjectives to be a contraction of the verbal adjective's 連
用形 and the 命令形 for the verb ある, which is あれ. This gives us "verbal adjective stem + く" + "あれ" → "verbal
adjective stem + く あ れ ", where く あ contracts to か , giving us a final rule "stem + か れ ". So, in this book, verbal
adjectives are considered not to have a genuine 命 令 形 of their own, instead relying on the helper verb あ る for one.
However, other books list it as being simply "stem + かれ", and so for completeness it has been included in the earlier table
of bases.
Having covered the "what they look like", let's look at what this means for a number of verbs from both classes, and for
verbal adjectives: Preface

五段 verb 未然形 連用形 連体形 已然形 命令形 The syntax

The kana
あ
会う 会わ 会い 会う 会え 会え The basics --
ある Writing the
歩く 歩か 歩き 歩く 歩け 歩け kana --
Pronouncing
いそ Japanese --
急ぐ 急が 急ぎ 急ぐ 急げ 急げ Hiragana and
はな katakana
話す 話さ 話し 話す 話せ 話せ differences --

ま Writing
待つ 待た 待ち 待つ 待て 待て spoken
Japanese
し
死ぬ 死な 死に 死ぬ 死ね 死ね Katakana
specific --
まな
Punctuation
学ぶ 学ば 学び 学ぶ 学べ 学べ
and writing --
よ
Kanji
読む 読ま 読み 読む 読め 読め
わ
Types of Kanji -
分かる 分から 分かり 分かる 分かれ 分かれ -
Writing Kanji --
き Reading kanji:
切る 切ら 切り 切る 切れ 切れ furigana --
Reading quirks:
う
compound
売る 売ら 売り 売る 売れ 売れ
words --
かえ Looking up
帰る 帰ら 帰り 帰る 帰れ 帰れ kanji --
Styles --
おこ
怒る 怒ら 怒り 怒る 怒れ 怒れ Words and
word classes
Articles --
There are two things worth noting in these tables. Firstly, the 未然形 for 会う is not a typographical error; it really is わ, not Verbs --
Nouns --
あ. This is a left-over from classical Japanese: 五段 verbs ending on う used to be verbs ending on ふ and う (being 'wu', Pronouns --
rather than 'u'), which inflected respectively as -は, -ひ, -ふ, -へ, -へ and -わ, -ゐ, -う, -ゑ, -ゑ (ゐ and ゑ being the now Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
obsolete Japanese syllables for 'wi' and 'we', which have not been in use since the written language was reformed in 1946 by Adverbs --
Particles --
cabinet order). However, both were pronounced as -わ, -い, -う, -え and -え. When these two verb classes were simplified Prefixes --
to today's 五段 verbs ending on the modern う, the 未然形 pronunciation わ was kept, as well as its written form. Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Compound
The second thing worth noting in the table is the seemingly disproportionate number of examples for 五段 verbs ending on - words --

る . The reason for this is that for some verbs ending on る , just looking at the verb's dictionary form is not enough to Sentence
structure
determine whether it's actually a 五段 or an 一段 verb, so a few examples are needed to show how to tell the two apart. If a
Word order --
verb ends on る, and the syllable preceding it in the あ—, う— or お—row (such as is the case for 分かる, 売る and 起こ Emphasis --

る) then this is always a 五段 verb. However, if the syllable before the る is in the い— or え—row, then it might be an 一 Pitch and
accents
段 verb instead. The annoying thing is that without actually looking up the verb in a dictionary, or seeing it used in some
Gender roles
inflected form that lets you spot the difference between a 五段 base and an 一段 base being used, there is no way to tell
what kind of verb you're dealing with. Luckily, telling the difference when we do have an inflected form is really easy, as we Context
language
can tell from the following 一段 inflection examples (taking note that the 命令形 as used in this book is just the stem):
Verb
一段 未然形 連用形 連体形 已然形 命令形 grammar
More
み
grammar
見る 見 見 見る 見れ 見 (ろ/よ)
Particles
の
Counters
伸びる 伸び 伸び 伸びる 伸びれ 伸び (ろ/よ)
and counting
た
Language
食べる 食べ 食べ 食べる 食べれ 食べ (ろ/よ)
patterns
Conjugation
Comparing this table with the previous one shows that for any inflection involving the 未然形, 連用形 or 命令形, which Schemes
cover most verbal inflections, we can readily tell the difference between a 五段 and 一段 verb. The only cases that can leave Set phrases
us uncertain are the 連体形 and 已然形 forms. In these cases, we'll just have to resort to checking a dictionary to be sure of Glossary
which verb class we're dealing with.

Lastly, a list of examples for the verbal adjectives is quite uniform:

adjective 未然形 連用形 連体形 已然形 ( 命令形)

たか
高い 高く 高く 高い 高けれ (高かれ)
たの
楽 しい 楽しく 楽しく 楽しい 楽しけれ (楽しかれ)
うす Liked this
薄い 薄く 薄く 薄い 薄けれ (薄かれ) book?
おお Buy the
大 きい 大きく 大きく 大きい 大きけれ (大きかれ) author a beer
(or coffee)!
Of course, the examples of verbal adjectives wouldn't be complete without one very curious verbal adjective:

adjective 未然形 連用形 連体形 已然形 ( 命令形)

しゅうね
執念 い 執念く 執念く 執念い 執念けれ (執念かれ)

Normally, verbal adjectives end on い, preceded by either an あ—, い—, う— or お—row syllable. However, 執念い is the
only verbal adjective in Japanese that ends in an え—row syllable + い. This is in fact so unusual that it is virtually never
used, and you will likely not find this adjective in most dictionaries. So, because there's only the one, we can safely state that
if you find something that ends in い but it has an え—row syllable preceding it, it is virtually certain not to be a verbal
adjective. Preface
The syntax
§2.1.2 — Basic inflections The kana
The basics --
Throughout the course of this section we will look at basic inflections for verbs and verbal adjectives, as well as look at a Writing the
kana --
small number of particles that are intricately interwoven with verbal grammar. We shall also look at the basic use and Pronouncing
formation of nouns and adverbs, so that this chapter in effect covers the minimal basics of "basic Japanese". We will start by Japanese --
looking at which particles are essential in order to understand basic verb grammar, and will move from there to simple verb Hiragana and
katakana
forms: present and past tense, as well as affirmative and negative forms. In order to get an overview of the basic concepts differences --
involved without offering too much information at once, polite verbal grammar will not be introduced until the next chapter, Writing
after basic grammar has been covered. spoken
Japanese
§2.1.2.1 — Particles Katakana
specific --
Punctuation
and writing --
Verbs and verbal adjectives are used in combination with a number of particles to explicitly mark parts of a sentence as
Kanji
relating to them. For verbs, these are the particles を, に and が, and for verbal adjectives this is just the particle が.
Types of Kanji -
-
First off, を (pronounced as お ). This particle is used to mark a transitive verb's direct object. This particle is fairly Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
straightforward and does what one expects from it given this explanation. In "I eat an apple" the noun "apple" is the direct furigana --
た Reading quirks:
object for the verb "eat", and in the corresponding Japanese sentence, リンゴを 食 べる, the word リンゴ ('apple') is the compound
words --
direct object to the verb 食べる ('eat'). However, not everything that is considered a direct object in Japanese is considered a Looking up
direct object when translated to English. For instance, in Japanese an aeroplane can "fly the air", whereas in English kanji --
Styles --
aeroplanes just fly.
Words and
word classes
Second is に, which broadly speaking marks verb details. Translating a sentence using に to English yields the parts marked
Articles --
with に as becoming indirect objects, prepositional phrases or even adverbs. Anything that is "not the verb actor, or the Verbs --
Nouns --
direct object", but adds more details to the verb action, will be marked with に. For instance, the Japanese sentence メーリ Pronouns --
はな か Nominalisers --
に 花 を 買 ってあげた translates to the English sentence "I bought flowers for Mary", with に mapping to the word 'for', Adjectives --
じ く Adverbs --
which in English indicates an indirect object. This is hardly its only 'meaning'; the Japanese sentence ９時に来る translates Particles --
わ Prefixes --
to "I'll be there at nine", with に mapping to the preposition 'at'. Moreover, in the Japanese きれいに 分 ける, translating to Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
the English "to divide cleanly", the に marks the adjective き れ い , "clean/neat/tidy", as being used adverbially, "neatly, Compound
words --
cleanly".
Sentence
structure
Finally, the particle が is an interesting particle. When used with verbal adjectives, it marks the thing the adjective applies
Word order --
to. For instance, in the English sentence "that car is fast", the adjective "fast" pertains to "that car". Similarly, in the Emphasis --
くるま はや
corresponding Japanese sentence その 車 が 速 いです, the verbal adjective 速い ('fast') pertains to その車 ('that car'). This Pitch and
accents
concept is carried over to verbs, too. Some verbs have what would in English be considered a direct object, but in Japanese
are not considered direct object because the verb does not 'impart' its action on it. For instance, in "I throw the ball", the Gender roles
throwing action is imparted on the ball. However, in "I know the textbook's material", knowing is not an action imparted 'on' Context
language
the material — in these cases, rather than を , が is used in Japanese, so that for instance "I understand Japanese" is not
にほんご わ Verb
expressed as 日本語 を 分 かる but as 日本語が分かる. This is particularly obvious when using verbs in passive mode, grammar
changing for instance "I eat the cake" to "the cake is being eaten by me". In the corresponding Japanese sentences, the More
grammar
particle changes from を to が: ケーキを食べる becomes ケーキが食べられる. In addition to this, が may mark a verb's
はし Particles
actor: 車が 走 ってる translates to "(The) car is running". In this role it is effectively doing the same thing as what it does Counters
when it is used to link nouns to adjectives. and counting
Language
patterns
In addition to these three particles, you will also often see the particle は (pronounced as わ ) being used in example
Conjugation
sentences. This particle acts as a disambiguator when a sentence would otherwise be confusing in terms of who or what it Schemes
ある きょう
was about, or what it was in relation to. For instance, 歩 かない and 今日 は歩かない translate to "I do not walk" and "I Set phrases
Glossary
won't be walking today" by virtue of the second sentence disambiguating the context from as broad as possible (i.e., 'in
わたし およ
general'), to 'just today' (今日). This can have some perhaps unexpected side effects, too: when saying 私 は 泳 ぎません,
"I do not swim", the explicit presence of 私は means that you apparently felt that you needed to disambiguate the statement,
which means any listener will suddenly wonder who then 'does swim', as opposed to you. On the other hand, 私が泳ぎませ
およ
ん merely means "I do not swim", using が to mark yourself as verb actor for 泳 ぐ.

§2.1.2.2 — Verbal grammar - present tense

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Before we look at how to form the present tense, a note. There is no distinction between present tense such as "I walk" and
れんたいけい Buy the
indicative future tense such as "I will walk". Both roles are performed by the same verb form in Japanese: the 連体形 . Any author a beer
(or coffee)!
verb or verbal adjective in 連体形 is automatically in present/indicative future tense. Listing this form for example words
from all three verbal classes, we see the following:

連体形 meaning plain present affirmative

五段 verb ある
歩く walk 連体形: 歩く

一段 verb み
見る see 連体形: 見る
たか
verbal adjective 高い high, expensive 連体形: 高い
Some examples of the present tense used in simple sentences:
きょう Preface
今日は歩く。 The syntax
Today (I'll) walk.
The kana
テレビを見る。 The basics --
Writing the
(I) watch TV. kana --
Pronouncing
これが高い。 Japanese --
Hiragana and
This is expensive. katakana
differences --

§2.1.2.3 — Negative Writing

spoken
Japanese
Having covered the present affirmative tense, the next important basic inflection is the negative form. In Japanese, negative Katakana
verb and verbal adjective forms are created with the helper adjective of negation, ない (無い), or using the rather classical specific --
Punctuation
verb ぬ which will be discussed after polite forms have been introduced later in this chapter. and writing --
Kanji
ない is actually a verbal adjective, and so inflects like any other verbal adjective: Types of Kanji -
-
Writing Kanji --
bases form Reading kanji:
furigana --
未然形 なく Reading quirks:
compound
words --
連用形 なく Looking up
kanji --
連体形 ない Styles --
Words and
已然形 なけれ
word classes
Articles --
This helper is combined with both verbs and verbal adjectives by joining up with the 未然形, or imperfect base: Verbs --
Nouns --

連体形 meaning plain present negative

Pronouns --
Nominalisers --

五段 verb ある
歩く walk 未然形+ない: 歩かない
Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Particles --
一段 verb 見る
み
see 未然形+ない: 見ない
Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
たか
高い
verbal adjective high, expensive 未然形+ない: 高くない Compound
words --
Sentence
Recycling our example sentences from the present tense section, we get the following sentences: structure

きょう
Word order --
今日は歩かない。
Emphasis --
Pitch and
Today (I) don't/won't walk.
accents
テレビを見ない。 Gender roles
(I) don't/won't watch TV. Context
language
これが高くない。
Verb
This isn't expensive. grammar
More
However, please note that this rule does not apply to the special verb ある, which we shall treat in the next section. Rather grammar
than becoming あらない, it is simply replaced with ない. Particles
Counters
and counting
(On a final note, it is imperative this ない should never be confused with another adjective pronounced ない, 亡い, as that Language
means "deceased") patterns
Conjugation
Schemes
§2.1.3 — Basic inflections for irregular verbs and verbal adjectives Set phrases
Glossary
There are three irregular verbs in Japanese that we need to look at before moving on to further inflections, being す る ,
く
"do"/"decide on", 来る, "come" and ある, "exist" (for inanimate things).

§2.1.3.1 — The irregular verb する

Looking at する, 'do', first, we see the following bases and inflection table:

Liked this
base form book?
未然形 さ, せ, し Buy the
author a beer
連用形 し (or coffee)!

連体形 する
已然形 すれ
命令形 せ(よ), し(ろ), せい

affirmative negative
plain 連体形 "し"—未然形+ない: しない
We see that する actually has three different 未然形 forms, as well as three different 命令形 forms — which of these gets
used is fully determined by which inflection you're going for, making this verb a bit trickier than any of the other verbs in Preface
the language. Luckily, it's such a common verb that even though it's highly irregular you will most likely become familiar The syntax
with all its inflections fairly quickly by virtue of them popping up almost as often as all other verbs put together.
The kana
へん The basics --
Technically, する is considered a サ— 変 verb, or "irregular verb, operating on the サ column". For the most part, it inflects Writing the
kana --
as an 一段 verb, but there are rules for what pronunciation to use when using which base, which makes it a truly irregular Pronouncing
verb. Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
す る has two common "variations": ず る and じ る . Both of these are typically found used as a verb in a noun/verb differences --
compound (meaning they are paired with a noun without using any particles), and only constitute a small number of all Writing
verbs in Japanese. However, while only used in a small number of verbs, some of those verbs are quite common and spoken
frequently used, so knowing how to inflect these two verbs is not unimportant. Japanese
Katakana
specific --
base する ずる じる Punctuation
and writing --
未然形 さ, せ, し ざ, ぜ, じ じ Kanji
連用形 し じ じ Types of Kanji -
-
連体形 する ずる じる Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
furigana --
已然形 すれ ずれ じれ Reading quirks:
compound
命令形 せ(よ), し(ろ), せい ぜ(よ), じ(ろ), ぜい じ(よ, ろ) words --
Looking up
kanji --
affirmative negative Styles --
する 連体形 "し"—未然形+ない: しない Words and
word classes
ずる 連体形 "じ"—未然形+ない: じない Articles --
Verbs --
じる 連体形 "じ"—未然形+ない: じない Nouns --
Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
For ずる, the "ざ" and "ぜ" 未然形 are actually not used a lot in modern Japanese anymore. Instead, you will find じ used Adjectives --
Adverbs --
for virtually all 未然形 constructions, with ざ and ぜ indicating respectively classical and non-classical older style Japanese, Particles --
Prefixes --
instead. Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Compound
§2.1.3.2 — The irregular verb 来るく words --
Sentence
structure
く
Word order --
来 る ('come') on the other hand, inflects like any normal 一段 verb (except for a slightly different 命令形), but shares す Emphasis --
る 's irregularity: the pronunciation for its stem changes for each base. However, unlike for す る there is only one Pitch and
pronunciation for each base, so inflection doesn't involve "picking the right pronunciation", but merely remembering it: accents
Gender roles
base kanji form pronunciation Context
language
未然形 来 こ
Verb
連用形 来 き grammar
More
連体形 来る くる grammar
Particles
已然形 来れ くれ
Counters
命令形 来い こい and counting
Language
patterns
affirmative negative
Conjugation
plain 連体形 未然形+ない: こない Schemes
Set phrases
Glossary
As is evident from the table of bases, and the table of inflections, this verb is virtually indistinguishable from any other 一段
verb. However, in spoken language its irregularity is plainly obvious.

§2.1.3.3 — The irregular verb ある

Finally, the verb ある, "exist" (for inanimate things) has seemingly normal bases, but its inflection is quite special:

base form
Liked this
未然形 あら book?
Buy the
連用形 あり author a beer
(or coffee)!
連体形 ある
已然形 あれ
命令形 あれ

affirmative negative
plain 連体形 ない
This verb is irregular in all its negative forms: rather than using the 未然形+ない rule, just ない itself is used. Thus, we see
the following: Preface
ほん The syntax
本 がある。 The kana
"There is a book." The basics --
Writing the
本がない。 kana --
Pronouncing
"There is no book." Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
§2.1.3.4 — The irregular adjective いい differences --
Writing
spoken
In addition to these verbs, there is the irregular verbal adjective いい, "good", which is actually the irregular verbal adjective Japanese

よい: Katakana
specific --
Punctuation
and writing --
base form
Kanji
未然形 よく Types of Kanji -
-
連用形 よく Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
連体形 よい, いい furigana --
Reading quirks:
已然形 よけれ compound
words --
Looking up
affirmative negative kanji --
Styles --
plain いい 未然形+ない: よくない Words and
word classes
The only irregularity for this verbal adjective is its 連体形, which is technically よい, but is almost always used as いい Articles --
Verbs --
instead. Of the two, いい is actually considered the plain pronunciation, and よい a formal variant. Not knowing that these Nouns --
Pronouns --
two are actually the same adjective can lead to confusion in more complex inflections, such as when the adjective いい turns Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
into the past tense よかった. Adverbs --
Particles --
Prefixes --
§2.1.3.5 — Past tense Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Compound
words --
The last basic inflection we will look at on its own in this chapter is the past tense, which relies on the classical helper verb
Sentence
for past tense, た. This helper verb has the following bases: structure
Word order --
base form Emphasis --
Pitch and
未然形 たろ accents
連体形 た Gender roles
Context
已然形 たら language
Verb
This verb has no 連 用 形 (it doesn't make sense to mark something as a past tense and then continue inflecting it to grammar
something else), nor does it have a 命 令 形 (because one cannot command someone to do something in the past). It is More
combined with verbal 連用形 forms, being wholly unremarkable for the 一段 verbs, simply pairing up with the 連用形, but grammar
being not quite so unremarkable for 五段 verbs. While in classical Japanese, the same rule applies as for 一段 verbs, in Particles
modern Japanese most past tenses for 五段 verbs have become contracted, as we can see in the following table: Counters
and counting

五段 連用形 classical past tense modern past tense change 'rule'

Language
patterns
はな
す verbs: no change Conjugation
話す 話し 連用形+た: 話した 話した
Schemes
ある
く verbs: きた → いた Set phrases
歩く 歩き 連用形+た: 歩きた 歩いた
Glossary
いそ
急ぐ 急ぎ 連用形+た: 急ぎた 急いだ ぐ verbs: ぎた → いだ
し
死ぬ 死に 連用形+た: 死にた 死んだ ぬ verbs: にた → んだ
まな
学ぶ 学び 連用形+た: 学びた 学んだ ぶ verbs: びた → んだ
よ
読む 読み 連用形+た: 読みた 読んだ む verbs: みた → んだ
あ
会う 会い 連用形+た: 会いた 会った う verbs: いた → った
ま Liked this
待つ 待ち 連用形+た: 待ちた 待った つ verbs: ちた → った book?
わ Buy the
分かる 分かり 連用形+た: 分かりた 分かった る verbs: りた → った author a beer
(or coffee)!
ある あり 連用形+た: ありた あった る verbs: りた → った

These rules for contraction in 五段 verbs (luckily) do not just apply to the past tense, but to several other inflections (namely
the continuative て form, which is tremendously important to know, the representative たり form, and the conditional たら
form), so that this is not a set of rules you will need to remember for a single inflection, but applies to a number of often
used inflections, making the exception itself somewhat 'regular'.

Of course, there are a few exceptions to these rules. First up, 行く, which follows the "wrong" rule:

verb 連用形 classical past tense modern past tense

 い
行く 行き 連用形+た いった
Preface
The syntax
The verb 行く, pronounced いく or ゆく (the first being used in every day life, the latter being used in poetry and song
The kana
lyrics), does not follow the contraction rule for 五段 verbs ending on く. There is no real reason for this, other than "that's
The basics --
just how people use it". In all other respects, 行く is just another 五段 verb. Luckily, this is not some obscure verb you will Writing the
kana --
run into only occasionally and will have forgotten this exception for: 行く means "go", and is used so frequently you will Pronouncing
Japanese --
not get a chance to forget it has an irregular past tense. Hiragana and
katakana
Secondly, there is a (very small) set of verbs that have a rather abnormal past tense, based on adding た to the 連 体 形 differences --
Writing
instead of the 連用形. These verbs are mostly used in writing, and in formal speech, but since there are only two (with two
spoken
kanji forms each) it cannot hurt to look at them: Japanese
Katakana
verb meaning past tense specific --
と Punctuation
問う ask, question, accuse 問うた and writing --
と Kanji
訪う 〃 訪うた Types of Kanji -
こ -
乞う ask 乞うた Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
こ furigana --
請う 〃 請うた Reading quirks:
compound
words --
These verbs can, technically, also be inflected like regular 五段 verbs, but since they are mostly reserved for formal spoken Looking up
kanji --
and literary written Japanese, if you encounter them you will most likely encounter them as 連体形 + た. Styles --
Words and
For 一段 verbs things are a lot simpler, and we see a regular table of inflection: word classes

一段 連用形 past tense

Articles --
Verbs --
Nouns --
み
Pronouns --
見る 見 連用形+た: 見た Nominalisers --
の Adjectives --
伸びる 伸び 連用形+た: 伸びた Adverbs --
Particles --
た
Prefixes --
食べる 食べ 連用形+た: 食べた Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Compound
And for the irregular verbs we see the same, bearing in mind that the stems have a different pronunciation: words --

連用形
Sentence
irregular verb past tense structure
Word order --
する し 連用形+た: した Emphasis --
く
き 連用形+た: きた Pitch and
来る accents
Gender roles
To form the plain past negative, rather than just the plain past, we have to take the plain present negative based on ない, and Context
turn this into a past tense, which means we need to look at how to form the past tense for verbal adjectives in general first. language
Verb
For verbal adjectives, rather than a plain inflection, the adjectives work together with the verb ある ("to be", for inanimate grammar
objects and concepts). However, because ある is a 五段 verb, it contracts: the classical past tense ありた has become あっ More
grammar
た, and it is this that the verbal adjective itself contracts with. Again for reasons mostly due to "that's just what people ended Particles
up using", the verbal adjective 連 用 形 paired with あ っ た , [...] く あ っ た , has become contracted over the course of Counters
and counting
linguistic history to become [...]かった in modern Japanese: Language
patterns
adjective meaning 連用形 + past tense of ある resulting past tense Conjugation
Schemes
たか
高い high, expensive 高く 高く + あった 高かった Set phrases
たの
Glossary
楽 しい fun, enjoyable 楽しく 楽しく + あった 楽しかった
うす
薄い thin, light 薄く 薄く + あった 薄かった
おお
大 きい big 大きく 大きく + あった 大きかった

irregular verb meaning 連用形 + past tense of ある resulting past tense

いい good よく よく + あった よかった
Liked this
negation meaning 連用形 + past tense of ある resulting past tense book?
Buy the
ない - なく なく + あった なかった author a beer
(or coffee)!

§2.1.3.6 — Past negative

So now we can also form the plain past negative for verbs, using 未然形 + "past tense of ない", なかった, noting that for
the verb ある things are (of course) different:

五段 未然形 negative past negative tense

はな
話す 話さ 話さない 話さなかった
あ
 ある
歩く 歩か 歩かない 歩かなかった
いそ Preface
急ぐ 急が 急がない 急がなかった
The syntax
し
死ぬ 死な 死なない 死ななかった The kana
まな The basics --
学ぶ 学ば 学ばない 学ばなかった Writing the
kana --
よ
Pronouncing
読む 読ま 読まない 読まなかった Japanese --
あ Hiragana and
会う 会わ 会わない 会わなかった katakana
differences --
ま
待つ 待た 待たない 待たなかった Writing
spoken
わ
Japanese
分かる 分から 分からない 分からなかった
Katakana
一段 未然形 negative past negative tense
specific --
Punctuation
and writing --
み
見る 見 見ない 見なかった Kanji
の
Types of Kanji -
伸びる 伸び 伸びない 伸びなかった
-
た Writing Kanji --
食べる 食べ 食べない 食べなかった Reading kanji:
furigana --

irregular verb 未然形 negative past negative tense

Reading quirks:
compound
words --
する し しない しなかった Looking up
kanji --
来る こ こない こなかった Styles --
Words and
ある あら ない なかった word classes
Articles --
Verbs --
Again, of the irregular verbs ある is the most irregular, its past negative form simply being the past form of ない, rather Nouns --
than the typical 五 段 inflection あ ら な い . In several major dialects this isn't actually the case, and for instance in the Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
Kansaiben dialect (where the word へん is used instead of ない) ある inflects like any other 五段 verb, with a negative Adjectives --
Adverbs --
form あらへん. Why standard Japanese has this 'dual nature' for ある is mainly because of historic use (languages serve the Particles --
Prefixes --
people using them, and if that use changes, the language changes). However, we can at least look at why this duality can Onomatopoeia
even exist in the first place: あ る means "to be", for inanimate objects and concepts, and な い is an adjective for non- and mimesis --
Compound
existence, which is in concept the complete opposite. So, while they belong to different word classes, ある and ない can be words --
Sentence
considered two sides of the same coin. This is also the reason why ある only half counts as an irregular verb; all affirmative
structure
inflections work in exactly the same way as normal 五段 verbs. It also counts as a half irregular verbal adjectives, because Word order --
all the negatives for ある are just affirmative inflections of ない. It's little things like this that make languages interesting. Emphasis --
Pitch and
accents
§2.1.4 — In summary
Gender roles
Context
In summary, we can draw up tables for verbal inflection, plus the irregularities: language

§2.1.4.1 — inflecting 五段 verbs Verb

grammar
More
grammar
affirmative negative Particles
present 連体形 未然形 + ない Counters
and counting
past 連用形 + た (c) 未然形 + なかった Language
patterns
Conjugation
In this scheme, (c) indicates that a contraction occurs, with what the contraction looks like being dependent on which of the Schemes
す, く, ぐ, つ, ぬ, ぶ, む or る 五段 verbs is being inflected. Set phrases
Glossary

§2.1.4.2 — inflecting 行く
い

affirmative negative
present 連体形 未然形 + ない
past いった 未然形 + なかった

Liked this
§2.1.4.3 — inflecting ある book?
Buy the
author a beer
(or coffee)!
affirmative negative
present 連体形 ない
past 連用形 + た (c) なかった

§2.1.4.4 — inflecting 一段 verbs, including 来る く

affirmative negative
 present 連体形 未然形 + ない
past 連用形 + た 未然形 + なかった Preface
The syntax

Observing that the stem for 来る changes: its 連体形 is く, its 連用形 is き, and its 未然形 is こ. The kana
The basics --
Writing the
kana --
§2.1.4.5 — inflecting する Pronouncing
Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
affirmative negative differences --
present 連体形 し—未然形 + ない Writing
spoken
past 連用形 + た し—未然形 + なかった Japanese
Katakana
specific --
Punctuation
§2.1.4.6 — inflecting ずる and じる and writing --
Kanji
Types of Kanji -
present 連体形 じ—未然形 + ない -
Writing Kanji --
past 連用形 + た じ—未然形 + なかった Reading kanji:
furigana --
Reading quirks:
compound
§2.1.4.7 — inflecting verbal adjectives words --
Looking up
kanji --
Styles --
affirmative negative
Words and
present 連体形 未然形 + ない word classes
Articles --
past 連用形 + あった (c) 未然形 + なかった Verbs --
Nouns --
Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
§2.1.4.8 — inflecting いい (よい) Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Particles --
Prefixes --
affirmative negative Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
present よい, いい 未然形 + ない Compound
words --
past 連用形 + あった (c) 未然形 + なかった Sentence
structure
Of the two possible 連体形, いい is considered normal, while よい is considered formal, but for both, the 未然形 and 連用 Word order --
Emphasis --
形 are よく. Pitch and
accents

§2.1.4.9 — inflecting ない ( 無い) Gender roles

Context
language
affirmative negative Verb
grammar
present ない theoretically, 未然形 + ない More
past 連用形 + あった (c) theoretically, 未然形 + なかった grammar
Particles
Counters
'Theoretically' is used here, because often it doesn't make a lot of sense to negate the adjective for negation itself. We'd end and counting
up with ある again. Language
patterns
Conjugation
Section 2-2 — Adjectives Schemes
Set phrases
We need to spend some extra time looking at verbal adjectives, and adjectives in general, because they can do something Glossary
verbs cannot do, and that's to indicate properties. With that, we get the added bonus that they let us compare properties,
allowing us to say something is red, redder than something else, or the reddest thing we've ever seen. While in English these
れんたいけい
are three distinct concepts, Japanese shows itself to be a sparse language yet again, using the 連体形 for both the
attributive as well as comparative forms:
さかな さけ まぐろ さいきん たか
A: 魚 と言って、 鮭 や 鮪 が 最近 高 くなった、なぁ。
やす か
B: じゃあ、 安 い魚を買え。
A: "Fish like salmon and tuna's gotten expensive recently." Liked this
book?
B: "So buy a cheap(er) fish." Buy the
author a beer
Even though 安い means "cheap" when used as normal attributive, it can also mean "cheaper" when there is some context in (or coffee)!
which the property "cheap" contrasts to some other property "expensive". This goes for all adjectives: there is no distinction
between the attributive (normal adjective) and comparative (the English "-er" form of adjectives) forms of verbal adjectives
in Japanese, similar to how there is no distinction between present and immediate future tense for verbs in Japanese.

When we want to compare the same property, however, such as comparing a cheap fish to an even cheaper fish, we can use
もっと to indicate explicit comparative:
かさ さが
A: あのう、安い 傘 を 探 しているんですけど......
B: 安い傘ですね。これがいかがでしょうか。
 A: ああ、いい傘ですね。けれど、もっと安いのありましょうか。
B: どうもすみませんが、これより安いのはありません。 Preface
The syntax
A: "I am looking for a cheap umbrella."
B: "A cheap umbrella you said? What about this one?" The kana
A: "Ah, that's a nice umbrella. But I was wondering whether you had an even cheaper one." The basics --
Writing the
B: "Ah, I'm sorry but we do not have any umbrellas cheaper than this." kana --
Pronouncing
In this conversation, もっと is used to ask for an "even more" cheap item, but only after it has been established that the item Japanese --
Hiragana and
in question is (already) cheap. An example of incorrect use of もっと would be: katakana
differences --
たか Writing
A: この傘はちょっと 高 いですね。もっと安いのがありますか。 spoken
Japanese
If we were to translate this sentence, it would say "This umbrella is a bit expensive. Do you have an even cheaper one?" This Katakana
is clearly incorrect use of language, as we can only ask for an even cheaper item if the present one is already cheap. specific --
Punctuation
いちばん
and writing --
The superlative, in English the "most ..." version of an adjective, is formed in Japanese by prefixing the word 一番 to the Kanji
adjective (which literally means "first", in the context of a ranking): Types of Kanji -
-
いちばんはや くるま Writing Kanji --
一番速 い 車 はあのフェラーリです。 Reading kanji:
furigana --
"The fastest car (here) is that Ferrari." Reading quirks:
compound
Remember that this is an adjective construction and that 一番 requires an adjective to turn into a superlative. Many students words --
いちばんせんせい いちばんくるま Looking up
kanji --
new to the language will use 一 番 without an adjective, and end up saying things like 一番先生 or 一番車 , which Styles --
would literally mean "most teacher" and "most car". These sentences are not grammatical in either Japanese or English, Words and
since they lack a modifier to explain exactly what these nouns are the most of. Usually when this mistake is made, all that is word classes
いちばん
missing is the adjective いい, meaning good: 一番 いい creates the superlative "best". Articles --
Verbs --
Nouns --
Section 2-3 — Noun inflection Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Nouns do not inflect in Japanese. More interestingly, they don't even decline like they do in English; turning "book" into Particles --
"books" for instance, or "us" into "our", are declensions that indicate something in addition to the root noun, like plurality or Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
possession. Instead, everything is either done by marking nouns (or indeed entire noun phrases) with particles, or by using and mimesis --
copula verbs in Japanese. Compound
words --
Sentence
§2.3.1 — Particles structure
Word order --
There are three important particles that we can use when dealing with noun inflection/declension, being の, と, and や. Emphasis --
Pitch and
The particle の is generally explained as being used to genitivally link nouns, but that doesn't tell us what it really does. In accents
Japanese, genitive is expressed as either marking possession (origin or root concept), description, or a contextualising Gender roles
construction. In English, examples of these would be 'my car' in "this is my car", 'love song' in "this is a love song", and 'old Context
story' in "that's just an old story", but while in English these are seemingly different constructions, in Japanese they all use language
の: Verb
grammar
ぼく くるま More
これは 僕 の 車 です。 grammar
"This is my car." Particles
Counters
In this sentence, which illustrates の being used for possession, the function is fairly obvious: "[X]の[Y]" means "[X]'s [Y]" and counting
Language
or "[Y] of [X]". This is the simplest use of の . However, things get more complicated when we look at the other three patterns
functions. Conjugation
Schemes
あい うた
これは 愛 の 歌 です。 Set phrases
Glossary
"This is a love song."

In this sentence, the idea behind the pattern is slightly more complicated, because it's related to a pattern of thought that
we're generally not used to in English. In the sentence, the "song", 歌, is considered a specific kind of song, which we can
explain by saying "it genitivally stems from 愛", meaning that as a whole, the word derives its core meaning from 歌, but its
nuance from 愛. This is a complicated way to look at what's going on in a seemingly simple particle, so it is usually easier to
note the specific interpretation instead: we can say that 愛 describes 歌 , or that 愛 acts as context for 歌 , and that this
construction is closely related to the idea of a compound noun.

In this interpretation, "[X]の[Y]" typically translates to "[X] [Y]" in English, so that 愛の歌 becomes "love song", and for Liked this
むかし はなし book?
instance 昔 の 話 becomes "old story" (with 昔 being a noun meaning 'long ago', and 話 meaning 'story'). If we use this in Buy the
a slightly bigger, more interesting sentence, we see the following: author a beer
(or coffee)!
むかし はなし
ただの 昔 の 話 です。
"(That)'s just an old story."

This sentence is particularly interesting because it uses の twice. ただの[X] means "just X", with ただ meaning 'just' or
'merely', and [X] being any noun phrase, in this case "昔の話". This kind of chaining can be taken to extremes, such as in
the following example:
ねえ ともだち ささき あそ き
うちの 姉 さんの 友達 の「佐崎」が 遊 びに来た。
"My sister's friend, Sasaki, came over (today)."
Let us analyse what happens in this chain. It usually makes most sense to analyse long chains like these by looking at the
[X]の[Y] patterns in a last-to-first order, because (as always) the most important words come last: Preface
The syntax
[X]の[Y] translation The kana
友達の「佐崎」 (my/your/his/her/our/their) friend, Sasaki The basics --
Writing the
kana --
姉さんの友達 (my/your/his/her/our/their) sister's friend Pronouncing
Japanese --
うちの姉さん (my/our) sister Hiragana and
katakana
differences --
While this sounds like an artificial example, it is actually quite common to find three or even four nouns linked through の Writing
to create a single, more and more specific noun phrase. The main issue with learning to use these patterns, and more spoken
importantly, understanding them while listening to native speakers, is that the most important information comes last, so you Japanese
have to keep track of all the context nouns before the final operative noun gets used. Katakana
specific --
Punctuation
The other two particles, と and や, are much simpler to understand than の: と links nouns to form an exhaustive list, while and writing --
や forms a representative list. For instance, if someone went to the supermarket and bought orange juice, milk and tea, and Kanji

that's all they bought, then we can list all these things with と: Types of Kanji -
-
Writing Kanji --
ぎゅうにゅう ちゃ か Reading kanji:
ジュースと 牛乳 とお 茶 を買った。 furigana --
Reading quirks:
"(I) bought juice, milk and tea." compound
words --
However, if they instead bought a lot of refreshments (say they were planning a party), then the following sentence would be Looking up
kanji --
easier than listing every individual item on the shopping list: Styles --
Words and
ジュースや牛乳やお茶を買った。 word classes
"(I) bought juice, milk, tea (and the like)." Articles --
Verbs --
Nouns --
That's the only difference between と and や (for the purpose of noun listing). Both form a list of items, and by using と you Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
imply that what you describe is the whole list, while if you use や you imply that even though it's a list, it's not the whole Adjectives --
Adverbs --
list, just a representative snippet. Of course, it (almost) goes without saying that you cannot mix と and や. Particles --
Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
§2.3.2 — Inflection and mimesis --
Compound
words --
Actual inflection of nouns relies on copula verbs, as it does in English. While in English only the verb "to be" fulfils the role Sentence
of copula, in Japanese there are a number of copulae to pick from. So, for the moment, we will look at the two most structure
common copulae: the plain form だ and its polite counterpart, で す . Technically, these are both verbs, although だ is Word order --
Emphasis --
somewhat more complex than です. If we look at their verb bases, we see the following:
Pitch and
accents
です だ copula Gender roles

未然形 でしょ だろ だろ Context

language
連用形 でし だっ (で) で Verb

終止形 です だ です/だ
grammar
More
連体形 です な です/な grammar

已然形
Particles
なら なら Counters
and counting
Language
First, there is no 命令形, which kind of makes sense — one cannot order something to all of a sudden have some property; patterns
chairs don't become red because you order them to, people don't become angry just because you tell them to, and it doesn't Conjugation
suddenly become night because you ordain it so. At least not without superpowers of some sort, which are beyond the scope Schemes
of this book. Set phrases
Glossary
Secondly, the "copula" column is a bit special: it tells you which form is typically used when a certain base form is relied on.
When we need a 連体形 copula, we can use either だ or です depending on whether we want plain form or polite form, but
when we need a continuative (which will be explained in the next chapter), modern Japanese uses で.

Third, there is a 終 止 形 entry, which most modern verbs do not use. The reason it exists for (this) copula is that だ is
relatively special: when used to end noun phrases, its 終 止 形 is used, and so it uses the form だ . However, when used
attributively (effectively turning nouns into adjectives), which uses the 連体形, the classical 連体形 is used and we end up
with な. Although the language reforms of the 20th century have for the most part merged the functions of 終止形 and 連体
Liked this
形, this particular instance of separate form has been preserved, rather than gotten rid of. Luckily you will rarely, if ever, book?
need to recite the bases for で す or だ , but だ is used attributively so frequently that you should have little problem Buy the
author a beer
remembering when to use だ and when to use な. (or coffee)!

§2.3.2.1 — Present tense

The present tense for だ and です are just as simple as for any other verb:
ほん
これは 本 だ。
これは本です。
"This is a book."
There is no difference in meaning between those two sentences, the only difference is the perceived politeness, with です
being neutral polite, while だ is plain form. Preface
The syntax
§2.3.2.2 — Past tense The kana
The basics --
Writing the
The past tenses for both だ and です are also reasonably straightforward, although we do need to know a little bit more kana --
Pronouncing
about where だ came from. The common explanation for だ is that it came from で, the continuative of です, and the verb Japanese --
Hiragana and
ある, to form the copula である. This copula is actually still used in modern Japanese in formal settings. However, the で katakana
differences --
+あ in this である has contracted over time, to form だる, which explains the 未然形 for だ, which is だろ. It also explains
Writing
its past tense: だった, since ある is a normal 五段 verb and thus contracts in its past tense. spoken
Japanese
For です the story is a bit simpler: its 連用形 is でし, and so its past tense is でした. Katakana
specific --
Punctuation
ほん
and writing --
それは 本 だった。
Kanji
"That was a book."
Types of Kanji -
それは本でした。 Writing Kanji --
-

"That was a book." Reading kanji:

furigana --
Reading quirks:
Again, there is no difference in meaning, only in perceived politeness. compound
words --
Looking up
§2.3.2.3 — Negative kanji --
Styles --
Words and
The negative forms for だ and です are more interesting. For だ, the plain negative is じゃない, which is じゃ plus the word classes
adjective for negation that we already saw for verbs, ない. Again we see evidence of the presence of ある. However, what Articles --
Verbs --
is this じゃ? Nouns --
Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
Interestingly, じゃ is (and not just for this particular inflection, but in general) the "particle" で, which is the 連用形 for で Adjectives --
Adverbs --
す, and the disambiguating particle は (pronounced わ). This では can either be used by itself (and frequently is), or its Particles --
Prefixes --
contraction じ ゃ can be used, with the only difference between the two being that で は is more formal than じ ゃ . To Onomatopoeia
illustrate: and mimesis --
Compound
words --
ほん
これは 本 だ。 Sentence
"This is a book." structure
Word order --
これは本じゃない。 Emphasis --
"This isn't a book." Pitch and
accents
これは本ではない。 Gender roles
"This is not a book." Context
language
There is no difference in meaning between the latter two sentences, just in formality.
Verb
grammar
For です the story gets more complicated, because instead of using the negative form of です itself, the polite form ではな More
い is used in polite form, using the polite negative of ある instead of ない, which means we need to introduce the classical grammar
Particles
helper verb of politeness: ます.
Counters
and counting
bases form Language
patterns
未然形 ませ (ましょ) Conjugation
連用形 まし Schemes
Set phrases
連体形 ます Glossary

已然形 ませ (ますれ)
命令形 ませ

This helper verb is used in combination with verbs in their 連用形, so that the polite form of ある becomes あり+ます, and
the polite negative is formed by taking this あります and making ます negative using the super classical negative "ん": あ
りませ+ん. While the explanation might be more complicated than you might have expected, the final result should sound
familiar, since the polite negation — ま せ ん , and the general statement あ り ま せ ん , are used constantly in modern Liked this
Japanese. book?
Buy the
author a beer
With this, we can form the polite negative of the copulae: じゃありません, or more formally, ではありません (or coffee)!

これは本です。
"This is a book."
これは本じゃありません。
"This is not a book."
これは本ではありません。
"This is not a book."
§2.3.2.4 — Past negative
Preface
For だ, the present negative じゃない (ではない) is placed in past tense, turning ない into なかった: じゃなかった (で The syntax
はなかった). The kana
The basics --
ほん Writing the
これは 本 だった。 kana --
Pronouncing
"This was a book." Japanese --
Hiragana and
これは本じゃなかった。 katakana
"This was not a book." differences --
Writing
これは本ではなかった。 spoken
"This was not a book." Japanese
Katakana
specific --
For です, things get really weird: the polite negative ありません in じゃありません (ではありません) is placed in past Punctuation
tense by adding the past tense for です, でした, at the end: じゃありませんでした (ではありませんでした). and writing --
Kanji
これは本でした。 Types of Kanji -
-
"This was a book." Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
これは本じゃありませんでした。 furigana --
Reading quirks:
"This was not a book." compound
words --
これは本ではありませんでした。 Looking up
kanji --
"This was not a book." Styles --
Words and
While, again, this derivation is rather complicated, the important bit is that you remember the copula inflection table. word classes
Articles --
Verbs --
§2.3.2.5 — In summary Nouns --
Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
The best way to reiterate the different inflections for the copulae is in the form of a table: Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Particles --
affirmative negative Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
plain present noun + だ noun + じゃない and mimesis --
Compound
(noun + ではない) words --
Sentence
polite present noun + です noun + じゃありません structure
(noun + ではありません) Word order --
Emphasis --
plain past noun + だった noun + じゃなかった Pitch and
accents
(noun + ではなかった)
Gender roles
polite past noun + でした noun + じゃありませんでした Context
language
(noun + ではありませんでした)
Verb
grammar

Section 2-4 — Pronouns: こそあど More

grammar
Particles
In addition to regular nouns, Japanese has a set of words which are often (but mistakenly) labelled pronouns. These are Counters
and counting
colloquially known as the こそあど, and they're called this because they come as series of four, starting with こ-, そ-, あ- Language
and ど-, to refer to (conceptually or physically) close to the speaker, close to the listener, close to neither, and as a question patterns
word. Conjugation
Schemes
To properly understand this, the concept of a personal zone is important: the Japanese do not separate locations in just "here" Set phrases
Glossary
and "there", but in "here", "there" and a conceptual location akin to "yonder". Words starting with こ refer to things in the
speaker's personal zone, words starting with そ refer to things in the listener's personal zone, and words starting with あ
refer to things that are neither in the speaker's nor the listener's personal zone. Finally, words starting with ど are the
question words for the series, known as interrogatives.

I mentioned that the こそあど are often mistakenly called pronouns, because many series in the こそあど actually work
together with nouns rather than replacing them, as they would if they were genuine pronouns.

The most frequently used こそあど series are the following: Liked this
book?
Buy the
こそあど meaning author a beer
(or coffee)!
この[noun] this [noun]
その[noun] that [noun]
あの[noun] that [noun] over there
どの[noun] which [noun]

with examples:
くるま はや
この 車 が 速 いです。
 "This car is fast."
くろ
Preface
その車が 黒 いです。
"That car is black." The syntax
こわ The kana
あの車が 壊 れた。 The basics --
"That car (over there) is broken." Writing the
kana --
Pronouncing
どの車がいい？ Japanese --
"Which car do you like?" Hiragana and
katakana
differences --
It should be obvious that this series is not actually a pronoun series, since it doesn't replace the noun in question. However,
Writing
that said, there are a few こそあど series that act as a genuine series of pronouns, such as: spoken
Japanese
こそあど meaning Katakana
specific --
Punctuation
これ this. and writing --

それ that. Kanji
Types of Kanji -
あれ that over there. -
Writing Kanji --
どれ which. Reading kanji:
furigana --
Reading quirks:
with examples: compound
words --
Looking up
これが速いです。 kanji --
Styles --
"This is fast."
Words and
それが黒いです。 word classes
"That's black." Articles --
Verbs --
Nouns --
あれが壊れた。 Pronouns --
"That (over there)'s broken." Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
どれがいい？ Adverbs --
Particles --
"Which do you like?" Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Notice the periods after the English translations for the individual こ そ あ ど ; these have been added to make sure you Compound
words --
understand that these words are "done." They are replacement nouns, and cannot be used in conjunction with a noun.
Sentence
structure
The rest of the common こそあど series are:
Word order --
Emphasis --
こそあど meaning Pitch and
accents
こんな[noun] this kind of [noun]
Gender roles
そんな[noun] that kind of [noun] Context
language
あんな[noun] that kind of [noun] over there
Verb
どんな[noun] which kind of [noun] grammar
More
なに
grammar
Beginning students often confuse どんな with the word 何 which means "what", when thinking of dialogues such as: "I Particles
bought a velour pillow" - "wow, what does that feel like?". While the English dialogue uses the word "what", the Japanese Counters
and counting
question would actually be "which/what kind of feeling does that have?"
Language
patterns
こそあど meaning Conjugation
Schemes
こちら this direction/this honourable person. Set phrases
そちら that direction/that honourable person. Glossary

あちら that direction/that honourable person over there.

どちら which direction/which honourable person.

This series can mean two things, depending on context. Since personal pronouns are avoided as much as possible in
Japanese, it is considered polite to refer to someone by referring to the direction in which they are located, relative to the
speaker, similar to using the English indirect way of referring to someone: "Over here we have Mr. Carver", rather than just
saying "This is Mr. Carver".
Liked this
こそあど book?
meaning Buy the
こっち this direction/this person. author a beer
(or coffee)!
そっち that direction/that person.
あっち that direction over there/that person over there.
どっち which direction/which person.

Since this is a contracted version of the previous set, it cannot be used to refer to people respectfully - you don't use
colloquially contracted words when you're being respectful. You can, technically, use this word to refer to people, but then
only in a familiar conversation.

meaning
 こそあど
Preface
ここ here
The syntax
そこ there The kana
あそこ, あすこ over there The basics --
Writing the
どこ where kana --
Pronouncing
Japanese --
Hiragana and
The location こそあど, like the これ/それ/あれ/どれ series, acts as a pronoun. There is an irregularity with the "not near katakana
me, not near you" version, which has two possible pronunciations, neither of which use just an あ rather than a こ, そ, or ど; differences --
Writing
instead, they have an additional syllable, being either そ or す. Both these versions are accepted Japanese, although あそこ spoken
is slightly more 'proper' than あすこ. Japanese
Katakana
specific --
こそあど meaning Punctuation
and writing --
こう this way/this manner. Kanji

そう that way/that manner. Types of Kanji -

-
Writing Kanji --
ああ that way/manner (referring to something distal). Reading kanji:
furigana --
どう how/in which way/in which manner. Reading quirks:
compound
words --
Notice the seeming irregularity for あ あ here. I say seeming, because this こ そ あ ど series is actually each of the four Looking up
kanji --
"prefixes" with a long vowel sound — for こ, そ and ど this is a う, for あ, this is (clearly) not a う at all, but another あ. Styles --
Words and
word classes
Finally, there is also a somewhat more classical series, of which the あ- variant should sound familiar:
Articles --
Verbs --
こそあど meaning Nouns --
Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
こなた this person (I/me/you/him/he/her/she). Adjectives --
Adverbs --
そなた that person (him/he, her/she). Particles --
Prefixes --
あなた that person over there (you). Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
どなた which person (who). Compound
words --
Sentence
Since this set is a tad classical, there are a few things to notice. First of all, そなた refers to a third person (he/she), while あ structure
な た refers to second person (you). Also, while somewhat classical, this set is still used in formal settings. However, Word order --
Emphasis --
because it is used exclusively in formal settings it is considered distal and very impersonal, and should thus only be used in
Pitch and
formal settings where it would be improper to address someone the normal way. As an added bonus, あ な た is also accents
commonly understood to be two seemingly completely opposite things. On the one hand, it is the deferred, distal, formal Gender roles
word for "you", and on the other hand it also means "you" in a highly intimate relationship, akin to the English terms "dear", Context
"darling" or "honey" being used by couples to call each other. language
Verb
Lastly, while どなた means "who", it is considered a distal and reserved interrogative. The plain version of "who" is the grammar
だれ
pronoun 誰 , which is not associated with any こそあど series. More
grammar
Particles
こそあど meaning Counters
and counting
こいつ this person (I/me/you/him/he/her/she). Language
patterns
そいつ that person (him/he, her/she).
Conjugation
あいつ that person over there (you). Schemes
Set phrases
どいつ which person (who). Glossary

In addition to the こちら (etc.), こっち (etc.)and こなた (etc.) series, we also have this series available for referring to
people. Where the former are all reasonably polite in some way, this series actually borders on derogatory, so you should
probably try to avoid using it. However, it's also frequently used in the expression どいつもこいつも, meaning "each and
every one" in the sense of people:
じゃま しごと でき
もういい。どいつもこいつも邪魔をして仕事を出来るわけないじゃないか。
"Oh, for crying out loud. How can I be expected to do my job with everyone and their dog getting in the way?"
Liked this
book?
Technically this ど...もこ...も pattern can be used for any こそあど series, although the more polite or formal the series, the Buy the
less this pattern can be applied. author a beer
(or coffee)!
ふう よう
Finally, some こそあど are used in more complicated patterns, such as the こんな... series + 風 , or the この... series + 様 ,
which we shall look at in the chapter on language patterns.

Section 2-5 — Special verbs

There are a number of special verbs that deserve a bit of extra attention as they are used so frequently in the language that it
would be a miss to not highlight their roles.
§2.5.1 — Becoming: なる
Preface
Before you can say something "is" something else, it first has to "become" this something else. In Japanese, the process of The syntax
becoming is expressed with the verb なる, which can be used to describe becoming a particular state (such as "becoming The kana
cold") through the use of state nouns or adjective-derived adverbs, as well as being usable to describe becoming a particular The basics --
Writing the
thing (such as "becoming an adult") by using it with nouns. Finally it can of course also be used to describe the process of kana --
"becoming" itself, (such as "to quickly become [...]") by using proper adverbs. Pronouncing
Japanese --
Hiragana and
The verb なる is a 五段 verb, without any irregularities, meaning its bases are なら, なり, なる, なれ and なれ. katakana
differences --
While typically used in combination with the verb particle に, it can also be used in combination with the particle と (not in Writing
spoken
its role as noun lister), in which case its meaning changes from "become" to "be" (often interpreted as the immediate future Japanese
"will be"). This can be illustrated with some に/と comparison sentences: Katakana
specific --
ちから Punctuation
力 になります。 and writing --
"(This) will become (our) strength". Kanji
Types of Kanji -
力となります。 -
"(This) will be (our) strength". Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
しゅつえん ごがつ にじゅうよっか furigana --
バンドの 出演 は五月 二十四日 になります。 Reading quirks:
"The band's performance will be set to (literally: become) May the 24th." compound
words --
Looking up
バンドの出演は五月二十四日となります。 kanji --
"The band's performance will be on May the 24th." Styles --
Words and
word classes
§2.5.2 — Being: です, だ, ある, いる Articles --
Verbs --
Nouns --
We already looked at です and だ, but we haven't really looked at how they fit together with other existential verbs, and Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
how each differs from the other. Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Where in English the verb "to be" is used as both a copula (the verb that sets up definitions such as "A is B") and as a Particles --
Prefixes --
existential verb (the verb that indicates existence somewhere, such as "A is [here]"), in Japanese these are two (or more Onomatopoeia
accurately, three) distinct roles. To indicate that "A is B", distinct copulae are used in Japanese. These include だ, です, but and mimesis --
Compound
also several less frequently used copulae such as である, でござる and でいらっしゃる. words --
Sentence
The existential verb role, on the other hand, is actually performed by two distinct verbs in Japanese: one describing structure
existence for animate objects (such as humans, animals, and things that can be considered animate, like "AIBO" robot Word order --
Emphasis --
puppies and the like) and one describing existence for inanimate objects and abstract things. These are いる (居る) and あ
Pitch and
る (有る), respectively. To illustrate the difference between animate and inanimate, let's look at two sentences: accents
いぬ Gender roles
犬 がいる。 Context
"(There) is a dog." language
ほん Verb
本 がある。 grammar
"(There) is a book." More
grammar
In both sentences, が marks the preceding part as subject of the sentence. Both sentences translate to "there is X", but in the Particles
Counters
first sentence X is a dog, which is an animate 'object', and because of this, we need to use いる. In the second sentence X is and counting
a book, which is rather inanimate, and thus あ る is used. Also, in both sentences, the word "there" is entirely implied. Language
patterns
Because we are using verbs to mark existence and we are talking about actual instances of dogs and books, saying they exist
Conjugation
means we also say they exist at some location. Schemes
Set phrases
If we only want to define something, i.e. say something "is" a thing, such as "it is a dog" or "it is a book", we use a copula
Glossary
instead. For most people used to western language, these verbs may at first glance seem to do the same as what いる and あ
る do; after all, the sentence "it is a dog" is essentially the same as the sentence "there is a dog" with the word "there"
replaced with "it". However, there is a very important difference: in "there is a dog", we are saying that a dog exists
somewhere, whereas in "it is a dog", we are defining some "it" to be of the category "dog".

Put concisely, definitions in Japanese can only be done using copulae, and marking existence can only be done using いる
or ある:

犬です。 Liked this

"It is a dog." book?
Buy the
本だ。 author a beer
(or coffee)!
"It is a book."
しかく
本が四角です。
"Books are rectangular."
どうぶつ
犬が 動物 だ。
"Dogs are animals."

§2.5.3 — Doing: する
We've already seen する as irregular verb, and it has been used in enough example sentences to let it be no surprise that it
means "do". However, this isn't the only meaning for this verb. When used in combination with a direct object — as Preface
transitive verb — する does mean "do", but when used as intransitive verb, its meaning should be considered to be "decide The syntax
たどうし
on" or "choose". To show this difference in meaning between the transitive (strictly speaking, 他動詞) and intransitive The kana
じどうし The basics --
(strictly speaking, 自動詞) versions of する, two short sentences: Writing the
kana --
なに Pronouncing
何 をするか。 Japanese --
Hiragana and
"What are (you) doing?" katakana
differences --
何にするか。 Writing
"What will (you) pick?" spoken
Japanese
In the first sentence, を marks the preceding as direct object to the verb, while in the second sentence, に marks the Katakana
specific --
preceding part as indirect object to the verb. The difference in meaning is striking. Punctuation
and writing --
There is a third meaning to する, when paired with the particle と, which is "to consider something ...": Kanji
Types of Kanji -
わたし ひつよう
-
これが 私 が 必要 とするものです。 Writing Kanji --
"These are the things (that) I consider important." Reading kanji:
furigana --
Reading quirks:
§2.5.4 — Possessive: ある compound
words --
Looking up
kanji --
We're not quite done treating ある; while it means "exist" for inanimate things, this meaning also leads it to be usable for Styles --

what in English is represented by "to have" in sentences like "I have a radio". In Japanese, you don't say you "have" Words and
word classes
something, but that "something is with you". For instance, if I want to say that aside from my portable radio I also have a
radio at home, instead of saying "I have a radio at home too" I would say "there is a radio at my house too": Articles --
Verbs --
Nouns --
うちもラジオがある。 Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
"(I) have a radio at home, too." Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Particles --
Because of this double role, it's quite an important verb. Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
§2.5.5 — Negative presence: ない Compound
words --
Sentence
I know that ない is not a verb, but the reason it's in this list is because of ある, which is very much a verb. Since ある structure
means "exist" for inanimate things, and since the adjective ない means "not (exist)", there are actually (almost) always two Word order --
Emphasis --
interpretations possible when ない is used in a sentence, by virtue of ある having two possible interpretations:
Pitch and
accents
ラジオがない。 Gender roles
1) "(There) is no radio." Context
2) "(I) do not have a radio." language
Verb
So for this reason it has been included in the list of important verbs; if we look at it as the negative form for ある, which we grammar
should, then it's a verb form, and a very important one at that. More
grammar
Particles
Section 2-6 — More Verb Grammar Counters
and counting
This covers the basics of verbal grammar. You should now be able to use most verbs in plain present affirmative and Language
negative forms, as well as past tense, and hopefully be interested enough to move on to the next chapter, which will briefly patterns
recap the inflections covered in this chapter before moving on to the (rather extensive!) list of verbal inflections that are Conjugation
found in Japanese. Schemes
Set phrases
Glossary

Chapter 3 — More grammar

Having covered the basics in the previous chapter, we will revisit and elaborate on certain inflections and conjugations, as
well as list all of the other inflections that are used in the Japanese language. This chapter treats the inflections one by one,
starting with a recap of politeness and explaining how it applies to all verbs, then treating all the basic — but not yet covered
— inflections, followed by the more advanced inflections that are used in Japanese.

Note that as of this chapter all the verbs and adjectives that have been used in the previous chapter, which we will continue
Liked this
to use in this one, will not come with furigana. At this point, you should know how they are read (and if you don't, just flip
book?
back to the previous chapter for the readings). Buy the
author a beer
(or coffee)!
Section 3-1 — Revisits and simple inflections
§3.1.1 — Politeness
ていねいご
Politeness, or the use of 丁寧語 as it is called in Japanese, revolves around using です and ます. We saw these explained in
the previous chapter, but for completeness their bases will be listed again here:

ます です だ copula
未然形
 ませ (ましょ) でしょ だろ でしょ/だろ
連用形 まし でし だっ (で) で Preface

終止形 だ です/だ
The syntax
The kana
連体形 ます です な です/な The basics --

已然形 ませ (ますれ) なら なら
Writing the
kana --

命令形
Pronouncing
ませ Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
differences --
Of these, the copulae are used in combination with nouns and verbal adjectives, and ます is used in combination with verbs
Writing
(in their 連用形 form). For both verb classes the procedure is the same: the present polite is formed by adding ます to the spoken
Japanese
連用形, whereas the past polite is formed by taking the present polite, and turning ます into its past tense, ました:
Katakana

五段 present polite past polite

specific --
Punctuation
and writing --
連用形 + ます polite present 連用形 + た Kanji
会う 会い + ます 会いまし + た Types of Kanji -
-
Writing Kanji --
歩く 歩き + ます 歩きまし + た Reading kanji:
furigana --
急ぐ 急ぎ + ます 急ぎまし + た Reading quirks:
compound
話す 話し + ます 話しまし + た words --
Looking up
待つ 待ち + ます 待ちまし + た kanji --
Styles --
死ぬ 死に + ます 死にまし + た Words and
word classes
学ぶ 学び + ます 学びまし + た Articles --
Verbs --
読む 読み + ます 読みまし + た Nouns --
Pronouns --
五段 present polite past polite
Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
Adverbs --
連用形 + ます polite present 連用形 + た Particles --
Prefixes --
分かる 分かり + ます 分かりまし + た Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
切る 切り + ます 切りまし + た Compound
words --
売る 売り + ます 売りまし + た Sentence
structure
帰る 帰り + ます 帰りまし + た
Word order --
Emphasis --
怒こる 怒こり + ます 怒こりまし + た
Pitch and
一段 present polite past polite
accents
Gender roles
連用形 + ます polite present 連用形 + た Context
language
見る 見 + ます 見まし + た
Verb
伸びる 伸び + ます 伸びまし + た grammar
More
食べる 食べ + ます 食べまし + た grammar
Particles
く
Counters
The irregular verbs する, ある and 来 る are regular with respects to using ます, although of course する's "す" becomes and counting
"し", and 来る's stem gets pronounced "き". Language
patterns
For nouns we use です, which is inflected to indicate tense: Conjugation
Schemes
Set phrases
noun meaning polite present polite past Glossary
noun + です noun + でした
ともだち
友達 friend 友達 + です 友達 + でした
いえ
家 house 家 + です 家 + でした

For verbal adjectives, we also use です, but unlike nouns, verbal adjectives inflect to show tense, rather than です:

adjective polite present polite past Liked this

book?
連体形 + です past tense + です Buy the
高い 高い + です 高かった + です author a beer
(or coffee)!
楽しい 楽しい + です 楽しかった + です
薄い 薄い + です 薄かった + です
遅い 遅い + です 遅かった + です

A cautionary note: many beginning students of Japanese make the mistake of forgetting that verbal adjectives are verbal, and
are themselves inflected, rather than using です for tense. One of the first mistakes (and arguably one of the biggest) made
by beginning students is saying something like:

た
 たの
楽 しいでした。
Preface
To mean "it was fun". Try, very hard, not to make this mistake. Remember for verbal adjectives "inflect first, then add です The syntax
for politeness", not "add です first, then inflect". The kana
The basics --
Writing the
§3.1.2 — Attributive kana --
Pronouncing
Japanese --
When something is attributive, it means that it is essentially doing what an adjective does: it attributes some quality to a Hiragana and
noun. Verbs, verbal adjectives and nouns can all do this, but they do so in different ways. katakana
differences --

For verbs and verbal adjectives, the 連 体 形 is attributive by its very definition (it is the "attributive" base). For verbal Writing
spoken
adjectives this seems fairly obvious, but for verbs, things are no different: Japanese
ひと Katakana
いい 人 です。 specific --
Punctuation
"(he/she/it) is (a/the) good person." and writing --
の
Kanji
コーヒーを飲む人です。
Types of Kanji -
"(he/she/it)'s (a/the) coffee drinking person." -
Writing Kanji --
For nouns, things are a little trickier. There are two classes of nouns, namely the ones we already saw in the previous Reading kanji:
furigana --
chapter, linking up using の , and "noun adjectives", which are nouns denoting qualities or aspects, and are used in Reading quirks:
compound
combination with the 連体形for だ, な, as attributives: words --
Looking up
へや kanji --
きれいな部屋です。 Styles --
"(this/it) is (a) clean/tidy room." Words and
word classes
しず ひと
静 かな 人 です。 Articles --
Verbs --
"(he/she/it) is (a/the) quiet person." Nouns --
Pronouns --
The reason for this is that we want to use the qualities that these nouns express attributively. On their own, the qualities in Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
these two sentences would be "きれいだ", "is clean", and 静かだ, "is quiet". When we wish to use these attributively, we Adverbs --
Particles --
must change だ from its 終止形, or finalising form, to 連体形, which is the attributive form. So: Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
きれいだ → きれいな[noun] Compound
words --
静かだ → 静かな[noun]
Sentence
structure
For these kind of nouns, using の as in "きれいの[noun]" or "静かの[noun]" would be incorrect, because の is not used to Word order --
attribute qualities. Sadly, without any prior knowledge it is essentially impossible to tell whether a noun will require の or な Emphasis --

when it is being linked with other nouns. Sometimes you can guess, based on the fact that the noun marks some quality or Pitch and
accents
aspect, but often you cannot.
Gender roles

§3.1.3 — Adverbial Context

language
Verb
In addition to the attributive, which attributes qualities to nouns, there are adverbs, which attribute qualities to verb actions. grammar
There are three word classes that can do this, namely the verbal adjectives, the noun "adjectives" (the ones that take な) and, More
of course, true adverbs. grammar
Particles
True adverbs are easy, since they do exactly what you'd expect: Counters
and counting
ほん よ
Language
本 を読みます。 patterns
"(I, you, he, she, we, they) read(s) (a) book(s)." Conjugation
ときどき Schemes
時々 本を読みます。 Set phrases
"(I, you, he, she, we, they) sometimes read(s) (a) book(s)." Glossary

Here, the adverb 時 々 , 'sometimes', also written 時 時 (the symbol 々 indicates kanji repetition) qualifies the action of
reading to apply only sometimes, rather than in general.

We can achieve the same effect of qualifying the verb action by using verbal adjectives in 連用形 form:
なお
直 します。
"(I, you, he, she, we, they) will fix (it)."
はや
速 く直します。 Liked this
book?
"(I, you, he, she, we, they) will fix (it) quickly." Buy the
はや
author a beer
In this sentence, the adjective 速い, 'fast' (not to be confused with 早 い, 'early'), is turning into the adverb 'quickly' by using (or coffee)!

its 連用形.

With noun adjectives, which do not inflect but must be paired up with the right particle to show their use in a sentence, we
must use に, instead of な, to use them as adverbial words:
わ
分ける。
"divide (up)."
きれいに分ける
 "divide cleanly/neatly"
Preface
You might recognise this に from the section on verb particles from the previous chapter. When used with quality or aspect
The syntax
nouns (and noun adjectives in general), using に leads to the noun being interpreted as a verb detail, which we
The kana
grammatically term as being used adverbially. However, when the noun is a true noun, に does something very different. To The basics --
illustrate this, two sentences: Writing the
kana --
かんぜん ま Pronouncing
完全 に負ける。 Japanese --
Hiragana and
ともだち katakana
友達 に負ける。 differences --
Writing
The first sentence has a noun that describes an aspect, 完全, meaning 'complete'. Thus, because it is paired with に, this spoken
Japanese
noun is being used as an adverb to 負ける, 'lose'. This sentence translates to "Losing completely". On the other hand, 友達 Katakana
does not describe a quality or aspect, it just means 'friend(s)'. As such, when it is paired with に it becomes a verb detail: "(I, specific --
Punctuation
you, he, she, we, they) lost to (my, your, his, her, our, their) friend(s)." and writing --
Kanji
So be careful. If the noun you're using is not a noun 'adjective', you can quite easily say something completely different from Types of Kanji -
what you intended to say. -
Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
§3.1.4 — Noun forms furigana --
Reading quirks:
compound
Not just nouns can act as nouns: verbs and verbal adjectives, too, can be inflected so that they act like nouns. In the same words --
Looking up
way that we can either "walk" through a neighbourhood, or take "a walk" through a neighbourhood in English, so too in kanji --
Japanese can verbs be used as nouns, provided we use their 連用形: Styles --

ぼく ま
Words and
僕 の負けだ。 word classes
"(It)'s my loss." Articles --
Verbs --
Nouns --
Here, the noun 負け, "loss", comes from the 一段 verb 負ける, "to lose". By using its 連用形, it can be used as a noun in a Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
sentence. Both 一段 and 五段 verbs follow this rule. Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Particles --
For verbal adjectives, things are a bit more complicated, because using an adjective as a noun requires you to know what Prefixes --
kind of noun you want to use. For instance, in English we can turn the adjective "deep" into the noun "depth". This noun is Onomatopoeia
then ambiguous in meaning: do we mean a measurable depth, like the depth of a crevasse or a lake, or do we mean the and mimesis --
Compound
immeasurable quality of "depth" of paintings or poetry, for instance? In Japanese, this ambiguity doesn't exist, because the words --
two different interpretations are expressed through different noun forms: turning a verbal adjective into a measurable Sentence
(quantifiable) noun requires adding さ to the stem, whereas turning it into an immeasurable (qualifying) noun requires structure
adding み to the stem: Word order --
Emphasis --
Pitch and
adjective meaning quantified noun meaning accents
たか
高い high 高さ height (e.g., of a mountain) Gender roles
ふか Context
深い deep 深さ depth (e.g., of a lake) language
Verb
adjective meaning qualified noun meaning grammar
More
高い high 高み height (e.g., of an achievement or position) grammar
深い deep 深み depth (e.g., of a poem or painting) Particles
Counters
and counting
In addition to these two, there's also け, げ or き (all pronunciations for 気), which instead of creating a quantified noun or Language
qualified noun, creates a noun that stands for "having the impression of". To use this in a sentence, it is used as a noun patterns
adjective (as 気 itself is a noun adjective): Conjugation
Schemes
Set phrases
adjective meaning impression noun meaning Glossary
さむ さむけ
寒い cold 寒気 the sense/feeling of being cold
あぶ あぶ げ
危 ない dangerous 危 な気 the sense/feeling of danger
かた かたぎ
堅い firm, honest 堅気 instilling a sense/feeling of honesty

There are two notes to this scheme. The most important one is: "this does not apply to all adjectives". That may sound odd,
but it comes down to the fact that while grammatically these rules are valid for all verbal adjectives, Japanese has been in
use for many centuries and verbal adjectives for which this kind of nominalising made sense have long since been accepted
Liked this
as words on their own, while verbal adjectives for which this nominalising was simply not required simply aren't accepted as book?
natural speech when you use them. Buy the
author a beer
Secondly, the two irregular verbal adjectives, いい and ない, have their own forms. The よさ (良さ) form exists, but よみ (or coffee)!
げ
does not, and rather than some よ気, there is 良さ気. For ない, there is no なさ, except in the pattern なさそう, which will
be treated in the section on impressions and likeness, and there are no み or 気 variants either.

§3.1.4.1 — More noun forms: 連用形 + 方 かた

A more subtle noun form for verbs is the "way of doing ..." noun form. For instance, "the way one reads" in English is a full
noun phrase, but in Japanese it's a compound noun consisting of the verb "read" in 連 用 形 , paired with the noun 方
よ
 よ
(pronounced かた in this use) meaning "way". Thus, 読む, meaning "read", becomes 読み方, meaning "way of reading".
Preface
はし つか な ひと むずか
お 箸 の 使 い方に慣れてない 人 に 難 しいです。 The syntax
"It's hard for people who aren't used to the "way of using" chopsticks." The kana
The basics --
The verb "to use", 使う, is a transitive verb, and since transitive verbs have their direct object marked with を, the subphrase Writing the
kana --
"to use chopsticks" could be お箸を使う. However, since both お箸 and 使い方 are nouns, we can also choose to use の to Pronouncing
Japanese --
link them together. The difference is the following, noting the placement of the brackets: Hiragana and
katakana
differences --
(お箸を使い)方
Writing
The way of 'using chopsticks' spoken
Japanese
お箸の(使い方)
Katakana
The 'way of using', for chopsticks specific --
Punctuation
Both express the same idea, but the emphasis in the first sentence lies on the fact that it's about using chopsticks, while the and writing --
emphasis in the second sentence simply lies with the 'way of using' something, which in this case happens to be chopsticks. Kanji
Types of Kanji -
-
§3.1.5 — More negatives Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
furigana --
The basic negative form was already discussed in the previous chapter, but it only covered one of the two plain negative Reading quirks:
forms, and didn't cover polite negative forms at all. compound
words --
Looking up
Let us first look at the second plain negative form first. In addition to the helper adjective of negation, な い , there is a kanji --
Styles --
classical helper verb of negation, ぬ, which is used quite frequently in formal speech (in its 連用形 form ず) and even more
Words and
often in daily speech as part of the polite negation in the form of ん at the end of ません. word classes
Articles --
Verbs --
bases form Nouns --
Pronouns --
連用形 ず Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
連体形 ん (ぬ) Adverbs --
Particles --
已然形 ね Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Technically, the 連体形 for this classical helper verb can be placed at the end of any verb's 未然形, to form a curt negative. Compound
words --
While not in use in standard Japanese, this use is still prevalent in several modern Japanese dialects, such as Kansaiben. In
Sentence
addition to this, it is used for the negative of the helper verb of politeness, ま す , to form its (polite by very definition) structure
negative form ません. Word order --
Emphasis --

The 連用形 form, ず, is used frequently to form a rather special kind of word: the adverbial negative. Added to a verb's 未 Pitch and
accents
然形, and paired with に (as it acts as a noun adjective) it turns the verb action into a 'not-taken' verb action instead. To Gender roles
illustrate this, an example:
Context
あさ はん た き language
朝 ご 飯 を食べずに来ました。 Verb
"I came (over) without eating (my) breakfast." grammar
More
In this sentence, the phrase 朝ご飯を食べず acts as adverb to 来ました, so that we can say that "きました is performed in grammar
Particles
an 朝ご飯を食べなかった manner". In this sentence, ず itself has no temporal aspect, so it gets its tense from whatever Counters
follows. As such, present or past tense comes from the final verb: and counting
Language
朝ご飯を食べずに来ました。 patterns
"I came (over) without eating (my) breakfast." Conjugation
Schemes
朝ご飯を食べずに来ます。 Set phrases
"I will come (over) without eating (my) breakfast." Glossary

This is considered an elegant form of negation, and is in formal and semi-formal settings preferred to the negative
continuative for ない, which for our example sentence would be:

朝ご飯を食べなくて来ました。
"I didn't eat (my) breakfast and came (over)."

We will look at continuative forms that use this 'て' in detail later in this chapter, when looking at continuatives.
Liked this
book?
§3.1.6 — Basic inflections summarised Buy the
author a beer
(or coffee)!
With the knowledge of what ん does, we can now (finally) look at the complete inflection schemes in terms of plain and
polite, present and past, and affirmative and negative forms. First off, ます; since ます is inherently polite, it only has four
forms we need to know:

affirmative negative
present ます ませ + ん
past まし + た ませ + ん + でした
Second, です. This too is inherently polite, so again we see four forms, two of which are contractions with a corresponding
full form: Preface
The syntax
affirmative negative The kana
present です じゃありません The basics --
Writing the
ではありません kana --
Pronouncing
past でした じゃありませんでした Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
ではありませんでした differences --
Writing
Then, だ. As this is the plain counterpart to です, it has no inherent politeness forms, although two forms are contractions spoken
Japanese
with a corresponding full form. However, because the negative forms rely on ない, and because ない is a verbal adjective,
Katakana
this copula can also be made polite (at least for its negative forms) by adding です. It will make the inflection more polite specific --
Punctuation
than plain form, but not as polite as the corresponding negative form for です itself. and writing --
Kanji
affirmative negative Types of Kanji -
-
present だ じゃない(です) Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
ではない(です) furigana --
Reading quirks:
compound
past だった じゃなかった(です) words --
Looking up
ではなかった(です) kanji --
Styles --
Words and
Next up are the verbal adjectives. Verbal adjectives have one polite affirmative form, using です, and two polite negative word classes
forms, because we can either use ない, or the polite counterpart to ない: ありません (the polite negative form of the verb Articles --
Verbs --
ある). This leads to the following inflection table: Nouns --
Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
affirmative negative Adjectives --
Adverbs --
present plain 連体形 未然形 + ない Particles --
Prefixes --
polite 連体形 + です 未然形 + ない + です Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
polite (2) 連用形 + ありません Compound
words --
past plain 連用形 + あった (c) 未然形 + なかった Sentence
structure
polite 連用形 + あった (c) + です 未然形 + なかった + です Word order --
Emphasis --
polite (2) 連用形 + ありません + でした
Pitch and
accents
In this table, (c) has been used to indicate that a contraction occurs.
Gender roles
Context
For completeness, the two irregular verbal adjectives get their own tables. First, いい (which is really よい): language
Verb
affirmative negative grammar
present plain よい, いい よくない More
grammar
polite よいです, いいです よくありません Particles
Counters
past plain よかった よくなかった and counting
Language
polite よかったです よくなかったです patterns
Conjugation
(of the two possible 連体形, いい is considered normal, while よい is considered formal) Schemes
Set phrases
And then finally, the helper adjective of negation, ない (無い): Glossary

affirmative negative
present plain ない なくない
polite ないです なくないです
past plain なかった なくなかった
polite なかったです なくなかったです
Liked this
Note that while technically ない has negative forms, they need pretty specific context before they make any sense. book?
Buy the
author a beer
Then the verbs: while the polite forms are the same for the two verb classes (as well as the irregular verbs), all verb classes (or coffee)!
will have all forms listed for completeness.

First, 五段 verbs, except for ある:

affirmative negative
present plain 連体形 未然形 + ない
polite 連用形 + ます 連用形 + ません
past plain 連用形 + た (c) 未然形 + なかった
 polite 連用形 + ました 連用形 + ませんでした
Preface
In this table, (c) has been used to indicate that a contraction occurs, depending on whether it's a す, く, ぐ, つ, ぬ, ぶ, む or The syntax
い
る 五段 verb. It should also be noted that the verb 行く has an irregular past tense: 行った instead of 行いた, and that the The kana
The basics --
rather rare verbs 問う, 訪う, 乞う and 請う get た suffixed to their 連体形, not 連用形. Writing the
kana --
Pronouncing
For ある, the scheme is subtly different: Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
affirmative negative differences --

present plain 連体形 ない Writing

spoken
polite 連用形 + ます 連用形 + ません Japanese
Katakana
past plain 連用形 + た (c) なかった specific --
Punctuation
polite 連用形 + ました 連用形 + ませんでした and writing --
Kanji
く
Types of Kanji -
Then, the 一段 verbs, including 来る -
Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
affirmative negative furigana --
Reading quirks:
present plain 連体形 未然形 + ない compound
words --
polite 連用形 + ます 連用形 + ません Looking up
kanji --
past plain 連用形 + た 未然形 + なかった Styles --
Words and
polite 連用形 + ました 連用形 + ませんでした word classes
Articles --
(The stem for 来る changes: its 連体形 is く, its 連用形 is き, and its 未然形 is こ - however, inflection uses the same Verbs --
Nouns --
rules) Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
And finally, the irregular verb する: Adverbs --
Particles --
Prefixes --
affirmative negative Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
present plain 連体形 し-未然形 + ない Compound
words --
polite 連用形 + ます 連用形 + ません Sentence
structure
past plain 連用形 + た し-未然形 + なかった
Word order --
polite 連用形 + ました 連用形 + ませんでした Emphasis --
Pitch and
accents
And so, with these basic inflection tables finally complete, we can move on to genuinely new inflections, to examine the rest
of what can be done with verbs and verbal adjectives in the Japanese language. Gender roles
Context
language
Section 3-2 — Further inflections Verb
grammar
§3.2.1 — Conjunctive More
grammar
Particles
Conjunctives are words or constructions that join up two or more phrases. For instance, in the English sentence "The birds
Counters
are singing, the flowers are blooming; spring had arrived properly", the comma between 'the birds are singing' and 'the and counting
flowers are blooming' acts as a conjunctive, as does the semi-colon between 'the flowers are blooming' and 'spring had
Language
arrived'. In Japanese, this particular kind of conjunction can be done in a remarkably simple way: each sentence that is to be patterns
"conjoined" with the next has its final verb put in 連用形, and we're done: Conjugation
Schemes
とり な
鳥 が鳴く。 Set phrases
"(The) birds sing." Glossary
はな さ
花 が咲く。
"(The) flowers bloom."
はる き
春 が来た。
"Spring is here."

If we change the final verbs in the first two sentence from 連 体 形 to 連 用 形 , then we can join them up to form the
translation for our original English sentence:
Liked this
book?
鳥が鳴き花が咲き春が来た。 Buy the
"(The) birds are singing, (the) flowers are blooming; spring is here." author a beer
(or coffee)!
For added emphasis, we can also place a Japanese comma after each of the conjoined sentences:

鳥が鳴き、花が咲き、春が来た。

While not required for the sentence to be grammatically correct, the addition of a comma can make a sentence easier to read.
When translating this kind of conjoined sentence, one can usually either use a comma, or the conjunctive "and". However, it
should be noted that the real meaning is just a comma or a semi-colon: since this construction creates a sentence where the
second part of the full sentence is merely a continuation of a story started in the first part, there is no real "and" to speak of.
Typically in English the word "and" will look like it belongs there, but you should remember that the Japanese sentence only
faintly implies it. As such the following translations are all possible, but not all of them sound like natural English.
 鳥が鳴き花が咲き春が来た。
"(The) birds are singing, (the) flowers are blooming; spring has arrived." Preface
The syntax
"(The) birds are singing and (the) flowers are blooming; spring has arrived."
The kana
"(The) birds are singing, (the) flowers are blooming and spring has arrived." The basics --
Writing the
"(The) birds are singing and (the) flowers are blooming and spring has arrived." kana --
Pronouncing
A further note on translating "and": even though a Japanese conjunction can be translated to "... and ...", going the other way Japanese --
Hiragana and
— from English to Japanese — typically means you cannot translate "and" with this 連用形 construction. The reason for katakana
this is that conjunction is a very specific thing, whereas the word "and" performs many roles in English: differences --
Writing
"I ate breakfast and went to school" serial action spoken
Japanese
"I bought juice and tomatoes" noun list
Katakana
"It's my car, and don't you forget it" emphatic specific --
Punctuation
and writing --
Typically, when you encounter "and" in an English sentence, the Japanese sentence (unless you're translating to formal
Kanji
Japanese) will not have it mapped to a 連用形 construction.
Types of Kanji -
-
In addition to this conjoining of sentences, the 連 用 形 conjunctive also works for certain word combinations, which we Writing Kanji --
shall look at here. Reading kanji:
furigana --
Reading quirks:
compound
§3.2.1.1 — Verb/verb conjunctions words --
Looking up
kanji --
The most common conjunction is the verb/verb conjunction. This takes two verbs, and forms a compound verb with them, Styles --
by placing the first verb in 連用形 and combining it with the second verb in its normal form. There are plenty of examples Words and
to choose from for this type of conjunction: word classes
Articles --
Verbs --
first verb second verb compound verb Nouns --
と だ Pronouns --
飛ぶ, "fly" 出す, "take out" 飛び出す, "come flying out" Nominalisers --
ある まわ Adjectives --
歩 く, "walk" 回 る, "go round", "turn" 歩き回る, "walk around in circles" Adverbs --
Particles --
Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
When verbs are conjoined this way, it is quite common for the okurigana (the hiragana that indicates inflection on verbs and and mimesis --
verbal adjectives) of the first verb to be omitted: 飛び出す may be written as 飛出す, but is still pronounced とびだす, and Compound
words --
歩き回る may be written as 歩回る but is still pronounced あるきまわる. Sentence
structure
A lot of the time, compound verbs created this way have a meaning which is readily guessable. However, sometimes the Word order --
compound verb is one that's been in use for ages and its meaning has changed over time. This is a good reminder that while Emphasis --
the grammar explains forms, it doesn't necessarily explain semantics (i.e., the actual intended meaning). Be careful when Pitch and
creating your own compound verbs - it's not unlikely you will come up with a combination that already means something accents
else in some subtle, or even not so subtle way. Gender roles
Context
§3.2.1.2 — Common conjunctions language
Verb
grammar
There are a few common verbs which, when used in this fashion, add a specific meaning to the compound. These are: More
grammar

直 す — 'Fix', 'correct', 'repair'

なお Particles
§3.2.1.2.1 — Counters
and counting
Language
Used as second verb in a verb/verb compound, this verb creates a "to re-[...]" verb, such as: patterns
Conjugation
original verb meaning joined verb meaning Schemes
か Set phrases
書く write 書き直す rewrite Glossary

やる do やり直す redo, do over

込む — 'Crowd', 'fill up'

こ
§3.2.1.2.2 —

This verb helps create compound verbs that calls forth a mental image of something going into something else, such as
something being filled up, something entering something else, or even something being invested in something else.
Examples of this are: Liked this
book?
Buy the
original verb meaning joined verb meaning author a beer
はい (or coffee)!
入る enter 入り込む go into (someone's) house/room
ま
巻く roll, wind 巻き込む become involved/entangled in

切る — 'Cut'
き
§3.2.1.2.3 —

Used in compounds, 切る can mean anything from cutting physically to cutting conceptually, such as cutting off someone's
speech, cutting a meeting short, or doing nothing but that one thing (which can be thought of as cutting off any other action).
A few examples are:
Preface
original verb meaning joined verb meaning
い
The syntax
言う say 言い切る declare, assert The kana
わ The basics --
分かる understand 分かり切る to fully understand Writing the
kana --
Pronouncing
Japanese --

出す — 'Come out'
だ
Hiragana and
§3.2.1.2.4 — katakana
differences --
Writing
When used in compounds, 出す roughly speaking indicates the inverse of 込む, signifying something is going or coming spoken
Japanese
out of something else. This can be objects from a container, words from a mouth, or even thoughts from a cloudy mind:
Katakana
specific --
original verb meaning joined verb meaning Punctuation
おも and writing --
思う think 思い出す to suddenly remember Kanji
い Types of Kanji -
言う say 言い出す to break the ice (i.e., to start talking) -
Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
furigana --
§3.2.1.3 — Verb/adjective conjunctions Reading quirks:
compound
words --
やす にく がた
Looking up
There are three adjectives that are commonly used in verb/adjective compounds, being 易 い, 難 い and 難 い, used to mean kanji --
"easy to ..." and "hard to ..." (twice). For instance, if a book is easy to read, then this can be said in Japanese by combining Styles --
よ
Words and
the verb for reading, 読 む, with the adjective easy, 易い, to form 読み易い, meaning "easy to read". In English this is a word classes
noun phrase, but in Japanese this is still an adjective, and can be used to describe objects, such as for instance: Articles --
Verbs --
よ ほん
Nouns --
読み易い 本 。 Pronouns --
An easy to read book. Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
Adverbs --
And of course the same goes for 難い: Particles --
Prefixes --
い にく こと
Onomatopoeia
言い 難 い 事 。
and mimesis --
Compound
Something that is hard to say. words --
(literally: "a hard-to-say thing") Sentence
structure
Unlike the verb/verb conjunctions, this type of conjunction never drops the verb's okurigana. Word order --
Emphasis --
While both にくい and がたい signify "hard to ...", にくい is a more modern reading; most things that are "hard to ..." in Pitch and
あ がた accents
modern Japanese will use the にくい reading. Examples of the がたい reading are found in for instance 有 り 難 い, which
Gender roles
is commonly known as paired with the verb ございます, with which it becomes ありがとうございます, meaning "thank Context
you". language
Verb
grammar
§3.2.1.4 — Verb/noun conjunctions
More
grammar
This conjunction is a very nice one, because it shows an elementary simplicity in the creation of some of Japanese's nouns: Particles
compounding. By combining a verb in 連用形, which we know can act as a noun on its own, with another noun, we can Counters
form a new compound noun. This particular conjunction can be seen in some words that one would not immediately think of and counting
as compound nouns: Language
patterns
Conjugation
verb meaning noun meaning conjunction meaning Schemes
き もの きもの
Set phrases
着る wear (on the body) 物 thing 着物 kimono
Glossary
の ば の ば
乗る board, get on 場 place 乗り場 a stop (i.e. bus stop)

§3.2.2 — Continuative: て form

The continuative in Japanese is also commonly referred to as the "て form", because it relies on the 連用形 of the classical
helper verb for completion, つ , which is て . This inflection is used for at least three things in Japanese, of which verb
chaining is probably the most frequently used. Aside from this, it is also used to issue (implied) imperatives, and it can be
used in combination with several special verbs to create special constructions. Liked this
book?
Buy the
bases form author a beer
(or coffee)!
未然形 て
連用形 て
終止形 つ
連体形 つ (or る)
已然形 つれ
命令形 てよ
For 五 段 verbs, the combination of 連 用 形 with て leads to contracted forms in modern Japanese, with different
contractions occurring for the different 五段 verbs, just like for the plain past tense た. The following table again lists which Preface
contractions occur, and what the "change rule" is: The syntax

五段
The kana
classical continuative modern continuative change rule The basics --
Writing the
話す 連用形+て: 話して 話して す verbs: no change kana --
Pronouncing
歩く 連用形+て: 歩きて 歩いて く verbs: きて → いて Japanese --
Hiragana and
急ぐ 連用形+て: 急ぎて 急いで ぐ verbs: ぎて → いで katakana
differences --
死ぬ 連用形+て: 死にて 死んで ぬ verbs: にて → んで Writing
spoken
学ぶ 連用形+て: 学びて 学んで ぶ verbs: びて → んで Japanese

読む 連用形+て: 読みて 読んで む verbs: みて → んで Katakana

specific --
Punctuation
会う 連用形+て: 会いて 会って う verbs: いて → って and writing --

待つ 連用形+て: 待ちて 待って つ verbs: ちて → って Kanji

Types of Kanji -
分かる 連用形+て: 分かりて 分かって る verbs: りて → って -
Writing Kanji --
ある 連用形+て: ありて あって る verbs: りて → って Reading kanji:
furigana --
Reading quirks:
compound
And again 行く is an exception: words --
Looking up

irregular verb 連用形 classical continuative modern continuative

kanji --
Styles --
い
Words and
行く 行き 連用形+て いって word classes
Articles --
For the 一段 verbs, as well as verbal adjectives, no contractions occur: Verbs --
Nouns --

一段 continuative
Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
見る 連用形+て: 見て Adverbs --
Particles --
Prefixes --
伸びる 連用形+て: 伸びて Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
食べる 連用形+て: 食べて Compound
words --
irregular verb 連用形 continuative Sentence
structure
する し 連用形+て: して Word order --
Emphasis --
来る き 連用形+て: きて
Pitch and
accents
And finally, no contractions occur either for the small set of formal literary verbs that use their 連体形 instead of their 連用 Gender roles
形 for this inflection:
Context
language
verb meaning continuative Verb
と
grammar
問う ask, question, accuse 問うて
More
と
grammar
訪う 〃 訪うて
Particles
こ
乞う ask 乞うて Counters
and counting
こ
請う 〃 請うて Language
patterns
Conjugation
As we saw earlier, the 連 用 形 conjoins sentences, and so it should be relatively obvious that this construction conjoins Schemes
sentences too, but in a slightly different way from the plain 連用形. Rather than simply joining sentences in such a way that Set phrases
there's no order in which verb actions take place, the て form explicitly preserves the order in which the actions occur. For Glossary
instance, the following two sentences say different things, in terms of which actions follow which other actions:
あさ はん た がっこう い じゅぎょう で
朝 ご 飯 を食べて、 学校 に行って、 授業 に出ました。
"(I) had breakfast, went off to school and went to class."
学校に行って、授業に出て、朝ご飯を食べました。
"(I) went off to school, went to class and had breakfast."

These are two very different ways of spending one's morning.

Liked this
book?
You may have noticed that in these two sentences only the last verb in the sentence has an inflection indicating tense Buy the
(present/past) and polarity (affirmative/negative). This is a consequence of using て: while つ itself is the classical helper author a beer
(or coffee)!
verb for verb completion, its 連用形 means there is no indication in which way the action has been completed. To indicate
the particular completion, the last verb is placed in whichever form is required, and this form then applies to all previous
verbs in て form. To illustrate:
ほん よ おんがく き
本 を読んで 音楽 を聞きます。
"(I) read a book and listen to music."
本を読んで音楽を聞きました。
"(I) read a book and listened to music."
('read' is past tense in this sentence)
§3.2.2.1 — Verbal adjective continuative
Preface
Verbal adjectives, too, can be chained in this way by using their 連用形 + て: The syntax
The kana
adjective て form The basics --
Writing the
高い 高く + て kana --
Pronouncing
Japanese --
楽しい 楽しく + て Hiragana and
katakana
薄い 薄く + て differences --
Writing
大きい 大きく + て
spoken
よい (いい) よく + て Japanese
Katakana
ない なく + て specific --
Punctuation
and writing --
おお あか おも
This lets us write the previous "book" sentence in the following manner, using the adjectives 大 きい, big, 赤 い, red and 重 Kanji

い, heavy.: Types of Kanji -

-
Writing Kanji --
おお あか おも ほん Reading kanji:
これは 大 きくて 赤 くて 重 い 本 です。 furigana --
Reading quirks:
"This is a big, red, heavy book." compound
words --
Just like with verbs, the actual inflection of the adjectives in て is determined by the final adjective. To illustrate, the Looking up
kanji --
following sentence is entirely in past tense affirmative: Styles --

はこ
Words and
大きくて赤くて重かった 箱 です。 word classes

"(It) was a big, red, heavy box." Articles --

Verbs --
Nouns --
To make everything negative, we take the plain negative form of adjectives, ending on ない, and simply use ない's て form: Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
大きくなくて赤くなくて重い本です。 Adverbs --
Particles --
"(It)'s a not big, not red, heavy book." Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Of course, since they're both just て forms, we can even mix the two: Compound
words --
はこ
Sentence
大きくて赤くなくて重かった 箱 です。 structure
"(It) was a big, not red, heavy box." Word order --
Emphasis --
This "placing ない in て form" to form the negative て form for verbal adjectives also applies to verbs, by first forming their Pitch and
plain negative form, 未然形 + ない, and then turning this negative into a て form: accents
Gender roles
た かえ
Context
食べなくて 帰 りました。 language
"(I) didn't eat, and went home."
Verb
grammar
§3.2.2.2 — Noun continuative More
grammar
Particles
For nouns, which rely on copulae for inflections, we do not use the 連用形 for つ, but instead rely on the 連用形 for です, Counters
which is で: and counting
Language
あか へや patterns
きれいで、 明 るい部屋です。 Conjugation
"A tidy, bright room." Schemes
Set phrases
As with the verbal て form, tense and polarity are expressed by the final verbal (which can be either a verb, verbal adjective Glossary
あか
or a copula), so that if we want to place the previous sentence in past tense, we need only change the tense for 明 るい:

きれいで、明るかった部屋です。
"(It) was a tidy, bright room."

The negative form for this continuative uses じゃない (or ではない), which due to it ending on ない uses the adjectival て
form. So far so good, but this is where things get a little complicated: because な い is a verbal adjective, and verbal
adjectives can be paired with です, we can actually choose between two "て" forms. One is the regular て form, なくて; the Liked this
book?
other is ない + 連用形 of です, giving us ないで instead. Both are used, but depending on the speaker's intention, one is Buy the
usually preferred over the other. For regular chaining, ないで tends to be preferred; for a chaining with an implied contrast author a beer
(or coffee)!
of sorts, なくて is typically preferred. To illustrate:

きれいじゃないで、明るい部屋です。
"(it) is a not (so) tidy, (but) bright room."
(no real contrast, although in English the phrasing makes it sound like one)
しず にぎ くうき
静 かじゃなくて、 賑 やかな空気でした。
"Rather than quiet, it was a very lively atmosphere."
(real contrast, explicit "rather than X, Y instead" connotation)
Of course this continuative also works for verbal adjectives and verbs in plain negative form, as these end on ない:
Preface
おお あか おも はこ
大 きくて 赤 くないで 重 かった 箱 です。 The syntax
"(It) was a big, not red, heavy box." The kana
た かえ The basics --
食べないで 帰 りました。 Writing the
"(I) didn't eat, (then) went home." kana --
Pronouncing
Japanese --
As mentioned in the section on negatives in this chapter, the negative continuative ないで/なくて is actually similar in role Hiragana and
katakana
to using a verbal 未然形 + ず + に, meaning "without ...", but there is the subtle difference: ないで is a verb form, while - differences --

ず に is an adverbial form. Chaining many affirmative and negative verb actions using the negative て form is possible, Writing
spoken
while 未然形+ずに doesn't allow you to 'chain': Japanese
Katakana
い の つ
specific --
食べなくて学校へ行ってバスを乗らなくて着きました。 Punctuation
and writing --
食べないで学校へ行ってバスを乗らないで着きました。
Kanji
"[I] didn't eat, went to school, didn't take the bus and arrived."
Types of Kanji -
-
We can interpret this sentence as the more natural sounding "I went to school without eating and (then) arrived without Writing Kanji --
taking the bus." but this misrepresents the actual Japanese, which chains four verb phrases. For actual Japanese that reflects Reading kanji:
this English sentence, we must use the following: furigana --
Reading quirks:
compound
食べずに学校へ行って、バスを乗らずに着きました。 words --
Looking up
kanji --
In the て form sentence, we're chaining four different actions, namely not eating, going, not boarding, and arriving. Styles --
Words and
However, in this sentence using -ずに we are listing just two actions, and both of these are adverbially constrained: 食べず word classes
に行く is "going without eating" and バスを乗らずに着く is "arriving without having taken the bus". Articles --
Verbs --
Nouns --
§3.2.3 — Special て form conjunctions Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
Adverbs --
We're not quite done with the て form yet, because there are a number of special て form combinations with verbs that Particles --
Prefixes --
should not be taken literally, but should be considered idiomatic: they mean something different from what the used words Onomatopoeia
would normally imply themselves. These combinations only work for verbs in て form, and do not apply to verbal and mimesis --
Compound
adjectives in て form or nouns followed by で (or ないで). words --
Sentence
structure
§3.2.3.1 — Special conjunctions: ている/てある Word order --
Emphasis --
Pitch and
Combining the て form with ある and いる profoundly changes the verb's meaning in terms of its grammatical role. Using accents
these two verbs as helper verbs lets us turn any verb into a resultant state, a present progressive form or an habitual act, Gender roles
depending on whether the verb is transitive or intransitive, and whether we use あ る or い る . The table of which Context
combinations can imply which constructions is as follows: language
Verb
て+ある て+いる grammar
More
transitive 1. Resultant state 1. Habitual grammar
(implying something or 2. Progressive Particles
Counters
someone caused the state) and counting
intransitive (impossible combination) 1. Habitual Language
patterns
2. Progressive
Conjugation
3. Resultant state Schemes
Set phrases
Looking at the table, we see that the て+ある form is used to indicate that something is in a particular state, and that this Glossary
state was caused by someone or something. Examples of this "resultant state" are for instance:
はず
ボタンが 外 してある。
"The button is (in an) unfastened (state) (because someone unfastened it)."
くるま と
車 が止めてある。
"The car is (in a) stopped (state) (because someone stopped it)."

This construction describes the state of something, just like a normal intransitive verb would, but also implies that someone Liked this
is responsible for this state. The reason for this is the fact that a transitive verb is used as basis: a transitive verb describes an book?
action being performed by something or someone. Thus, even if the something or someone that performs the verb is left off, Buy the
the fact that a transitive verb was used is in itself enough to tell us that something or someone must have performed it. author a beer
(or coffee)!
On the other hand, the resultant state that is created using the て+いる form does not imply this additional "someone did it",
because it uses an intransitive verb instead, which merely passively describes the current state of the world without any
implications of how it might have come to be this way:

ボタンが外している。
"The button is (in an) unfastened (state)"
車が止まっている。
"The car is (in a) stopped (state)."
One principal difference is that while て + あ る operates on transitive verbs for resultant state, て + い る operates on
intransitive verbs. Another difference is that while て+ある can only be used to create a resultant state, て+いる can also be Preface
used to create the progressive verb form, as well as to indicate a habitual action. Both these forms can be made with either The syntax
transitive or intransitive verbs: The kana
えいが み The basics --
いま映画を見ています。 Writing the
kana --
"(I) am watching a film right now." Pronouncing
Form: transitive progressive Japanese --
Hiragana and
しんぶん よ katakana
よく 新聞 を読んでいます。 differences --
"(I) frequently read the newspaper." Writing
Form: transitive habitual act spoken
まど
Japanese
窓 が開いています。 Katakana
specific --
"(The) window is opening." Punctuation
Form: intransitive progressive and writing --
きし Kanji
そのドアがよく 軋 っています。
Types of Kanji -
"That door often creaks." -
Form: intransitive habitual Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
furigana --
To make sure there's no mistakes possible: て+ある/ て+いる can both do resultant state, but they operate on transitive and Reading quirks:
compound
intransitive verbs, respectively: "Aru, TrAnsitive - Iru, Intransitive". In addition to this, て + い る can also signify words --
Looking up
progressive state and habitual form of any verb. kanji --
Styles --
Colloquially, the て + い る form is often shortened by dropping the い , to create て + る instead. This means that the Words and
following two sentences are technically the same, but the first is formal, and the second less formal: word classes
Articles --
なに Verbs --
何 をしていますか。 Nouns --
Pronouns --
何をしてますか。 Nominalisers --
"What are [you] doing?" Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Particles --
Prefixes --
§3.2.3.2 — Special conjunctions: ていく/てくる Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Compound
い く words --
Another important pair is the て+行く/て+来 る pair, where 行く is sometimes written or pronounced as ゆく instead (this Sentence
is not wrong, but simply an older, alternate way to write and say 行く, used a lot in songs, poetry and still commonly used in structure
many dialects). These two constructions stand for a gradual process directed either towards the speaker in some way, or Word order --
Emphasis --
heading away from the speaker in some way. This towards/away can be either a physical process or an abstract process such
Pitch and
as "it feels like her mind is slowly slipping away": accents
よる Gender roles
夜 になっていく。 Context
"It's (gradually) becoming night." language
はる
Verb
春 になってきた。 grammar
"It has (gradually) become spring." More
ふじさん み grammar
富士山が見えてきます。 Particles
"Mt. Fuji is (gradually) coming into view." Counters
and counting
When used in this way, 来る or 行く are usually written くる and いく instead of using kanji. Language
patterns
Conjugation
Note that these "gradual process" interpretations do not always apply. For instance, [...]て+くる is also a common pattern
か
Schemes
used in combination with activity verbs to indicate "てくる". For example, 買 ってくる means "going to buy something Set phrases
Glossary
(and then come back afterwards)" or 行ってくる means "going (somewhere) (and then coming back after whatever one had
to do there is done)".

Note that a verb can sometimes be interpreted in two or three ways:

と
飛んできた。
Interpreted normally: "(He) came flying over."
As a gradual process: "It came flying into view."
いま で
今 出てきます。 Liked this
As a gradual process: "It's coming out (into view) right now." book?
Buy the
As 'do and come back': "(I'm) going out (to do something, and will then come back) now." author a beer
(or coffee)!
§3.2.3.3 — Special conjunctions: てください

This construction signifies a semi-formal request, something which we will look at in more detail when treating verbs for
くだ
giving and receiving in the chapter on language patterns. For now it suffices to say that using て+ 下 さい turns a verb into a
polite command or request:
まど あ
窓 を開けて下さい。
"Please open the window."
た
 た
食べて下さい。
"Please eat (this)." Preface
The syntax

§3.2.3.4 — Special conjunctions: てしまう The kana

The basics --
Writing the
kana --
The construction て+しまう is a very interesting construction. It lacks an adequate corresponding construction in English, Pronouncing
but indicates that some action has been irrevocably performed. This can either be a good thing ("we are done working on Japanese --
Hiragana and
this project"), a bad thing ("I broke the radio...") or something of which one might wish it wasn't irrevocable ("I finished katakana
reading this series of books... I wish there were more"). Because of this, translations for this construction are highly context differences --
sensitive: Writing
spoken
い Japanese
ああ、言ってしまった......
Katakana
"Oh (man), now (you)'ve said it..." specific --
literally: "Ah, you've said it (even though it would have been better if you hadn't, but you can't take it back now)" Punctuation
and writing --
One can expect to hear something like this when someone says something that everyone knows, but no one had dared say Kanji
because of the repercussions, such as telling the boss that everyone in his department is better suited for his job than he is. Types of Kanji -
-
こわ Writing Kanji --
ラジオを 壊 してしまった。 Reading kanji:
furigana --
"(I) broke the radio... (and that's something I wish I hadn't)." Reading quirks:
compound
words --
In this line, it should be obvious why the fact that 壊せる, "break", having been completed is a bad thing. Looking up
kanji --
Styles --
Colloquially, て + しまう can be contracted into ちまう or ちゃう, (with で + しまう contracting to じまう or じゃう
Words and
respectively) resulting, for instance, in: word classes
きょうかしょ わす Articles --
あっ、 教科書 を 忘 れちゃった。 Verbs --
Nouns --
"Ah! (I) forgot (my) textbook..." Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
Again, it is clear that 忘れる, "forget", is a bad or regrettable thing when completed, especially in relation to needing your Adverbs --
textbook in class. Particles --
Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
§3.2.3.5 — Special conjunctions: ておく Compound
words --

お
Sentence
Also important is the て+おく construction. On its own, the verb 置 くmeans "to put [something] [somewhere]", but when structure
Word order --
paired with a verb in て form, it creates a construction meaning "to do something with the intention of leaving it that way Emphasis --
[for whatever reason]". This may sound a bit cryptic, so let's look at an example for clarification: Pitch and
accents
でんき つ くだ
電気を付けておいて 下 さい。 Gender roles
"Please turn on the lights." Context
language
This sentence uses the て form of おく for a polite command (using 下さい), and asks for the lights to be turned on without Verb
there being a need for them to be on right now, other than it saving having to turn them on later. Literally this sentence grammar
More
would read "Please turn on the lights and leave them that way". Colloquially, the combination of て+お is often changed to grammar
と instead, so the following two sentences are the same, except that the first is more formal, and the second more colloquial: Particles
Counters
まど あ and counting
窓 を開けておきます。 Language
窓を開けときます。 patterns
"(I)'ll open the windows (now, rather than having to do it later when it becomes genuinely necessary)." Conjugation
Schemes
Set phrases
§3.2.3.6 — Special conjunctions: てみる Glossary

Another construction that changes the meaning of the suffixed verb is the て+みる form. みる (見る) alone means "to see",
but suffixed to て forms, this construction means "to do ... to see what it's like" or "to do ... to see what happens":
すし た
寿司を食べてみませんか。
"Won't (you) try eating (some) sushi?"

Here a negative question is asked as a more polite way of offering a suggestion, and the 食 べ て み ま す part stands for Liked this
"trying to eat, to see what happens". In this case, the "to see what happens" is probably related to "seeing if you like it". book?
Buy the
じてんしゃ の ぜんぜん author a beer
自転車を乗ってみましたが 全然 だめでした。 (or coffee)!
"(I) tried to ride a bicycle, but failed horribly."
literally: "but (it/I) was no good at all."

Here, the act of riding a bicycle was tried to see what would happen, but we can conclude from the remainder of the
sentence that riding a bike isn't for this particular speaker.

§3.2.4 — Representative listing: たり

If, instead of chaining, you want to only list representative actions for which order doesn't matter, such as "Today I read my
book, played some video games and walked the dog" in which you probably did all those things a few times in no real order,
Preface
then the て form is of little use. Instead, the classical helper verb たり is the one you want to be working with. This verb has
The syntax
the following bases:
The kana
The basics --
bases form Writing the
kana --
未然形 たら Pronouncing
Japanese --
連用形 たり Hiragana and
katakana
連体形 たり differences --
Writing
已然形 たれ spoken
Japanese
命令形 たれ
Katakana
specific --
Just like て, the 連用形 of たり is used, and just like for て and た, contractions occur when used with 五段 verbs (with 行 Punctuation
and writing --
く having an irregular contraction, and 問 う , 訪 う , 乞 う and 請 う inflecting via their 連 体 形 rather than 連 用 形 ). Kanji
However, unlike the て form, which can pair up with any 'final verb' for its inflection, たり gets its inflection specifically Types of Kanji -
-
from the verb する, meaning "to do": Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
きょう がっこう い じゅぎょう で はん た furigana --
今日は 学校 に行ったり、 授業 に出たり、ご 飯 を食べたりしました。 Reading quirks:
compound
"Today (I) went to school, went to class and ate." words --
Looking up
kanji --
This sentence literally reads "Today I did: going to school, going to class, eating", without any distinction in which action Styles --
occurred when, in relation to other actions; we're literally only summarising activities performed.
Words and
word classes
Verbs in たり form can also be used on their own in a sentence, in which case it translates to "doing things such as", and still Articles --
get closed off by する: Verbs --
Nouns --
Pronouns --
きのう ほん よ
Nominalisers --
昨日、 本 を読んだりした。 Adjectives --
"Yesterday (I) did things like reading a book." Adverbs --
Particles --
Prefixes --
The negative たり form is constructed by placing a verb in plain negative form first (未然形 + ない) and then turning this Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
verbal negative into a たり form by the same formula: 連用形+たり (with a contraction just as for past tense), forming 未 Compound
words --
然形 + なかったり.
Sentence
structure
§3.2.5 — Conditional: たら, なら Word order --
Emphasis --
Pitch and
In the same series of inflections that contract with 五段 verbs (た, て and たり), we find たら, which is the conditional accents
かていけい
form, or 仮定形, for た. It combines in the same way as た, て and たり do, being added to the 連用形, and contracts with Gender roles
Context
五段 verbs as well as with verbal adjectives: language

五段 conditional
Verb
grammar
会う 会ったら More
grammar
歩く 歩いたら Particles
Counters
急ぐ 急いだら and counting
話す 話したら Language
patterns
死ぬ 死んだら Conjugation
Schemes
学ぶ 学んだら Set phrases
Glossary
読む 読んだら
待つ 待ったら
分かる 分かったら

い
Noting the exception for the verb 行く:

irregular verb conditional

行く 行ったら Liked this
book?
Buy the
No contractions occur for 一段 verbs: author a beer
(or coffee)!
一段 conditional
見る 見たら
伸びる 伸びたら
食べる 食べたら

And the irregular verbs get their own table:

irregular verb 連用形 conditional

 する し したら
Preface
来る き きたら
The syntax
ある あり あったら The kana
ます まし ましたら The basics --
Writing the
kana --
For verbal adjectives we see contractions: Pronouncing
Japanese --
Hiragana and
verbal adjectives conditional katakana
differences --
高い 高かったら Writing
spoken
楽しい 楽しかったら Japanese
薄い 薄かったら Katakana
specific --
Punctuation
大きい 大きかったら and writing --
Kanji
And for nouns the copulae inflect instead: Types of Kanji -
-
nouns past tense Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
noun + だ noun + だったら furigana --
Reading quirks:
compound
noun + です noun + でしたら words --
Looking up
kanji --
So what does it do? In simple terms, this construction sets up an "if ..., then ..." condition: Styles --

まち おもしろ みもの
Words and
町 を歩いたら、 面白 いお見物をいっぱい見ます。 word classes
"If (you) walk around town, (you) will see many interesting sights." Articles --
Verbs --
Nouns --
This can also be used for actions that are constrained by some condition, such as: Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
にじかん べんきょう Adjectives --
２ 時間 したら、 勉強 します。 Adverbs --
Particles --
"I'll go study 2 hours from now" Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
Here, the act of studying is constrained by 2 hours of something else needing to pass first. and mimesis --
Compound
words --
In less simple terms, the たら construction is a "hypothetical future past". That is, it sets up a hypothetical future in which Sentence
some action has already been taken, about which comments are then made. Looking at the previous sentences using this structure
explanation, we get some rather conceptual translations: Word order --
Emphasis --
町を歩いたら、面白いお見物をいっぱい見ます。 Pitch and
accents
"In a future where you are walking around town, you see lots of interesting things"
Gender roles
２時間したら、勉強します。 Context
"In a future in which I have spent 2 hours doing (something), I will (then) go study." language
Verb
This explanation doesn't quite work for noun conditionals, which use なら. This is the 已然形 for the copula だ, rather than grammar
for the conditional form of the helper verb of past tense, and rather than a hypothetical future past, is essentially just a plain More
if[...]then[...] construction: grammar
Particles
せんせい Counters
先生 ならきっと分かる。 and counting
"I'm sure the teacher will understand." Language
literally: "If the teacher, (he/she) will understand." patterns
Conjugation
There are a few more conditionals in Japanese, so (much like with "and" and the 連用形) when translating from Japanese to Schemes
English, translating たら with "if ... then ..." is fine, but translating an English sentence that has an if/then construction to Set phrases
Glossary
Japanese requires figuring out exactly which style of if/then is being used.

For instance, "If you walk around town, you will see many interesting sights" is an example of a conditional pertaining to a
current situation, "If you get fired, I'll quit too" is a conditional pertaining to a hypothetical situation, and "If you're late for
the exam, you fail it." is actually not a conditional but a factual statement ("if A, then B as well").

Of these, the first uses た ら as conditional, the second uses the hypothetical construction - え ば (explained later in this
chapter) and the third uses the simultaneous action marker, と (possibly the most abused particle by beginning students),
which is explained in the chapter on particles.
Liked this
book?
§3.2.6 — Desire Buy the
author a beer
(or coffee)!
§3.2.6.1 — First person desirative: たい

Unlike the previous constructions starting with the syllable た, this inflection doesn't involve a classical helper verb, but a
helper adjective, たい (which has a kanji form, 度い, but this is not used in modern Japanese). This also means that unlike
the previous -た, -て, -たり and たら constructions, no contractions occur with 五段 verbs, which makes forming the first
person desirative very easy. Since this is an adjective, rather than a verb, it has a slightly different set of bases for further
conjugation:

bases form
 未然形 たく
Preface
連用形 たく
The syntax
連体形 たい
The kana
已然形 たけれ The basics --
Writing the
kana --
However, as an inflection the first person desirative is about as simple as it gets, pairing with 連用形: Pronouncing
Japanese --

五段 verb first person desirative

Hiragana and
katakana
differences --
会う 会い + たい Writing
spoken
歩く 歩き + たい Japanese
急ぐ 急ぎ + たい Katakana
specific --
Punctuation
話す 話し + たい and writing --
死ぬ 死に + たい Kanji
Types of Kanji -
学ぶ 学び + たい -
Writing Kanji --
読む 読み + たい Reading kanji:
furigana --
待つ 待ち + たい Reading quirks:
compound
words --
分かる 分かり + たい Looking up

一段 verb
kanji --
Styles --
first person desirative
Words and
見る 見 + たい word classes

伸びる 伸び + たい Articles --
Verbs --
Nouns --
食べる 食べ + たい Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
irregular verb first person desirative Adverbs --
Particles --
する し + たい Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
来る き + たい and mimesis --
Compound
words --
You may have noticed that です and ます are not listed here. The absence of です is easy to explain because it is the copula, Sentence
ほ
structure
and one cannot want something to have a particular property in Japanese using the copula (this uses the adjective 欲 しい
Word order --
instead, explained later in this section on desiratives). The absence of a たい form for ます is more subtle: there is no たい Emphasis --
form for ます because using たい to express one's desire is intrinsically selfish, and thus mutually exclusive with polite Pitch and
accents
phrasing. To make a statement that expresses desire that is less selfish, the Japanese use a construction that expresses "I
おも Gender roles
think I want/would like to ...", using the particle と and the verb 思 う, which makes the actual desire less strong because it's
Context
only a thought, rather than a 'genuine' desire: language
あたら くるま か おも Verb
新 しい 車 を買いたいと 思 います。 grammar
"I think I would like to buy a new car." More
grammar
This is a very civil way of expressing one's own desire, compared to the plain: Particles
Counters
and counting
新しい車を買いたい。
Language
"I want to buy a new car." patterns
Conjugation
Because たい is an adjective, it can also be followed by です to make it more polite, in which case the translation stays the Schemes
same, but the perceived strength of the desire is tuned down just a bit, although not as much as when the desire is turned into Set phrases
a thought using +と+思う: Glossary

新しい車を買いたいです。
"I want to buy a new car."

To say one doesn't want something, all we have to do is form the negative of たい, which we know is たくない:
きょう なに
今日は 何 もしたくない。
"I don't want to do anything today."
Liked this
book?
Buy the
§3.2.6.2 — Second and third person desirative: たがる author a beer
(or coffee)!

Because of the way Japanese works, and the way the world is interpreted and thought about in the Japanese mindset, one
never presumes to truly know what's going on in someone else's head. Because of this, you cannot say that "Bob wants an
apple", because even though he might give off all the signals that he does, and even though he may have said so himself, you
might still be interpreting the signals wrong, and he might have only said he wanted one instead of really wanting one.
Because of this, rather than using たい for second/third person desiratives, the classical helper verb たがる is used.

bases form
未然形 たがら / たがろ
 連用形 たがり / たがつ
連体形 たがる Preface
The syntax
已然形 たがれ
The kana
The basics --
Like たい, this form does not suffer from contracted inflections, and is added directly to the 連用形: Writing the
kana --

五段 verb
Pronouncing
second/third person desirative Japanese --
Hiragana and
会う 会い + たがる katakana
differences --
歩く 歩き + たがる Writing
spoken
急ぐ 急ぎ + たがる Japanese
Katakana
話す 話し + たがる specific --
Punctuation
死ぬ 死に + たがる and writing --
Kanji
学ぶ 学び + たがる
Types of Kanji -
読む 読み + たがる -
Writing Kanji --
待つ 待ち + たがる Reading kanji:
furigana --
Reading quirks:
分かる 分かり + たがる compound
words --
一段 verb second/third person desirative Looking up
kanji --
Styles --
見る 見 + たがる
Words and
伸びる 伸び + たがる word classes
Articles --
食べる 食べ + たがる Verbs --
Nouns --
Pronouns --
irregular verb second/third person desirative Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
する し + たがる Adverbs --
Particles --
来る き + たがる Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Again で す and ま す are missing. Not unlike た い , た が る can be considered somewhat rude as it presumes to know Compound
words --
something about someone else. This construction can be made less rude by adding the noun adjective そう to the 連体形, to Sentence
emphasise that this is merely an impression: structure
Word order --
きみこ で
Emphasis --
君子さんが出たがるそうです。
Pitch and
"It seems Kimiko wants to leave." accents
Gender roles
However, note that the following is also possible, using そう with the 連用形:
Context
language
君子さんが出たがりそうです。
Verb
"It seems Kimiko wants to leave." grammar
More
When そう follows a 連体形, it generally does not mean the same thing as when it follows a 連用形. Normally, そう grammar
following a 連体形 expresses a form of hearsay, implying the information's been read somewhere or has been told to the Particles
Counters
speaker by someone, and そう following a 連用形 expresses the concept of something "being at the point of ..." or "seeming and counting
to be ...". While generally two different things, both can be used due to the nature of たがる, but the different uses have Language
difference nuances: patterns
Conjugation
Schemes
君子さんが出たがるそうです。
Set phrases
"It seems Kimiko wants to leave (I know this because she for instance told us, or someone else told me this was the Glossary
case)."
君子さんが出たがりそうです。
"It seems Kimiko wants to leave (this is my impression, because she's giving off all the signs of someone who wants to
leave)."

The negative form for たがる is a normal verb negative, being either たがらない or たがりません.

§3.2.6.3 — Desiring a particular state: —て 欲しい

ほ

Liked this
book?
Buy the
Unlike the previous two desirative forms, there is also the 'desire for something to be in a particular state' that was author a beer
previously hinted at. For instance "I want this door to be red" cannot be expressed with the previous two forms, because they (or coffee)!
cannot express this state, but can only express verb actions or processes. To express a state desirative, the verbal adjective て
form plus the adjective 欲しい, a verbal adjective for indicating that something is desirable, is used:
あか
このドアが 赤 くて欲しい。
"(I) want this door red."

Note that because these are verbal adjectives, we use the particle が, not を. Even though "desire" is a verb in English, it is
an adjective in Japanese, so rather than saying "I want this door red", the more literal translation would be "this door is
(more) desired (when) red".
In terms of politeness, 欲しい is just as direct and selfish as たい, and it can be softened by adding です:
Preface
つか
使 って欲しい。 The syntax
"[I] want it made." The kana
The basics --
使って欲しいです。 Writing the
"(I) want it made (being said in a less direct manner than the above sentence)" kana --
Pronouncing
Japanese --
Since 欲しい is a normal verbal adjective, we can inflect it further like any other verbal adjective: Hiragana and
katakana
differences --
bases form Writing
未然形 欲しく spoken
Japanese
連用形 欲しく Katakana
specific --
連体形 欲しい Punctuation
and writing --
已然形 欲しけれ Kanji
Types of Kanji -
-
§3.2.7 — Pseudo-future: おう/よう Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
furigana --
Reading quirks:
The pseudo-future is used for three things, which are called the presumptive ("it's probably the case that..."), the dubitative compound
("will/shall ...?") and the cohortative ("let's ..."). words --
Looking up
kanji --
§3.2.7.1 — Dubitative / cohortative Styles --
Words and
word classes
These forms, as mentioned in the outline for Japanese, turn the 未然形 into something that ends on an お sound through a Articles --
contraction. There are both a normal and a polite form of this construction, with the polite form simply being the verb in Verbs --
Nouns --
polite form, with ます turned into a pseudo-future. Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
The way in which the direct pseudo-future is constructed differs for the two verb classes: 五段 verbs get う added to the 未 Adverbs --
Particles --
然形, but the combination of the 未然形 あ—row syllable and the う changes the pronunciation (as well as written form) to Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
an お—row syllable instead, so か+う becomes こう, ま+う becomes もう, etc. To see why this happens we have to look and mimesis --
back at classical Japanese, where the combination of an あ—row syllable and an う always changed the pronunciation to Compound
words --
that of the corresponding お—row syllable; not just for 未然形 constructions, but for any written combination of the two. Sentence
While the language reforms of the mid 20th century changed many of the rules for written language so that it would structure
correspond to spoken language more, constructions involving the 未然形 have generally been left alone (another 未然形 Word order --
Emphasis --
'quirk' can be found in 五段 verbs ending on う, which becomes わ rather than あ).
Pitch and

五段 verb pseudo-future polite pseudo-future

accents
Gender roles
会う 会 [わ → お] + う = 会おう 会い + ましょう Context
language
歩く 歩 [か → こ] + う = 歩こう 歩き + ましょう Verb
急ぐ 急 [が → ご] + う = 急ごう 急ぎ + ましょう grammar
More
話す 話 [さ → そ] + う = 話そう 話し + ましょう grammar
Particles
死ぬ 死 [な → の] +う = 死のう 死に + ましょう Counters
and counting
学ぶ 学 [ば → ぼ] + う = 学ぼう 学び + ましょう
Language
読む 読 [ま → も] + う = 読もう 読み + ましょう patterns
Conjugation
待つ 待 [た → と] + う = 待とう 待ち + ましょう Schemes
Set phrases
分かる 分か [ら → ろ] + う = 分かろう 分かり + ましょう
Glossary
ある あ [ら → ろ] + う = あろう あり + ましょう

For 一段 verbs, we simply add よう to the 未然形, and for the irregular verbs and copulae we see special cases:

一段 verb pseudo-future polite pseudo-future

見る 見 + よう 見 + ましょう
伸びる 伸び + よう 伸び + ましょう
Liked this
食べる 食べ + よう 食べ + ましょう book?
Buy the
author a beer
irregular verb pseudo-future polite pseudo-future
(or coffee)!
する し + よう し + ましょう
来る こ + よう き + ましょう
ます まし + よう = ましょう already polite
です でしょ + う = でしょう already polite
だ で + あろう = だろう ×
For verbal adjectives, the plain pseudo-future is formed by (once again) combining the adjective's 連用形 with ある, this
time in pseudo-future form. The polite version is simply the adjective followed by だ or です in pseudo-future form: Preface
The syntax
adjective pseudo-future polite pseudo-future The kana
高い 高く + あろう = 高かろう 高い + だろう/でしょう The basics --
Writing the
kana --
楽しい 楽しく + あろう = 楽しかろう 楽しい + だろう/でしょう Pronouncing
Japanese --
薄い 薄く + あろう = 薄かろう 薄い + だろう/でしょう Hiragana and
katakana
大きい 大きく + あろう = 大きかろう 大きい + だろう/でしょう differences --
Writing
spoken
For nouns, there is little choice: they are followed by だ or です in pseudo-future form: Japanese
Katakana
noun + だ → noun + だろう specific --
Punctuation
and writing --
noun + です → noun + でしょう
Kanji
Types of Kanji -
Using the pseudo-future is fairly straight forward: -
Writing Kanji --
うみ い
Reading kanji:
海 に行こう。 furigana --
"Let's go to the beach." Reading quirks:
compound
words --
海に行こうか。 Looking up
"Shall [we] go to the beach?" kanji --
Styles --
どこでしょうか? Words and
"Where could it be?" word classes
ほん おもしろ Articles --
あの 本 は 面白 いでしょうか。 Verbs --
Nouns --
"(I) wonder if that book (over there) is interesting." Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
そうしましょう。 Adjectives --
Adverbs --
"Let's do so." Particles --
Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
§3.2.7.2 — Presumptive and mimesis --
Compound
words --
The presumptive form uses the pseudo-future of the copulae to turn verbs into presumed acts. While this form uses the 未然 Sentence
形 of the copula verb, the verb conjugation itself is actually technically a 連体形 conjugation, and therefore is explained in structure
more detail in the section on 連体形. For now, it suffices to say that it lets us say things like "This computer will probably Word order --
Emphasis --
still work" or "I am sure my coffee isn't cold yet" and similar presumptive statements in Japanese:
Pitch and
さ accents
コーヒーはもう冷めただろう。
Gender roles
"The coffee's probably cold by now."
Context
ひと たぶん せんせい
language
あの 人 は多分 先生 でしょう。
Verb
"(he/she)'s probably a teacher." grammar
More
§3.2.7.3 — The pseudo-future + と + verbs grammar
Particles
Counters
One of the special things about the pseudo-future is that when combined with several verbs, the intuitive meaning isn't and counting
always preserved. We can distinguish at least two such cases: the pseudo-future + と + する and the pseudo-future + と + Language
おも
patterns
思 う. While [...]+と+する normally means "to consider something [...]", the meaning changes to "at the point of doing [...]" Conjugation
when combined with a pseudo-future: Schemes
Set phrases
はん でんわ Glossary
ご 飯 を食べようとしたら、電話がかかってきた。
"As (we) were about to eat, the phone rang."

Similarly, on its own 思う means "to think", but when used with the pseudo-future, the combination becomes more nuanced,
expressing "to think about [doing ...]":
てがみ か
手紙を書こうと思います。
"(I)'m thinking about writing a letter."
Liked this
§3.2.7.4 — Negative pseudo-future book?
Buy the
author a beer
Since the pseudo-future doesn't quite end on a verb that can be placed in a 未然形, creating the negative form cannot be (or coffee)!
done using ぬ or ない. Instead, the negative pseudo-future uses the classical helper verb まい. To make matters slightly
more confusing, while 一段 verbs use their 未然形 as base form, 五段 verbs use their 連体形 as base form for the negative
pseudo-future.

五段 verb negative pseudo-future polite negative pseudo-future

会う 会う + まい 会い + ます + まい
歩く 歩く + まい 歩き + ます + まい
急ぐ 急ぐ + まい 急ぎ + ます + まい
 話す 話す + まい 話し + ます + まい
Preface
死ぬ 死ぬ + まい 死に + ます + まい
The syntax
学ぶ 学ぶ + まい 学び + ます + まい The kana
読む 読む + まい 読み + ます + まい The basics --
Writing the
待つ 待つ + まい 待ち + ます + まい kana --
Pronouncing
Japanese --
分かる 分かる + まい 分かり + ます + まい Hiragana and
katakana
ある ある + まい あり + ます + まい differences --

一段 verb negative pseudo-future polite negative pseudo-future

Writing
spoken
Japanese
見る 見 + まい 見 + ます + まい Katakana
specific --
伸びる 伸び + まい 伸び + ます + まい Punctuation
and writing --
食べる 食べ + まい 食べ + ます + まい
Kanji
Types of Kanji -
irregular verb negative pseudo-future polite negative pseudo-future -
Writing Kanji --
する する + まい し + ます + まい Reading kanji:
furigana --
来る くる + まい き + ます + まい Reading quirks:
compound
ます ます + まい already polite words --
Looking up
kanji --
And some example sentences: Styles --
Words and
そんな事が分かるまい。 word classes
"(I) do not expect (him) to understand such matters..." Articles --
Verbs --
えいが み Nouns --
その映画を見ようか見まいか。 Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
"Should (I) go see that film, or not see that film..." Adjectives --
の Adverbs --
どうしても伸びまい。 Particles --
Prefixes --
"That shouldn't stretch regardless of what (you) do." Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Compound
For verbal adjectives, the negative pseudo-future uses the verbal adjective in negative form, —くない, with ない in pseudo- words --
future form, —なかろう: Sentence
structure
adjective negative pseudo-future polite negative pseudo-future Word order --
Emphasis --
高い 高く + なかろう 高くありません + だろう/でしょう Pitch and
accents
楽しい 楽しく + なかろう 楽しくありません + だろう/でしょう
Gender roles
薄い 薄く + なかろう 薄くありません + だろう/でしょう Context
language
大きい 大きく + なかろう 大きくありません + だろう/でしょう
Verb
grammar
For nouns the idea is, again, to inflect だ or です appropriately: More
grammar
Particles
negative pseudo-future polite negative pseudo-future
Counters
noun + だ noun + じゃない + だろう noun + じゃありません + だろう and counting
Language
noun + だ noun + ではない + だろう noun + ではありません + だろう patterns
Conjugation
noun + です noun + じゃない + でしょう noun + じゃありません + でしょう
Schemes
noun + です noun + ではない + でしょう noun + ではありません + でしょう Set phrases
Glossary

However, for the negative pseudo-future form for nouns the typical pattern involves the copula で あ る instead, and its
(small) table is as follows:

negative pseudo-future polite negative pseudo-future

noun + である noun + であるまい

However, the negative pseudo-future is a pattern that you will likely not hear too often, as there are other, more frequently
used constructions that express negative expectation. Liked this
book?
Buy the
§3.2.8 — Hypothetical: えば author a beer
(or coffee)!

The hypothetical construction, hinted at earlier in the section on たら, is created by adding the particle ば to the 已然形,
かていけい
forming the 仮定形, known as the hypothetical form. The negative hypothetical is formed by adding ば to the 已然形 of the
plain negative form, as the following tables show:

五段 verb hypothetical negative hypothetical

会う 会え + ば 会わなけれ + ば
歩く 歩け + ば 歩かなけれ + ば
 急ぐ 急げ + ば 急がなけれ + ば
話す 話せ + ば 話さなけれ + ば Preface
The syntax
死ぬ 死ね + ば 死ななけれ + ば
The kana
学ぶ 学べ + ば 学ばなけれ + ば The basics --
Writing the
読む 読め + ば 読まなけれ + ば kana --
Pronouncing
待つ 待て + ば 待たなけれ + ば Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
分かる 分かれ + ば 分からなけれ + ば differences --

ある あれ + ば なけれ + ば Writing
spoken

一段 verb hypothetical negative hypothetical

Japanese
Katakana
見る 見れ + ば 見なけれ + ば specific --
Punctuation
and writing --
伸びる 伸びれ + ば 伸びなけれ + ば
Kanji
食べる 食べれ + ば 食べなけれ + ば Types of Kanji -
-
Writing Kanji --
irregular verb hypothetical negative hypothetical Reading kanji:
furigana --
する すれ + ば しなけれ + ば Reading quirks:
compound
来る くれ + ば こなけれ + ば words --
Looking up
kanji --
For ます, the negative hypothetical is a bit different, since its negative uses the classical helper verb ぬ: Styles --
Words and
word classes
hypothetical negative hypothetical
Articles --
ます ますれ + ば ませね + ば Verbs --
Nouns --
Pronouns --
For verbal adjectives, the same rules apply as for verbs: Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
Adverbs --
adjective hypothetical negative hypothetical Particles --
Prefixes --
高い 高けれ + ば 高くなけれ + ば Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Compound
楽しい 楽しけれ + ば 楽しくなけれ + ば words --
薄い 薄けれ + ば 薄くなけれ + ば Sentence
structure
大きい 大きけれ + ば 大きくなけれ + ば Word order --
Emphasis --
Pitch and
For nouns, the hypothetical construction has three possible affirmative versions, two using the 已然形 for だ, which is なら,
accents
either with or without ば, and a third using a slightly different copula: である, of which the ある part is the familiar verb. Gender roles
Context
hypothetical negative hypothetical language
noun + だ noun + なら noun + じゃない + なら Verb
grammar
noun + なら + ば (noun + じゃない + なら + ば) More
grammar
noun + です noun + であれ + ば noun + じゃなけれ (ではなけれ) + ば Particles
Counters
Note that the noun + じゃない + なら(ば) forms are possible due to the fact that ない is a verbal adjective; while it may and counting
Language
not be followed by だ, it may be followed by なら. In this case, we cannot substitute ありません for ない, as this is a patterns
normal verb form and can therefore never be (directly) followed by a present tense copula. Also, while "noun + じゃない + Conjugation
Schemes
なら + ば" is technically a valid negative hypothetical, it isn't really used, as the polite form "なら + ば" is considered not Set phrases
to mix with the plain form "じゃない". Glossary

So which is what? For the affirmative, in increasing order of politeness: なら, then ならば, and then であれば. For the
negative: じゃないなら, then じゃなければ, then ではなければ, and then finally the overly formal じゃありませねば
and ではありませねば. As a word of caution, do not use these last two unless you know why you are using them. They
will typically be considered clumsy speech.

How do we interpret the hypothetical? The simplest explanation is that this creates an if/then construction, with the note that
the specific type of conditional created is one that is best thought of as meaning "should [X] be the case, then [Y]". The
following two example sentences should illustrate this quite clearly: Liked this
book?
よ わ Buy the
ハイデガーを読めば分かります。 author a beer
"If (you) read Heidegger, (you)'ll understand." (or coffee)!
literally: "Should (you) read Heidegger, (you)'ll understand."
かね た もの か
お 金 があれば、おいしい食べ 物 が買えます。
"If (you) have money, (you) can buy delicious food."
literally: "Should (you) have money, (you) can buy delicious food."

It is important to note that, while usually these sentences are translated with "if" or "when" (because they sound more natural
than "should"), the real meaning of the 仮定形 is not really "if" or "when", but is really only a hypothetical conditional:
"supposing that ..." or "should ...". The danger in using the word "if" lies in the fact that it implies a more general kind of
truth: compare "If it rains, we get wet" to "assuming that it rains, we'll get wet". The first states a truth under all
circumstances, the second gives a possible truth for only one instance. Similarly, "when" carries the implication that
something will definitely happen, being only a matter of time before it does. The 仮定形 implies neither of these things. Preface
The syntax
§3.2.9 — Commands The kana
The basics --
There are two kinds of commands, namely imperative commands (things one should do) and prohibitive commands (things Writing the
one should not do). There are a number of ways in which to issue imperative and prohibitive commands, and we'll look at all kana --
Pronouncing
of these. Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
§3.2.9.1 — Imperative commands differences --
Writing
spoken
Imperative commands are quite easy to form in Japanese: for 五段 verbs, simply take the 命令形 and you're done: Japanese

五段 verb imperative form

Katakana
specific --
Punctuation
会う 会え and writing --
Kanji
歩く 歩け
Types of Kanji -
急ぐ 急げ -
Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
話す 話せ furigana --
Reading quirks:
死ぬ 死ね compound
words --
学ぶ 学べ Looking up
kanji --
読む 読め Styles --
Words and
待つ 待て word classes
分かる 分かれ Articles --
Verbs --
Nouns --
ある あれ Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
ます ませ Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Particles --
For 一段 verbs there is a bit of choice, as one can either use the 命令形 + ろ, or the 命令形 + よ, depending on how strong Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
the imperative should be: and mimesis --
Compound
一段 verb imperative form alternative form
words --
Sentence
見る 見+ろ 見+よ structure
Word order --
伸びる 伸び + ろ 伸び + よ Emphasis --

食べる 食べ + ろ 食べ + よ Pitch and

accents
Gender roles
What is the difference between these two forms for 一段 verbs? In standard Japanese, the -ろ imperative is a true command.
Context
If someone says 見ろ, you look. The second is more of an instruction than a command. For instance, if you're browsing language
though a dictionary and there is a footnote telling you to see page 214 for further information, this will typically use 見よ, Verb
ひょうじゅんご grammar
rather than 見ろ. However, this distinction only applies to standard Japanese, or 標準語 , which is the "dialect" spoken in More
かんとう grammar
the 関東 region, which is where Tokyo lies. North of this region, the - ろ form is typically used to issue imperatives, Particles
whereas South of this region the -よ form tends to be used instead. Counters
and counting
Not unexpectedly, the irregular verbs have their own 命令形: Language
patterns
Conjugation
verb imperative alternative
Schemes
する しろ せよ Set phrases
Glossary
来る こい こよ

く
However, there is also another verb with an irregular commanding form, namely the 一段 verb 呉 れる (usually written in
hiragana rather than using its kanji form). This verb is part of the set of verbs used in giving and receiving, and is thus vitally
important to know. It only has one imperative form:

verb imperative
くれる くれ
Liked this
book?
To illustrate the use of the imperative command, some example sentences: Buy the
author a beer
き
(or coffee)!
みんな、よく聞け。
"Everyone, listen up!"
はや
速 くしろ。
"Hurry up!"
お
もう、起きろ。
"Oh come on, wake up already!"
There is a second way to issue imperative commands, using the verb なさる, which is the (normally) honorific counterpart
to the verb する. This verb belongs to a set of verbs with a deviant 連用形 and 命令形, so to see how these differ, let's Preface
briefly look at the bases for all five verbs in this set: The syntax
The kana
下 さる
くだ
なさる いらっしゃる おっしゃる ござる The basics --
Writing the
meaning do issue be, come, go say be kana --

未然形 なさら 下さら いらっしゃら おっしゃら ござら

Pronouncing
Japanese --

連用形
Hiragana and
なさい 下さい いらっしゃい おっしゃい ござい katakana
differences --
連体形 なさる 下さる いらっしゃる おっしゃる ござる Writing

已然形 なされ 下され いらっしゃれ おっしゃれ ござれ

spoken
Japanese

命令形 なさい 下さい いらっしゃい おっしゃい ござい

Katakana
specific --
Punctuation
and writing --
This set tells us several things: first, it tells us that ください in the special て form -てください is the 命令形 for くださ Kanji
る. Second, it explains why ござる would become ございます: its 連用形 is simply ござい. Third, it tells us what we Types of Kanji -
-
need to know to form a command using なさる. If we add the 命令形 for なさる, なさい, to a verb's 連用形, we get a Writing Kanji --
command that is less direct than a plain 命令形 (and thus, more formal/polite), but is still a command: Reading kanji:
furigana --
Reading quirks:
五段 verb なさる imperative compound
words --
Looking up
会う 会い + なさい kanji --
Styles --
歩く 歩き + なさい Words and
word classes
急ぐ 急ぎ + なさい
Articles --
話す 話し + なさい Verbs --
Nouns --
死ぬ 死に + なさい Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
学ぶ 学び + なさい Adverbs --
Particles --
読む 読み + なさい Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
待つ 待ち + なさい and mimesis --
Compound
分かる 分かり + なさい words --
Sentence

一段 verb なさる imperative

structure
Word order --
見る 見 + なさい Emphasis --
Pitch and
伸びる 伸び + なさい accents

食べる 食べ + なさい Gender roles

Context
language
irregular verb なさる imperative
Verb
する し + なさい grammar
More
来る き + なさい grammar
Particles
And finally, ある, ます and the copulae do not have this imperative form. Counters
and counting
Language
For verbal adjectives, the idea of an imperative is a bit odd, but that doesn't mean we can't form one. Relying on 連用形 + patterns
ある for the inflection again, we can form the imperative command for verbal adjectives. We can either leave these as is, or Conjugation
contract them. The difference is subtle: the uncontracted form is considered an adjectival statement akin in use to, for Schemes
はや はや Set phrases
instance, the English "be faster!" (in Japanese: 速 くあれ). Contracted, this is an adverbial statement ( 速 かれ), which has Glossary
no English equivalent and is thus harder to explain; it is experienced as an adjectival statement in the same way that the past
tense for verbal adjectives is still an adjectival statement.

adjective imperative form contracted

高い 高く + あれ 高かれ
楽しい 楽しく + あれ 楽しかれ
薄い 薄く + あれ 薄かれ
Liked this
大きい 大きく + あれ 大きかれ
book?
Buy the
The same goes for the copula, for which we must use である (since neither だ nor です have a commanding form of their author a beer
(or coffee)!
own):

copula imperative form

である であれ

§3.2.9.2 — Prohibitive commands

If you want to tell people to not do something, then the form of the command is much simpler: simply add the particle な to
the 連体形 of any verb: Preface

五段 verb prohibitive form

The syntax
The kana
会う 会うな The basics --
Writing the
歩く 歩くな kana --
Pronouncing
Japanese --
急ぐ 急ぐな Hiragana and
katakana
話す 話すな differences --

死ぬ 死ぬな Writing
spoken
学ぶ 学ぶな Japanese
Katakana
読む 読むな specific --
Punctuation
待つ 待つな and writing --
Kanji
分かる 分かるな
Types of Kanji -

一段 verb prohibitive form Writing Kanji --

Reading kanji:
-

見る 見るな furigana --
Reading quirks:
compound
伸びる 伸びるな words --
Looking up
食べる 食べるな kanji --
Styles --
irregular verb prohibitive form Words and
word classes
する するな
Articles --
Verbs --
来る くるな Nouns --
Pronouns --
ます ますな Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
Adverbs --
And finally ある, which has a negative imperative based on ない: なかれ. Particles --
Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
Even easier than the normal imperative command, some example sentences are: and mimesis --
Compound
にど く words --
二度と来るな。 Sentence
"Don't come (round here) a second time!" structure
Word order --
なんだ、見るなよ。 Emphasis --
"What, don't look (at me)." Pitch and
accents
(よ is an emphatic particle, added to the end of a sentence as an extra level of "I am telling you ...". This particle will be Gender roles
treated in more detail in the chapter on particles.) Context
language
In addition to this rather simple prohibitive, we can also turn the 連用形 + なさい imperative into a prohibitive, by using 連 Verb
用形 + なさる + な. However, while grammatically sound, practically speaking this form is very rarely used. This works grammar
More
for any verb, except for する, which is technically the same verb as なさる but at a different formality/politeness level. grammar
Rather than using し + なさる + な, just なさる + な is used. Particles
Counters

下 さい
くだ and counting
§3.2.10 — Requesting: て, —て Language
patterns
Conjugation
§3.2.10.1 — Imperative request Schemes
Set phrases
Glossary
We already saw that we can use the verb 連用形 + てください to form a request,
にはい くだ
コーヒーを二杯 下 さい。
"Two coffee, please."

But we can also use the plain て form to form an informal request, or plea:
ま
待って。
"Wait (please)" Liked this
book?
か
Buy the
これを買って？
author a beer
"Buy this (for me)?" (or coffee)!

Of course, like all requests, they can be made to sound demanding, so intonation counts. If we say 待て instead of 待って,
cutting out the stop in the middle to sound curt, then rather than a request this may very well be experienced as a command
instead. Similarly, saying し て in a stern tone might be less commanding than し ろ , but will still be experienced as a
command more than as request. However, using this plain て form (rather than paired with ください) can be experienced as
curt, or even impolite language, depending on the setting it is used in, so be careful.

§3.2.10.2 — Prohibitive request

This kind of requesting can of course also be done in a prohibitive manner, in which case we rely on the continuative form
for ない using です, ないで: Preface
い The syntax
行かないで。 The kana
(Please) don't go. The basics --
Writing the
In this sentence the "please" is implied, and depending on intonation and context this form may be experienced as anything kana --
Pronouncing
between a mandate (such as a police officer asking you not to come too close to a crime scene) or a plea for someone to not Japanese --
do something (such as a friend in need asking you not to leave quite yet). We can also use an explicit "please" in the form of Hiragana and
katakana
ください: differences --

くだ
Writing
行かないで 下 さい。 spoken
Japanese
Please don't go.
Katakana
specific --
Again, depending on intonation and context this might be experienced as anything between a mandate and a plea. Punctuation
and writing --

§3.2.11 — Passive: れる/られる Kanji

Types of Kanji -
-
Passive constructions are, as their name implies, constructions which describe actions in a passive voice. Unlike "I eat Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
dinner" or "The cat is playing with the squeaky toy", which are in active voice, they refer to phrases like "Dinner was eaten furigana --
うけみ
Reading quirks:
by me" or "The squeaky toy was played with by the cat". In Japanese, this passive voice, called 受身, is achieved through compound
words --
the use of the two helper verbs れる (for 五段 verbs) and られる (for 一段 verbs), which are added to a verb's 未然形: Looking up
kanji --
五段 verb passive
Styles --
Words and
会う 会わ + れる word classes
Articles --
歩く 歩か + れる Verbs --
Nouns --
急ぐ 急が + れる Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
話す 話さ + れる Adjectives --
Adverbs --
死ぬ 死な + れる Particles --
Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
学ぶ 学ば + れる and mimesis --
Compound
読む 読ま + れる words --
Sentence
待つ 待た + れる structure
分かる 分から + れる Word order --
Emphasis --

一段 verb passive Pitch and

accents
見る 見 + られる Gender roles
伸びる 伸び + られる Context
language
食べる 食べ + られる Verb
grammar
irregular verb passive More
grammar
する (1) さ—未然形 + れる, forming される (most common) Particles
する (2) せ—未然形 + られる, forming せられる Counters
and counting
来る こ + られる Language
patterns
Conjugation
The helper verbs involved are both 一段 verbs, so they can themselves be conjugated further by using their appropriate base: Schemes
Set phrases
bases られる れる Glossary

未然形 -られ -れ
連用形 -られ -れ
連体形 -られる -れる
已然形 -られれ -れれ
命令形 -られ -れ

た Liked this
Thus, a simple phrase like 食 べます, meaning "(I) eat", can be made passive: 食べられます, "(something) is being eaten book?
(by someone)". Buy the
author a beer
(or coffee)!
This change from active voice to passive voice comes with two complications in Japanese: first, what was first the direct
object has now become the verb subject instead. This is no different from English, except because in Japanese the
grammatical roles are explicitly written, we must make sure we use the right particles:
ばん はん
晩 ご 飯 を食べます。
"(I) eat dinner."
Active, verb uses を in relation to ご飯.

晩ご飯が食べられます。
"Dinner is being eaten (by me)."
 Passive, verb uses が in relation to ご飯.
Preface
Second, what used to be the verb actor has become a verb detail instead. In English we see this expressed by the fact that the
The syntax
verb actor moves to being part of a preposition phrase ("I" becomes "by me", for instance), and from the section on verb
The kana
particles in chapter 2, we know that these kind of phrases are marked with に in Japanese:
The basics --
おれ
Writing the
俺 が晩ご飯を食べます。
kana --
Pronouncing
"I eat dinner." Japanese --
Hiragana and
Active, actor is marked with が. katakana
differences --
晩ご飯が俺に食べられます。 Writing
"Dinner is being eaten by me." spoken
Japanese
Passive, actor is marked with に.
Katakana
いぬ こわ
specific --
犬 がほえて、 怖 かった。 Punctuation
"(A) dog barked (at me), (and that) was scary." and writing --

Active, actor is marked with が. Kanji

Types of Kanji -
犬にほえられて怖かった。 -
Writing Kanji --
"(I) was barked at by (a) dog, (and that) was scary." Reading kanji:
Passive, actor is marked with に. furigana --
Reading quirks:
compound
めいわく うけみ words --
In addition to the regular passive construction, these verbs are also used to form what is known as the 迷惑 の 受身, or Looking up
kanji --
"passive form of bother". A somewhat inelegant name, this specific passive is used to indicate that some action (taken by Styles --
someone) has inconvenienced you, or someone else. Let us look at how this works:
Words and
だれ おとうと じてんしゃ ぬす word classes
誰 かが 弟 の自転車を 盗 みました。 Articles --
"Someone stole my (younger) brother's bicycle." Verbs --
Nouns --
Active, verb uses を in relation to 自転車. Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
誰かに弟の自転車が盗まれた。 Adjectives --
Adverbs --
"My brother's bike was stolen by someone." Particles --
Prefixes --
Passive, verb uses が in relation to 自転車. Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Compound
However, this "form of bother" only applies to actions that were taken by someone, which inconvenienced you (or someone words --
else). In the following sentence, for instance, the verb form is merely passive rather than a "passive form of bother":
Sentence
あめ ふ structure
雨 に降られた。 Word order --
"(I) was rained on." Emphasis --
Pitch and
While inconvenient, this is not a 迷惑の受身, because the rain isn't actively inconveniencing you — it is simply something accents
Gender roles
that happens. Remember that for a passive to also be a 迷惑の受身, the act has to have been performed, intentionally, by
Context
someone. language
Verb
In addition to describing the passive and passive form of bother, the helper verbs れる and られる are also used to form grammar
potential verb constructions, as well as honorific verb forms, and we shall look at these later on in this chapter. More
grammar
§3.2.12 — Causative: せる/させる Particles
Counters
and counting
Causative constructions are, as their name implies, constructions which indicate something was caused by someone. In Language
English, this comes down to statements such as "I was made to do the dishes by my mom", and in Japanese, these patterns
constructions use the verbs せる (for 五段 verbs) and させる (for 一段 verbs). These are paired, like れる/られる with the Conjugation
Schemes
未然形. Set phrases
Glossary
(さ)せる follow the 一段 scheme:

bases させる せる
未然形 -させ -せ
連用形 -させ -せ
連体形 -させる -せる
已然形 -させれ -せれ Liked this
book?
命令形 -させ -せ Buy the
author a beer
(or coffee)!
As mentioned, the way these two helper verbs are added is identical to the way (ら)れる are added:

五段 verb causative
会う 会わ + せる
歩く 歩か + せる
急ぐ 急が + せる
話す 話さ + せる
 死ぬ 死な + せる
学ぶ 学ば + せる Preface
The syntax
読む 読ま + せる
The kana
待つ 待た + せる The basics --
Writing the
分かる 分から + せる kana --
Pronouncing

一段 verb causative
Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
見る 見 + させる differences --
Writing
伸びる 伸び + させる spoken
Japanese
食べる 食べ + させる
Katakana
specific --
irregular verb causative Punctuation
and writing --
する さ—未然形 + せる Kanji
来る こ + させる Types of Kanji -
-
Writing Kanji --
Again, we should take note that we use the correct particles, except in this case we cannot rely on a parallel with English: Reading kanji:
furigana --
the person doing the causing is marked with が, because they are the verb actor, the person(s) affected are marked with に, Reading quirks:
compound
and the direct object is left as such (if there is one): words --
Looking up
かあ こども
kanji --
お 母 さんが子供たちに朝ご飯を食べさせました。 Styles --
"The mother made (her) children eat breakfast." Words and
word classes
Some more examples: Articles --
Verbs --
ま Nouns --
待たせたね。 Pronouns --
"(I) made you wait, (didn't I)?" Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
いもうと お Adverbs --
妹 が起こさせました。 Particles --
Prefixes --
"My (younger) sister woke me up." Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
In addition to being a causative, this construction is also a "permissive", which just means that it's a construction that Compound
words --
indicates giving permission to "let someone do something":
Sentence
しゃちょう う structure
社長 がプロジェクトを受けさせました。 Word order --
"(The) CEO let me take on (the) project." Emphasis --
Pitch and
This sentence could technically also mean "The CEO caused me to take on the project" or "The CEO made me take on the accents
project", so context is all-important. However, in most cases where it could either be a forced action or a permission, it's Gender roles
usually a permission. Context
language
§3.2.13 — Causative passive: せられる/させられる Verb
grammar
More
The title sounds like a combination of the causative and the passive, and that's essentially what it is. It's long, and its use is grammar
not rare. In English, this form reads "have been made to do ..." and is also quite long. So, just like in most western language, Particles
the more nuance you want to place in your verb conjugation, the longer it'll get. Counters
and counting
However, because this is a passive, we must make sure to use particles accordingly: Language
patterns
こども かあ あさ はん た
子供たちがお 母 さんに 朝 ご 飯 を食べさせられました。 Conjugation
Schemes
"The children were made to eat breakfast by their mother."
Set phrases
せんせい しゅくだい なお
Glossary
先生 に 宿題 をやり 直 させられました。
"(I) was made to redo (my) homework by (the) teacher."

§3.2.14 — Potential

§3.2.14.1 — Long potential: られる

As mentioned in the section on the passive, one of the other roles that れる/られる can play is that of the (long) potential.
Liked this
The potential form of a verb in English is typically constructed using the auxiliary verb "can", such as when turning "I book?
swim" into "I can swim", but in Japanese this is a conjugation instead. The reason this form is called the "long" potential is Buy the
that there exists a shorter potential form for the 五段 verbs, which will be discussed after this section. Forming the long author a beer
(or coffee)!
potential is no different from forming the passive, except that it is generally not used for 五段 verbs:

Formation of the long potential form is the same as for the passive form:

verb meaning potential meaning

見る see 見られる be able to see
伸びる stretch 伸びられる be able to stretch
食べる eat 食べられる be able to eat
come be able to come
く
 く こ
来る 来られる
Preface
There is one striking exception to this potential form, and that's the irregular verb する, "do". Rather than inflecting, this The syntax
でき
The kana
verb is simply replaced entirely with the verb 出来る, which literally means "be able to do".
The basics --
Writing the
We need to be mindful of particles again: verbs in potential form are always intransitive, and so any direct object it might kana --
Pronouncing
take in normal use becomes a verb subject instead, requiring the use of が rather than を. However, quite often in colloquial Japanese --
Japanese, the direct object particle を will be heard used in combination with these verbs, rather than the subject particle が, Hiragana and
katakana
not because this is grammatically correct, but because it "feels right". If you are a beginning student of Japanese, however, it differences --
is recommended you stick with proper grammar until you have mastered it to a level that allows you to interact with native Writing
speakers, so that you get a feel for what is "right" through exposure to the language as it is used by people. spoken
Japanese
You may also hear people using れる rather than られる, but at the moment this is discouraged language abuse: the idea Katakana
specific --
behind it is that the short potential form for 五段 verbs always ends on え—row syllable + る, and so using れる for 一段 Punctuation
and writing --
verbs "does the same thing". However, while they might sound the same, れる is a classical helper verb, whereas the え—
Kanji
row syllable + る sound for 五段 verbs is actually a contraction from what used to be い—row syllable + える, so they have Types of Kanji -
completely different background. So until the Japanese language authorities start accepting this highly colloquial "short -
Writing Kanji --
potential for 一 段 verbs" as right and proper, you're best off avoiding it; at least outside of colloquial interaction with Reading kanji:
Japanese people who use it. furigana --
Reading quirks:
compound
Note that because this is a potential form, を has to be swapped for が: words --
Looking up
くるま と くだ kanji --
A: 車 を止めて 下 さい。 Styles --
いま Words and
B: すみません、車が 今 止められません。 word classes
A: "Please stop the car." Articles --
Verbs --
B: "(I am) sorry, but (I) cannot stop the car right now." Nouns --
Pronouns --
Also note that this potential form is one of a temporary nature. For instance, rather than meaning "I can see" in general Nominalisers --
た Adjectives --
(because you have eyes that work), 見られる means "I can see (whatever I am supposed to see right now)". Similarly, 食べ Adverbs --
Particles --
られる means "(I) can eat (this)", rather than the more general "(I) can eat". If we want to say that we have an inherent Prefixes --
でき Onomatopoeia
ability to do (or not do) something, we have to use 連体形 + ことが 出来 る, which will be explained after we cover the and mimesis --
Compound
short potential form. words --
Sentence
Finally, some verbs are not inflected to form the potential form, instead requiring the use of a related, but different verb. For structure
み
instance, while 見られる is a valid long potential form, you will find the verb 見える is often used, instead. Similarly, there Word order --
き Emphasis --
are 五段 verbs for which alternate potential forms exist, such as the verb 聞 く ("to hear/listen"). Rather than the normal Pitch and
き
accents
potential form, explained in the next section, the verb 聞 こえる ("to be able to hear") is used. This highlights an important
Gender roles
rule: when learning new verbs, make sure to learn to inflect them correctly; some inflections may in fact use a different verb
entirely! Context
language

連用形 + 得る え Verb
§3.2.14.2 — Short potential: grammar
More
grammar
The short potential form is called "short" because it is simply a lot shorter than the full 未 然 形 + ら れ る version of the Particles
Counters
potential. However, in modern Japanese, this construction only exists for 五 段 verbs. For 一 段 verbs, the only and counting
grammatically correct potential form is the られる potential form. To create the short potential form, the 連用形 is paired Language
え
patterns
with the verb 得る, meaning "to acquire", to form an "attainable" form of verbs.
Conjugation
Schemes
In this combination, the final い—row syllable of the 連用形 for 五段 verbs has become contracted with the え sound from Set phrases
得る over the course of history, becoming an え—row syllable instead. To illustrate: Glossary

verb meaning classical inflection contracted via modern inflection

会う meet 会いえる 会いぇる 会える
読む read 読みえる 読みぇる 読める
分かる understand 分かりえる 分かりぇる 分かれる

While this construction in modern Japanese is a contraction, there are a handful of verbs in which this contraction never Liked this
お
occurred, and as such are still in use today in the uncontracted form. Verbs such as ありえる (from ある) or 起 こりえる book?
Buy the
(from 起こる, "to occur") are examples of this. Interestingly, this potential form can also be seen in certain modern 一段 author a beer
み に
(or coffee)!
verbs that have traditionally been paired with 得る, such as 見える, "to (be able to) see", from the 一段 verb 見る, or 煮え
る, "(be able to) boil", from the 一段 verb 煮る.

Just like with the 未然形 potential form, verbs placed in this short potential form become intransitive, which means that
technically they can only be used in relation to subjects, and no longer in relation to direct objects.

五段 verb short potential form

会う 会える
歩く 歩ける
 急ぐ 急げる
話す 話せる Preface
The syntax
死ぬ 死ねる
The kana
学ぶ 学べる The basics --
Writing the
読む 読める kana --
Pronouncing
待つ 待てる Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
分かる 分かれる differences --

ある ありえる Writing
spoken
Japanese
Some examples to show this potential form: Katakana
specific --
びょうき ある
Punctuation
病気 であんまり 歩 けません。 and writing --
"Because of (my) illness, I can't walk that well (at the moment)." Kanji
これでいけるでしょうか。 Types of Kanji -
-
"I wonder if this will do." Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
furigana --
The いける in this second sentence is actually a fairly important word to know. While strictly speaking the short potential Reading quirks:
い compound
form of 行 く, its meaning of "being able to go" has become overloaded with the figurative meaning of "something being words --
Looking up
able to go well". As such, い け る means "being fine", "being good" as well as noting that something "will do" or "is kanji --
Styles --
acceptable".
Words and
word classes
Note again that because this is a potential form, を has to be swapped for が:
Articles --
ほん Verbs --
A: 本 をいくら読みますか。 Nouns --
Pronouns --
じかん
Nominalisers --
B: そうですね。時間がたっぷりあって、本がいっぱい読めます。 Adjectives --
Adverbs --
A: "How much do you read?" Particles --
B: "Good question. (I) have plenty of time, so (I) can read a lot of books." Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Compound
§3.2.14.3 — Nominalised potential words --
Sentence
こと でき structure
A third way to form the potential, for any verb, is by using the construction 連体形 + 事 が 出来 る. 事 literally means
Word order --
'concept', and we already saw that 出来る means "be able to do", and this in combination with a verb in 連体形 creates a Emphasis --
generalised ability. Pitch and
accents
ある
For instance, as mentioned earlier, 見られる means "being able to see (something) (at this moment)". Similarly, 歩 ける Gender roles
Context
means "being able to walk (at this moment)". In contrast, 見ることが出来る and 歩くことが出来る mean being able to language
see, or walk, in general. Particularly with negatives, this difference is striking. For instance, a person whose glasses are so
Verb
dirty they can't really see any of the things we point out to them might say: grammar
More
見られません。 grammar
"I can't (really) see (it)." Particles
Counters
This is hardly anything to worry about as the potential form used is one associated with temporary impairment. However, if and counting
they had used: Language
patterns
見ることが出来ません。 Conjugation
Schemes
Set phrases
We would have good reason to apologise for telling them to look at something; they're blind.
Glossary

Section 3-3 — Formal speech patterns

けんじょう
In addition to being polite, an important aspect of formal Japanese is to use the right mix of humble ( 謙譲 ) and honorific (
そんけい
尊敬 ) speech patterns. In part, this is expressed by picking the right words to use, but in part it also depends on which verb
inflections you pick. One can argue whether this belongs in a reader that should serve as introduction to Japanese, as it's a
rather advanced subject, but I would argue that in terms of how verbs can generically be made humble or honorific, the rules
are relatively straight forward. What makes it an advanced topic is not how to do it, but how to do it in such a way that a
Liked this
native speaker doesn't raise an eyebrow at it. And that's hard enough to make even Japanese people get it wrong once they book?
need to start using it. Buy the
author a beer
Humble and honorific patterns are significantly different from politeness. This can be made fairly obvious by using an (or coffee)!
English example. Compare the following sentences:

"I would like to humbly offer my apologies."

"I do apologise."
"I'm sorry."

Of these, the first sentence is humble, polite English. The second sentence is merely polite, and the third is essentially
neutral. It's not really polite, nor is it humble, but then it's not offensive either. Of course, we can mix these patterns to
produce something that sounds odd to our ears:

"I humbly am sorry."

This sentence mixes humble form with neutral terms. This sounds very odd to an English speaker, and likewise mixing
humble or honorific speech without using appropriate politeness will sound odd in Japanese, but it can be done; just like in
Preface
English.
The syntax
The kana
§3.3.1 — Humble verb patterns
The basics --
Writing the
When one addresses someone who stands much higher on the social ladder than oneself (in a particular setting), it is kana --
customary to lower one's own status by using humble speech. Humble speech applies to everything that has to do with Pronouncing
Japanese --
oneself; not just verb actions, but also opinions and things requiring copula statements. Hiragana and
katakana
differences --
The way to turn any old verb into a humble variant is relatively straight forward: the honorific particle 御 (pronounced お
おんよ Writing
for most verbs, and ご for noun+する verbs where the noun uses 音読 み reading), is prefixed to the verb in 連用形 form, spoken
いた Japanese
and suffixed either with する, or the explicitly humble counterpart to する, 致 す. When する is used, the honorary prefix Katakana
can sometimes be omitted for a slightly less formal humble form, but when 致す is used, it has to be present. specific --
Punctuation
and writing --

五段 verb お+ 連用形+する お+ 連用形+致す Kanji

Types of Kanji -
会う お + 会い + する お + 会い + 致す -
Writing Kanji --
歩く お + 歩き + する お + 歩き + 致す Reading kanji:
furigana --
急ぐ お + 急ぎ + する お + 急ぎ + 致す Reading quirks:
compound
words --
話す お + 話し + する お + 話し + 致す Looking up
kanji --
死ぬ お + 死に + する お + 死に + 致す Styles --

学ぶ お + 学び + する お + 学び + 致す Words and
word classes
読む お + 読み + する お + 読み + 致す Articles --
Verbs --
待つ お + 待ち + する お + 待ち + 致す Nouns --
Pronouns --
分かる お + 分かり + する お + 分かり + 致す Nominalisers --
Adjectives --

連用形+する 連用形+致す
Adverbs --
一段 verb お+ お+ Particles --
Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
見る お + 見 + する お + 見 + 致す and mimesis --
Compound
伸びる お + 伸び + する お + 伸び + 致す words --
Sentence
食べる お + 食べ + する お + 食べ + 致す structure
Word order --
For the irregular verb する, the humble version is (necessarily) 致す, since this simply is the humble counterpart. However, Emphasis --
Pitch and
in addition to す る , there are several other verbs for which an established humble counterpart exists, typically being accents
preferable to the お + 連用形 + する/致す construction: Gender roles
Context
verb meaning humble counterpart language
く まい
Verb
来る come 参る grammar
い
More
行く go 〃
grammar
いる be/exist (for animate objects) おる Particles
い もう
Counters
言う say/be called 申す and counting
いた
Language
する do 致す patterns
し ぞん Conjugation
知る know 存 じる Schemes
み はいけん Set phrases
見る see 拝見 する Glossary
た
食べる eat いただく
の
飲む drink 〃
もら
貰う receive 〃
き うかが
聞く ask 伺う
き うけたまわ
聞く listen 承 る
Liked this
あげ さ あ
book?
上る give 差し上げる Buy the
あ め か
author a beer
会う meet お目に掛かる (or coffee)!
み らん い
見せる show ご 覧 に入れる

For verbs consisting of a noun + する, the noun gets prefixed with the honorific 御, pronounced ご, and する is either left
as is, or replaced with 致す for a more humble pattern:

verb meaning humble counterpart

ちゅうい
注意 する pay attention to ご注意する or ご注意致す
guide (someone)
あんな
 あんない
案内 する ご案内する or ご案内致す
れんらく Preface
連絡 する contact (someone) ご連絡する or ご連絡致す
The syntax
The kana
One confusing result of using these humble patterns and humble counterparts is that humble speech still means exactly the
The basics --
same thing as the normal verb form. The following seven sentences illustrate this idea: they all mean exactly the same thing, Writing the
but express this meaning with an increasing degree of humility and politeness: kana --
Pronouncing
ことわ Japanese --
断 る。 Hiragana and
katakana
"(I, you, he, she, we, they) refuse(s)." differences --
Form: plain. Writing
spoken
断ります。 Japanese
"(I, you, he, she, we, they) refuse(s)." Katakana
Form: polite. specific --
Punctuation
断りします。 and writing --
"(I, you, he, she, we, they) refuse(s)." Kanji
Form: polite, but only marginally humble, using noun form + する. Types of Kanji -
-
Writing Kanji --
お断りする。 Reading kanji:
"I refuse." furigana --
Reading quirks:
Form: humble, but plain form. As this is humble form, the only person this can apply to is first person, so 'I' has become compound
explicit. words --
Looking up
お断りします。 kanji --
Styles --
"I refuse." Words and
Form: humble polite. word classes
いた
Articles --
お断り 致 す。 Verbs --
"I refuse." Nouns --
Pronouns --
Form: more humble, but plain. This sounds a tad odd, as using 致す typically implies a need to be polite, too. Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
お断り致します。 Adverbs --
Particles --
"I refuse." Prefixes --
Form: more humble, polite. Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Compound
While the copulae have, strictly speaking, no humble counterpart, there is a more polite copula that tends to be used in words --
setting where humility is required: でござる, used in the form でございます. This copula does exactly the same thing as Sentence
structure
だ, です and である, except its high level of politeness makes it particularly suited for use in humble speech patterns:
Word order --
とうきょうだいがく にねんせい きむら Emphasis --
東京大学 の二年生の木村でございます。 Pitch and
"Kimura, second year student at the university of Tokyo." accents
Gender roles
Careful observation reveals that this sentence is actually not humble, merely very polite, and as such it could have been Context
spoken by the student in question, or by someone doing a formal introduction to someone else, whose social position language
requires a humble, or at the very least properly polite, form of speech. Verb
grammar
§3.3.2 — Honorific verb patterns More
grammar
Particles
While speech pertaining to oneself is humbled, things pertaining to the person of higher social status are elevated by using
Counters
honorific patterns. Similar to how verbs can be made humble by using the お + 連用形 + する/致す pattern, nearly all verbs and counting
can be made honorific by using a similar pattern involving either に + な る or な さ る , similar to the humble choice Language
patterns
between する and 致す: Conjugation
Schemes
五段 verb お+ 連用形+に+なる お+ 連用形+なさる Set phrases
Glossary
会う お + 会い + に + なる お + 会い + なさる
歩く お + 歩き + に + なる お + 歩き + なさる
急ぐ お + 急ぎ + に + なる お + 急ぎ + なさる
話す お + 話し + に + なる お + 話し + なさる
死ぬ お + 死に + に + なる お + 死に + なさる
学ぶ お + 学び + に + なる お + 学び + なさる
Liked this
読む お + 読み + に + なる お + 読み + なさる book?
Buy the
待つ お + 待ち + に + なる お + 待ち + なさる author a beer
(or coffee)!
分かる お + 分かり + に + なる お + 分かり + なさる

一段 verb お+ 連用形+に+なる お+ 連用形+なさる

見る お + 見 + に + なる お + 見 + なさる
伸びる お + 伸び + に + なる お + 伸び + なさる
食べる お + 食べ + に + なる お + 食べ + なさる
Again, there are several verbs for which this pattern is essentially inferior to using an appropriate honorific counterpart
instead: Preface
The syntax
verb meaning honorific counterpart
く The kana
来る come いらっしゃる The basics --
い Writing the
お出でになる kana --
Pronouncing
お出でなさる Japanese --
Hiragana and
い katakana
行く go いらっしゃる differences --
い Writing
お出でになる spoken
Japanese
お出でなさる
Katakana
specific --
いる be/exist (for animate objects) いらっしゃる Punctuation
and writing --
お出でなさる
Kanji
い
言う say/be called おっしゃる Types of Kanji -
-
する do なさる Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
し ぞんじ furigana --
知る know ご存知る Reading quirks:
compound
ご存知でいらっしゃる words --
Looking up
み らん
kanji --
見る see ご 覧 になる Styles --
らん
Words and
ご 覧 なさる word classes
た め あ め
食べる 召し上がる (召し means 'summon' here)
eat Articles --
Verbs --
の Nouns --
飲む drink 召し上がる Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
ね やす
Adjectives --
寝る sleep お 休 みになる Adverbs --
Particles --
お休みなさる Prefixes --
おも おぼ め Onomatopoeia
思う think 思 し召す (normal honorific pattern also possible) and mimesis --
Compound
き め words --
着る wear (on the body) お召しになる (召し means 'clothing' here)
Sentence
structure
For compound verbs consisting of a noun paired with する, the noun gets prefixed with the honorific 御, pronounced ご, Word order --
Emphasis --
and する is either replaced by になる or なさる:
Pitch and
accents
verb meaning honorific counterpart Gender roles
ちゅうい
注意 する pay attention to ご注意になる or ご注意なさる Context
language
あんない
案内 する guide (someone) ご案内になる or ご案内なさる Verb
れんらく grammar
連絡 する contact (someone) ご連絡になる or ご連絡なさる More
grammar
Particles
When using a copula while being honorific, rather than using the polite でござる, the properly honorific でいらっしゃる Counters
copula, in the form でいらっしゃいます, is used instead: and counting
Language
こさま patterns
お子様はおいくつでいらっしゃいますか。 Conjugation
"How old is your child(/son/daughter)?" Schemes
Set phrases
In this sentence, お子様 is an honorific for the noun 子, "child", and でいらっしゃいます acts as honorific form of です. Glossary
The word いくつ, meaning "how old" in this sentence, can only be used for children that are (or seem) younger than ten (the
reason for this being that it is a question word used for counting statements using the counter つ, which can only count up to
さい なんさい
and including nine. Anything higher uses the counter 歳 , also written 才, with corresponding question word 何歳 ). Given
this information, we see that the sentence is actually identical (in meaning) to the following, plain form, sentence:

いくつですか。
"How old is (your son/daughter)"
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In the plain form sentence, we can drop the fact that we're asking this in relation to some child, because the use of いくつ book?
should be enough information for the listener to figure this out. Being much shorter than the honorific form, we once more Buy the
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see a confirmation of the general rule for politeness when it comes to Japanese: the longer a statement is, the more formal (or coffee)!
polite it will be.

As with the humble pattern, there is no change in actual meaning when going from plain form to honorific, other than ruling
out single person as implied actor or subject (since one cannot honour oneself).
ことわ
断 る。
"(I, you, he, she, we, they) refuse(s)."
Form: informal.
断ります。
"(I, you, he, she, we, they) refuse(s)."
 Form: formal polite.
断りします。 Preface
"(I, you, he, she, we, they) refuse(s). " The syntax
Form: more formal than formal polite, using noun form + する. The kana
The basics --
お断りになる。 Writing the
kana --
"(you, he, she, they) refuse(s)." Pronouncing
Form: plain honorific. As this is honorific form, this can no longer apply to first person single or plural. Japanese --
Hiragana and
お断りになります。 katakana
differences --
"(you, he, she, they) refuse(s)."
Writing
Form: polite honorific. spoken
Japanese
お断りなさる。
Katakana
"(you, he, she, they) refuse(s)." specific --
Form: plain, but more honorific than when using に+なる. Punctuation
and writing --
お断りなさいます。 Kanji
"(you, he, she, they) refuse(s)." Types of Kanji -
-
Form: polite honorific. Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
お断りなさっています。 furigana --
"(you, he, she, they) refuse(s)." Reading quirks:
compound
Form: (present progressive) polite honorific. words --
Looking up
kanji --
Section 3-4 — Classical adjectives Styles --
Words and
word classes
This final section is not about how classical adjectives inflect, but is actually about what happens when we pair modern
い Articles --
verbal adjectives with certain special verbs, such as ござる and 出 でる. While these very rarely get used on their own, Verbs --
Nouns --
there are certain set uses for them, where they pair up with specific adverbs, derived from verbal adjectives. In these cases, Pronouns --
the adverbial form of the verbal adjective actually undergoes a sound change, the 連用形 く becoming a う instead, and Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
leading to four possible classical pronunciation changes (meaning they will potentially change the pronunciation of the Adverbs --
adjective with blatant disregard of their kanji): Particles --
Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
1. If the syllable preceding the 連用形 く is an あ row syllable, the adverb gets an —おう sound instead: and mimesis --
Compound
はや はよ words --
早 い becomes はや[く→う], which contracts to 早 う. Sentence
あり がた あり がと structure
有 難 い becomes ありがた[く→う], which contracts to 有 難 う.
Word order --
Emphasis --
1. If the syllable preceding the 連用形 く is an い row syllable, the adverb gets an う-glide instead: Pitch and
accents
おお
大 きい becomes 大き[く→う], which contracts to 大きゅう Gender roles
おい Context
美味しい becomes 美味し[く→う], which contacts to 美味しゅう language
Verb
1. If the syllable preceding the 連用形 く is an う row syllable, the adverb gets a long う: grammar
More
やす
grammar
安 い becomes 安[く→う], which does not contract and so stays 安う Particles
Counters
1. If the syllable preceding the 連用形 く is an お row syllable, the adverb gets a long お by virtue of the お—row syllable + and counting
う already being a long お sound: Language
patterns
おもしろ Conjugation
面白 い becomes 面白[く→う], which does not contract and so stays 面白う Schemes
Set phrases
あよ
And hopefully you noticed the first two entries, which are precisely the ones you may know from the phrases お 早 うござ Glossary

います, translating to "good morning", and ありがとうございます, translating to "thank you very much".

Chapter 4 — Particles
じょし
Particles, called 助詞, or more affectionately referred to as てにをは (after the verb て form and the three quintessential
particles に, を and は), are the fundamental glue that holds Japanese sentences together, indicating how words (or blocks of Liked this
words) relate to each other. There is no overstating how important particles are in using Japanese: without them, there is no book?
Japanese language. Buy the
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(or coffee)!
Most particles are suffixes, meaning that they follow whatever it is they are marking, but there are a small number of
prefixes. In this chapter, we will first look at some common prefixes, then look at what is generally considered the bulk of
Japanese particles, followed by an entire chapter dedicated to a rather special set of particles: counters.

Section 4-1 — Prefixes

§4.1.1 — The honorific prefix
 One of the most used prefixes is probably 御, pronounced either as お, ご, み, おん, or ぎょ, depending on what it is being
used with, and for: Preface
くんよ The syntax
1. The reading お is used to make words with a Japanese reading (訓読み) honorific. The kana
おんよ
2. The reading ご is used to make words with a Chinese reading (音読み) honorific. The basics --
Writing the
3. The reading み is used for imperial and Shinto terminology. In addition, it can be used as a stylistic reading to make words kana --
Pronouncing
sound more poetic. Japanese --
4. The reading おん is a rare reading used mainly as a classical honorific prefix. It can be considered a very formal version of Hiragana and
katakana
the お reading. differences --

5. The reading ぎょ is also rarely used, and is used exclusively for imperial terms. Writing
spoken
Japanese
This prefix is essential in various honorific and humble constructions, as we saw in the sections on humble and honorific
Katakana
verb constructions. It should be noted that some words, when used in daily speech, always get this prefix. A by no means specific --
exhaustive list of such words includes: Punctuation
and writing --
ちゃ Kanji
お茶 (green) tea
Types of Kanji -
かね -
お金 money Writing Kanji --
ゆ ねっとう
Reading kanji:
お湯 warm/hot water (but not boiling water, which is called 熱湯 )
furigana --
Reading quirks:
ひや compound
お冷 cold water words --
Looking up
なか
kanji --
お腹 belly, stomach
Styles --
はし
Words and
お箸 chopsticks
word classes
ちそう ちそうさま
ご馳走 feast (used in ご馳走様でした, said when one is done eating) Articles --
Verbs --
はん Nouns --
ご飯 food, dinner Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
Adverbs --
§4.1.2 — Negating prefixes Particles --
Prefixes --
み ふ む Onomatopoeia
There are also various common prefixes that negate, void or otherwise create a counter-concept word when used: 未, 不, 無 and mimesis --
ひ Compound
words --
and 非.
Sentence
み structure
We know 未 from the verbal imperfect base, the 未然形. This prefix indicates a "not yet" or "has yet to be realised" aspect, Word order --
which explains what it's doing in a word like 未然形, but there are many other words in which we find this prefix: Emphasis --
Pitch and
word meaning composition accents
みらい Gender roles
未来 future "not yet arrived"
Context
みかん language
未完 incomplete "not yet finished"
Verb
みこん
unmarried "not yet married" grammar
未婚
みせいり
More
pending "not yet arranged" grammar
未整理
みはつ
Particles
未発 prior "not yet begun" Counters
and counting
ふ Language
When 不 is used, it expresses a noun negative, similar to the English prefixes "un-", "im-", "a-" or "de-". Examples of this patterns
prefix are: Conjugation
Schemes
Set phrases
word meaning composition
Glossary
ふかのう
不可能 impossible "no possibility"
ふけいき
不景気 (economic) depression "no business"
ふじゅうじゅん
不従順 disobedience "no obedience"
ふち
不知 ignorance "no knowledge"

む
When 無 is used, it expresses a non-existential, similar to "non-", "not ..." or the terms "without" or "devoid of" in English. Liked this
Examples of this prefix are: book?
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word meaning composition author a beer
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むきめい
無記名 unsigned "without signature"
むこう
無効 invalid "without validity"
むしんろん
無神論 atheism "without deity"
むだん
無断 unauthorized "without permission"

ひ
Finally, 非 is used to indicate the equivalent of the English "non-". Examples of this prefix are:
 word meaning composition
ひえいりてき
non-profit "not commercial" Preface
非営利的
ひげんじつてき The syntax
非現実的 unrealistic "not realistic"
The kana
ひじょう
emergency "not usual" The basics --
非常 Writing the
ひたいおう kana --
非対応 incompatible "not compatible" Pronouncing
Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
§4.1.3 — Assorted prefixes differences --
Writing
Aside from these four negating prefixes, there are also a few other common prefixes that you will encounter frequently spoken
enough to deserve at least mention here, even if we don't look at example words for each of them: Japanese
Katakana
specific --
prefix meaning Punctuation
ぜん and writing --
全～ "all ...", "every ..."
Kanji
まい
毎～ "every ..." Types of Kanji -
-
しん Writing Kanji --
新～ "new ..." Reading kanji:
だい・おお
furigana --
"big" (two possible common pronunciations) Reading quirks:
大 ～ compound
こ・しょう words --
小 ～ "small" (two possible common pronunciations) Looking up
kanji --
さい
"re-" Styles --
再～
さい
Words and
"most ..." word classes
最～
ちょう Articles --
超～ "super-" Verbs --
Nouns --
たい Pronouns --
対～ "anti-", "counter-" Nominalisers --
はん Adjectives --
半～ "semi-", "demi-", "incomplete" Adverbs --
Particles --
い Prefixes --
以～ indicates a boundary or limit Onomatopoeia
ま
and mimesis --
真っ～ an intensifying prefix Compound
words --
Sentence
(Note that the consonant double っ in 真っ becomes an ん when this prefix is paired with words starting with a な—column structure
ま なか
Word order --
or ま—column syllable, such as 真ん 中 ) Emphasis --
Pitch and
There are more, mainly due to the fact that many nouns in Japanese are compound nouns. Thus, any part of a compound accents
noun that gets used by several words in roughly the same meaning can be considered a prefix of sorts. Gender roles
Context
Section 4-2 — Particles language
Verb
What most people consider proper particles actually cover a number of subcategories of particles. There are the grammatical grammar
particles, which map to grammatical interpretations such as direct objects, verb phrase subjects, disambiguation, etc. They More
grammar
lack any form of translation to languages that leave grammar implied, and as such can be a bit tricky to learn initially, as
Particles
they require actively learning grammar in order to properly understand what they do (something which most people have not
Counters
really been exposed to in their general education). Aside from these grammatical particles, there is the set of particles which and counting
perform roles similar to what prepositions do in, for instance, English. However, because of the way the Japanese language Language
describes things happening or being in the world, a single Japanese particle in this category might map to a number of patterns
prepositions when translated, depending on the context in which it is used. Then there are the various particles for emphasis Conjugation
in all its forms, so it should be clear that we have quite a bit of ground to cover. Schemes
Set phrases
The list of particles covered in this chapter is not an exhaustive list of all particles used in the Japanese language, but does Glossary
represent the bulk of particles that you might encounter. They have been ordered in three sections, the first covering the
absolutely essential particles, the second and third covering less frequently used and even several 'rare' particles and particle
combinations.

§4.2.1 — Essential particles

The essential particles list consists of the particles か, が, と, で, に, の, は, も and を (as well as へ, which is not essential
but belongs in this list because of the way it contrasts with a particular use of に). Traditionally, て would be considered part
of this list, but we already extensively covered て in the verb section on the て form. Liked this
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The particles in this section are considered "essential", because they cover the absolute minimum of grammatical roles that author a beer
you need to understand before you understand Japanese at a basic conversational level. While the list seems short, a mere 10 (or coffee)!
particles, most of these particles — in terms of what you might be used to from English — do many different things. While
there is typically some unifying idea for that describes what the particle does "in concept", in practice this means having to
remember several roles per particle, and being able to identify which one is used when.

§4.2.1.1 — か — Questioning particle

This particle is sometimes called the Japanese equivalent of the question mark, but this is not entirely true. While it acts as
the question mark when used at the end of sentences, it actually acts as a general questioning particle. It usually ends a
sentence, because most of the time the entire sentence is the question, but you can find it used inside sentences as well,
where it turns only part of the sentence into a questioning phrase. The 'question mark' role is fairly easily demonstrated:
Preface
い The syntax
行きます。
The kana
"(I, you, he, she, it, we, they)'ll go."
The basics --
行きますか。 Writing the
kana --
"Will/shall (I, you, he, she, it, we, they) go?" Pronouncing
Japanese --
Hiragana and
The more interesting functions of か are found when it is used in subphrases instead, such as in the following example: katakana
differences --
おも
Writing
しようかと 思 った。 spoken
"(I) thought (about) whether I should do (it)." Japanese
Katakana
Let's take this sentence apart and look at why it means what the translation says it means. First, this sentence consists of two specific --
Punctuation
parts: しようか and [...]と思った. The first is the dubitative form of する, with the questioning particle か, so that "let's and writing --
do" becomes "will/shall (I, you, he, she, it, we, they) do?". This is then combined with the past tense for [...]と思う, "think Kanji
[...]" or "think about [...]" to form "think about [will shall ... do?]". This isn't natural English, so we need to rewrite it using Types of Kanji -
appropriate words: a dubitative question in English uses the word "whether", so going from Japanese to literal English to -
Writing Kanji --
natural English, we arrive at "think about whether (or not) to do (something)". And since this is a past tense we arrive at the Reading kanji:
translation that was initially given. furigana --
Reading quirks:
compound
The more complete version of "whether (to) [...]" is the pattern "whether or not (to) [...]", and Japanese has an equivalent to words --
this: [...]かどうか: Looking up
kanji --
Styles --
かれ く わ
彼 が来るかどうか、分かりません。 Words and
word classes
"(I) have no idea whether he'll come over or not."
Articles --
Verbs --
We can even form more elaborate yes-or-no, be-or-not, do-or-not, etc. questions, by using two separate questions. This Nouns --
might be a bit confusing at first, as in English we always put our choices in a single sentence, but in Japanese a double Pronouns --
question pattern is in fact quite common: Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
Adverbs --
ちゃ
Particles --
コーヒーにしますか、お 茶 にしますか。 Prefixes --
"Will (you) have coffee, or tea?" Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Compound
While the English translation shows that this is just a normal "or" question, the Japanese sentence joins up the otherwise words --
separate questions コーヒーにしますか, "will you have coffee?" and お茶にしますか, "will you have tea?", into a single Sentence
structure
choice question. Answers can range from コーヒーをください ('coffee, please') to どれでもいい ('either is fine') to things
けっこう Word order --
like いいえ、 結構 です ('no, that's okay (I shall have nothing)'). Emphasis --
Pitch and
However, か can also be used as a direct translation for "or", but a very specific one: the logical connective "or". There is a accents

rather big difference between the natural language "or" and the logical "or", in that the latter doesn't ask about which choice Gender roles
to go with, but whether at least one of the choices listed is correct: Context
language
A: "Would you like coffee, or tea?" Verb
B, interpreting 'or' naturally: "Coffee, please." grammar
More
A: "Would you like coffee or tea?" grammar
B, interpreting 'or' logically: "Yes, please." Particles
Counters
What happened in this second conversation? Rather than interpreting 'or' as the natural version, B decided to interpret it as and counting
the logical connective, meaning he answered the question "would you like [coffee or tea]" — the logical 'or' doesn't give you Language
a choice, it connects the choices into a single option, which is picked if any one of the otherwise individual choices is patterns
picked, or isn't picked if none of them work. In Japanese, using か to list choices in this way means offering people this kind Conjugation
of logical 'or' choice: Schemes
Set phrases
Glossary
A: コーヒーにしますか、お茶にしますか。
B: コーヒーをください。
A: "Will (you) have coffee, or tea?"
B: "Coffee, please."
A: コーヒーかお茶にしますか。
B: いいえ、今は冷たいお飲み物がいいと思います、ね。
A: "Will (you) have coffee or tea?"
B: "No, (I) think right now something cold (literally, 'a cold drink') would be nicer." Liked this
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This can potentially lead to confusion, or seemingly incomplete answers: Buy the
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でんしゃ い (or coffee)!
A: 電車 で行きますか、バスで行きますか。
B: 電車で。
A: "Will you go by train, or by bus?"
B: "By train."
A: 電車かバスで行きますか。
B: はい。
A: "Will you go by train or bus?"
B: "Yes."
The key here is that the answer is actually not incomplete given the question asked. An "[X]か[Y]" question is a yes or no
question, and so there is no obligation to give any more information than what is being asked for. Beginning students of Preface
Japanese often forget that using か in this fashion only applies to the logical connective 'or', and start mistakenly using it The syntax
wherever in English the word 'or' is used. It deserves extra warning: avoid using か to mean 'or' until you've developed a The kana
good grasp of the Japanese language. The basics --
Writing the
kana --
In addition to all this, か can be used to indicate a kind of rhetorical question usually associated with mild scorn: Pronouncing
Japanese --
こと し Hiragana and
そんな 事 知るか。 katakana
differences --
"How would (I) know?"
Writing
spoken
This kind of expression is often derisive, made even stronger by adding よ at the end: Japanese
Katakana
わ
specific --
分かるかよ。 Punctuation
"How the hell would you know [this]?" and writing --
Kanji
This use of か is actually one of the few times when it is possible to stick an exclamation mark in the translation, as it is Types of Kanji -
-
virtually always accompanied by a raised voice. However, since —かよ invariably concerns a question, and the combination Writing Kanji --
of a question mark followed by an exclamation mark is considered bad form by most style guides, special consideration Reading kanji:
furigana --
should go into deciding on whether or not to add an exclamation mark in the translation. Reading quirks:
compound
words --
Looking up
§4.2.1.1.1 — Using か with interrogatives kanji --
Styles --
Words and
There is one more thing we need to look at when looking at か, and that concerns its combination with interrogatives. When word classes

paired with an interrogative (words such as 'how', 'why', 'when', 'where', etc.) the particle か creates a vaguely specific Articles --
Verbs --
answer to that interrogative. The easiest way to understand what that means is to just look at what happens: Nouns --
Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
interrogative meaning with か meaning Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Particles --
なに what なにか something Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
だれ who だれか someone and mimesis --
Compound
どこ where どこか somewhere words --
Sentence
いつ when いつか sometime, eventually structure
なぜ why なぜか for some reason Word order --
Emphasis --
どう how どうか in some way or another Pitch and
accents
These words act as nouns, and can be used like any other noun in sentences: Gender roles
Context
じょうず
language
いつか 上手 になります。
"(I)'ll become good (at it) eventually." Verb
grammar
More
§4.2.1.2 — が — Subject, actor, weak emphasis, contrast grammar
Particles
Counters
We already saw が in chapter 2, in the section on verb particles, where it was explained that it could mark verb actors and and counting
Language
subjects. In addition to this, が can be used for weak emphasis, usually translating to the English weakly emphatic "but", patterns
such as in the question "Excuse me, but do you know the time?", where its role is mostly to "ease in" the main statement. Conjugation
Similarly, が eases in the main statement, although rather than getting a comma in front of it like 'but' does, it gets a comma Schemes
after: Set phrases
Glossary
いま なんじ
すみませんが、 今 何時ですか。
"Excuse me (but), what time is it?"

Again like the English 'but', が can be used as a more proper contrastive:
もんだい
それもそうだが、 問題 はそれだけじゃない。
"That is true, but (the) problem consists of more than just that (issue)."
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This sentence consists of the sections それもそうだ, 'that is (also) true' and 問題はそれだけじゃない, 'the problem is not book?
just that (issue)', joined with が for contrast. These sentences use the particles も and だけ, since it's hard to illustrate a Buy the
author a beer
proper contrastive without using a moderately complex sentence: も marks similarity, and だ け (roughly) translates to (or coffee)!
"just/only". We will look at も in more detail later in this particle section, and we'll examine だ け in the next particle
section.

On a final note, in classical Japanese, が has the same role as の does today. As such, you may encounter 'set' phrases that
use が in a genitive meaning.

§4.2.1.3 — と — Unifier
This particle is a nicely complex one. The grand unifying role that it plays is, actually, unification, but the way in which it
does it is usually experienced as doing completely different things. We already saw と being used to create an exhaustive Preface
noun list in chapter 2 in the section on noun particles, but this role extends not just to things, but to people as well. In the The syntax
same way that [X]と[Y]と[Z] is an exhaustive noun list (i.e., the unity of all these things), if we use people instead of Xs The kana
and Ys, we end up with a unified group: The basics --
Writing the
ほんだ さかき えいが み い
kana --
本田さんと 榊 さんが映画を見に行く。 Pronouncing
"Honda and Sakaki are going to go see a film." Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
In this sentence, the "noun list" 本田さんと榊さん exhaustively lists all the members of the group of people that will go differences --
see a film. Writing
spoken
Japanese
An interesting feature is that と can unify a group of people, or a group of things in general, leaving the central, contextually
Katakana
obvious noun implied. For instance, examine the following sentence: specific --
Punctuation
きむら とうきょう い and writing --
木村さんと 東京 に行きました。 Kanji
Types of Kanji -
In this sentence, 東京に行きました means "(I, you, he, she, it, we, they) went to Tokyo", and 木村さんと looks like an -
incomplete noun list. However, this is one of those aspects of Japanese where context is important: we can leave off a Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
contextually obvious "thing" in a noun list, and expect people who understand Japanese to fill this in themselves: in this furigana --
case, the most obvious interpretation is that 'I' or 'we' went to Tokyo with Kimura. However, just because it is the most Reading quirks:
compound
obvious, that does not mean it's the only interpretation possible. If, say, we're discussing what a mutual friend of ours has words --
been doing over the holiday, without that friend present, and one of us utters the phrase 木村さんと東京に行きました Looking up
kanji --
then the contextually omitted person would be our mutual friend, rather than either of us. Styles --
Words and
There are several ways to make the omitted 'thing' explicit. One of these is to use the disambiguation particle, は: word classes
Articles --
いしだ
Verbs --
石田さんは木村さんと東京に行きました。 Nouns --
"Ishida (rather than someone else) went to Tokyo with Kimura." Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
However, this only makes sense if the sentence would otherwise be ambiguous. If instead we only want to reiterate the Adverbs --
Particles --
person's identity, we would use が: Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
石田さんが木村さんと東京に行きました。 Compound
"Ishida went to Tokyo with Kimura." words --
Sentence
In this sentence, 石田 has been explicitly mentioned as primary verb actor, and because he's already been mentioned, can be structure
left implied in the と listing that follows. Word order --
Emphasis --
Pitch and
Finally, we can do the most unnatural thing possible, and form a 'proper' exhaustive list without any implied nouns or
accents
people:
Gender roles
石田さんと木村さんが東京に行きました。 Context
language
"Ishida and Kimura went to Tokyo."
Verb
grammar
I say unnatural, because if someone has already been established as contextual subject or actor, you either leave them
implied, or you mention them as actual subject or actor. If this was an opening sentence in a conversation, however, this More
grammar
sentence would be fine, as no context will have been established yet.
Particles
Counters
Being able to tell whether a noun listing has any implied items is rather simple: if it ends on と, instead of on a noun, it has and counting
an implied item. It doesn't matter how long the noun list is for this; if it ends on と, something has been left off: Language
patterns
Conjugation
石田さんと木村さんが東京に行きました。 Schemes
"Ishida and Kimura went to Tokyo." Set phrases
石田さんと木村さんと東京に行きました。 Glossary

"Ishida, Kimura and (I, you, he, she, it, us, they) went to Tokyo."

Of course this explanation so far has focussed on people, but the same goes for plain old object nouns:
か
カードと買った。
"(I, you, he, she, it, we, they) bought (it) with (a) credit card."

So it doesn't really matter what category the nouns are; as long as you're using と for exhaustive listing, a full list is always
of the form: Liked this
book?
Buy the
[X]と[Y](と[Z]と[...]) author a beer
(or coffee)!
And a list with an implied item is always of the form:

[X]と([Y]と[...]と)
たどうし
With this list explicitly ending on と. However, make sure to add direct object particles when using 他動詞 verbs (or rather,
when using verbs in a 他動詞 role, taking direct objects):

オレンジと買った。
"(I, you, he, she, it, we, they) bought (it) with oranges."
This sentence is not incorrect, but it says that we bought something in a place where oranges are considered a currency. This
is probably not what we meant to say, and instead we wanted to say this: Preface

オレンジとを買った。 The syntax

"(I, you, he, she, it, we, they) bought (it) along with (the) oranges." The kana
The basics --
Writing the
Note the を in this sentence, which leads to a normal phrase "(something)を買った", where the "(something)" is our list kana --
with implicit items. Pronouncing
Japanese --
Hiragana and
There are more things that と can do, and some of these involve a [noun] と construction, so try to remember that just katakana
differences --
because an exhaustive listing with an implied item has the form [X]と, not everything that fits the pattern [X]と has to be Writing
such an exhaustive listing with implied item. In fact, looking at further roles of と this becomes immediately obvious. spoken
Japanese
ぎおんご Katakana
In addition to noun listing, と can be used in combination with sound or state words, properly called 擬音語, onomatopoeia, specific --
ぎたいご Punctuation
and 擬態語, mimeses respectively, to form adverbial constructions. For instance, if it was a starlit night and we wanted to and writing --
say that all the lights were causing the lake to sparkle, we would say something like the following: Kanji
Types of Kanji -
いけ
-
池 がきらきらとした。 Writing Kanji --
"The lake sparkled." Reading kanji:
furigana --
Reading quirks:
In this sentence, the word きらきら is a state description word (called 'mimesis' in English), which paired with と becomes compound
words --
an adverb to the verb する. Literally, then, this construction would say that the lake is 'doing' きらきら. Sound description Looking up
kanji --
words (called 'onomatopoeia' in English) are treated in the same way: Styles --
あめ ふ Words and
雨 がザーと降ってきた。 word classes
"The rain came pouring down." Articles --
Verbs --
Nouns --
Here, the onomatopoeic word ザー is not found in the translation, because in English — as in most Western languages — Pronouns --
we do not use such words to any serious degree. In Japanese, however, these words are an essential part of natural sounding Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
language: the translation states that rain came "pouring down", because ザー is the sound that rain pouring down makes. Adverbs --
Particles --
Before you now go thinking up all kinds of onomatopoeia yourself, Japanese has been in use for centuries, and virtually any Prefixes --
onomatopoeia you might come up with already exists, in a very specific form. There are in fact 擬 音 語 ・ 擬 態 語 Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
dictionaries which will list all of them by category and meaning (you may find one online on www.nihongoresources.com, Compound
for instance), so you're not free to come up with your own; there are several hundred well established onomatopoeia and words --
mimeses, each typically with at least a handful of interpretations depending on what they relate to, leading to well over a Sentence
thousand different uses. It is not surprise, then, that a mastery of onomatopoeia and mimeses is typically seen as having structure
mastered conversational Japanese. Word order --
Emphasis --

In fact, this adverbial marking of things using と extends beyond just the 擬音語 and 擬態語, and through this extending Pitch and
accents
becomes a bit more complex too: a popular way to explain this is to call と the quoting particle, and give an example such as
Gender roles
the following to illustrate this:
Context
いま い い language
「 今 行く」と言いました。 Verb
"(I, you, he, she, it, we, they) said (I, you, he, she, it, we, they)'ll be coming over right now." grammar
More
This clearly demonstrates a quote being recited, but things are not quite that simple; と will work with a much wider variety grammar
Particles
of things than just quotes, as the following examples should illustrate:
Counters
くるま か おも and counting
車 を買おうと 思 います。 Language
"(I, you, he, she, it, we, they)'re thinking about buying a car." patterns
じゃくてん ちから かんが Conjugation
弱点 を 力 と 考 えましょう。 Schemes
"Let's think of (my, your, his, her, its, our, their) weakness(es) as (one of my, your, his, her, its, our, their) strength(s) Set phrases
(instead)." Glossary
しゅみ しごと
趣味は仕事としています。
"(I, you, he, she, it, we, they) consider (my, your, his, her, its, our, their) hobby (my, your, his, her, its, our, their) work."

What と is actually doing is marking all these things — the quote 「今行く」, the volitional act 車を買おう, the concept
力, and the activity 仕事 — as somehow being adverbial to the verbs in question; 言う, 思う, 考える, and する. The actual
interpretation of what と is doing depends entirely on the interpretation of what's being marked as adverbial, and the
interpretation of the verbs used. For instance, 言う means 'to say', but it can also mean 'to call'. As such, we can actually Liked this
translate our first sentence in two radically different ways: book?
Buy the
「今行く」と言いました。 author a beer
(or coffee)!
"He said he'd be right over."
"He was called Imaiku."

The second translation sounds quite unlikely, but if we replace 今行く with 谷村さん, we get exactly the same possible
translations:
たにむら
「 谷村 さん」と言いました。
"He said 'Tanimurasan'."
"He was called Tanimura."
Suddenly the first translation sounds quite unlikely, although nothing really changed.
Preface
So how does と differ from を, the direct object marker? Actually, sometimes we can use either, but for some verbs the
The syntax
meaning changes radically when we use と, as opposed to when we use を. A good example of this is the verb なる, which
The kana
we looked at in chapter 2, in the section on important verbs. This verb changes its meaning from "to become" to "to be"
The basics --
when we use と rather than を, so there is an important choice to be made about which particle suits our need best. Another Writing the
kana --
example is the verb 考える, which means "to think" when used with を, but "to think about" when used with と. Pronouncing
Japanese --
Hiragana and
Hopefully you spotted what happens here: rather than the verb and the direct object being distinct things, using と unifies katakana
differences --
the verb and thing it works with into something that means something different from the sum of the parts. For instance, you
cannot split up "to be [X]" into "to be" and "X" without changing the meaning of the verb. The same goes for "to think about Writing
spoken
[X]", or "to consider [X] something", or "to dream about [X]". While it is easier to explain と as a series of separate things Japanese
for all these different verbs, it's really doing the exact same thing for all of them, even though there is no simple rule in Katakana
Western grammar that we can map it to so that it makes sense given what we know from our own every day language use. specific --
Punctuation
and writing --
To make matters even worse, we're not there yet. One more thing that と does is act as a logical consequence. We already
Kanji
saw か acting as logical 'or', and と is basically the logical 'and' equivalent. If we want to express that two things are Types of Kanji -
simultaneously the case, we would use と: Writing Kanji --
-

Reading kanji:
ひこうき おく の furigana --
飛行機は 遅 れると乗れません。 Reading quirks:
"With aeroplanes, the idea is that if you're late, you can't board." compound
words --
literally: "for aeroplanes (rather than something else): if you're late, you can't board." Looking up
kanji --
It is easy to mistake what happens in this sentence for just an "if A, then B", so let's look at what this sentence is doing Styles --

before illustrating this use of と with a more drastic example. Aeroplanes, with their strict schedules, have a very simple Words and
word classes
rule, being that if you are late for the flight, then too bad for you. The plane doesn't wait for people. As such, "being late"
Articles --
and "not being allowed on the plane" are simultaneously true. The moment you are late, immediately and irrevocably you Verbs --
are also unable to board. We can make this more obvious with the promised more drastic example: Nouns --
Pronouns --
ともだち くび じしょく Nominalisers --
友達 が 首 になると 辞職 します。 Adjectives --
Adverbs --
"If my friend gets fired, I quit." Particles --
Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
Here, it is crucially important to notice the と, and realise that we're talking about simultaneous actions. This sentence does and mimesis --
not say "if my friend gets fired, I shall put in my resignation", it says that right there and then, the moment he gets fired, Compound
words --
you're quitting. It also doesn't leave any ambiguity, because you're asserting a fact. Since と is acting as a logical 'and',
Sentence
statements involving と don't concern opinion, hearsay, or guesswork, they state plain and simple true fact, so the following structure
is correct use of と: Word order --
Emphasis --
あめ ふ いま い かさ ぬ Pitch and
雨 が降る。 今 行けば 傘 がないと濡れる。 accents
"It's raining at the moment. If you go out now, you'll get wet without an umbrella." Gender roles
Context
But this next sentence is simply wrong: language
ふ Verb
雨が降るとぬれる。 grammar
"If it rains, we'll get wet." More
grammar
Particles
The reason this second sentence is wrong is because と expresses a universally true fact. However, if you have an umbrella,
Counters
or you're indoors, or you might be in any one of a number of situations in which it is raining but you don't get wet, this and counting
sentence is simply false, and as such stating it as a universal fact is plain wrong. Usually students will mistakenly use と in Language
this way when what they really want to say is something pertaining to a particular, specific situation. For instance, if you're patterns
looking out the window, and you know you have no umbrella with you, you might want to say "if it starts raining now, I'll Conjugation
get wet", with the implication that this will happen if you go outside, not that you'll magically get wet inside if it starts to Schemes
Set phrases
rain outside. Instead of using と, these kind of musings require the use of ば or たら conditionals:
Glossary

たら: 雨が降ったらきっとぬれます、ねえ。
ば: 雨が降れば、ぬれる、なあ。
"I guess if it starts raining I'll get wet"

with the な あ / ね え endings signalling that you're saying something rhetorical, but you'd like whoever is listening to
acknowledge you anyway.

This factual consequence is also found in unfinished sentences such as the following:
Liked this
いま い book?
今 行かないと。 Buy the
author a beer
literally: "Not leaving now (means...)" (or coffee)!
meaning: "(I, you, he, she, it, we, they) have to go."
そうしないと。
literally: "Not doing so (means ...)"
meaning: "(I, you, he, she, it, we, they) have to do so."

These sentences are unfinished in the sense that they omit the — contextually obvious — generally negative consequences
of the "not doing" of something.

§4.2.1.4 — で — Instrumental, event location

The role of で is technically two-fold, although some people consider the て form of です, which is also written で , a
particle, in which case there would be three roles. Preface
The syntax
The first role is that of instrumentalis. In English, this is things like "by", "with" or "using" in relation to some instrument, in
sentences like "This was written with a red pen" or "We came to the U.S. by aeroplane". In Japanese, the role these words The kana

play is performed by で: The basics --

Writing the
kana --
あか か Pronouncing
赤 ペンで書いてある。 Japanese --
Hiragana and
"(It)'s written with a red pen." katakana
ひこうき き differences --
飛行機でアメリカに来ました。 Writing
"(We) came to America by aeroplane." spoken
Japanese
A second important role that で plays is that it signifies the location of a verb action, or event. For instance, in English the Katakana
specific --
sentences "We played in the park" and "The knives are in the cupboard" use the same preposition "in". In Japanese, these are Punctuation
two very different things: the first sentence focuses on an event, while the second focuses on a location. Consequentially, the and writing --
first sentence requires で, while the second sentence uses another particle, に. Kanji
Types of Kanji -
こうえん あそ -
公園 で 遊 びました。 Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
"(We) played in the park." furigana --
Reading quirks:
This use of で is quite nice when one says something that in English would be ambiguous such as "We stayed at a hotel." In compound
words --
English, it is not possible to tell whether this would be an answer to "what did you do?" or "where did you stay?", without Looking up
more information available to us. In Japanese, this distinction is immediately obvious: kanji --
Styles --
と Words and
ホテルで泊まった。 word classes
Decomposes as: "At the hotel, we did: staying." Articles --
Verbs --
ホテルに泊まった。 Nouns --
Pronouns --
Decomposes as: "we did: staying a a hotel." Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
As mentioned, で can also be said to have a third role, namely as the continuative form of the copula です, which is で, Adverbs --
Particles --
although this is somewhat mixing different things because they sound the same. In the following example sentence, for Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
instance, で is not a particle, but the continuative form of です: and mimesis --
Compound
かのじょ ひと words --
彼女 はきれいでスタイルもいい 人 ですね。 Sentence
"She's pretty, and has good style too, don't you agree?" structure
Word order --
It should most definitely not be read as if で was an instrumentalis, whereby the sentence would read something akin to Emphasis --

"She's got good style thanks to being pretty". Pitch and

accents
Gender roles
§4.2.1.5 — に — Point or interval in time or space, destination, purpose, relation Context
language
This particle is a very versatile particle because of the way the Japanese interpret processes and states in and of the universe. Verb
grammar
The principal function of this particle is to describe points or frames in time space. This sounds complicated, so running
through examples for all the combinations might help clarify things: More
grammar
さんじ で Particles
三時に出ます。 Counters
"(I) will head out at 3." and counting
Language
This example indicates a point in time, namely the specific moment 3 o'clock. In contrast to this, a time frame rather than a patterns
point in time can also be indicated with に: Conjugation
Schemes
いっしゅう うんどう にかい Set phrases
一週 に 運動 を二回します。 Glossary
"(I) exercise twice a week."

Here, instead of an exact moment, a time frame is specified in which something happens. However, に is not restricted to
just time:
ねこ ね
猫 がソファに寝ている。
"The cat's napping on the couch."

Here に is used to indicate a point in space, namely a spot on the couch (remember from the section on で that if we wanted Liked this
book?
to focus on the act of napping itself, で would have had to be used instead). Just as for time, に can also indicate an Buy the
indeterminate location: author a beer
(or coffee)!
うみ む べつ せかい
海 の向こうに 別 の世界がある。
"There's a different world on the other side of the ocean."

The "other side" of the ocean isn't really one location, it's very much indeterminate. However, it is a location, and that's why
we can use に for it.

A second role that に plays is to indicate a purpose of some action. When used in this fashion it typically follows a verb in
連用形:

め か
 こめ か い
米 を買いに行ってきます。
"(I)'m going out to buy rice." Preface
The syntax
Here the "going" is done for the purpose of 買う, "buying". The kana
えいが み The basics --
映画を見に行かない？
Writing the
kana --
"Won't (you) go watch a film (with me)?" Pronouncing
Japanese --
Hiragana and
Here the "going" is done for the purpose of 見る, "seeing". katakana
differences --
ため
Writing
A more general pattern for this "doing something for a purpose" is the pattern [...]( の ) 為 + に , which explicitly states spoken
purpose through the noun 為 , and can be used with a wider variety of verbs and statements. This construction will be Japanese
explained in the nominalisers section in the chapter on language patterns. Katakana
specific --
Punctuation
The last role that に plays we have already seen extensively used in chapters 2 and 3, when dealing with verb details that and writing --
translate to adverbial and prepositional phrases, so we shall consider this aspect thoroughly explained by now. Kanji
Types of Kanji -
-
§4.2.1.6 — へ — Direction Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
furigana --
Reading quirks:
Before we look at the role this particle plays, it should be emphasised that the particle へ is always pronounced え. compound
words --
Looking up
Sometimes confusion arises about when to use に and when to use へ when it comes to directions and destinations. The kanji --
Styles --
answer is surprisingly simple: when you want to indicate a direction, use へ. When you want to indicate a destination, use
Words and
に . The real problem isn't which to use, but when it doesn't matter which you use. For instance, take the following two word classes
sentences: Articles --
Verbs --
とうきょう い Nouns --
東京 に行きます。 Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
"(I) will go to Tokyo." Adjectives --
Adverbs --
東京へ行きます。 Particles --
"(I) will go to Tokyo." Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
While in English the sentence "I will go to Tokyo" can both mean that Tokyo is the destination, or that Tokyo is just the Compound
most identifiable point in indicating a direction of travel, in Japanese there is a subtle difference: words --
Sentence
structure
東京に行きます。
Word order --
"(I) will go to Tokyo. This is my destination (for it is marked as a location)." Emphasis --
東京へ行きます。 Pitch and
accents
"(I) will go in the direction of Tokyo (this is not necessarily my destination, for it is not marked as a location)."
Gender roles
Sometimes it doesn't matter in a conversation whether you say something is a destination or just a general direction of travel, Context
and even Japanese will use them interchangeably under those circumstances, but there are also examples in which it's language
impossible to use one instead of the other. For instance, if you want to say where you've been during your vacation, you can Verb
only use に , because you're talking about locations you've visited, not directions you travelled in. Similarly, when you're grammar
More
navigating your way through a forest and want to go west, there's no specific or even general location you want to go to, you
grammar
only want to head in a particular direction, so you can only use へ to describe this. Particles
Counters
In questions, it's typically customary to answer with the particle that was used in the question. Thus, if someone asks you a and counting
question with に, you answer with に, and if you get a question with へ, you answer with へ, of course observing that you're Language
patterns
using the right words to match the particle.
Conjugation
Schemes
§4.2.1.7 — の — Genitive Set phrases
Glossary

We already covered の in chapter 2 when we talked about noun particles, but there is one more thing that it does that
requires a bit more explanation, and that's nominalisation. This is a very powerful 'feature', because it lets us talk about
phrases as if they were nouns. It lets us say things like "I didn't like walking around town today", where "walking around
town today" is technically treated as a nominalised clause, and thus acts as a noun.
きょう まち ある たの
今日の 町 を 歩 くのがそんなに 楽 しくありませんでした。
"(I) didn't particularly enjoy today's walk about the city."
Liked this
In this sentence, the clause 町を歩く, "to walk the city", has been turned into a gerund (a gerund is the noun form of a verb: book?
Buy the
"to walk" → "(the) walking") by の: 町を歩くの meaning "the specific 'walking of the city' that was done", as a noun. With author a beer
this noun form we can then make all sorts of comments in relation to it. (or coffee)!

However, this nominalisation is restricted to events that are in-topic. If some activity or event is a context to a conversation,
こと
then の can be used to nominalise it, but if we want to talk about events or activities in general, we have to use 事 . We can
actually use either の事, or 事 without the の, to say two different things. Comparing all three with a series of examples, we
see the following:
てがみ だ わす
手紙を出すのを 忘 れました。
meaning: "I forgot to post the letter."
because: 手紙を出すの, "posting a letter" as a specific activity, was forgotten.
 手紙を出す事を忘れました。
meaning: "I forgot how to post a letter." Preface
because: 手紙を出す事, "posting a letter" as the concept in general, was forgotten. The syntax
The kana
手紙の事を忘れました。
The basics --
meaning: "I forgot about the letter." Writing the
because: 手紙の事, everything contextually relating to "our letter", in this case posting it, was forgotten. kana --
Pronouncing
Japanese --
As is evident from the example sentences, using の (as a back referral) lets us talk about a specific instance of an activity, の Hiragana and
katakana
事 lets us talk about the same specific instance, but as an abstract concept rather than the activity, and just 事 talks about the differences --
general activity, rather than some specific instance. Also, note that we can only use の事 after nouns, despite being able to Writing
れんたいけい spoken
use both の and 事 separately after verbs (in 連体形 ). Japanese
Katakana
In addition to its roles as a noun lister and referral particle, の can be used as a question softener. Used on its own this is specific --
Punctuation
considered reserved speech, bordering on effeminate, and men tend to use のか instead. and writing --
Kanji
どうしたの？ Types of Kanji -
-
どうしたのか？ Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
"What happened?" furigana --
Reading quirks:
For answers to questions that ask for a reason to some situation, の softens this reason: compound
words --
Looking up
かいしゃ kanji --
A: どうしてまだ 会社 にいますか？ Styles --
しごと お
B: まだ仕事が終わってないの。 Words and
word classes
A: "Why are (you) still at work?" Articles --
B: "(it is because) (I)'m not done with (my) work yet." Verbs --
Nouns --
Pronouns --
Again, this use is considered borderline effeminate, so men tend to use this construction in conjunction with the plain copula Nominalisers --
だ, with or without contracting the の to an ん to form のだ or んだ. The polite version, のです, will be treated in the Adjectives --
Adverbs --
section on more particles later in this chapter. Particles --
Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
§4.2.1.7.1 — Pairing の with the copula だ Compound
words --
Sentence
structure
When pairing の with phrases, we are basically using those phrases attributively to the noun that の refers back to. While a
Word order --
simple description, this has some repercussions when those phrases end on だ, because of its base forms. Emphasis --
Pitch and
As already highlighted in the section on attributives in the previous chapter, だ still has a 終止形 form, signifying a finalised accents

sentence, as well as a 連体形 form, signifying it is being used attributively. So, if we pair の with a phrase ending on だ, it Gender roles
Context
must be changed from finalised form to attributive form, and so is used as な instead. This is why, when a plain copula language
statement is paired with の as a back referral, you will never hear だ followed by の, but always な followed by の. Verb
grammar
More
§4.2.1.8 — は — Disambiguation grammar
Particles
Counters
As already explained in chapter 2, in the verb particle section, は (pronounced わ) is used to disambiguate statements. Let's and counting
look at what this means in terms of what は does, compared to を or が. Imagine that we're having a conversation and we're Language
patterns
talking about watching films in the cinema, DVD rentals, and TV shows, and the following sentence is used:
Conjugation
み Schemes
テレビ(...)よく見ます。 Set phrases
Glossary
Where for (...) we either find が, を or は. While all three would translate to "(I) watch TV a lot", their connotations are very
different.

1) テレビをよく見ます

When we use を, the sentence is fairly plain information. Whoever of us says it wants to convey that they watch TV a lot,
and nothing more.

2) テレビがよく見ます Liked this

book?
Buy the
When we use が, the sentence is still plain information, although using が rather than を emphasises that whoever is talking author a beer
about TV, is talking about TV. This using が as an emphasis marker is a fairly common practice, although you need to know (or coffee)!
why you're emphasising, of course.

3) テレビはよく見ます

By using は, everything has changed. The speaker has indicated that the information in the sentence requires disambiguation
in terms of what it applies to. In this case, the "watching a lot" only applies to TV. While を and が told us only one thing,
namely the plain information that TV was being watched a lot, は tells us two things. First, the basic information, that
someone watched TV a lot. However, because the speaker felt they needed to make sure that we know it only applies to TV,
it also tells us that it explicitly does not apply to films or DVD rentals.
This makes は very powerful, and also makes it very easy to misuse: If you only want to state some information, you should
not be using は. However, if you want to make sure that the context for some information is unmistakable, は is exactly the Preface
particle you want to use. The syntax
The kana
One very common use of this is in the form of social commentary, by pairing it with verbal て forms, followed by something The basics --
that represents a negative commentary such as the word いけません, indicating that something "won't do", or the word Writing the
kana --
だめ
Pronouncing
駄目, indicating something is bad: Japanese --
Hiragana and
きょう こ katakana
今日は、来なくてはいけません。 differences --
literally: "(you) not coming over today will not do". Writing
"(You) have to drop by today." spoken
Japanese
た だめ
食べては駄目です。 Katakana
specific --
literally: "Eating it is no good." Punctuation
"(You) may not eat this." and writing --
Kanji
In these sentences, the negative repercussion is explicitly said to apply only in the situations marked by は. Also, because は Types of Kanji -
-
is used, we know that they don't apply if whatever は is suffixed to doesn't apply. Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
furigana --
Of course, sometimes it will feel like は isn't doing this strict disambiguation, such as in simple sentences like the following: Reading quirks:
compound
きょう てんき words --
今日はいい天気ですね。 Looking up
kanji --
"Nice weather today, isn't it?" Styles --
じつ にほんご へた
Words and
実 は、日本語に下手です。 word classes
"Actually, I'm horrible at Japanese." Articles --
Verbs --
In both sentences, the は looks perfectly innocent, but it's actually still doing the exact same thing. In the first sentence, the Nouns --
Pronouns --
fact that 今日 has to be mentioned means that the situation of good weather is implicitly being contrasted to some previous, Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
poor weather. Similarly, in the second sentence it seems like 実, 'truthfully' or 'actually', is fairly innocent, but the fact that it Adverbs --
has been explicitly mentioned and marked with は means that the information that follows only applies in the context of Particles --
Prefixes --
'true information'. Even when は sounds like it's just sitting in a sentence as a common courtesy, it never loses its additional Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
connotation. Compound
words --
So in summary, we can characterise は as: [X]は[Y] → in the context of [X], [Y] applies, and outside the context of [X], [Y] Sentence
structure
does not apply. Put concisely, は not only tells us the applicable context, but also the inapplicable context.
Word order --
Emphasis --
Because of this, you will typically find は referred to as the 'context' particle (or 'topic' particle) in literature, but this is Pitch and
dangerous terminology, as it makes it really easy to forget that in addition to indicate context/topic, it also indicates the accents
inverse at the same time. は never just marks applicable context, it always — always — also gives the inapplicable context Gender roles
simply by virtue of being used. If you don't want to also imply inapplicable context, use が — or を — instead. Context
language
(Almost) needless to say, this also means you never use は for things you're asking questions about. For instance, in the Verb
grammar
following example sentences, the first sentence is fine, and the second is very, very wrong:
More
だれ き grammar
誰 が来ましたか。 Particles
"Who came (over)?" Counters
and counting
誰は来ましたか。 Language
"Who, as opposed to someone else, came (over)?" patterns
Conjugation
Schemes
This second sentence makes absolutely no sense, and you should never ever mark subjects of questions with は. Ever.
Set phrases
Glossary
That said, you can use は in a question to disambiguate just fine, as long as it does not get used for the actual question
subject:
さいきん
最近 は誰がよく来ましたか。
"Who's recently been coming (over)?"
literally: "Lately [rather than during some other time frame], who has come (over)?"

§4.2.1.9 — も — Similarity
Liked this
book?
This particle plays two important roles in Japanese. The first is that it acts as a similarity marker, and in this use it replaces Buy the
the subject が or disambiguation marker は: author a beer
(or coffee)!
わたし ほん す
A: 私 が 本 が好きです。
B: 私も本が好きです。
A: "I like books."
B: "I also like books."

Like と or か, it can also be used to form lists:

おんがく
A: 本が好きですか、 音楽 が好きですか。
 B: 本も音楽も好きです。
A: "Do (you) like books, or do (you) like music?" Preface
B: "(I) like both books and music." The syntax
The kana
However, も marks a similarity to something previously mentioned, so you cannot use the particle も out of the blue. It The basics --
requires a prompt either by someone else, or by something you yourself just said. Interestingly, this can even be something Writing the
kana --
in the same sentence: Pronouncing
Japanese --
わか もの としうえ もの Hiragana and
若 い 者 も、 年上 者 も、ようこそ。 katakana
differences --
"Young and old, welcome."
Writing
spoken
Here the fact that も is used twice (and it can be used more times) means that the similarity is between all the marked parts Japanese
of phrase. Katakana
specific --
Because normally も is reserved for responding to some kind of prompt, it's usually a good idea to consider も the Japanese Punctuation
and writing --
counterpart to the English "too", in the sense of "also", without considering it a valid counterpart to the word "also", since
Kanji
that can be used without any real prompting.
Types of Kanji -
-
A second use of も is as an emphatic contrasting particle, meaning something like the English "even [if/by] ...". In this use, Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
it typically follows て forms: furigana --
Reading quirks:
いま い ま あ compound
今 行っても間に合わないでしょう。 words --
Looking up
"Even (by) leaving now, (you) probably won't make it." kanji --
Styles --
A special て form + も is the て+も+いい (よい) construction, which asks and grants permission: Words and
word classes
つか Articles --
コンピュータを 使 ってもいいですよ。 Verbs --
"Feel free to use (the) computer." Nouns --
Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
Or as part of a (short) conversation: Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Particles --
A: 座ってもいいですか。 Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
B: はい、いいですよ。 and mimesis --
Compound
A: "May I sit down?" words --
B: "You may." Sentence
structure
Using も with the て form also means we can use it with て form for the copula, which is で, forming でも: Word order --
Emphasis --
せんせい い
Pitch and
先生 でもそう言ってます。 accents
"Even the teacher says so." Gender roles
Context
In addition to these things, も can — like か — be combined with interrogatives to form a specific kind of answer to these language
interrogatives. While か creates a vaguely specific answer, も creates an all-encompassing answer: Verb
grammar
with も More
interrogative meaning meaning grammar
なに what なにも anything Particles
Counters
だれ who だれも anyone and counting
Language
どこ where どこも anywhere patterns
いつ when いつも anytime Conjugation
Schemes
どう how どうも in any possible way Set phrases
Glossary

Unlike for か, however, when these interrogatives are followed by も they can lead to some confusion when translated: they
may be translated differently depending on whether they are followed up by an affirmative, or negative verb form. In
Japanese, words like いつも or どこも don't carry any affirmative or negative aspect, relying on the verb they're being used
with to impart this meaning instead. So, while the same word is used in the following Japanese sentences, the English
translation uses two seemingly different words:
なに
何 もします。
"(I) will do anything." Liked this
book?
何もしません。
Buy the
literally, "(I) won't do anything" author a beer
"(I) will do nothing." (or coffee)!

Likewise:

どこもある。
"(It) exists anywhere."
どこもない。
literally, "(It) doesn't exist anywhere."
"(It) exists nowhere."
This is a good example of how translations may create wrong impressions: even though in English these words are answers
to the interrogative, coming in different versions while the verb stays the same form, in Japanese it is the exact opposite, Preface
with the answer words to the interrogative staying the same, and the verb coming in different versions depending on which
polarity (affirmative or negative) is needed. The syntax
The kana
On an equally important note, when used with interrogatives this way, many additional particles come between the The basics --
interrogative and も: Writing the
kana --
Pronouncing
Japanese --
interrogative + particle combination Hiragana and
katakana
どこも に どこにも differences --
なに なん
で Writing
何も 何 でも spoken
だれ Japanese
誰も を 誰をも
Katakana
specific --
The last particle in the list, but also the simplest to explain. In modern Japanese, this particle marks a direct verb object, and Punctuation
and writing --
acts as indicator for "what is being traversed" in traversal verbs. We have already looked at both of these roles in chapter 1,
Kanji
in the section on verbs, as well as in chapter 2, in the section on verb particles; the particle is always pronounced as お, and
Types of Kanji -
there isn't really anything else to say about this particle that hasn't been said already. -
Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
§4.2.2 — Emphatic particles furigana --
Reading quirks:
compound
There are a number of particles which should be known in order to be able to communicate more than rudimentary ideas, in words --
Looking up
addition to the previous essential particles — that is not to say we cannot create complex constructions with the previous 10 kanji --
particles, but to properly express ourselves we need a few more. The following list is divided into two sections; the first Styles --
focussing mostly on sentence ending emphatic particles, and the second focussing on more general grammatical particles. Words and
word classes

§4.2.2.1 — よ — Informative, emphatic Articles --

Verbs --
Nouns --
Pronouns --
This particle is most often found at the end of statements, where it marks information as being either new information, or Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
contrary to the listener's belief. While tempting, this particle should not be translated with an exclamation mark, as よ isn't Adverbs --
Particles --
actually an exclamation, but only emphasises the "new information"/"contrary information" aspect. For instance: Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
すご おもしろ
and mimesis --
凄 く 面白 かった。 Compound
"(It) was very fun." words --
Sentence
凄く面白かったよ。 structure
"(It) was very fun (you didn't know or expect this, so I'm telling you it was)." Word order --
Emphasis --
When よ is used to emphasise contrasting information, the situation is usually some kind of misunderstanding: Pitch and
accents
ちが あたら ふる
Gender roles
違 うよ。 新 しいのはここ、 古 いのはあそこだよ。
Context
"No (emphatic). The new ones (go) here, the old ones (go) over there (emphatic)." language
Verb
While it would be temping in this use to translate よ with an exclamation mark anyway, care should be taken not to overdo grammar
things. A stern lecture from a boss, for instance, might never involve any yelling or even exclamations, but might be More
interspersed lavishly with よ. grammar
Particles
Counters
§4.2.2.2 — ね — Rhetoric and counting
Language
patterns
This particle is placed at the end of a sentence, when the speaker wants to provoke the listener into agreeing with them. This Conjugation
is a rhetorical agreement though, and using ね means you already expect the response to be something that sounds like an Schemes
affirmative muttering: Set phrases
Glossary
さかき ほんとう びじん
榊 さんは 本当 に美人ですね。
"Sakaki is really beautiful, isn't she?"

The unlikely event of hearing "no" as a response to this type of rhetorical confirmation seeking is typically met with much
surprise and disbelief, sparking new depths of conversation since you responded differently than what was expected of you.

This particle can be drawn out to form ねえ (also found written ねー or ねぇ), in which case it does the same thing, but
expecting less of a response:
Liked this
やす
book?
休 みっていいねえ。 Buy the
"Holiday's nice isn't it..." author a beer
(or coffee)!
A response to this is typically just something simple like "うん" (a colloquial "yes"), or "そうねえ" (in meaning similar to
"indeed") without the response having been given much thought.

A secondary use is mid-sentence, to draw the attention of the listener(s). This use is, sadly, completely and utterly
untranslatable, so the translation in the following sentence has ね mapped to a commentary instead:
おおさかじん
榊さんはね、本当に 大阪人 ですよ。
"Sakaki (are you still listening to me?) is actually from Oosaka."
This use can be overdone, too, similar to how the ungrammatical use of "like" is common in spoken English, but sticking it
in every other word makes you positively obnoxious:
Preface
き まつだ はんじかん ま The syntax
でね、それがね、来たらね、松田さんがね、もう半時間待ったそうだよ。
The kana
"So like, then, like, once I got there like, Matsuda had been like, waiting for over half an hour, apparently."
The basics --
Writing the
kana --
§4.2.2.3 — な — Strong rhetoric Pronouncing
Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
Using な instead of ね is a more assertive way to do the exact same thing, somewhat rhetorically asking for confirmation. differences --
Because this is a more assertive particle, it expects more of a response more than ね does. However, this particle has a Writing
spoken
problem as sentence ender, because (as was explained in chapter 3 in the section on imperatives) な after a 連体形 can also Japanese
mean a prohibiting command, such as in: Katakana
specific --
あ
Punctuation
開けるな。 and writing --
"Don't open (that)." Kanji
Types of Kanji -
The way to tell whether な is a prohibiting command or a confirmation-seeking particle is by intonation. If な is accented, -
Writing Kanji --
it's the confirmation seeking version. If it's unaccented, it's a prohibiting command. We can also find な at the end of a Reading kanji:
furigana --
sentence when it's following a 連 用 形 , in which case it can be considered a short version of the 連 用 形 + な さ い Reading quirks:
commanding form: compound
words --
お
Looking up
さっさと起きな。 kanji --
Styles --
"Will you get up already?" Words and
word classes
Luckily, this type of command is typically issued in a very stern voice, so it's very hard to mistake it for the other two roles Articles --
that the sentence ending な can have. Verbs --
Nouns --
Pronouns --
Like ね, な can have its vowel sound drawn out, to form なあ (also written なー or なぁ), and just like ね it can be used Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
mid-sentence as an attention grabber. Adverbs --
Particles --
Prefixes --
§4.2.2.4 — さ — Informative, emphatic Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Compound
words --
As a sentence ender, さ is a more emphatic version of よ, purely being informative. Where よ is used either to present new Sentence
information or contrary information, さ is only used for new information: structure
Word order --
きょう じゅぎょう で びょうき Emphasis --
今日も 授業 に出なかったさ。もしかして、 病気 ？ Pitch and
"(He) didn't come to class today either. (Do you think) maybe (he's) sick?" accents
Gender roles
Like ね and な, さ can be used mid-sentence as an attention grabber. However, it is considered a more explicit attention Context
grabber than ね or な. language
Verb
grammar
§4.2.2.5 — ぜ, ぞ — Emphatic More
grammar
Particles
These particles are highly informal — to the point of familiar — versions of よ. You might use them around the house, or Counters
with your good friends, or when trying to sound cool when picking up girls, when angry at someone for doing something and counting
completely stupid, or in any other situation in which informal familiar speech is used. Language
patterns
Conjugation
The difference between the two is the perceived objectivity. ぜ comes off as more subjective than ぞ:
Schemes
しゅみ Set phrases
つまらない趣味だぜ。 Glossary
"Well, that's a boring hobby."
しゅみ
つまらない趣味だぞ。
"[In case you didn't know,] it's [just] a boring hobby."

§4.2.2.6 — し — Stative

This particle is used when listing one or more arguments that back up some (possibly merely implied) statement: Liked this
おもしろ い い さむ き
book?
面白 くなかったよ。行きたくないと言っただろう。 寒 かったし、よく聞こえなかって... Buy the
author a beer
"(Well) it wasn't fun. (I) told (you) (I) didn't want to go, didn't (I)? It was cold, (I) couldn't really hear it all that well..." (or coffee)!

An example of where the conclusion is already implied requires more of a conversation:

か
A: じゃあ、買わなかった？
たか べつ じゅうよう
B: まあ、 高 かったし、 別 に 重要 なものもないし...
A: あ、そっか。
A: "So, (you) didn't buy it?" (the speaker here is only guessing)
B: "Well, it was expensive, (and) not something that (I) particularly needed..."
A: "Ah...(is that how things are)"
We see here that, while left implied, speaker B clearly did not buy whatever the conversation was about.
Preface
While it will often suit the translation to combine multiple -し reasons with "and", as this is the word used for compounding
The syntax
in English, a better translation would be "not just ... but also ..." or "what's more, ...". Be careful not to take this word "more"
The kana
too literally, as し can occur without the actual statement such as in the previous example.
The basics --
Writing the
kana --
§4.2.2.7 — って — Reiterating Pronouncing
Japanese --
Hiragana and
い katakana
This particle is an excessively contracted form of the constructions と言 って(も) and として(も), and it can be used in a differences --

fashion similar to the quoting particle と: Writing

spoken
なん
Japanese
何 ですって？ Katakana
specific --
"What did (you) say?" Punctuation
and writing --
Somewhat confusingly, it's sometimes also used as a replacement for と in its quoting role: Kanji
Types of Kanji -
く い こ
-
来るって言ったのに、どうして来なかったの。 Writing Kanji --
"Even though (you) said (you) would come over, why didn't (you)?" Reading kanji:
furigana --
い Reading quirks:
Finally, it can also act as a stand-in for the rather cumbersome と 言 う の は , which roughly translates to "that which is compound
words --
known by the term ..." or "everything that is generally covered by the term ...": Looking up
kanji --
にんげん おもしろ Styles --
人間 って、 面白 いです。 Words and
"(Everything that is encompassed by the term) humans are interesting." word classes
Articles --
Verbs --
§4.2.2.8 — っけ — Dubitative Nouns --
Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
This is a particle that is used when asking oneself a question such as when trying to recall something, as well as when asking Adverbs --
someone to give an answer that you know they already have: Particles --
Prefixes --
でんわばんごう なん Onomatopoeia
電話番号 は 何 だっけ。 and mimesis --
Compound
"Now what was the phone number again..." words --
"What was the phone number again?" Sentence
structure
Word order --
§4.2.2.9 — かな — Dubitative Emphasis --
Pitch and
accents
This is a combination of the questioning particle か and the strong confirmation seeking な. Combined they mean something
Gender roles
like "I wonder"/"I guess":
Context
うえまつ こ language
植松 さんも来ないかな(あ)。 Verb
"(I) guess Uematsu won't be coming either, huh?" grammar
もくようび ひま More
木曜日に 暇 かな(あ)。 grammar
"(I) wonder if (I)'m free Thursday..." Particles
Counters
and counting
§4.2.2.10 — かしら — Dubitative Language
patterns
Conjugation
かしら is the effeminate version of かな, reserved for women (as well as effeminate homosexuals and transvestites, in all Schemes
fairness). While most particles can be used by either gender but may make someone sound effeminate, using this particle as Set phrases
a man makes you sound gay. Quite literally, in fact, as it means you are letting people know that you consider yourself Glossary
effeminate and wish others to know this. Of course, using this particle as a woman is perfectly fine.

§4.2.2.11 — がな — Hopefulness

This combination of the particles が and な is used to indicate a hope, or wishful thinking, such as in for instance:
きょう てんき
今日もいい天気だといいがな(あ)。
"It'd be nice if today had good weather too." Liked this
book?
でんわ おも
Buy the
今日は電話をかけてくると 思 うがなあ。 author a beer
"(She)'ll call today, (I) think (I hope)..." (or coffee)!

§4.2.2.12 — や — Open noun list, resignation

There are two roles that や plays. The first is as open, or non-exhaustive, noun lister, used similarly to と:
さけ か
お 酒 は、ウイスキーやラムを買った。
"As for drinks, I got (us) (amongst other things,) whiskey and rum."
Unlike と , which presents an inclusive list, や leaves this list open, typically in a way that allows us to interpret it as
meaning "these things, and other things like them". Preface
The syntax
In addition to being the non-exhaustive noun lister, we can also use や as a sentence ending particle, where it signifies a
The kana
resignation to one's fate in the face of hardship:
The basics --
しかた
Writing the
仕方がないや。
kana --
Pronouncing
"(I) guess there's nothing (I) can do about it.." Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
Finally, や at the end of a sentence is in many regions in Japan considered a copula, replacing だ. In these regions, you may differences --
also find it inflected as negative, as やない. However, in this use (both affirmative and negative inflections) it is simply a Writing
spoken
copula, not indicating resignation of any kind. Japanese
Katakana
§4.2.2.13 — わ — Informative specific --
Punctuation
and writing --
Kanji
As sentence ender, this particle leads two lives. In standard Japanese, わ is used as an emphatic sentence ender, similar to
Types of Kanji -
よ, but is considered an effeminate particle and as such is used a lot by women, but avoided by men. In the more rural parts -
Writing Kanji --
of Japan, and most readily recognisably in the Kansai area, わ is also used as よ, but is not considered effeminate in any way Reading kanji:
furigana --
and is prolifically used by everyone. Reading quirks:
compound
In addition to acting as a sentence ending particle, わ can also be used in a role similar to the noun particle や, in which case words --
Looking up
it is an emphatic open listing particle. kanji --
Styles --
Words and
§4.2.3 — Further particles word classes
Articles --
Verbs --
§4.2.3.1 — のです, んです, のだ, んだ — Reasoning Nouns --
Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
A combination of the genitive の (permissibly contracted to ん) and the copula, this "particle" — or rather, set of particles Adverbs --
— can be used as a way to give a reason for something without explicitly stating so. This means you present a normal Particles --
Prefixes --
statement and finish it with a form of のです, turning it into something close to a factoid, which can be interpreted by the Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
listener(s) as a reason for a situation, or an explanation of a prior statement. That's perhaps a little abstract, so an example: Compound
words --
ねむ
A: 眠 そうね。 Sentence
でんしゃ structure
B: ああ。 電車 で眠ってしまったんだ。 Word order --
A: そうですか。 Emphasis --
Pitch and
A: "You look sleepy." accents
B: "Yeah, (it is due to the fact that) I fell asleep on the train." Gender roles
A: "Ah, I see."
Context
language
The "it is due to the fact that" part in the translation for line B is the conceptual translation for のです, and is usually best
Verb
simply left out, or if really needed translated with "as" (meaning something similar to "because", but subtly different by grammar
leaving out the explicit causal link described by "because"). While it's tempting to translate のです or its other forms んで More
grammar
す, のだ and んだ as "because", this is not what it means. There is nothing in のです that actually translates to an explicit
Particles
"because", so whenever possible do not use this word when translating. Counters
and counting
のです can also be used to ask for a reason, paired with a question that would otherwise warrant a yes/no answer. First, Language
without のです: patterns
Conjugation
Schemes
A: これでいいですか。 Set phrases
B: はい。 Glossary

A: "Is it okay this way?"

B: "Yes."

And then with のです:

A: これでいいんですか。
のこ あした きょう おも
B: 残 りは明日するんだから、今日はもういいと 思 うよ。
A: "Is it okay this way?" Liked this
book?
B: "(We)'ll do the rest tomorrow, so (yes,) I think we can call it a day."
Buy the
author a beer
We see here that a normal —ですか question is a simple "is it?" yes/no question, but that using のですか not only asks for (or coffee)!
a yes/no answer but also the motivation for the yes/no answer (the mixed politeness form between the two lines here may
indicate a subordinate talking to their boss).

Be careful not to start over-using のです, ending up using it in situations in which it doesn't actually make any sense such as
in the following example:
なに
A: 何 がいいですか。
B: アイスがいいんです。
A: "What will you have?"
 B: "As I want ice cream."
Preface
In this case, using ん で す is plain and simply wrong. Rather than stating that you want ice cream, ア イ ス が い い , the
The syntax
addition of んです suddenly forces the listener to interpret this phrase as a reason for something, leading to what is basically
The kana
a nonsense phrase, so be careful: only use のです or a variant when there is something to reason about, or you need more The basics --
information than a simple yes/no answer to a question. Writing the
kana --
Pronouncing
Japanese --
§4.2.3.2 — ので — Cause Hiragana and
katakana
differences --
This is essentially the continuative form for のです, and means "it is that ..." in an unfinished sentence, which is in English Writing
spoken
typically translated as "due to". There is an important distinction between "due to" and "because" that deserves some special Japanese
attention: "due to" typically cannot be used to indicate things such as explaining volitional action (I am doing this
Katakana
because...), reasons for requests (I would like ... because), personal opinions (I think ... because), commands (do ... because), specific --
and invitations/suggestion (should ... because). The same holds for ので: it cannot be used for any of these. Punctuation
and writing --
Kanji
You'd almost forget there are other things beside these categories, but the most fundamental one, stating fact, is still there
and is exactly what this particle is used for: Types of Kanji -
-
きょう やす みせ し
Writing Kanji --
今日は 休 みなので、お 店 が閉めてあります。
Reading kanji:
furigana --
"Due to it being a holiday today, the shop is closed." Reading quirks:
compound
こしょう ほか つか
words --
故障 しているので、 他 のを 使 うんです。 Looking up
"Due to it being broken, (you) will (have to) use another one." kanji --
Styles --

Because of the fact that this particle can only be used for factoids, and cannot be used to express one's own opinion, volition Words and
word classes
or suggestions, it is considered more polite than the next particle, から, which acts as a general "because". ので is used
Articles --
frequently in official documents and formal settings, where stating something as something other than a factoid might lay Verbs --
responsibility for the statement with someone. Nouns --
Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
§4.2.3.3 — から — Temporal, spacial or reasoning origin Adverbs --
Particles --
Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
The broadest definition that can be given for から is that it signifies the origin of anything, be it space related (starting from and mimesis --
some point), time (starting at some time), events (starting from the moment after you undertake a particular action), or even Compound
words --
reasoning (making an argument that is grounded in a particular perspective). Because of this, it's a very versatile particle. To
Sentence
see this versatility, let's look at several examples to illustrate the different uses of this particle, in translation:
structure
きょうと なら い Word order --
京都 から奈良へ行く。 Emphasis --
"(We)'re heading from Kyoto in the direction of Nara." Pitch and
ろくじ しごと accents
六時から仕事してるんだ。 Gender roles
"(I) work, starting at 6 o' clock." Context
らいげつ だいがくせい language
来月 から 大学生 です。 Verb
"(I)'ll be a university student as of next month." grammar
せんたく す き More
洗濯 をしてからゴミを捨てて来ます。 grammar
"After (I) have done the laundry (I)'ll go throw out the garbage." Particles
おく しけん う と Counters
遅 れたから試験を受け取られなかった。 and counting
"Because (I) was late, (I) couldn't take the exam." Language
patterns
くろがね せんせい じょうず せつめい でき
黒金 さんは 先生 だから 上手 に 説明 することも出来ます。 Conjugation
Schemes
"Because Mr. Kurogane is a teacher, he can also explain (things) well."
Set phrases
Glossary
You may have noticed the difference between the て-form + から in example sentence four, and the past tense た + から in
example sentence five. The first construction uses an open statement (an unfinished event if we remember what て stands
for) that acts as point of origin for a new event, while the second uses a closed statement as a point of origin for a reasoning.
The easy way to remember this is that a て form isn't a finished verb action, so no conclusions can be drawn from it, while a
連体形 is for all intents and purposes done, and can be used for drawing conclusions and commenting on.

§4.2.3.4 — まで — Temporal, spacial or reasoning extent (inclusive)

Liked this
The counterpart to から is the particle まで, which signifies the extent and thus end of something, rather than the origin. To book?
Buy the
be more specific, まで signifies an "up to and including" extent: author a beer
(or coffee)!
なら い
奈良まで行く。
"(We)'re going up to Nara."
ろくじ しごと
六時まで仕事しています。
"(I) work till 6 o' clock."
らいげつ だいがくせい
来月 まで 大学生 です。
"(I)'ll be a university student until next month."
せんたく す
洗濯 をするまでゴミを捨てます。
 "(I)'ll be throwing out garbage until (I) start doing the laundry."
い
Preface
そこまで言うんですか。
"(You)'ve gone too far..." The syntax
literally: "(How can you) say (something) (to that extent)?" The kana
The basics --
This last sentence is incredibly sparse in terms of actual translation, having much more implied translation than literal, but Writing the
kana --
illustrates the conceptual 'extent', where you cannot physically measure saying something, but can only conceptually say Pronouncing
someone is saying something that is either insignificant or grave in consequence. Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
Of course, から and まで can be used together in the typical "from ... to ..." pattern: differences --
Writing
きょうと なら い
spoken
京都 から奈良まで行く。 Japanese
"(We)'re going from Kyoto up to Nara."
Katakana
ろくじ しちじ うんどう specific --
六時から七時まで 運動 します。 Punctuation
and writing --
"(I) will exercise from 6 to 7 o' clock."
ねん
Kanji
1999 年 から2004 年まで大学生でした。 Types of Kanji -
-
"(I) was a student from 1999 to 2004." Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
But don't let the following sentence trip you up: furigana --
Reading quirks:
ともだち よ かれ かえ しゅくだい compound
友達 が寄ってきたから、 彼 が 帰 るまで 宿題 をしません。 words --
Looking up
kanji --
This sentence does not mean "I will not do homework from the moment my friend arrives until he leaves", but actually Styles --
means: Words and
word classes
"Because my friend has dropped by, I will not do homework until he leaves." Articles --
Verbs --
Nouns --
This sentence is not a "from ... up till ..." sentence, but a reason marked with から, where the conclusion happens to contain Pronouns --
まで. Be careful, and pay attention to whether something is -てから or -たから! Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Particles --
§4.2.3.5 — までに — Temporal, spacial or reasoning extent (exclusive) Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Compound
The combination of まで + に is a subtle restriction of the normal particle まで: words --
Sentence
くじ あつ structure
九時まで 集 まるんです。 Word order --
"(We)'ll assemble until 9 o' clock." Emphasis --
Pitch and
九時までに集まるんです。 accents
literally: "(We)'ll assemble up until 9 o' clock."
Gender roles
meaning: "(We)'ll assemble before 9 o' clock."
Context
language
While まで indicates "up to and including", までに indicates only "up to", or "up until". This difference between including
Verb
the last moment and excluding the last moment can be critical, as for instance in the previous example phrases. If we grammar
imagine a situation where a group of people are assembling in order to set off on a journey by bus at 9, forgetting the More
innocent looking に will make the difference between people enjoying a nice holiday, or standing stranded at the bus stop grammar
because they missed the deadline and the bus already left. Particles
Counters
and counting
§4.2.3.6 — より — Comparative (classical origin) Language
patterns
Conjugation
Before explaining the modern use, it might be useful to explain that より used to play the role that から plays today. In fact, Schemes
Set phrases
in legal documents より is still used instead of から. Now, this may not have been a very lengthy explanation, but it does
Glossary
make understanding why よ り does what it does in modern Japanese easier: in modern Japanese, よ り is used to label
something as a reference point for a comparison:
しょく あま
アンパンは 食 パンより 甘 いです。

Literally this line reads "Anpan (アンパン), with respect to dinner bread (食パンより), is sweeter (甘い)." which makes
the somewhat abstract explanation earlier clearer.

Typically, よ り gets translated with "rather than", but this can be confusing because よ り usually does not link the two Liked this
things being compared, as in English, but links the reference point and the quality. In the previous sentence, for instance, 食 book?
Buy the
パンより is the reference point, and the quality is 甘い, sweet. We could even leave the compared item out entirely, relying author a beer
on context to make it clear what it was supposed to be: (or coffee)!

食パンより甘いです。
"(it) is sweeter than dinner bread."

The reason we can do this is because qualities, as you hopefully remember from the section on attributive and comparative
use of adjectives, can be either attributive (attributing their quality) or comparative (being used to indicate they apply more
to one thing than another). As such, 甘いです doesn't just mean "it is sweet", but can mean "it is sweeter" just as easily.
When paired with より, considering the adjective a comparative is the better interpretation.
§4.2.3.7 — ながら — Performing two acts at the same time
Preface

This particle, which follows a verbs in 連用形, or verbal adjectives and nouns directly, signifies that two actions are taking The syntax
place at the same time, for the same duration of time. This particle is sometimes translated with "while", but this is typically The kana
more confusing than helpful because of the way Japanese clauses are ordered (the most important clause coming last): The basics --
Writing the
み はん た kana --
テレビを見ながらご 飯 を食べました。 Pronouncing
Japanese --
"(I) ate dinner while watching the TV." Hiragana and
katakana
The second part, ご飯を食べました, is the dominant action here, which is why it comes last. In English, however, we tend differences --
Writing
to list the dominant action first, mentioning the other thing we're doing almost as an afterthought.
spoken
Japanese
On a timing note, ながら implies that the two actions are roughly of equal duration, and we cannot use it for something like Katakana
"I did some shopping while visiting Tokyo today". Instead, the particle が て ら is used for this kind of momentary specific --
Punctuation
simultaneous action, if a particle is used at all. Rather, usually a continuative is used instead, such as: and writing --

とうきょう い か もの
Kanji
東京 に行って買い 物 をしました。 Types of Kanji -
-
"I went to Tokyo (and) did (some) shopping (while there)." Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
In addition to the obvious interpretation, ながら can also be used to mean 'but' or 'even though', especially when paired with furigana --
Reading quirks:
ざんねん
compound
the noun 残念 , "unfortunate": words --
Looking up
かんたん こと kanji --
残念ながら、そう 簡単 な 事 じゃありません。 Styles --
"I'm sorry, but matters are not that simple." Words and
word classes
Articles --
§4.2.3.8 — がてら — Performing one act during another Verbs --
Nouns --
Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
Like ながら, がてら comes after verbs in 連用形 or directly after verbal adjectives and nouns, but unlike ながら, it does Adjectives --
Adverbs --
not claim two actions to be perfectly synchronous. Instead, the verb in 連用形 + がてら indicates the longer verb action, Particles --
with the sentence finalising verb indicating the shorter one. This might seem odd, since it might seem to contradict the Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
practice of putting the most important part last, but actually the short action is dominant: since the long verb action is going and mimesis --
on anyway, the shorter action represents more specific, and thus more important, information: Compound
words --
ともだち えき おく か もの
Sentence
友達 を 駅 まで 送 りがてら買い 物 した。 structure
"While bringing (my) friend to the station, (we also) did (some) shopping." Word order --
Emphasis --
がてら can also be written がてらに, explicitly using the particle に to mark the act as a time frame in which the more Pitch and
specific act takes place. accents
Gender roles
As mentioned in the section on ながら, often a continuative verb form is used rather than がてら, but this does come at a Context
price: using the て form means we also indicate a sequence of events, so that we cannot rephrase the previous sentence as language

follows, without changing its meaning: Verb

grammar
More
友達を駅まで送って買い物した。 grammar
"I escorted my friend to the station, (and then) did (some) shopping." Particles
Counters
and counting
§4.2.3.9 — つつ — Performing an act while some situation is the case Language
patterns
Conjugation
As the last particle for indicating "doing something while something else is the case", we find the particle つつ. This particle Schemes
is more general than ながら or がてら in that there are no time constraints of any sort (this particle follows verbs in 連用 Set phrases
形): Glossary

じぶん せい し ひてい
自分の所為で知りつつ、否定するつもりですか。
"Do you intend to deny (it), while knowing full well it was (your) own fault?"

Note that because this particle has no time aspect to it, we can also use it for things such as:
みせ えき ひだり み ま す
お 店 は 駅 を 左 に見つつ、真っ直ぐです。
"The shop is straight on, with the station to your left."
Liked this
book?
§4.2.3.10 — けれども — Contrastive: however Buy the
author a beer
(or coffee)!
While the English "however" comes at the start of a sentence and is followed by a comma, the Japanese けど comes mid-
sentence (and may also be followed by a comma). Strangely enough, they both mean the same thing, but the way they do it
is just syntactically different.

English: "This is true. However, there are more things at play."

ほか ようそ
Japanese: そうだけど、 他 の要素もある。

In this sentence, the pause is after けど, which is simply a contracted form of けれども. In fact, けれども has four variants:
けれども, けれど, けども and けど. In classical Japanese these all had subtly different meanings, けれども being a
combination of the verb form けれ (the 已然形 for ける) and the classical compound particle ども, but in modern Japanese
they can be used essentially interchangeably, as long as the "the longer, the more polite" rule is observed. That said, both け Preface
れども and けども contain the emphatic も, while けれど and けど do not, which makes けれども and けども more The syntax
contrastive than けれど and けど. The kana
The basics --
Writing the
All of these, however, follow 連体形 phrases. kana --
Pronouncing
Japanese --

§4.2.3.11 — 程 — Extent
ほど
Hiragana and
katakana
differences --
Writing
This particle is not so hard to use, but it has a particular pattern of use that sometimes confuses people when they first learn spoken
it. For this reason, it's probably easiest to say that 程 stands for 'extent' of actions, consequences, or even of properties. For Japanese
たか
instance, するほど would translate to "the extent of doing". Similarly, 高 いほど would be 'the extent of the height', etc. Katakana
specific --
Punctuation
This marking of extent is quite useful when comparing items: where the construction [X]も[Y]も gives a similarity, and the and writing --
Kanji
construction [X]より[Y] makes Y more "something" than [X], the construction [X]ほど[Y] marks the extent of Y the being
Types of Kanji -
same as for X. For instance: -
Writing Kanji --
たか おい Reading kanji:
高 いほど美味しい。 furigana --
literally: "To the extent that it is pricey, it is tasty." Reading quirks:
compound
meaning: "As tasty as it is pricey." words --
Looking up
kanji --
In effect, this [X]ほど[Y] sets up a proportional relation between the concepts X and Y. Another example to illustrate this: Styles --

じょうず
Words and
するほど 上手 になる。 word classes
literally: "To the extent of doing it, one gets better (at it)." Articles --
Verbs --
meaning: "Getting better the more (you) do it." Nouns --
Pronouns --
Hopefully this makes the following sentence understandable: Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
びじゅつ み うつく
Adverbs --
美術 は見れば、見るほど 美 しい。
Particles --
Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
Before offering the translation, I'll give you the translation for the individual words, in the hope that what I end up offering and mimesis --
Compound
is a translation that seems obvious: 美術 means art, 見る means 'to watch/to look at' and 美しい means beautiful. Literally words --
this sentence would come down to "Art, should one look at it, to the extent of looking at it, it's beautiful". The trick is now Sentence
of course to turn this literal translation into something that actually makes sense in English: structure
Word order --
"As far as Art is concerned, the more (often) (you) look at it, the more beautiful it is." Emphasis --
Pitch and
Hopefully at this point you'll go "yes, that's obvious". If so, then good. If not, then that's in line with what many people accents
experience when they first come across ほど used in this particular sense. The pattern used here is quite particular: with [X] Gender roles
a verb and [Y] some statement, "([X] in 已然形+ば) [X] ほど [Y]" translates to "The more one [X], the more [Y]". Context
language
Another example using this pattern is: Verb
grammar
き わ More
聞けば聞くほど分かってくるよ。 grammar
"The more (you) hear it, the better (you)'ll understand it." Particles
Counters
The reason it means this is that the extents of the initial verb action 聞く and the conclusion 分かってくる are linked by ほ and counting
Language
ど. patterns
Conjugation
Schemes
§4.2.3.11.1 — Negative extent Set phrases
Glossary

Just as ほど can be used for a "the more [X], the more [Y]", it can be used to construct a negative "The more X, the less Y"
sentence:
くるま やす はし
車 は 安 いほど 走 られないものだ。
"The cheaper cars are, the less (well) they run."

One of the things that tends to trip up people a lot with ほど is the fact that even though the Japanese pattern has three verbs,
the English translation has only two. The thing to remember is that [已然形＋ば + 連体形 + ほど] is a single semantic Liked this
block meaning "to the extend of doing X", so the Japanese may have the verb twice, but the translation only needs it once. book?
Buy the
author a beer
§4.2.3.12 — しか — Save, except (or coffee)!

This particle is sometimes translated with "only", but when it is, it typically needs a very strange and contrived explanation.
Instead, remember that しか does not mean 'only', but means 'save' or 'except', as used in for instance "I didn't do a dang
thing today, save/except eat":
きょう た なに
今日は食べることしか 何 もしなかった。
"Today (I) did nothing except eat."
That's really all there is to it. The only additional rule is that しか follows verbs in 連体形, or nouns directly:
Preface
せんせい
先生 しかいない。 The syntax
"(There) is no one but (the) teacher." The kana
The basics --
Writing the
§4.2.3.13 — だけ — Only kana --
Pronouncing
Japanese --
Hiragana and
Unlike しか, だけ does mean 'only', and is typically followed by the instrumental particle で to indicate something is done katakana
in some restricted way: differences --
Writing
ひとり spoken
一人だけでしました。 Japanese
"(I) did it just by myself." Katakana
specific --
Punctuation
The same idea can be expressed with しか, but then the phrasing needs to be drastically altered: and writing --

わたし Kanji
私 しかしなかった。 Types of Kanji -
"No one did it except for me." -
Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
Notice that these two phrases connote very different things, even though they share the same basic idea. Both claim that one furigana --
Reading quirks:
person performed a task, but the sentence with だけ sounds far more positive than the one with しか. The second sentence compound
sounds almost accusative, which is a direct consequence of the fact that しか means save, and thus needs to be used with a words --
Looking up
negative verb, as well as with an unnamed party in this case. kanji --
Styles --

だけ can also be used with verbs in 連体形 form: Words and

word classes
ひとこと い わ Articles --
一言 言うだけで分かりました。 Verbs --
Nouns --
"(He) understood (it) with just one word." Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
However, while だけ is used to indicate a particular instance, for the habitual or repetitive version of just/only, such as in for Adjectives --
Adverbs --
instance "why do you always only eat caramel flavoured ice cream?", the particle ばかり (or its variants ばっかり, ばかし, Particles --
Prefixes --
ばっかし or ばっか) is used. Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Compound
words --
§4.2.3.13.1 — Special use Sentence
structure
でき Word order --
The verb 出来 る, "to be able to do" in combination with だけ creates a special word: 出来るだけ. This word is special Emphasis --

because it's part of a pair that expresses almost the same thing, but not quite: 出来るだけ and なるべく. Both express "as ... Pitch and
accents
as possible" but there's a subtle difference:
Gender roles
はや き くだ Context
出来るだけ 早 く来て 下 さい。 language
"Please come as quickly as possible." Verb
grammar
なるべく早く来て下さい。
More
"Please come as quickly as possible." grammar
Particles
The difference between the two is that 出来るだけ expresses "do whatever you can to ...", whereas なるべく expresses "at Counters
your earliest convenience" or even just "if possible". The first essentially works as a command, saying to drop everything and counting
and do whatever the sentence says to do, provided this is at all possible (hence the 出 来 る ), while the second doesn't Language
patterns
demand quite this much, due to the words that it's made up of: a combination of なる, to become, and the 連用形 of the Conjugation
classical, very odd, verb べし (which defies modern word classes), used to indicate a social expectation. Schemes
Set phrases
Glossary
§4.2.3.13.2 — Inverting using でなく

The meaning for だけ can also be inverted by adding でなく, the continuative of です followed by the 連用形 of ない, to
form a construction meaning "not just" or "as well as":
うんてん じょうず うんてんしゅ
運転 だけでなく、メカニックスにも 上手 な 運転手 です。
literally: "Not just (at) driving, but also at (the) mechanics, he's a really competent driver."
meaning: "(He)'s a driver who's not just good at the wheel, but also knows his way around the mechanics of a car." Liked this
book?
Buy the
§4.2.3.14 — ばかり — Just, only author a beer
(or coffee)!

As mentioned in the explanation of だけ, ばかり is used for things that are repetitive or drown out everything else, such as
in the following sentence for instance:
つ ひと きら
うそばかり付ける 人 が 嫌 いです。
"(I) hate people who only tell lies."

In this sentence, ばかり has to be used if we want to indicate not just telling a lie once or twice, but always telling lies, i.e.
only telling lies rather than truths.
Another use is with verbs in plain past tense, to indicate that the verb action has been completed only, or just, moments ago:
つく Preface
作 ったばかりのクッキー The syntax
"cookies that have just been made" The kana
The basics --
ばかり can also be written ばっかり, in which case it carries just a bit more emphasis. It may also be used as ばかし or ば Writing the
っかし without any serious difference, other than that ばかし sounds a bit more effeminate than ばかり. Finally, ばっかり, kana --
Pronouncing
or ばっかし can be further contracted to the highly informal ばっか, not to be confused with the popular term バカ, used Japanese --
Hiragana and
when someone messes something up. katakana
differences --
Like だけ, ばかり's meaning can be inverted by using でなく. Writing
spoken
Japanese
§4.2.3.15 — でも — Strong emphatic Katakana
specific --
Punctuation
and writing --
This particle is actually a combination of the continuative form of the copula で す , で , and も as contrastive emphatic Kanji
marker. Together, they form a strong emphatic marker that can be translated with "even", "regardless of" or "but even then": Types of Kanji -
-
せんせい わ
Writing Kanji --
先生 でも分かりませんよ。 Reading kanji:
"Even the teacher doesn't know." furigana --
Reading quirks:
あたら か もんだい compound
新 しいのを買った。でも、これもまた 問題 があります。 words --
Looking up
"[I] bought a new one. But this one has a problem too." kanji --
Styles --
Like か and も, this combination can be used in combination with interrogatives, in which case it forms extremes: Words and
word classes

interrogative meaning with でも meaning Articles --

Verbs --
Nouns --
なに what なんでも anything at all Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
だれ who だれでも anyone and everyone Adjectives --
Adverbs --
どこ where どこでも wherever Particles --
Prefixes --
いつ when いつでも whenever Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Compound
どう how どうでも however ("in whichever way") words --
Sentence
It should be noted that while technically, as with も , particles come between the question word and で も , it is not structure
Word order --
uncommon to place them after the combination of interrogative + でも: Emphasis --
Pitch and
だれでも + の can become either だれのでも or だれでもの accents
いつでも + を can become either いつをでも or いつでもを Gender roles
どこでも + で can become either どこででも or どこでもで Context
language
どうでも + に can become either どうにでも or どうでもに
Verb
grammar
However, for most of these combinations there tends to be a preference for one or the other, so どうにでも tends to be More
preferred over どうでもに, while だれでもの tends to be preferred over だれのでも. grammar
Particles
Counters
§4.2.3.16 — のに — Despite and counting
Language
patterns
This particle should not be confused with a loose combination of の and に, such as in the following sentences: Conjugation
Schemes
いしかわ なに か Set phrases
石川 さんのに 何 かが書いてありそうです。 Glossary
"It seems like there's something written on Ishikawa's (something)."
おい
その美味しそうなのにしましょう。
"Let's have that tasty looking one."

However, as a 'fixed' combination particle のに, the interpretation is rather different:

じっさい すご じょうず
まだ 十歳 なのに、ピアノが 凄 く 上手 です。
"Despite being only 10 years old, (she)'s incredibly proficient at playing the piano." Liked this
book?
(note that, in this sentence, the な preceding のに is the 連体形 form of the copula だ) Buy the
author a beer
What happens here is that の sets up a fact, about which a commentary is made, with the fact marked as details to the (or coffee)!

commentary by using に. In this use, the commentary is always something constrasting or unexpected/unlikely.

§4.2.3.17 — とか — Representative

This particle is used in the same way as と or や, acting as a noun lister. When used, it sets up a representative list, and
because it's representative only, it can be used for either a single term, or for multiple terms:

さし きら
 さしみ きら
刺身とか 嫌 いだ。
"(I) hate things like sashimi." Preface
の もの た もの か The syntax
飲み 物 とか食べ 物 とか買ってきた。 The kana
"(I) went to buy stuff like food and drinks."
The basics --
Writing the
kana --
§4.2.3.18 — など — (Vaguely) representative Pronouncing
Japanese --
Hiragana and
なに なん katakana
This is a rough listing particle, similar to とか in use. This particle has come from 何 と through 何 ど to the current など. differences --

Like とか, it can be used either for listing, or for single representative statements. Writing
spoken
Japanese
The colloquial version of this particle is, somewhat surprisingly, なんか. This colloquial version is not used for the listing Katakana
version of など, but only for its single use: specific --
Punctuation
and writing --
やすもの きょうみ
安物 なんかに 興味 がないよ。 Kanji
"(I) don't care for (things like) cheap stuff." Types of Kanji -
-
Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
§4.2.3.19 — やら — Uncertainty furigana --
Reading quirks:
compound
words --
This particle indicates an element of uncertainty in the speaker, such as for instance: Looking up
kanji --
ま あ Styles --
どうやら間に合ったようですね。
Words and
"It looks like (we) somehow made it in time, doesn't it?" word classes
Articles --
It acts similar to か, used after interrogatives to create a vaguely specific answer to the interrogative: Verbs --
Nouns --
なに しろ もの う Pronouns --
何 やら 白 い 物 が浮いている。 Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
"There seems to be something white floating (there)." Adverbs --
Particles --
Prefixes --
This has the same meaning as 何か白い物が浮いている, but is considered more formal literary. Other than どう, forming Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
どうやら, there are essentially no interrogatives that are used with やら in spoken Japanese. Compound
words --
Sentence
§4.2.3.20 — くらい, ぐらい — Estimated extent structure
Word order --
Emphasis --
This particle is used to estimate an extent of quantity, duration, frequency or even reasoning:
Pitch and
よ accents
A: とりあえず、５０ページくらい読まなければなりません。 Gender roles
A: "(I) need to read about 50 pages for now." Context
さんじっぷん language
B: 三十分 くらい読みましょうか。
Verb
B: "Let (me) read for about 30 minutes." grammar
いちにち じかん More
C: 一日 に３時間ぐらい読みます。 grammar
C: "(I) read about 3 hours a day." Particles
わ Counters
D: それぐらい分かってるよ。 and counting
D: "(I) understand that much (now explain the parts I don't understand yet)." Language
patterns
The difference between the normal unvoiced version, くらい, and the voiced version, ぐらい, is that the second is a more Conjugation
Schemes
colloquial, relaxed version of the first. This means that the context in which they're used is subtly different. The best way to Set phrases
get a feel for which to use when is to hear them used often enough. Glossary

§4.2.3.21 — ころ, ごろ — Loose time frame

While くらい is used for estimation of extent, ころ is used for estimation of a moment in time. For instance "I need to be at
work around 9" would be an instance where こ ろ rather than ぐ ら い would be used, since this does not concern some
measurable extent, but a clock time.
かあ さんじ むか く
母 さんが三時ごろ 迎 えに来るって。 Liked this
"Mom said she'd come to pick (us) up around 3." book?
Buy the
author a beer
Similar to くらい, the use of ころ vs. ごろ is mostly dictated by whether or not it's okay to use a colloquially relaxed (or coffee)!
version. Again, the best way to learn when this is is to hear it used often enough to get a feel for it.

§4.2.3.22 — きり, ぎり, っきり — Only, merely

き
きり, and its voiced and stopped versions ぎり and っきり are used to "single things out". They've come from 切る, to cut,
and this is an indication of how they're used. Added to a clause, it indicates that a "this and only this" clause is in effect. To
make this a bit more clear, a few examples:

にほん ちど
 にほん いちど い
日本にはただ一度行ったきりです。
"(I) have been to Japan (only) once." Preface
The syntax
Here the act of "going to Japan" has been performed once, and きり is used to indicate that this once is understood as "once The kana
and only once", rather than the "once" as used in for instance "I've been there once when it was hot, and ..." which actually The basics --
doesn't preclude having gone to a place multiple times. Writing the
kana --
しごと ひとり Pronouncing
その仕事を一人きりでしたんだ。 Japanese --
Hiragana and
"(I) did that job all (alone) by (myself)." katakana
differences --
Here, きり is used to make it explicit that there was no one else to even do the job other than "myself". If we compare this Writing
spoken
sentence to a similar sentence that uses だけ instead we see: Japanese
Katakana
その仕事を一人だけでしたんだ。 specific --
Punctuation
"(I) did that job alone." and writing --
Kanji
We see that this sentence doesn't actually rule out the possibility that others may have been available to help out, and that in
Types of Kanji -
this case we did it ourselves for whatever reason. In contrast, the line with きり says that at the time of doing this job, there -
was just me, and no one else. Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
furigana --
ひと あ ご つ あ
Reading quirks:
あの 人 には一度会ったきりで、その後は付き合ってませんでした。 compound
"(I)'ve only met that person once, (I) haven't been with them since." words --
Looking up
kanji --
Here きり is used to indicate that the event of meeting this person was a singular event. Styles --
Words and
The difference between using き り , ぎ り and っ き り is mainly a colloquial one, related to 'what sounds good'. In word classes
Articles --
colloquially relaxed speech, ぎり will work better than きり, and if one wants to put extra emphasis on the "singling out", Verbs --
っきり works better than きり. It is mostly a question of hearing it often enough to develop a feel for which is best in which Nouns --
Pronouns --
setting. Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Particles --
§4.2.3.23 — ずつ — Equal distribution Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
This particle is used to indicate some equal distribution of something, over something else. For instance "These oranges are Compound
words --
80 yen a piece" or "Every pair will share 1 book". In the first line, there's an equal distribution of price over every orange:
Sentence
ひと はちじゅうえん structure
オレンジが 一 つずつで 八十円 だ。 Word order --
"Oranges are 80 yen a piece." Emphasis --
literally: "Oranges are per one (being the same for each), 80 yen." Pitch and
accents
In the second line, there is an equal distribution of how many items are distributed over a certain number of people, using ... Gender roles
に...ずつ: Context
language
ほん ふたり いっさつ わ あ
Verb
本 は二人に 一冊 ずつ分け合うんだ。 grammar
"Each pair will (have to) share one book."
More
literally: "As for the books, to two people, one book (to each group of two) will be shared" grammar
Particles
§4.2.3.24 — こそ — Emphatic, appropriating Counters
and counting
Language
patterns
This particle can be considered similar in function to も, except instead of just likening two things to each other, こそ can
Conjugation
also "shift" the properties of the original to the instance it is suffixed to instead. This may sound a bit strange, so an example Schemes
will hopefully make it clearer: Set phrases
おも
Glossary
A: ああ、どうもすみません。ボーとしてて 思 わずぶつかって...
わたし
B: いいえ、いいえ。こちらこそすみません。 私 がもっとしっかりしてたら...
A: "Ah, I'm sorry, Not looking at where I was going and just walking into you like that..."
B: "No, no, it should be me who should be apologising. If I had paid more attention to what was going on..."

Aside from an embarrassing moment, speaker B uses こそ with こちら (which is used to refer to himself in this case) to
make the act of apologising apply to him more than to speaker A, thus "shifting" the need to apologise from A to B instead.
こそ can also be used on its own, in which case it is perceived as contrasting the stated to everything else, typically being Liked this
translatable with "exactly" or "precisely": book?
Buy the
き author a beer
だからこそ来たんだよ。 (or coffee)!
"But that's precisely why (I) came over."

§4.2.3.25 — もの — Experience, social custom, because

もの is used to conceptualise something as real, be it tangible or intangible. Because of this, it can fulfil a few roles, such as
listing an experience:
わたし こども とき ただ そだ
私 たちは子供の 時 に 正 しく 育 ったもの。
 "We were raised properly when we were children."
Preface
Here もの indicates that 正しく育った is a real, albeit intangible, thing. Because it is past tense, the only real thing it can
The syntax
be is the speaker's own experience. When used with present tense, the only way intangible things can be real is if they are
somehow common place, or social customs: The kana
The basics --
ひと めいわく Writing the
人 に 迷惑 をかけないものです。 kana --
Pronouncing
literally: "It is a thing to 'not be a bother to people'." Japanese --
"One should not cause problems for others." Hiragana and
katakana
differences --
Colloquially, もの can be shortened to もん, but this typically makes the speaker sound "childish":
Writing
まえ く
spoken
A: なんでお 前 アンパンばかり食うのかよ。 Japanese
す Katakana
B: だって、好きだもん〜。 specific --
Punctuation
A: "Why the heck do you always eat anpan?" and writing --
B: "Because I like it." Kanji
Types of Kanji -
-
§4.2.3.26 — かも — Possibility Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
furigana --
し Reading quirks:
The particle かも is actually the expression かも 知 れません with the verb left off. This construction is used to indicate compound
words --
something 'might be' the case, and is used quite frequently in every day language: Looking up
kanji --
か たか Styles --
A: えっ？買うのか？ 高 いでしょう？ Words and
B: そうかも、ね。だが、ぴったりじゃないですか？ word classes
Articles --
A: "Eh? You're going to buy it? Don't you think it's (a little) expensive?" Verbs --
B: "Maybe... But then again, isn't it exactly (what we want)?" Nouns --
Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
There is no functional difference between using かも and using かも知れません, although again the "the longer it is, the Adjectives --
Adverbs --
more formal polite your speech" rule applies, so かも is less formal than かも知れん which is less formal than かも知れな Particles --
Prefixes --
い, which in turn is less formal than かも知れません. Typically, you'll either use かも知れません or かも. Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Compound
§4.2.4 — Enrichment words --
Sentence
The following set of particles conists mostly of "interesting" particles, and rare or literary particles that you may encounter structure
every now and then. However, they go well beyond basic Japanese and you can safely ignore them if you wish. They have Word order --
Emphasis --
been included mostly for completeness, given that you will invariably run across them every now and then while reading
Japanese books or manga, or watching Japanese films or TV. Pitch and
accents
Gender roles
§4.2.4.1 — さえ — Even, merely Context
language
Verb
Typically used preceded by で, さえ is yet another "even", being similar to でも, or だけ. However, where だけ means grammar
"only" in the "just" way, さえ means "only" in the "at least"/"as long as only" way: More
grammar
こども し Particles
子供でさえ知ってるよ。 Counters
"Even children know this." and counting
こうし けってん まぬか Language
孔子でさえ 欠点 あるが 免 れなかった。 patterns
"Even Confucius was not free of flaws." Conjugation
かね Schemes
お 金 さえあれば、のんびりしててもいい。 Set phrases
"As long as (you) (just) have money, (you) can take it easy." Glossary

§4.2.4.2 — すら — Not even

This particle is related to さえ in a way similar to how しか and だけ are related, and is followed by a negative to express a
"not even" construction:
てがみ まんぞく か
手紙すら 満足 に書けない。
Liked this
"(I) cannot even write a letter to (my) satisfaction."
book?
Buy the
This particle is considered rather literary. author a beer
(or coffee)!

§4.2.4.3 — とも — Emphasis

This particle, while a combination of と + も, doesn't actually act as a similarity marker as you might expect, but instead is
actually used to stress the preceding noun or noun phrase in a sentence:
きみ い とお
君 の言う 通 りだとも。
"It's (exactly) as you say."
This particle comes after 連体形 constructions.
Preface
§4.2.4.4 — なり — Either/or, as soon as The syntax
The kana
This particle can mean two things, depending on whether it's used on its own or as a two-item "list": The basics --
Writing the
kana --
こま ちち はは そうだん
Pronouncing
困 ったときには、 父 なり 母 なりに 相談 することです。 Japanese --
"When (you)'re troubled, (you) should talk to either (your) mother or father." Hiragana and
katakana
literally: "When troubled, the concept is to consult (your) father or mother." differences --
Writing
This list use is very different from the singular use: spoken
つか かえ ばん はん た ね
Japanese
疲 れていたから、 帰 るなり 晩 ご 飯 を食べずに寝てしまった。 Katakana
specific --
"Because (she) was tired, (she) went to bed the moment (she) got home, without having dinner." Punctuation
and writing --
Here the literal translation would be "Because (she) was tired, the moment (she) got home, (she) went to bed without eating Kanji
dinner."
Types of Kanji -
-
Writing Kanji --
§4.2.4.5 — ものの — Even though Reading kanji:
furigana --
Reading quirks:
compound
This combination particle is quite interesting; the combination of もの with の is functionally equivalent to the particles け words --
Looking up
(れ)ど(も) and のに: kanji --
Styles --
か つか かた ぜんぜん わ
Words and
「MacBook」を買ったものの、 使 い 方 が 全然 分からない。
word classes
"Even though (I) bought a MacBook, (I) actually don't know how to use it at all."
Articles --
Verbs --
This sentence isn't significantly different from the same sentence using のに or けど: Nouns --
Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
「MacBook」を買ったのに、使い方が全然分からない。 Adjectives --
Adverbs --
"Even though (I) bought a MacBook, (I) actually don't know how to use it at all." Particles --
Prefixes --
「MacBook」を買ったけど、使い方が全然分からない。 Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
"(I) bought a MacBook. However, (I) actually don't know how to use it at all." Compound
words --
The similarity will typically be closer to け(れ)ど(も) than to のに, as the use of もの creates a factoid, and the の is used Sentence
structure
to relate the concluding remark to this factoid, in a manner that could be described as genitive:
Word order --
Emphasis --
(「MacBook」を買ったもの) の (使い方が全然分からない。)
Pitch and
("I bought a MacBook")'s ("I do not know how to use it at all") accents
Gender roles
§4.2.4.6 — ものか — Emphatic negative Context
language
Verb
This is simply the sentence ending もの, used to indicate a custom or social expectation of sorts, followed by the question grammar
particle か in its "Like I ..." meaning: More
grammar
し Particles
そんなこと知るものか。 Counters
"Like (I) would (be expected to) know something like that!" and counting
Language
patterns
As mentioned in the explanation of か, this is one of the rare instances where you will nearly always be able to translate the
Conjugation
construction with an exclamation mark, due to the use of this particularly expressive か. Notice that this sentence is almost Schemes
the same as: Set phrases
Glossary
そんなこと知るか。
"Like (I) would know something like that!"

The only difference is that the use of もの makes the statement question the expectation, rather than the act:

そんなこと知るか。
"Like (I) know something like that!"
そんなこと知るものか。
Liked this
"Like (I) (should) know something like that!" book?
Buy the
author a beer
§4.2.4.7 — もので — Reasoning (or coffee)!

This is just the particle も の , used to indicate a custom or social expectation, paired with the continuative form of the
copula, で, to create an implicit reason:
きゃく めいわく おとな しず すわ
客 として 迷惑 をかけないようにするもので、大人しく 静 かに 座 っててなさい。
"Because being guests means not causing (unnecessary) problems (for the host), (just) sit (here) quietly 'in a grown up
way'."
§4.2.4.8 — のみ — Nothing but
Preface

The particle のみ is a literary particle comparable in meaning to だけ or ばかり, and is used in essentially the same way, The syntax

marking something as an "only thing" or "only option": The kana

The basics --
そつぎょう かんが しかん わす Writing the
卒業 のみで 考 えて試験がまだあるのを 忘 れないもの。 kana --
Pronouncing
"If (you)'re only thinking about graduating, don't forget that there are still exams to be taken." Japanese --
いま ま Hiragana and
今 のはただ待つのみです。 katakana
differences --
"(And) now all we (can) do (is) wait."
Writing
spoken
Unlike だけ or ばかり, which are followed by でなく, the particle のみ is followed by ならず when the opposite of its Japanese
meaning is required: Katakana
specific --
けんきゅうしゃ ちゅうがくせい わ せつめい Punctuation
研究者 のみならず、 中学生 が分かるように 説明 してください。 and writing --
"Please explain things in such a way that middle schoolers, not just researchers, can understand it." Kanji
Types of Kanji -
This particle is considered literary. -
Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
furigana --
§4.2.4.9 — どころ + Negative — Extent, impossibility Reading quirks:
compound
words --
Looking up
This particle is typically used in the pattern [...]どころではない, to indicate an impossibility: kanji --
Styles --
いそが りょこう
こう 忙 しくては 旅行 するどころではない。 Words and
word classes
"Being this busy, it's impossible (for me) to go on a trip."
Articles --
Verbs --
It can also be used in a way similar to ほど to indicate an extent: Nouns --
Pronouns --
こま さわ
Nominalisers --
困 るどころの 騒 ぎじゃない。
Adjectives --
Adverbs --
"No need to cause a fuss over this problem." Particles --
Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
This sentence is somewhat hard to properly translate due to ど こ ろ , and a more literal translation would be "this isn't and mimesis --
Compound
[something that should be] caused a fuss [over] to the extent that [you are] troubled". words --
ところ Sentence
This is technically a voiced version of 所 , which will be treated in the section on nominalisers in the chapter on language structure
patterns. Word order --
Emphasis --
Pitch and
§4.2.4.10 — どころか — Emphatic accents
Gender roles
Context
This particle is somewhat akin to より, except it only applies to events or circumstances, and is much stronger than より. It
language
creates a construction that can be translated with "Instead of ..., [something which implies the total opposite]" by following
Verb
the 連体形: grammar
ともだち あそ ひとばん しゅくだい More
友達 と 遊 ぶどころか、 一晩 に 宿題 をしたんだ。 grammar
"Instead of going out with (my) friends, (I) spent the entire night working on (my) homework." Particles
Counters
and counting
§4.2.4.11 — だの — Representative Language
patterns
Conjugation
This particle hangs somewhere between と and や when making a list. It creates a list of items, but also implies that this list Schemes
is representative of something. For instance: Set phrases
Glossary
いぬ ねこ いろ か
犬 だの 猫 だの、 色 んなものを飼っている。
"Dogs, cats, we keep all sorts of pets."

While the list doesn't actually imply that there may be more than just dogs and cats, unlike や , the list alone is already
considered something representative of, in this case, "all sorts of". And unlike と, this list doesn't have to be inclusive. It
could be that whoever says this may also have birds and rabbits, but then again, they may just as well not.

§4.2.4.12 — にて — Formal で Liked this

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Buy the
author a beer
This is the literary equivalent to the instrumental and location of an event marking particle で (but not the 連用形 for です). (or coffee)!

§4.2.4.13 — には — Contrastive

This is a reasonably simple combination of the particle に and the disambiguating particle は , but it deserves special
mention because a lot of people new to Japanese abuse it a lot, using には instead of just に. A good example of this would
be for instance:
ほん
テーブルに 本 がある。
 "There is a book on the table."
Preface
There will be people who after a while start to ignore that this is a proper sentence, and instead say things like:
The syntax
テーブルには本がある。 The kana
"There is a book on the table (as opposed to the floor, or the couch, or the shelf, or whatever context it might be contrasted The basics --
Writing the
to)." kana --
Pronouncing
It should always be remembered that には disambiguates. It doesn't just specify a location or point/frame in time, but also Japanese --
Hiragana and
adds a contrast between this location or time and every other. This is a very important distinction that you should try not to katakana
differences --
forget. If you're tempted to use には, first ask yourself if you actually need to disambiguate anything. If not, just use に.
Writing
Don't use the additional は because you think it "sounds good", because it adds a lot of extra meaning that you probably spoken
don't intend to add. That said, a proper use would for instance be: Japanese
Katakana
もの
specific --
ここにはそんな 物 はないよ。 Punctuation
"(We) don't have those kind of things here." and writing --
Kanji
In this sentence, the は makes sense, because no doubt there will be other places where "those kind of things" can in fact be Types of Kanji -
-
found. Just not "here". Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:

否 や — Simultaneous action
furigana --
いな
§4.2.4.14 — や Reading quirks:
compound
words --
Looking up
This particle is similar to なり in that it is used to talk about two actions taking place in succession. It can be translated as kanji --
Styles --
'the minute [X], [Y]' or 'no sooner than [X], [Y]'. It's a relatively rare particle, but then that's what enrichment is all about. It Words and
follows 連体形 constructions: word classes
だいがく で けっこん Articles --
大学 を出るや否や 結婚 しました。
Verbs --
Nouns --
"No sooner than they had graduated, they got married." Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
This is considered a fairly literary particle, and is found more in writing than in speech. Adverbs --
Particles --
Prefixes --
§4.2.4.15 — だって — Generalisation Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Compound
words --
While considered a colloquial emphatic version of で も , this particle is actually a contraction of the copula だ and the Sentence
classical particle とて, which has functionally been replaced in modern Japanese by たって/って. structure
Word order --
わ Emphasis --
じいちゃんだって、それぐらい分かるよ。 Pitch and
"Even grandpa knows that." accents
Gender roles
In this role, it's not really different from でも. Context
language
だって can also be used in a listing fashion, in which case it stands for a pattern similar to "whether ..., or ... [or ...], it's all Verb
the same": grammar
More
きみ ぼく なかま grammar
君 だって、 僕 だって、みんな仲間だ。 Particles
"You, me, we're all friends." Counters
and counting
(the translation of 仲間 is actually more nuanced than 'friend', referring to being part of the in-group)
Language
patterns
As can be seen from this sentence, the final clause applies to all the "items" listed using だって in this fashion.
Conjugation
Schemes
A final role played by だって is as sentence ending particle, in which case it acts as a quotation that the speaker is surprised Set phrases
about: Glossary

どようび かれ ふたり わ
土曜日も 彼 とデートだからだって。あの二人、別かれなかったか？
"(She) said it was because (she) had a date with him on Saturday. Hadn't those two broken up?"

In this sentence the speaker expresses a surprise over hearing what is being quoted, and explains this surprise with the
following sentence. Notice that these are two separate sentences; the full stop is very much required after だって in this use.

§4.2.4.16 — たって — Generalisation Liked this

book?
Buy the
Similar to how だって is considered a variant of でも, たって is considered a variant of the verbal —ても. Just like the て author a beer
あそ (or coffee)!
form, this "particle" contracts with verbs whose —た/—て forms have contractions, so for instance 遊 ぶ, "play", becomes
遊んだって.
いまさら い おく
今更 言ったって、もう 遅 れたわ。
"Even if (you) say so now, it's too late (now)."
い
Also, when written as ったって this particle stands for the contraction of と 言 っても. Used in this way, its meaning is
similar to と言っても or としても:

ま なお むだ
 いま なお むだ
今 それを 直 そうったって無駄だ。
"It's pointless to try to fix it now." Preface
The syntax

§4.2.4.17 — だけに — Reasoning The kana

The basics --
Writing the
kana --
A combination of だけ + に, this compound particle expresses "since ...", "because ..." similar to ので. Pronouncing
Japanese --
きたい よろこ おお Hiragana and
期待していなかっただけに、 喜 びは 大 きい。 katakana
differences --
"Because (I) I hadn't been expecting it, (I) was most delighted."
Writing
spoken
Literally, this sentence uses the noun form for 'being delighted'. Japanese
Katakana
§4.2.4.18 — ったら — Calling attention specific --
Punctuation
and writing --
い Kanji
This particle is a contraction of と言 ったら, and like the next particle, is used to catch someone's attention if you've been Types of Kanji -
talking to them and they're being unresponsive. This is a very informal way to grab someone's attention as well as to point -
Writing Kanji --
out that they should listen to you: Reading kanji:
furigana --
ね。ね！ねったら！ Reading quirks:
compound
"Hey. Hey! I said hey!" words --
Looking up
kanji --
Styles --
§4.2.4.19 — ってば — Calling attention
Words and
word classes
い
Articles --
This particle is a contraction of と言えば ("when talking about ...") and is often used to grab someone's attention, similar to Verbs --
ったら: Nouns --
Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
き Adjectives --
おい、聞いてるかよ。お〜い。おいってば！ Adverbs --
"Hey, are (you) listening or what? Helloooo? I said, hello!?" Particles --
Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
§4.2.4.20 — なんと — Extreme emphatic Compound
words --
Sentence
なに
structure
This particle is essentially the question word 何 paired with the quoting particle と, to create an emphatic "what" such as in
Word order --
"what a pretty bird" or "you did what??": Emphasis --
ほしぞら Pitch and
なんときれいな 星空 だなぁ。 accents
"What a pretty starry sky." Gender roles
Context
A special word involves this particle paired with -なく, the 連用形 for ない, forming the word なんとなく, meaning "for language
no reason": Verb
grammar
なぐ
A: どうして 殴 ったの。 More
grammar
B: いや、なんとなく。 Particles
Counters
A: "Why did (you) hit (him)?" and counting
B: "Eh, (I) just felt like it." Language
(This is a semantic translation, literally B says "For no (good) reason", as an open sentence) patterns
Conjugation
い Schemes
The colloquial version, なんて, can also be used to mean 何と言う, and is typically used in an exclamatory fashion: Set phrases
こと
Glossary
なんて 事 をしたんだ？
"What (on earth) did (you) do?"

§4.2.4.21 — までも — Impossibility

This is just まで combined with the emphatic も, to create a construction signifying extreme extent, similar to にしても:

そこまでもするんですか。 Liked this

book?
literally: "Up to the extent of (some specific thing), (you) would do so?"
Buy the
meaning: "(You) would go that far?" author a beer
(or coffee)!
までも can be used with the question words いつ (when) and どこ (where) to create the words いつまでも, meaning "up
to any moment in time" ("until when") and どこまでも, meaning "up to any place" ("up till any place"):
み
いつまでもテレビを見るつもり？
literally: "Up to which moment in time do you intend to watch TV?"
meaning: "Just how long do (you) plan on watching TV?"

Note that when までも is paired up with a verb in て form, までも is split up:

あおぞら
 み あおぞら
どこまで見ても、 青空 です。
literally: "Up till any point you can hypothetically look at, it's blue sky." Preface
meaning: "No matter where (you) look, it's blue skies." The syntax
The kana
§4.2.4.22 — ほか + Negative — Only option The basics --
Writing the
kana --
Pronouncing
Similar to しか, ほか indicates only one course of action or only one option: Japanese --
Hiragana and
すす
katakana
ここまできてて、 進 むほかしょうがない。 differences --
Writing
literally: "Having come this far, there is nothing to be done other than continue."
spoken
meaning: "Having come this far, we can only press on." Japanese
Katakana
For this role, ほ か is often found in the pattern ほ か な ら な い , meaning "nothing other than ...", used adjectivally specific --
Punctuation
(remember that the 連体形 is attributive as well as sentence ending in modern Japanese): and writing --
かれ でき Kanji
ほかならない 彼 の出来ものだ。 Types of Kanji -
"This is something only he can do." -
Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
Section 4-3 — Translating prepositions furigana --
Reading quirks:
compound
words --
Japanese doesn't really have prepositions like a lot of western languages do. You've already seen that quite a few particles Looking up
fulfil the role that prepositions play in other languages, but this still leaves the question of how to say something in Japanese kanji --
Styles --
that in western languages uses prepositions that are not covered just by particles. For this reason, this final "particles" section
will cover translating prepositions. Words and
word classes
There are two categories that preposition translations fall under. The first is the list of prepositions that have particle or verb Articles --
Verbs --
construction counterparts, though since you have already encountered these in the previous sections, these will not be treated Nouns --
in detail. The other category is those prepositions that have temporal or location nouns as their Japanese counterparts. I say Pronouns --
conceptual because some concepts that are multiple words in western languages are the same conceptual temporal/location Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
noun in Japanese. These nouns will be treated in more detail and will, where needed, be accompanied by examples. Adverbs --
Particles --
Prefixes --
§4.3.1 — Prepositions already covered Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Compound
English preposition Translated into Japanese using... words --
Sentence
as に in its role as indirect object structure
at に or で, depending on whether it concerns a thing or Word order --
Emphasis --
an event. Pitch and
accents
by に or で, depending on whether it concerns location or
Gender roles
instrumentalis
Context
despite のに language
Verb
during 連用形 particles ながら or がてら for strict or loose simultaneous grammar
action, つつ for atemporal, or verb continuative (て form) More
grammar
except/save しか, ほか or すら Particles
Counters
for Either the indirect object に or the nominalising のために and counting
from Either the indirect object に or から Language
patterns
of の Conjugation
Schemes
off A resultant state form of verbs that denote "to go off of" Set phrases
since から, より Glossary

through で
to に as indirect object, に as destination, or へ as direction
with と
without This is done with either a verb in 未然形+ず, or using
(未然形) なくて/ないで
Liked this
§4.3.2 — Prepositions translating to conceptual temporal or location nouns book?
Buy the
author a beer
The conceptual nouns used to stand for what in western languages is done using prepositions, are all used in the following (or coffee)!
pattern:

[X](の)[Y]に/で[Z]

where [X] can be any noun or verb clause, [Y] is a conceptual noun, and [Z] a verb activity or a state. The の in this pattern
is enclosed in parentheses, because it can be omitted in some cases, but has to be used in others. Typically, when [X] is a
noun phrase, の is used, and when it is a verb phrase, の is omitted, but there are exceptions to this; each conceptual noun
entry in the list below will show the pattern(s) it can be used in.

えき まえ
 えき まえ
To illustrate this pattern before we move on to the list itself, let us replace [X] with 駅 , station, [Y] with 前 , before, and [Z]
みせ
Preface
with 店 がある, "there is a store". Doing so, we get the following sentence:
The syntax
駅の前に店がある。 The kana
"station" [genitive] "before" [location] "there is a store" The basics --
Writing the
kana --
The natural translation, "There is a store in front of the station", follows readily from this pattern. Pronouncing
Japanese --
Hiragana and
As a note, the choice of whether to use に or で is dependent on whether a location or an event is focused on. In the previous katakana
ともだち であ differences --
example a location was focused on, but if we were to use the same sentence with [Z] being replaced with 友達 と出会った, Writing
"(I) met (my) friend", then we get a sentence that can focus on the event "meeting", and this focus can be made explicit by spoken
using で instead of に: Japanese
Katakana
specific --
駅の前で友達と出会った。 Punctuation
and writing --
"(I) met (my) friend in front of the station."
Kanji

§4.3.3 — The conceptual nouns list Types of Kanji -

-
Writing Kanji --

上 — Above, up, upon, on

Reading kanji:
うえ
furigana --
§4.3.3.1 — Reading quirks:
compound
words --
The kanji for this word already hints at the fact that this noun signifies a conceptual location 'above' something. It does not Looking up
kanji --
literally mean any of the words "above", "on", "up", "over" or the likes, but simply implies them all, given a specific Styles --
context. For instance: Words and
うつく い ばな
word classes
テーブルの上に 美 しい生け 花 があります。 Articles --
Verbs --
"There is a beautiful flower arrangement on the table." Nouns --
Pronouns --
Since flower arrangements typically rest on a surface, 上 in this case means "on". However, if we look at the following Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
sentence, we see a different context, and a different meaning: Adverbs --
Particles --
まど
Prefixes --
テーブルの上に 窓 があります。 Onomatopoeia
"There's a window above the table." and mimesis --
Compound
words --
Since windows don't typically rest on surfaces but are part of walls, 上 can only be interpreted as meaning "above" in this Sentence
context. structure
Word order --

§4.3.3.2 — 下 — Below, beneath, under, underneath

した Emphasis --
Pitch and
accents

In the same way that 上 means the conceptual location above something, 下 means a conceptual location below something. Gender roles
Again, context dictates what preposition is best used in the translation: Context
language
ねこ
テーブルの下に 猫 がいます。 Verb
grammar
"There's a cat underneath the table." More
ひ だ grammar
テーブルの下に引き出しがあります。 Particles
"There are drawers under the table." Counters
and counting
In the first sentence, 下 refers to well under the table, on the floor, while in the second sentence 下 means on the underside Language
of the table itself. patterns
Conjugation

右 — Right
みぎ Schemes
§4.3.3.3 — Set phrases
Glossary

Having covered above and below, the two orientation directions left and right. First up, right:
ゆうびんきょく えき
郵便局 は 駅 の右にあります。
"The post office is to the right of the station."

§4.3.3.4 — 左
ひだり
— Left
Liked this
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ゆうびんきょく えき author a beer
郵便局 は 駅 の左にあります。 (or coffee)!
"The post office is to the left of the station."

§4.3.3.5 — 前 — Before, in front of, prior

まえ

When referring to something before, or preceding, something else, the conceptual noun 前 is used. This can be used for both
time and space:
えき ま
駅 の前で待ってました。
 "(I) waited in front of the station."
Preface
This example, similar to the one given in this section's pattern explanation, states something being in front of some location.
If instead we want to indicate something as happening or being the case before some verb activity, then 前 follows the 連体 The syntax
形: The kana
The basics --
で そうじ
Writing the
出かける前に掃除をした。 kana --
"(I) cleaned up before going out (on errands)." Pronouncing
Japanese --
Hiragana and
In this sentence, the event "going out [on errands]", 出かける, indicates a particular time, even if it's not sharply defined katakana
differences --
like clock times.
Writing
spoken

§4.3.3.6 — 表
おもて
— Front, facing
Japanese
Katakana
specific --
Punctuation
There's one more "front" that has a special word for it in Japanese: the facing side of something. For instance, the title side and writing --
of a book's cover is the 表, the 'store front' side of a store is the 表, and the front side of a T-shirt is the 表. Kanji
Types of Kanji -

中
ちゅう -
Writing Kanji --
§4.3.3.7 — — During Reading kanji:
furigana --
Reading quirks:
The conceptual noun 中 means several different things depending on its use, and has different pronunciations for each compound
words --
different use. When used directly after nouns that denote some activity, it is pronounced ちゅう, and is used to indicate that Looking up
the verb action or verb state that follows it applies during the period that the activity noun describes. This may sound a bit kanji --
Styles --
abstract, so an example:
Words and
はいたつちゅう word classes
配達中 です。 Articles --
"(I) am in the middle of a delivery." Verbs --
Nouns --
Pronouns --
Clearly a delivery takes time to perform, and the 中 indicates that something is the case, or takes place, during this time. Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
Adverbs --

§4.3.3.8 — 中
じゅう
— Cross-..., throughout
Particles --
Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
When used with location nouns, the meaning for 中 changes to "cross-..." such as "cross-country" or "nation-wide", and the Compound
words --
reading changes to じゅう, such as in for instance: Sentence
structure
せかいじゅう ひと う し
世界中 で 人 が生まれて死ぬ。 Word order --
Emphasis --
"The world over, people are born and people die."
Pitch and
accents

§4.3.3.9 — 中 — Amid, among, amongst, in, inside, within

なか
Gender roles
Context
language
And finally, when used in the pattern that does not have の omitted, 中 is pronounced なか, and can mean a wide variety of Verb
things that are associated with being located inside something. When focusing on locations, に is used as the follow up grammar
More
particle, but when 中 refers to abstract concepts such as "amidst [a collection]" or "among [things]", it is followed by で grammar
instead, such as in for instance: Particles
Counters
た もの わしょく いちばん す
and counting
食べ 物 の中で、 和食 が 一番 好きです。
Language
"From (amongst) food, (I) like Japanese food best." patterns
Conjugation
Here 中 refers to something being located inside a category. Since this is an abstract location, the particle で is used. Schemes
However, when there is no abstract location but a real location, like the hollow of a tree, or the inside of a box, に is used: Set phrases
Glossary
はこ うでどけい
箱 の中に腕時計があった。
literally: "There was a watch in the box"
meaning: "The box contained a watch."

The pattern [X] の 中 で [Y] will be explained further in the constructions section, when dealing with open choices -
something that quite obviously requires being able to indicate something as existing within a greater (abstract) collection.

§4.3.3.10 — 後 ろ — Behind
うし
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book?
Buy the
The noun 後ろ is used to indicate that something is located behind something else. Be careful though: unlike 前, which author a beer
(or coffee)!
corresponded to "before" both in the location and time sense, 後ろ only means "behind", and stands for a location; it cannot
be used to mean "after" in the context of time. To indicate the concept of "after", a different noun (後) is used, which can be
pronounced in three different ways, meaning three slightly different things.

An example of the use of 後ろ would be:

れいぞう かく
ねずみが 冷蔵 の後ろに 隠 れてしまった。
"The mice hid behind the refrigerator."
§4.3.3.11 — 裏 — Back, opposite side
うら

Preface
The syntax
Much like how 表 is a special kind of 前, 裏 is a special kind of 後ろ, meaning "the non-facing side" of something. For
The kana
instance, the side of a book's cover that doesn't carry the title is the 裏, the back of a store is the 裏, and the back side of a T-
The basics --
shirt is the 裏. Writing the
kana --
Pronouncing

§4.3.3.12 — 後 , 後, 後 — After
あと ご のち Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
differences --
When indicating something happens after a certain time or event, 後 is used. However, depending on whether this "after" Writing
refers to "occurring at some time after", or "occurring from then on" a different pronunciation is used; when one only wishes spoken
Japanese
to indicate something will happen after some specific time or event, the reading for this noun is あと:
Katakana
しゅくだい あと specific --
宿題 は 後 でします。 Punctuation
and writing --
"(I)'ll do (my) homework afterwards."
Kanji
In this sentence the act of "doing homework" will be done at some point after some contextually implied event, typically Types of Kanji -
-
whatever the speaker is doing at the moment of saying a sentence like this. On the other hand, when indicating that Writing Kanji --
something will stay in effect after some specific time or event, the reading for this kanji is ご: Reading kanji:
furigana --
Reading quirks:
しごと じ お ご ひま compound
仕事は8時に終わりその後は 暇 だ。 words --
"(My) job ends at 8, after that (I)'ll be available." Looking up
kanji --
literally: "..., after that is leisure." Styles --
Words and
Because the reading for the noun 後 is ご in this sentence, it clearly states that this person won't be free for just a while after word classes
8 o' clock, but will be free from 8 o' clock onwards until some indeterminate time (being probably when they go to bed). Articles --
Verbs --
Nouns --
There is a third reading for 後, being のち, but this is a literary reading used as a replacement for あと, with as extra feature Pronouns --
that it can be used to stand for "the afterlife"; the ultimate concept of "afterwards". However, this reading is also used in the Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
common formal time indicator のちほど (後程) meaning "later", "at some later time", "afterwards" or even "eventually". Adverbs --
Particles --
Prefixes --

外 — Out, outside
そと Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
§4.3.3.13 — Compound
words --

The opposite of 中, 外 stands for the broad and undefined location that is the world outside: Sentence
structure
ねこ いえ あそ Word order --
うちの 猫 が 家 の外に 遊 んでる。 Emphasis --
"Our cat's playing outside." Pitch and
literally: "... outside the house." accents
Gender roles

§4.3.3.14 — 間
あいだ
— Between
Context
language
Verb
Literally, this noun stands for the concept of "in an interval", where this interval can be either temporal or spatial: grammar
More
ぎんこう ゆうびんきょく こうしゅうでんわ grammar
銀行 と 郵便局 の間に 公衆電話 があります。 Particles
"There are public phones located between the bank and the post office." Counters
literally: "... in the interval (bank - post office)." and counting
Language
As can be seen from the example, the list of locations between which some verb action occurs, or some verb state is the patterns
case, is created using the standard inclusive noun listing particle と. Conjugation
Schemes
Set phrases
For time, on the other hand, the [X]から[X]まで pattern is used, because this lets us specify an interval with an explicit
Glossary
beginning and end:
はんにん にじ さんじ に
犯人 は二時から三時までの間に逃げられた。
"The culprit (managed to) escape between the hours of 2 and 3."

§4.3.3.15 — 近 く — Near
ちか

ちか
This is actually the noun form of the verbal adjective 近 い , 'near', and is used for locations only. This noun is (fairly Liked this
book?
intuitively) used to indicate something is close to some location or object: Buy the
author a beer
えいがかん
(or coffee)!
映画館の近くにあります。
"It's close to the cinema."

§4.3.3.16 — 向こう — Facing, across, opposite, beyond

む

In Japanese the idea of "across", "opposite from" and "beyond" are all variations on the same theme of something facing
something else: something opposite to us clearly faces us, something that is for instance across the street faces us from
across the street and something that lies beyond the darkest night is something that faces us from this theoretical location:

ち ともだち ま
 みち ともだち ま
道 の向こうに 友達 が待ってるはずです。
literally: "I expect my friends to be waiting ..." Preface
"(My) friends should be waiting for [me] across the street." The syntax
うみ べつ せかい き
The kana
海 の向こうに 別 の世界があると聞いた。
The basics --
"(I) heard that across the ocean lies a different world." Writing the
kana --
Pronouncing

§4.3.3.17 — 辺 — Nearby, around

へん
Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
differences --
The noun 辺 literally means "vicinity", and when used as a conceptual location noun, means "near", "close to", and the like: Writing
spoken
さかなや さいふ な
Japanese
お 魚屋 の辺に財布を無くしてしまった。
Katakana
"(I) lost (my) wallet somewhere near the fish shop." specific --
Punctuation
and writing --

§4.3.3.18 — 横 and 隣
よこ となり
— Besides, next to Kanji
Types of Kanji -
-
While in most western languages when two objects are placed side by side, they are said to be "beside" or "next to" each Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
other, Japanese requires you to pick the right word for this spatial relation depending on whether or not these two objects are furigana --
となり
Reading quirks:
of a similar category. For instance, placing two apples or two bikes next to each other means you can use the noun 隣 to compound
indicate that one is next to the other: words --
Looking up
おれ じてんしゃ おとうと た kanji --
俺 の自転車は 弟 のの隣に立っておきました。 Styles --

"I left my bike standing next to my (younger) brother's." Words and

word classes
This is perfectly valid use of 隣 (not to mention valid use of の for back referral, immediately followed by の [location Articles --
Verbs --
noun]), as the two objects in question are clearly of the same category. Nouns --
Pronouns --
よこ Nominalisers --
However, for the following example we need to use 横 instead of 隣: Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Particles --
いけ あそ
Prefixes --
みんなが 池 の横に 遊 んだりした。 Onomatopoeia
"Everyone was playing games and stuff next to the pond." and mimesis --
Compound
(note that using に stresses the location rather than the act in this sentence) words --
Sentence
structure
Here, since みんな are of a category "people", and 池 is of category "pond", there is no way 隣 can be used, since these two
Word order --
things aren't even remotely alike. In effect, 隣 can be thought of as not just meaning "next to" but having the added meaning Emphasis --
"next to the other [object category]", while 横 only means "beside" or "next to". Pitch and
accents
§4.3.3.19 — Compass directions Gender roles
Context
language
In addition to the obvious locations, there are four more that are usually overlooked: the compass directions.
Verb
grammar
direction noun More
ひがし grammar
East 東 Particles
みなみ
South Counters
南 and counting
にし
West Language
西 patterns
きた
North Conjugation
北 Schemes
Set phrases
And of course their permutations: Glossary

ほくとう
北東 NE
ほくせい
北西 NW
なんとう
南東 SE
なんせい
南西 SW

Liked this
§4.3.3.20 — ～側 — ...side
がわ
book?
Buy the
author a beer
(or coffee)!
This is not so much a conceptual noun as a suffix for several of the nouns listed so far. Suffixed to various of these words, 側
signifies "side", so that 上 means "above", but 上側 means "the top side" (although it is then pronounced うわがわ); 右
means "right", but 右側 means "the right (hand) side". The list of nouns modified in this way is:

noun side meaning

うえ うわがわ
上 上側 the top
した したがわ
下 下側 the underside
おもて おもてがわ
表 表側 the front, the facing side
 うら うらがわ
裏 裏側 the reverse, the other side
うち うちがわ Preface
内 内側 the interior
The syntax
そと そとがわ
the exterior The kana
外 外側
ひだり ひだりがわ The basics --
左 左側 the left side Writing the
kana --
みぎ みぎがわ Pronouncing
右 右側 the right side Japanese --
む む がわ Hiragana and
向こう 向こう 側 the other side, the opposing side katakana
differences --
きた きたがわ
the northern side Writing
北 北側 spoken
みなみ みなみがわ
the southern side Japanese
南 南側
Katakana
ひがし ひがしがわ
the eastern side specific --
東 東側 Punctuation
みし にしがわ and writing --
西 西側 the western side Kanji
Types of Kanji -
-
Section 4-4 — In Summary Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
furigana --
And so we've reached the end of the particles chapter. This chapter covered quite a number of particles, some of which are Reading quirks:
essential, some of which good to know, and some of which are downright rare, as well as showing you which constructions compound
words --
to use when particles aren't used. Looking up
kanji --
What does this leave? While we've certainly covered enough particles to last you quite a while in your study of Japanese, Styles --
there's one particular kind of particle that wasn't covered in this chapter, the counter particle. This isn't really just one Words and
particle, but a category of particles, with a basic set that is large enough to warrant an entire chapter being dedicated to them. word classes
In order to do any kind of counting in Japanese, a knowledge not just of numbers, but also of counter particles is essential, Articles --
Verbs --
and we shall be looking at this in the next chapter. Nouns --
Pronouns --
Nominalisers --

Chapter 5 — Counters and counting Adjectives --

Adverbs --
Particles --
Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
Counting in Japanese is everything but apparent or easy if you're used to western counting. To count in Japanese, two things and mimesis --
are required: a number, and a categorical marker that indicates what is actually being counted. This makes counting in Compound
words --
Japanese not just a matter of knowing which words stand for which numbers, but also which counters stand for which
Sentence
countable categories. structure
Word order --
The categorical marker for items is usually not the item noun itself, but a different word acting as categorical counter Emphasis --
particle instead. For instance, bottles, pencils and legs are all counted using the categorical counter for "long round object",
Pitch and
and birds are counted using the categorical counter for "things with wings". However, clock hours are counted using the accents
specific counter for hours, and the number of times something happens is counted using the specific counter for occurrences.
Gender roles
The challenge is then to learn three things in order to successfully count in Japanese: Context
language
which numbers exist and how to construct numbers yourself, Verb
which specific and categorical counters exist, and grammar
which to use when you don't actually know which you should use. More
grammar
Just like for regular particles, there exist dictionaries that contain lists and lists of which word can be used as a counter for Particles
which category of items, and if you wish to become a counting machine, it is recommended that you buy one and go over Counters
the lists in it as you will not find a truly exhaustive list here. Instead, the following list will only contain those counters that and counting
are considered reasonably essential to know in order to do basic counting (and that's already quite a few). Language
patterns
Conjugation
Section 5-1 — Counting Schemes
Set phrases
Before we look at the counter particles, let's briefly look at counting itself. In the outline on Japanese, I mentioned three Glossary
different ways to count from one to ten, and this comes from the fact that Japan, while it borrowed the Chinese kanji and
readings, also had its own language prior to knowing anything about China. Not surprisingly then, counting was done with
completely different words in pre-China Japan. However, unlike this pre-China native Japanese counting system, the
Chinese derived series for one through ten is reasonably simple:

number written and pronounced

いち
1 一 , 壱 in formal writing.
に
2 二, 弐 in formal writing. Liked this
さん
book?
3 Buy the
三 , 参 in formal writing. author a beer
し
(or coffee)!
4 四 — More commonly pronounced よん, a native Japanese reading.
ご
5 五
ろく
6 六
しち
7 七 — More commonly pronounced なな, also a native Japanese reading.
はち
8 八
きゅう
9 九
じ う
 じゅう
10
十 , 拾 in formal writing.
Preface
The reason why 1, 2, 3 and 10 have special formal kanji stems from the use in legal documents, where changing an 一 into a The syntax
十 or 二 into 三 was rather easy, while turning an 壱 into a 拾 or a 弐 into a 参 was a lot harder. There are similar The kana
counterparts for 4 through 9, but these are rarely used: 肆, 伍, 陸, 漆, 捌 and 玖 respectively. Larger numbers in the Chinese The basics --
system are written either using Arabic numerals (like 1,890,298,345), or — when they're decently clean or small enough to Writing the
kana --
write out in full — written in kanji. Pronouncing
Japanese --
Using kanji forms to create large numbers relies on a fairly simple rule of composition, as you should be able to tell from the Hiragana and
katakana
following examples: differences --
Writing
20 = 2 × 10 = 二十 spoken
90 = 9 × 10 = 九十 Japanese
ひゃく
Katakana
100 = 百 , formally written as 佰 specific --
120 = 100 + 2 × 10 = 百二十 Punctuation
and writing --
780 = 7 × 100 + 8 × 10 = 七百八十
Kanji
せん
Types of Kanji -
1000 = 千 , formally written as 阡 -
1300 = 1000 + 3 × 100 = 千三百 Writing Kanji --
4826 = 4 × 1000 + 8 × 100 + 2 × 10 + 6 = 四千八百二十六 Reading kanji:
furigana --
まん Reading quirks:
10000 = 万 , formally written as 萬. compound
words --
Looking up
The rules for composition are actually reasonably close to the western system of writing large numbers, except that instead kanji --
of replacing the order (the "1" in 1, 10, 100, 1000, etc.) with the factor ("2" in 20, "8" in 800, etc.), the factor is simply added Styles --
in front of the order, effectively indicating a multiplier. Words and
word classes
However, one significant difference is found in orders of magnitude: in western systems we raise by a power of 1000 for Articles --
large numbers (i.e. a million is 1000 × 1000, a billion is 1000 × 1000 × 1000, etc.), but in the Chinese counting system large Verbs --
Nouns --
numbers are powers of 万, 10,000: Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
9,999 is 九千九百九十九, 10,000 is 万. The biggest number that still uses 万 as highest order is 99,999,999: 九千九百九 Adjectives --
おく Adverbs --
Particles --
十九万九千九百九十九. The number that follows this is a number equal to 万 × 万, called 億 , with a value of Prefixes --
ちょう けい
Onomatopoeia
100,000,000. The next order number is 万 × 億, which is 兆 . The next order number is 万 × 兆, which is 京 . and mimesis --
Compound
There are in fact quite a few of these higher order counters, although of course the higher you go, the less likely people are words --
to know the counter used, and the less meaningful the number becomes (because we cannot visualise such large numbers). Sentence
structure
Aside from the numbers one through ten, there is also the 'number' zero, which is typically written in katakana as ゼロ when Word order --
れい Emphasis --
used on its own, or using the noun 零 when meaning "nought" or "null". An example of using 零 is in things such as Pitch and
れい てん れいれいれいいち accents
"0.0001", which can also be written as 零 点 零零零一 , with 点 meaning "dot".
Gender roles
The native Japanese way of counting is a bit more complex: Context
language

number pronunciation Verb

grammar
1 ひ More
grammar
2 ふ Particles
3 み Counters
and counting
4 よ Language
patterns
5 い (いっ) Conjugation
Schemes
6 む Set phrases
7 な Glossary

8 や
9 こ
10 と

While this doesn't look very complex, this series is also one you will likely never use as they aren't used for actual counting.
It may be used when someone's trying to enumerate something from memory using their fingers, muttering "ひ, ふ, み, よ,
い..." while touching fingers in succession, but that's about it. Instead, slightly different pronunciations are used when paired Liked this
with counters for actual counting statements. The native Japanese readings are used with only a handful of counters, but book?
Buy the
these are quite important counters: those used for general counting of items, and for counting days. author a beer
(or coffee)!
number counting things: つ counting days: 日 (pronounced か)
ひと
1 一つ 一日 — special readings: ついたち and いちにち
ふた ふつか
2 二つ 二日
みっ みっか
3 三つ 三日
よっ よっか
4 四つ 四日
いつ いつか
5 五つ 五日
む む か
 むっ むいか
6
六つ 六日
なな なのか Preface
7 七つ 七日 The syntax
やっ ようか
8 八つ 八日 The kana
ここの ここのか The basics --
9 九つ 九日 Writing the
kana --
とお とおか
Pronouncing
10 十 十日 Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
If we ignore the reading for 一日 (for which ついたち means "the first day of the month" and いちにち means "one day (in differences --
duration/length)") we see that these two series don't use the same readings for the numbers, and that neither are quite the Writing
spoken
same as the previous table for native readings. The readings that you see for the counter つ can be considered the 'dominant' Japanese
くんよ
readings, used with a few other native Japanese (訓読み) counters, with the readings for 日 being fairly unique and not used Katakana
specific --
by other counters. Punctuation
and writing --
Before we move on to the counters list, we need to finish looking at what numbers do when paired with counters, and this Kanji
involves looking at how their readings may change when they are paired with certain counters: they may contract, and the Types of Kanji -
counter may become voiced. There are a few general rules that apply, although of course — as always — there are a few -
exceptions to these general rules (when a counter has such an exception, this will be highlighted in its section). Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
furigana --

§5.1.1 — Rules for 一

いち Reading quirks:
compound
words --
Looking up
kanji --
When followed by a counter starting with a syllable from the か—, さ— or た—column, いち becomes いっ: Styles --
Words and
いち + こ becomes いっこ word classes
いち + さい becomes いっさい Articles --
Verbs --
いち + とう becomes いっとう Nouns --
Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
When followed by a counter starting with a は—column syllable, いち becomes いっ and the counter voices to a 'p' sound: Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Particles --
いち + はい becomes いっぱい Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --

§5.1.2 — Rules for 三

さん Compound
words --
Sentence
structure
When followed by a counter starting with a は—column syllable, that syllable voices to a 'b' sound: Word order --
Emphasis --
さん + ほん becomes さんぼん Pitch and
accents

§5.1.3 — Rules for 六

ろく Gender roles
Context
language
When followed by a counter starting with a か—column syllable, ろく becomes ろっ: Verb
grammar
More
ろく + かい becomes ろっかい grammar
Particles
When followed by a counter starting with a は—column syllable, ろく becomes ろっ and the counter voices to a 'p' sound: Counters
and counting
ろく + ひゃく becomes ろっぴゃく Language
patterns

八
はち
Conjugation
Schemes
§5.1.4 — Rules for Set phrases
Glossary
When followed by a counter starting with a か—, さ— or た—column syllable, はち becomes はっ:

はち + こう becomes はっこう
はち + せん becomes はっせん
はち + たい becomes はったい

When followed by a counter starting with a は—column syllable, はち becomes はっ and the counter voices to a 'p' sound:

Liked this
はち + ひき becomes はっぴき book?
Buy the

§5.1.5 — Rules for 十

じゅう author a beer
(or coffee)!

When followed by a counter starting with a か—, さ— or た—column syllable, じゅう may become じっ or じゅっ:

じゅう + こ can become either じっこ or じゅっこ

じゅう + さい can become either じっさい or じゅっさい
じゅう + たい can become either じったい or じゅったい
When followed by a counter starting with a は—column syllable, じゅう can become either じっ or じゅっ and the counter
voices to a 'p' sound: Preface
The syntax
じゅう + ほん can become either じっぽん or じゅっぽん
The kana
The basics --
The choice between which of the two possible pronunciations to use is mostly one of style. The "proper" pronunciation is じ Writing the
kana --
っ[...], but is also becoming more and more dated Japanese, with many people using the pronunciation じゅっ these days. Pronouncing
Depending on whose company you are in, you'll have to pick the pronunciation that will raise fewest eyebrows. Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
§5.1.6 — How many? differences --
Writing
spoken
In addition to counting statements such as "three oranges" or "seven samurai", it also helps if we know how to ask "how Japanese
many oranges?" or "how many samurai?". This is done using two question words: 何—, pronounced なん—, and 幾 —, Katakana
pronounced いく—. These are used in the same way that numerals are used, being paired with a counter to turn it into a specific --
Punctuation
questioning statement. Different counters use different question words, with the rule generally being that if native Japanese and writing --
readings are used with the counter, the question word will be 幾—, whereas if Chinese readings are used with the counter, Kanji
the question word will be 何. Thus, we can ask for "how many oranges?" by using 幾つ: Types of Kanji -
-
Writing Kanji --
オレンジは幾つありますか。 Reading kanji:
furigana --
"How many oranges are (there)?" Reading quirks:
compound
And we can ask how many samurai there are by using: words --
Looking up
さむらい なんにん
kanji --
侍 は 何人 いますか。
Styles --
Words and
"How many samurai are (there)?"
word classes
Articles --
(note the difference in verb; ある for oranges, いる for samurai) Verbs --
Nouns --
Pronouns --

§5.1.6.1 — Rules for 何

なん Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Particles --
Prefixes --
When followed by a counter starting with a は—column syllable, the counter voices to a 'b' sound: Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Compound
なん + はい becomes なんばい words --
==== The rules in summary ==== Sentence
structure
In summary, there are four different numeral readings: Word order --
Emphasis --

numeral General reading native reading with つ with か Pitch and

accents
一 いち ひ ひとつ × Gender roles
二 に ふ ふたつ ふつか Context
language
三 さん み みっつ みっか Verb
grammar
四 し or よん よ よっつ よっか
More
五 ご い(っ) いつつ いつか grammar
Particles
六 ろく む むっつ むいか Counters
and counting
七 しち or なな な ななつ なのか Language
patterns
八 はち や やっつ ようか
Conjugation
九 きゅう こ ここのつ ここのか Schemes
Set phrases
十 じゅう と とお とおか Glossary

And the table of pronunciation changes when numerals are paired with counters:

numeral reading +は +た +さ +か
一 いち いっぱ いった いっさ いっか
二 に
三 さん さんば
Liked this
四 し, よん book?
Buy the
五 ご author a beer
(or coffee)!
六 ろく ろっぱ ろっか
七 しち, なな
八 はち はっぱ はった はっさ はっか
九 きゅう
十 じゅう じっぱ じった じっさ じっか
じゅっぱ じゅった じゅっさ じゅっか
何 なん なんば
 幾 いく
Preface
The syntax
Section 5-2 — Ranges and estimations The kana
The basics --
Number ranges are really easy in Japanese, involving nothing more than using ～ between two numbers, so that １～７ Writing the
indicates the range 1 through 7. Typically ranges like these will use actual numbers, rather than kanji forms, purely for kana --
Pronouncing
aesthetics. While ranges in English have their own pronunciation ("X through Y" or "X to Y"), in Japanese there is no Japanese --
special word between the start and the end of a range: Hiragana and
katakana
こんど じゅぎょう だい じゅういち じゅうに か よ differences --
今度の 授業 に 第 十一 ～ 二十 課を読んでください。 Writing
Please read chapters 11 through 20 for next class. spoken
Japanese
The construction 第十一～二十課 is simply pronounced だいじゅういちにじゅうか, and when the resulting written form Katakana
specific --
is unambiguous, the ～ symbol may even be left off, in this case forming 第十一二十課 (of course, still pronounced だいじ Punctuation
and writing --
ゅういちにじゅうか).
Kanji
Types of Kanji -
The start and end of ranges can, if needed, be explicitly marked as such by using から and まで, but doing so carries the -
same difference in nuance as explicitly marking a start and end in English carries: Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
furigana --
第十一課から第二十課まで読んでください。 Reading quirks:
compound
Please read from chapter 11 up to chapter 20. words --
Looking up
Rough ranges, or estimations, are even easier. These simply consist of all the numbers in the estimation, in succession kanji --
Styles --
(similar to rough ranges in English):
Words and
いちにふん ある word classes
一二分 歩 いた。 Articles --
"I walked 1 (or) 2 minutes." Verbs --
Nouns --
Pronouns --
This can be a bit confusing when someone says something like 十一二分歩いた, which could either mean "I walked 11 (or) Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
2 minutes" or "I walked 11 (or) 12 minutes". Disambiguation is typically left to context, so that in this case it would be odd Adverbs --
that someone walked either 11 or 2 minutes, when the alternative is 11 or 12. However, there may be instances where more Particles --
Prefixes --
than one interpretation seems reasonable, and you'll have to apply some analytical thinking to determine which is the correct Onomatopoeia
interpretation. and mimesis --
Compound
words --
Section 5-3 — Counters Sentence
structure
When actually counting, or just enumerating things, we need to combine numbers with counters. This can be done in two Word order --
Emphasis --
different ways, depending on whether the focus is on the thing that's being counted, or on the count itself:
Pitch and
accents
Focus on item: [X] の [Y] を/が + verb
Gender roles
Focus on count: [Y] を/が [X] + verb
Context
language
For instance, in the statement ふたつのオレンジをください, translating to "please give me two oranges", the focus is on Verb
oranges (because it comes later in the sentence). If we rearrange this to form the sentence オレンジをふたつください the grammar
focus is on the count: "oranges, give me two, please". More
grammar
As mentioned, counters can be split into specific and general counter categories. Specific counters cover things like units of Particles
time or distance, and general counters cover categories like 'bound objects' or 'pieces of [something]'. Rather than just using Counters
and counting
these two categories, a list of common numerical orders, which act as counters too, is presented first. This list is followed by
Language
the other counters, split up into four categories: general article counters, counters for living things, counters for occurrences,
patterns
and time related unit counters.
Conjugation
Schemes
In addition to counters, a list of adverbs used for quantification is included in this chapter. While strictly speaking these are Set phrases
not counters, they are used when you need to quantify actions without being able to rely on a counter, such as when you
Glossary
"read books often".

§5.3.1 — Numerical counters

§5.3.1.1 — 百
ひゃく
— 100 (A hundred)

As mentioned in the section on counting, the numerical orders in Japanese are technically counters too, with their own set of
pronunciations: Liked this

百 一百) 二百 三百 四百 五百
book?
( Buy the
author a beer
ひゃく (いっぴゃく) にひゃく さんびゃく よんひゃく ごひゃく (or coffee)!

六百 七百 八百 九百 千 何百
ろっぴゃく ななひゃく はっぴゃく きゅうひゃく せん なんびゃく

Note that 一百 isn't used unless it needs to be stressed that it's one hundred, rather than some other factor of a hundred. Also
note that quite obviously "ten hundred" doesn't exist. Instead this is 千, 1000.

§5.3.1.2 — 千 — 1000 (A thousand)

せん
The counter for a thousand has an irregular pronunciation for 3, and the question counter:

千 ( 一千) 二千 三千 四千 五千 Preface
The syntax
せん (いっせん) にせん さんぜん よんせん ごせん The kana

六千 七千 八千 九千 万 何千 The basics --
Writing the
kana --
ろくせん ななせん はっせん きゅうせん まん なんぜん Pronouncing
Japanese --
Hiragana and
Again, unless the factor 1 needs to be stressed, 千 rather than 一千 is used. And again, there is no "ten thousand", there is katakana
differences --
the counter 万 instead.
Writing
spoken

§5.3.1.3 —
まん
万 — 10000 (Ten thousand) Japanese
Katakana
specific --
Punctuation
The highest "low order" order counter, 万 stands for ten thousand. Because it is the highest "low order" order counter, it is and writing --
used in combination with 10, 100 and 1000 to indicate a hundred thousand, a million and ten million respectively. 100 Kanji
おく
million is a new counter, 億 . Types of Kanji -
-

万 一万) 二万 三万 四万 五万 六万 七万
Writing Kanji --
( Reading kanji:
furigana --
まん (いちまん) にまん さんまん よんまん ごまん ろくまん ななまん Reading quirks:
compound

八万 九万 十万 百万 千万 何万
words --
Looking up
kanji --
はちまん きゅうまん じゅうまん ひゃくまん せんまん なんまん Styles --
Words and
word classes

§5.3.1.4 —
おく
億 — 100000000 (A hundred million) Articles --
Verbs --
Nouns --
Pronouns --
The biggest "useful" number, 億 is still a realistically large number in, for instance, prices for houses, luxury yachts or fancy Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
sports cars. The pronunciation is wholly unremarkable: Adverbs --
Particles --
億 ( 一億) 二億 三億 四億 五億 六億 七億 Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
おく (いちおく) におく さんおく よんおく ごおく ろくおく ななおく Compound
words --
八億 九億 十億 百億 千億 兆 何億 Sentence
structure
はちおく きゅうおく じゅうおく ひゃくおき せんおく ちょう なんおく Word order --
Emphasis --
Pitch and
§5.3.1.5 — Other order counters accents
Gender roles
While slightly ridiculous, there are counters for 10 to the power minus 21, which is the truly insignificant number Context
0.0000000000000000000001, up to the incredibly huge number 10 to the power 68, or 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, language
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Now, while for normal purposes these are of course Verb
ridiculous numbers, they're quite useful for science. The list of all available counters, plus their western abbreviated grammar
counterparts, is as follows: More
grammar
counter value equivalent term Particles
せいじょう Counters
清浄 10 to the power -21 zepto, z and counting
こくう Language
虚空 10 to the power -20 patterns
りっとく Conjugation
六徳 10 to the power -19 Schemes
せつな Set phrases
刹那 10 to the power -18 ato, a Glossary
だんし
弾指 10 to the power -17
しゅんそく
瞬息 10 to the power -16
しゅゆ
須臾 10 to the power -15 femto, f
しゅんじゅん
逡巡 10 to the power -14
もこ
糢糊 10 to the power -13
ばく
Liked this
漠 10 to the power -12 pico, p book?
Buy the
びょう
10 to the power -11 author a beer
渺 (or coffee)!
あい
埃 10 to the power -10
じん
塵 10 to the power -9 nano, n, 1/1,000,000,000
しゃ
沙 10 to the power -8
せん
繊 10 to the power -7
び
微 10 to the power -6 micro, μ, 1/1,000,000
こつ
忽 10 to the power -5
 し
糸 10 to the power -4
もう Preface
毛 10 to the power -3 milli, m, 1/1,000, 0.001 The syntax
りん
10 to the power -2 centi, c, 1/100, 0.01 The kana
厘
ぶ
The basics --
10 to the power -1 deci, d, 1/10, 0.1 Writing the
分 kana --
Pronouncing
counter value equivalent term Japanese --
Hiragana and
じゅう
katakana
十 10 to the power 1 deca, da, 10 differences --
ひゃく
Writing
百 10 to the power 2 hecto, h, 100
spoken
せん Japanese
千 10 to the power 3 kilo, k, 1000
Katakana
まん specific --
万 10 to the power 4 Punctuation
おく and writing --
億 10 to the power 8 Kanji
ちょう Types of Kanji -
兆 10 to the power 12 tera, T -
けい Writing Kanji --
京 10 to the power 16 Reading kanji:
furigana --
がい Reading quirks:
垓 10 to the power 20 compound
じょ・し words --
抒 10 to the power 24 yotta, Y Looking up
kanji --
じょう Styles --
穣 10 to the power 28
Words and
こう word classes
溝 10 to the power 32
Articles --
かん
Verbs --
澗 10 to the power 36 Nouns --
せい Pronouns --
正 10 to the power 40 Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
さい Adverbs --
載 10 to the power 44 Particles --
ごく Prefixes --
極 10 to the power 48 Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Compound
words --
The measures for mega (M), giga (G), peta (P) and exa (E) are missing from this set because these correspond to 10 to the
powers 6, 9, 15 and 18 respectively, none of which are divisible by 4. Sentence
structure
For orders higher than 48, there is a curious problem where in the rigid counting system the order keeps going up by 4, so Word order --
Emphasis --
that the five terms refer to 10 to the power 52, 56, 60, 64 and 68 respectively, but can also stand for older Japanese numbers,
in which case they refer to 10 to the power 56, 64, 72, 80 and 88 respectively. While it is unlikely you will ever hear about Pitch and
accents
these numbers ever again, these numbers have a very high trivia factor:
Gender roles
counter value Context
ごうがしゃ
language
恒河沙 10 to the power 52, as well as 56 Verb
あそうぎ grammar
阿僧祇 10 to the power 56, as well as 64 More
なゆた grammar
那由他 10 to the power 60, as well as 72 Particles
ふかしぎ Counters
不可思議 10 to the power 64, as well as 80 and counting
むりょうだいすう Language
無量大数 10 to the power 68, as well as 88 patterns
Conjugation
Schemes
§5.3.2 — General counters for articles Set phrases
Glossary

§5.3.2.1 — 第 — Ordinal prefix

だい

The first counter in this list isn't actually a counter, but an ordinal prefix. It's quite frequently used, so it's important you've
learned it, and it's relatively easy to wrap your head around: if some counter statement says "... somethings", then prefixing
第 to it will create the statement "the ...th something" or "something (number) ...":
ほん か
この 本 が１７課があります。
"This book has 17 chapters." Liked this
やす むず
book?
第１～１０課は 易 くて, 第１１～１７課は 難 しいです。 Buy the
"Chapters 1 through 10 are easy, chapters 11 through 17 are hard." author a beer
(or coffee)!

§5.3.2.2 — 本 — Long cylindrical items

ほん

When you want to count cylindrical objects like pencils, bottles, or arms, 本 is used. As a noun this word means "book" or
"origin", but as a counter it obviously means something completely different. The pronunciations for this counter are:

一本 二本 三本 四本 五本 六本
いっぽん にほん さんぼん よんほん ごほん ろっぽん
 七本 八本 九本 十本 何本
ななほん はっぽん きゅうほん じっぽん なんぼん Preface
The syntax
じゅっぽん
The kana
The basics --
An example of its use is counting bottles of cola on the table: Writing the
kana --
何本ありますか。 Pronouncing
Japanese --
"How many bottles are there?" Hiragana and
katakana
うえ
differences --
テーブルの 上 にコーラが三本あります。
Writing
"There are 3 bottles of cola on the table." spoken
Japanese
Interestingly, phone calls can also be counted using this counter, the "logic" behind this being that telephone horns used to
Katakana
also be cylindrical (think of the classical phone with a rotary number dial). specific --
Punctuation
and writing --

§5.3.2.3 — 冊 — Bound volumes

さつ
Kanji
Types of Kanji -
-
This counter is used for counting bound objects like books, magazines, notebooks and the like. The pronunciations are: Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:

一冊 二冊 三冊 四冊 五冊 六冊 furigana --
Reading quirks:
compound
いっさつ にさつ さんさつ よんさつ ごさつ ろくさつ words --
Looking up

七冊 八冊 九冊 十冊 何冊 kanji --
Styles --
Words and
ななさつ はっさつ きゅうさつ じっさつ なんさつ word classes
じゅっさつ Articles --
Verbs --
Nouns --
And an example of use would be: Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
ほんだな ほん
Adjectives --
本棚 に五冊の 本 があります。
Adverbs --
Particles --
"There are 5 books on the bookshelf." Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
(In this sentence, 本 is used as a normal noun, not a counter.) Compound
words --

巻 — Volumes
かん Sentence
§5.3.2.4 — structure
Word order --
Emphasis --
This counter is used to count volumes in a series of bound volumes. For instance, a twenty volume encyclopedia comprises Pitch and
２０巻 worth of books. The difference between 巻 and 冊 is that 冊 only means bound volume. A stack of reading material accents
consisting of a magazine, a newspaper, a novel and a text book on Japanese consists of 四 冊 , but since these are each Gender roles
completely different works, the stack does not consist of 四巻. Context
language

§5.3.2.5 — 課 — Sections
か
Verb
grammar
More
grammar
This counter is used to count sections in a (text) book, or lessons in a lesson programme. On its own, 課 technically means
Particles
"division", but is understood within the context of something educational, so mostly translates to chapter, lesson, section, or
Counters
even (educational) department.
and counting
Language

§5.3.2.6 — 枚 — Sheets
まい patterns
Conjugation
Schemes
This counter is used to count sheet-like things, such as sheets of paper, plates, planks, or even things like folded up T-shirts. Set phrases
The pronunciations are: Glossary

一枚 二枚 三枚 四枚 五枚 六枚
いちまい にまい さんまい よんまい ごまい ろくまい

七枚 八枚 九枚 十枚 何枚
しちまい はちまい きゅうまい じゅうまい なんまい
(ななまい)
Liked this
book?
And an example of use would be: Buy the
author a beer
おお ほん (or coffee)!
この 大 きな 本 は何枚ですか。
"How many pages (literally: sheets) is this big book?"

§5.3.2.7 — 杯 — Cups
はい

This counter is used to count cups of drink, such as glasses of wine, cups of tea, glasses of beer and the like. The
pronunciations are:

一杯 二杯 三杯 四杯 五杯 六杯
 いっぱい にはい さんばい よんはい ごはい ろっぱい

七杯 八杯 九杯 十杯 何杯 Preface
The syntax
ななはい はっぱい きゅうはい じっぱい なんばい The kana

(しちはい) じゅっぱい The basics --

Writing the
kana --
Pronouncing
An example of use would be: Japanese --
Hiragana and
あか くだ katakana
赤 ワインを二杯とビールを一杯下 さい。 differences --
"2 glasses of red wine and 1 glass of beer please." Writing
spoken
Note that 一杯 can mean two things: as a counter statement it means "one cup [of something]". However, it can also be used Japanese
as a quantifier, in which case it means "plenty" or "full", depending on the context. When used to mean "one cup", the Katakana
specific --
pronunciation drops in pitch on "っぱい", whereas when it is used to mean "full", the pronunciation has a rising pitch on Punctuation
and writing --
"っぱい".
Kanji

台 — Machinery
Types of Kanji -
だい
-
§5.3.2.8 — Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
furigana --
This counter is used to count mechanical or electrical machinery of all sizes. This would include things like cars, televisions, Reading quirks:
compound
pianos, cameras, sewing machines, and the like. words --
Looking up
一台 二台 三台 四台 五台 六台 kanji --
Styles --
いちだい にだい さんだい よんだい ごだい ろくだい Words and
word classes
七台 八台 九台 十台 何台 Articles --
Verbs --
ななだい はちだい きゅうだい じゅうだい なんだい Nouns --
Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
(しちだい) Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Particles --
An example of use would be: Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
ともだち and mimesis --
友達 のヒロシは三台のコンピューターがあるんだって。 Compound
words --
"(My) friend Hiroshi said he had three computers."
Sentence
structure

§5.3.2.9 — 階 — Floors in a building

かい
Word order --
Emphasis --
Pitch and
This counter is used to count floors or levels of a building, and has a special pronunciation for 3: accents

一階 二階 三階 四階 五階 六階
Gender roles
Context
language
いっかい にかい さんかい よんかい ごかい ろっかい
Verb
さんがい grammar
More
七階 八階 九階 十階 何階 grammar
Particles
ななかい はっかい きゅうかい じっかい なんかい Counters
and counting
じゅっかい Language
patterns
An example of use would be: Conjugation
Schemes
しんしつ
Set phrases
寝室 は二階にあります。
Glossary
"The bedrooms are on the second floor."
ちか
For floors underground, the prefix 地下 (literally meaning "underground") is added to this counter:

地下一階 地下二階 地下三階 ...

ちかいっかい ちかにかい ちかさんがい ...

さいじょうかい
In addition, there are also two useful words to know when it comes to floors, being 最上階 , meaning "top floor" and Liked this
ちゅうにかい
book?
中二階 meaning "mezzanine" (a 'floor' between first and second floor).
Buy the
author a beer

§5.3.2.10 — 個 — Instances, number of

こ (or coffee)!

This is a general purpose counter used to count "numbers of [something]", such as the number of eggs needed for a specific
recipe, or the number of bricks in a wall. The pronunciations are:

一個 二個 三個 四個 五個 六個
いっこ にこ さんこ よんこ ごこ ろっこ

七個 八個 九個 十個 何個
 ななこ はっこ きゅうこ じっこ なんこ
じゅっこ Preface
The syntax
And example of use would be: The kana
The basics --
たまご い Writing the
卵 を何個入れていいですか。 kana --
"How many eggs should (I) add?" Pronouncing
Japanese --
Hiragana and
This counter is a typical fall-back counter when you do not know the proper counter for something, although with the note katakana
that it only makes sense for things that can be measured in units, or instances. So eggs and bricks are fine, people or differences --
thoughts are not. Writing
spoken
Japanese
§5.3.2.11 — つ — Items Katakana
specific --
Punctuation
and writing --
This is a special general counter for counting items. Because this counter creates statements such as "I will have four
[items]", it's typically omitted in translation because it doesn't indicate what kind of items are counted at all, merely that they Kanji
are being counted. The pronunciations for this counter, as mentioned in the counting section, are what make this particle Types of Kanji -
-
special, since it uses the native Japanese pronunciations for 1-9, and has a special question word: Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
一つ 二つ 三つ 四つ 五つ 六つ furigana --
Reading quirks:
compound
ひとつ ふたつ みっつ よっつ いつつ むっつ words --
Looking up

七つ 八つ 九つ ( 十) 幾つ kanji --
Styles --
Words and
ななつ やっつ ここのつ (とお) いくつ word classes
Articles --
Verbs --
Important to note is that 十 doesn't actually have つ as counter at all. Also, the question word for this counter can be used Nouns --
not just to ask "how many items", but also "how many years [of age]" someone is, although this only applies to the age of Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
young children, as the counter only really goes up to 10. For children that are older, as well as adolescents and adults, the Adjectives --
regular question word なんさい (何才 / 何歳), which is the question word for the counter for years of age, is used instead. Adverbs --
Particles --
Prefixes --
An example of use would be: Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
のこ Compound
二つのオレンジが 残 りました。 words --
"There were 2 oranges left." Sentence
structure

円 — The Japanese currency

えん Word order --
Emphasis --
§5.3.2.12 —
Pitch and
accents
This counter is used for ¥, the Japanese currency. This counter has special pronunciations for 4 and 9, and also has a special Gender roles
question word: Context

一円 二円 三円 四円 五円 六円
language
Verb
grammar
いちえん にえん さんえん よえん ごえん ろくえん
More

七円 八円 九円 十円 幾ら grammar
Particles
Counters
しちえん はちえん くえん じゅうえん いくら
and counting
(ななえん) (きゅうえん) Language
patterns
Conjugation
An example sentence would be: Schemes
Set phrases
このペンは五十円でした。 Glossary
"This pen was 50 yen."

Note the different readings よえん instead of "よんえん" and くえん instead of "きゅうえん". Also note that the question
word for "how many yen" is actually the question word meaning "how much", and is remarkably similar to くらい in that it
よ
can be used to refer to either quantity, duration or frequency. Thus, the question いくら 読 みますか, "how much do you
read?", can mean three different things, reflected in the possible answers to it:
にしゅうかん いっさつ
二週間 に 一冊 読みます。 Liked this
"(I) read 1 book every 2 weeks." book?
いちにち にじかん Buy the
一日 に二時間読みます。 author a beer
"(I) read 2 hours a day." (or coffee)!

あんまり読ませんよ。
"Oh, (I) don't really read that much."

Of course, in the context of currency いくら is always understood as meaning "how much (money)".

Other major currency counters are ドル, the (US) dollar, ユーロ, the euro (€), and ポンド, the (British) pound.

§5.3.2.13 — 畳
じょう
— Floor surface
わふうし
 わふうしつ
Traditional Japanese houses, or traditional rooms in apartment buildings or flats in Japan (called 和風室, literally 'Japanese
たたみ
Preface
style room'), are never counted in terms of square feet or meters, but in terms of how many tatami mats, 畳 , it will fit. This
The syntax
unit of measure is one of the 'common knowledge' units of surface measure, so it's generally a good idea to know it. The size
of tatami mats depends on the region, ranging from 0.955 meter by 1.91 meter in the Kyoto area to only 0.88 meter by 1.76 The kana
meter in the Tokyo area. Thus, a 六畳 room may be bigger or smaller, depending on where in Japan you find it. The basics --
Writing the
kana --
The counting table is fairly simple, with a different reading for 9: Pronouncing
Japanese --
一畳 二畳 三畳 四畳 五畳 六畳 Hiragana and
katakana
differences --
いちじょう にじょう さんじょう よんじょう ごじょう ろくじょう
Writing

七畳 八畳 九畳 十畳 何畳 spoken
Japanese
しちじょう はちじょう くじょう じゅうじょう なんじょう Katakana
specific --
Punctuation
(ななじょう) (きゅうじょう) and writing --
Kanji
Typically, however, there are only three counts for 畳, namely the common room dimensions for Japanese style rooms: 四畳 Types of Kanji -
はん
-
半 (four and a half), 六畳 and 八畳. When indicating actual counts of individual tatami mats, such as when purchasing Writing Kanji --
replacement mats or for outfitting several rooms, the counter 枚 is used instead. The reason for this is that rather than Reading kanji:
furigana --
indicating surface measure, you are now counting flat, sheet-like objects, which must of course be counted using the counter Reading quirks:
for flat, sheet-like objects. compound
words --
Looking up
§5.3.3 — Counters for living things kanji --
Styles --
Words and

§5.3.3.1 — 匹 — Small animals and fish

ひき
word classes
Articles --
Verbs --
Nouns --
This counter is used to count small animals. "Small" should not be taken too literally, as this counter applies to cats, Pronouns --
squirrels, mice, or fish just as it does to great Danes (a particularly huge kind of dog) or even moderately sized alligators. Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
Adverbs --
The pronunciations are: Particles --
Prefixes --
一匹 二匹 三匹 四匹 五匹 六匹 Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Compound
いっぴき にひき さんびき よんひき ごひき ろっぴき words --

七匹 八匹 九匹 十匹 何匹 Sentence
structure

しちひき はっぴき きゅうひき じっぴき なんびき Word order --

Emphasis --
(ななひき) じゅうっぴき Pitch and
accents

An example sentence would be: Gender roles

Context
はい language
ねずみ一匹でも 入 れないはずです。
Verb
"Not even a single mouse should be able to get in (here)." grammar
More

§5.3.3.2 — 羽 — Birds and rabbits

わ grammar
Particles
Counters
and counting
This kanji means "wings" when pronounced はね, and as a counter is used to count birds. As a peculiarity, this counter can Language
also be used to count rabbits (although 匹 is more common these days), because of an interesting bit of Japanese history: patterns
from the 6th century until the mid-19th century, Japanese people were — by decree — forbidden to eat several kinds of meat Conjugation
between April and October. However, birds and adult fish could still be eaten, so in order to be able to eat meat anyway, Schemes
people started calling certain animals by different names, referring to them as birds or fish. Boars, for instance, became Set phrases
"land whales" (whales still being considered fish at the time, rather than the mammals we now know them to be), and rabbits Glossary
became "birds" on account of their floppy ears, so these animals were counted using the counters that applied to these
animals instead. This practice lasted until 1872, when the Meiji restoration embraced a number of Western views and
customs, and eating meat was allowed all year round again after a more than 1300 year period of decreed abstinence. That
said, rabbits can of course also be counted using 匹.

The pronunciations for this counter are wholly unremarkable:

一羽 二羽 三羽 四羽 五羽 六羽
いちわ にわ さんわ よんわ ごわ ろくわ Liked this
book?
七羽 八羽 九羽 十羽 何羽 Buy the
author a beer
しちわ はちわ きゅうわ じゅうわ なんわ (or coffee)!

(ななわ)

A fun example sentence for this counter is a classic:

庭には二羽の鶏がいる。
"There are 2 chickens in the garden."

The pronunciation for this sentence is "にわにわにわのにわとりがいる", which is always a good reason to use this
sentence whenever appropriately possible.
§5.3.3.3 — 頭 — Large animals
とう

Preface
The syntax
This kanji on its own means "head", and for reasons about as inexplicable as why 本 is used for cylindrical objects, 頭 is
used to count large animals such as sheep, cows, horses, elephants, giraffes, salt water crocodiles (which are astoundingly The kana
huge), etc. The pronunciations are: The basics --
Writing the

一頭 二頭 三頭 四頭 五頭 六頭 kana --
Pronouncing
Japanese --
いっとう にとう さんとう よんとう ごとう ろくとう Hiragana and
katakana

七頭 八頭 九頭 十頭 何頭 differences --
Writing
spoken
ななとう はっとう きゅうとう じっとう なんとう
Japanese
じゅっとう Katakana
specific --
Punctuation
An example sentence would be: and writing --
Kanji
うま み
一頭の 馬 が見えます。 Types of Kanji -
-
"(I) can see 1 horse." Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
furigana --

§5.3.3.4 —
にん・り
人 — People
Reading quirks:
compound
words --
Looking up
kanji --
It should be noted that there are special pronunciations for 1 person and 2 people, using the reading り, but that 3 and up are Styles --
all counted using the pronunciation にん: Words and
word classes
一人 二人 三人 四人 五人 六人 七人 Articles --
Verbs --
ひとり ふたり さんにん よにん ごにん ろくにん しちにん Nouns --
Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
みったり よったり Adjectives --
Adverbs --
八人 九人 十人 十一人 十二人 何人 Particles --
Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
はちにん きゅうにん じゅうにん じゅういちにん じゅうににん なんにん and mimesis --
Compound
words --
An example sentence would be:
Sentence
ふうふ structure
あの二人は夫婦ですか。 Word order --
"Are those two (people) over there a (married) couple?" Emphasis --
Pitch and
めい accents
The polite counter for people, as used by, for instance, waiters or receptionists, is 名 , which has a very polite counterpart:
めいさま Gender roles
名様 . However, don't use these counters unless you find yourself serving patrons in a restaurant or something similar. For Context
normal counting of people, stick with 人. language
Verb
grammar
§5.3.4 — Occurrences and ranking
More
grammar

§5.3.4.1 — 度 — Number of times, degrees

ど
Particles
Counters
and counting
As a counter for occurrences, this counter is principally used only for counting once, twice and thrice. For something that Language
かい patterns
occurs more than three times, 回 is used instead. Conjugation
Schemes
Aside from being used for occurrence, 度 is also used to count degrees Celsius, and geometric degrees (such as a 90 degree Set phrases
angle, or GPS degrees). The pronunciations are: Glossary

一度 二度 三度 四度 五度 六度
いちど にど さんど よんど ごど ろくど

七度 八度 九度 十度 何度
しちど はちど きゅうど じゅうど なんど

Example sentences would be: Liked this

book?
い くだ
もう一度言って 下 さいませんか。 Buy the
author a beer
"Could you please say that one more time?" (or coffee)!
きょう あつ
今日は 暑 いねえ。何度でしょう。
"It's hot today, don't you think? I wonder what temperature (literally: how many degrees) it is."

This particle is also a noun on itself, pronounced たび, which is used as a nominaliser for turning clauses into occurrences,
which will be explained in the next chapter, in the nominalisers section.

While strictly speaking not genuinely related to counters, a special note for this counter involving the indicator 今, meaning
こんど
"now" and read as こん, should be added: 今度 can either mean "now", or "next time":

なん
 なん
今度は 何 だ。
"Oh, now what?" Preface
The syntax
また今度！
The kana
"(See you) next time!"
The basics --
Writing the

§5.3.4.2 — 回 — Number of times

かい kana --
Pronouncing
Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
Where 度 is used for once, twice and thrice, 回 can be used for any number of occurrences. The pronunciations are: differences --

一回 二回 三回 四回 五回 六回 Writing
spoken
Japanese
いっかい にかい さんかい よんかい ごかい ろっかい
Katakana

七回 八回 九回 十回 何回 specific --
Punctuation
and writing --
しちかい はっかい きゅうかい じっかい なんかい Kanji
(ななかい) じゅっかい Types of Kanji -
-
Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
An example sentence would be: furigana --
Reading quirks:
もう三回してみちゃったよ。 compound
words --
"(I) already tried (and failed) three times..." Looking up
kanji --
こん Styles --
The same oddity for 度 exists, when pairing 回 with 今 : Words and
word classes
こんかい なん
今回 は 何 だ。 Articles --
Verbs --
"Oh, now what?" Nouns --
Pronouns --
今回にしましょう。 Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
"Let's do (that) next time." Adverbs --
Particles --
Prefixes --

§5.3.4.3 — 番 — Rank
ばん
Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Compound
words --
This counter is used to indicate a number in a ranking. This counter has a different pronunciation for 9, so the pronunciations Sentence
are: structure

一番 二番 三番 四番 五番 六番
Word order --
Emphasis --
Pitch and
いちばん にばん さんばん よんばん ごばん ろくばん accents

七番 八番 九番 十番 何番 Gender roles
Context
ななばん はちばん くばん じゅうばん なんばん language
Verb
grammar
An example sentence would be:
More
わたし grammar
私 は三番です。 Particles
"I'm (up) third." Counters
and counting
The first count in this series, 一番, is the same 一番 that is used in the adjectival superlative in Japanese, since it literally Language
means "first" and thus also means "most". patterns
Conjugation
Schemes
§5.3.4.4 — 号 — Issue number
ごう
Set phrases
Glossary

This counter is used to count issues, such as magazine or newspaper issues, or number in a series, such as room numbers on
a floor, or the number of a limited series prototype car. Like 番, it has a different pronunciation for 9, so the pronunciations
are:

一号 二号 三号 四号 五号 六号
いちごう にごう さんごう よんごう ごごう ろくごう

七号 八号 九号 十号 何号 Liked this
book?
しちごう はちごう くごう じゅうごう なんごう Buy the
author a beer
An example sentence would be: (or coffee)!

りょうしん す
両親 は１７号に住んでいます。
"My parents live at number seventeen."
ばんごう
The combination of 番 and 号, 番号 , is used to indicate a ranked "number", such as a phone number, registration number or
product serial number, where the number doesn't particularly indicate a rank on its own, but does sit at a particular position
in the greater list of all numbers of its category.
It can also be used to change the number from an absolute value, such as "17 Thornhill Street" to a position in an ordered
list, such as "the 17th house after you turn left":
Preface

両親は１７号に住んでいます。 The syntax

"My parents live at number seventeen." The kana

The basics --
両親は１７番号に住んでいます。 Writing the
kana --
"My parents are the seventeenth door." Pronouncing
In the second sentence, "seventeenth" is understood to be from some kind of (contextually obvious) reference point, like Japanese --
Hiragana and
the start of the block, or from the floor's staircase. katakana
differences --

§5.3.4.5 — ～目 — Ordinality
め Writing
spoken
Japanese
Katakana
This is technically not a counter, but can be added to rank counters to indicate ordinality — that is, it indicates an item's specific --
position in some ordered set. Being very specific: adding 目 to a counter changes the count from a cardinal number to Punctuation
and writing --
ordinal number.
Kanji
For instance, it can be used in combination with 日 to create the counter 日目, changing the meaning from "... days" or "day Types of Kanji -
... of the month" to "the ...th day (relative to some arbitrary time)": -
Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
みっか と
furigana --
三日にホテルで泊まった。 Reading quirks:
"We stayed at the hotel for three days." compound
words --
みっかめ
Looking up
三日目にホテルで泊まった。 kanji --
"We stayed at a hotel on the third day." Styles --
Words and
ばんめ word classes
It's also frequently combined with 番 to create the counter 番目, which changes the meaning from a number in a ranking, to
Articles --
number of appearance. For instance, a runner with the back number "214" could be the first person to start in a relay, in Verbs --
which case the runner himself would be indicated using 214番のランナー (or 214号のランナー) but would also be the 一 Nouns --
Pronouns --
番目のランナー, because he's the first runner. Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Another example of this difference can be shown in the context of waiting for a bus: Particles --
Prefixes --
ていりゅうじょ の くだ Onomatopoeia
この 停留所 から５番のバスに乗って 下 さい。 and mimesis --
Compound
"Please take the no. 5 bus at this bus stop." words --
Sentence
この停留所から５番目のバスに乗って下さい。
structure
"Please take the fifth bus at this bus stop."
Word order --
Emphasis --
§5.3.5 — Counting time related units Pitch and
accents

秒
びょう Gender roles
§5.3.5.1 — — Seconds Context
language
Verb
Counting seconds in Japanese uses 秒, for which the pronunciations are:
grammar

一秒 二秒 三秒 四秒 五秒 六秒 More
grammar
いちびょう にびょう さんびょう よんびょう ごびょう ろくびょう Particles
Counters
七秒 八秒 九秒 十秒 何秒 and counting
Language
ななびょう はちびょう くびょう じゅうびょう なんびょう patterns
Conjugation
(きゅうびょう) Schemes
Set phrases
An example sentence would be: Glossary

はんぷん
何秒かかりますか。二十秒か、 半分 か。
"How long will it take? 20 seconds, half a minute?"

§5.3.5.2 — 分 - Minutes
ふん

Moving from seconds to minutes, the counter for minutes has different pronunciations for 3, 4, and the question word:
Liked this

一分 二分 三分 四分 五分 六分 book?
Buy the
author a beer
いっぷん にふん さんぷん よんぶん ごふん ろっぷん (or coffee)!

七分 八分 九分 十分 何分
ななふん はっぷん きゅうふん じっぷん なんぷん
じゅっぷん

An example sentence would be:

いま さんじ まえ
今 三時五分前 です。
"It's now 5 minutes to 3."
はんぷん
 はんぷん
Also, the measure "half minute" (as used in the example sentence for seconds) is 半分 , using the same pronunciation as for
三 and 何. Preface
The syntax

§5.3.5.3 — 時 — Clock hours

じ The kana
The basics --
Writing the
kana --
Don't confuse clock hours with durational hours. Clock hours are things like "three o' clock" and "seven in the evening". Pronouncing
Durational hours are "it took 3 hours" or "I went home after waiting an hour". This counter is for the first category and Japanese --
Hiragana and
indicates the hours of the day: katakana
differences --
一時 二時 三時 四時 五時 六時 七時 Writing
spoken
いちじ にじ さんじ よじ ごじ ろくじ しちじ Japanese

八時 九時 十時 十一時 十二時 何時 Katakana

specific --
Punctuation
はちじ くじ じゅうじ じゅういちじ じゅうにじ なんじ and writing --
Kanji
Note the pronunciations for 4 and 9, both being the short pronunciations. An example sentence would be: Types of Kanji -
-
Writing Kanji --
何時ですか。 Reading kanji:
furigana --
"What time is it?" Reading quirks:
compound
ごぜん ごご words --
The indicators for a.m. and p.m. are 午前 and 午後 in Japanese, indicating whether a time is before or after the "hour of the Looking up
kanji --
horse", which corresponds to the period from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. according to the classical Chinese system. These are prefixed Styles --
to the time:
Words and
いま word classes
今 午後三時です。 Articles --
"It is 3 p.m." Verbs --
Nouns --
あ Pronouns --
午前九時に会おう。 Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
"Let us convene at 9 a.m." Adverbs --
Particles --
しょうご れいじ
Prefixes --
To make the "useful words" list complete, midday is 正午 , and midnight is 零時. Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Compound

§5.3.5.4 — 時間 — Durational hours

じかん words --
Sentence
structure
かん
Word order --
By adding the durational particle 間 — literally "interval" — to the counter 時, we get the durational counter for hours. The Emphasis --
difference between clock time and duration is striking: Pitch and
accents
何時ですか。 Gender roles
"What time is it?" Context
language
何時間ですか。
Verb
"How long is it?" grammar
More
This difference is also very important for actual counting statements. Quite often, people starting with Japanese will mix up grammar
時 and 時間, creating sentences such as the following: Particles
Counters
三時間です。 and counting
"It's three hours long." Language
patterns
When they really mean to say 三時です, "it's 3 o' clock". Similarly, they might say: Conjugation
Schemes
べんきょう Set phrases
二時に 勉強 しました。 Glossary
"(I) studied at 2 o' clock."

while meaning to say 二時間に勉強しました, "I studied for two hours".

§5.3.5.5 — 日/ 日 — Days
か にち

Moving up from hours to days, we reach a rather interesting counter. As explained before, this counter is special in several
ways. Firstly, counting 1 to 10 days uses the counter 日 in its pronunciation か, paired with native Japanese readings for the Liked this
book?
numbers. 14 and 24, too, use 日 pronounced as か, but use a mixed Chinese/Japanese reading for the number, and "20 days" Buy the
has its own special word. The rest of the days are counted using 日 in its pronunciation にち, with Chinese read numbers: author a beer
(or coffee)!

一日 二日 三日 四日 五日 六日 七日
ついたち ふつか みっか よっか いつか むいか なのか

八日 九日 十日 十一日 十二日 十三日

ようか ここのか とおか じゅういちにち ...にち ...にち

十四日 十五日 十六日 十七日 十八日 十九日

じゅうよっか ...にち ...にち ...にち ...にち ....にち
 二十日 二十一日 二十二日 二十三日 二十四日 二十五日 Preface
はつか ...にち ...にち ...にち にじゅうよっか ...にち The syntax

二十六日 二十七日 二十八日 二十九日 三十日 三十一日 The kana

The basics --
...にち ...にち ...にち ...にち ...にち ...にち Writing the
kana --
Pronouncing
Japanese --
The reading for 一日 differs depending on what it's used to mean: ついたち refers to the first day of the month, but the Hiragana and
katakana
reading いちにち is also possible, in which case it refers to a single day in duration (including 'my day' in, for instance, "my differences --
day consists of doing ..."). Also, for every other number under 32, 日 refers to both day of the month and length of duration Writing
in days. Any number above 31 automatically only means "days of duration", since months only go up to the 31st at best. spoken
Because of this, 34, 44, etc. have the pronunciation 〜よ(ん)にち instead of 〜よっか. Japanese
Katakana
specific --
An example sentence would be: Punctuation
and writing --
ふつか いっぱく と
二日 一泊 泊まった。 Kanji
"(We) stayed 2 days and one night." Types of Kanji -
-
はく Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
In this sentence a counter that won't be treated separately, 泊 , is used which means "nights of stay". furigana --
Reading quirks:
There are two question words regarding dates; we can be either use いつ, which means "when", or we can use the counter compound
words --
なんにち
Looking up
question word 何日 . We can also ask about the length of duration in days, for which we can use two question words too: ど kanji --
のぐらい, for approximate duration, and 何日, for exact duration. Styles --
Words and
word classes
Aside from being able to count days, it's also good to be able to name the immediate past and future days:
Articles --
さきおととい
Verbs --
three days ago (2 days before yesterday) Nouns --
一昨昨日 Pronouns --
おととい Nominalisers --
一昨日 day before yesterday Adjectives --
Adverbs --
きのう
yesterday Particles --
昨日 Prefixes --
きょう Onomatopoeia
今日 today and mimesis --
Compound
あした・あす
words --
明日 tomorrow
Sentence
あさって
day after tomorrow structure
明後日
しあさって Word order --
明々後日 in three days (2 days after tomorrow) Emphasis --
Pitch and
ほんじつ accents
You may sometimes head the word 本日 being used to mean "today" (or, less frequently, "yesterday" or "tomorrow"). Gender roles
However, this word is only used when there is some contextual day that is tied to a specific date. The word 本日 literally Context
means "the day in question", and can be taken to mean "today" (or "yesterday" or "tomorrow") only when the event's "day in language
question" coincides with "today" (or "yesterday" or "tomorrow"). Verb
grammar

§5.3.5.6 — 週
しゅう
— Weeks
More
grammar
Particles
Counters
Increasing the scale further, we reach weeks, indicated with 週. Like 時, 週 on its own just refers to the yearly week, with 週 and counting
間 referring to length of duration as measured in weeks. The pronunciations are: Language
patterns
一週 二週 三週 四週 五週 六週 Conjugation
Schemes
いっしゅう にしゅう さんしゅう よんしゅう ごしゅう ろくしゅう Set phrases

七週 八週 九週 十週 何週 Glossary

ななしゅう はつしゅう きゅうしゅう じっしゅう なんしゅう

じゅっしゅう

An example sentence would be:

ことし まつ
今年の 祭 りは十八週です。
"This year's festival is in week 18." Liked this
book?
The words for the immediate past and future weeks are: Buy the
author a beer
せんせんしゅう (or coffee)!
先先週 the week before last
せんしゅう
先週 last week
こんしゅう
今週 this week
らいしゅう
来週 next week
さらいしゅう
再来週 the week after next
§5.3.5.7 — 週間
しゅうかん
— Weeks of duration
Preface
The syntax
Like 時, 週 has to be followed by 間 to turn it into a durational counter:
The kana
しけん
The basics --
試験はおよそ二週間です。 Writing the
"The exams are in about two weeks." kana --
Pronouncing
Japanese --

§5.3.5.8 — がつ ( 月) — Calendar months Hiragana and

katakana
differences --
Writing
Like 時 and 週, 月 alone refers to month of the year. While western languages typically have named months, the Japanese spoken
— not too long ago in fact — gave up on named months in favour of the Chinese system of numbered months, resulting in: Japanese

一月 二月 三月 四月 五月 六月
Katakana
specific --
Punctuation
いちがつ にがつ さんがつ しがつ ごがつ ろくがつ and writing --
一月 二月 三月 四月 五月 六月 Kanji
January February March April May June Types of Kanji -

七月 八月 九月 十月 十一月 十二月
-
Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
しちがつ はちがつ くがつ じゅうがつ じゅういちがつ じゅうにがつ furigana --
七月 八月 九月 十月 十一月 十二月 Reading quirks:
compound
July August September October November December words --
Looking up
kanji --
The names of the months have been added here to stress that these are not so much numbered months, but calendar months. Styles --
Remember them as such! Also note that there are specific readings for April, July and September. You can't use another Words and
reading for the number for these words — these "counts" are very much fixed in the Japanese language as nouns. The word classes
なんがつ
question word for month of the year is 何月 . Articles --
Verbs --
Nouns --
The words for the immediate past and future months are: Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
せんせんげつ Adjectives --
先先月 the month before last Adverbs --
Particles --
せんげつ Prefixes --
先月 last month Onomatopoeia
こんげつ
and mimesis --
this month Compound
今月 words --
らいげつ
next month Sentence
来月 structure
さらいげつ
再来月 the month after next Word order --
Emphasis --
Pitch and
And finally, in the interest of satisfying human curiosity, the old names for the months are: accents

一月 二月 三月 四月 五月 六月 Gender roles
Context
むつき きさらぎ やよい うづき さつき みなづき
language
睦月 如月 弥生 卯月 皐月 水無月
Verb
七月 八月 九月 十月 十一月 十二月 grammar
More
ふみづき はづき ながつき かんなづき しもつき しわす
grammar
文月 葉月 長月 神無月 霜月 師走
Particles
Counters

§5.3.5.9 — 月 — Months of duration

つき and counting
Language
patterns
Conjugation
When read as つき, and paired with the native Japanese readings for numbers, this counter expresses duration in terms of Schemes
lunar months, and is typically only used for indicating 1 to 3 months of duration. This is a slightly poetic counter, but is also Set phrases
used in formal writing to indicate the 1-3 month durational range: Glossary

一月 二月 三月
ひとつき ふたつき みつき

月 — Months of duration
かげつ

§5.3.5.10 — ヶ

While — like 時 and 週 — 月 on its own means "month of the year", the suffix 間 cannot be used to turn 月 into a Liked this
book?
durational counter. Instead, the prefix ヶ is used, but be careful: this is not the katakana ケ, but actually a simplified kanji Buy the
form of 箇. You can tell this difference by looking at the size of the kanji: ヶ月 (かげつ) vs. ケ月 — the katakana ケ is author a beer
(or coffee)!
much bigger than the simplified version of 箇. Why exactly this kanji got simplified to this deceptive form is not entirely
clear, but it has, which means you'll need to be able to recognise it as a counter. The standard contractions occur in the
pronunciations:

一ヶ月 二ヶ月 三ヶ月 四ヶ月 五ヶ月 六ヶ月

いっかげつ にかげつ さんかげつ よんかげつ ごかげつ ろっかげつ

七ヶ月 八ヶ月 九ヶ月 十ヶ月 何ヶ月

しちかげつ はっかげつ きゅうかげつ じっかげつ なんかげつ
 じゅっかげつ
Preface
An example sentence would be: The syntax
がいこく The kana
三ヶ月に 外国 にいます。 The basics --
"I will be abroad for three months." Writing the
kana --
Pronouncing

年 — Years
ねん Japanese --
Hiragana and
§5.3.5.11 — katakana
differences --

Once more, there is the distinction between years in an era, 年, and years of duration, 年間. The pronunciations for 年 are: Writing
spoken

一年 二年 三年 四年 五年 六年 Japanese
Katakana
いちねん にねん さんねん よねん ごねん ろくねん specific --
Punctuation

七年 八年 九年 十年 何年
and writing --
Kanji
しちねん はちねん くねん じゅうねん なんねん Types of Kanji -
-
Writing Kanji --
きゅうねん Reading kanji:
furigana --
Reading quirks:
An example sentence would be: compound
words --
ほん めいじ Looking up
この 本 は明治十年の本です。 kanji --
Styles --
"This book is from 1877."
Words and
(The 明治 era ran from 1868 to 1912, so with 1868 being the first year, the 10th year of the Meiji era is 1877 — more on word classes
this later, in the section on time and dates) Articles --
Verbs --
The words for the immediate past and future years are: Nouns --
Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
さきおととし
Adjectives --
一昨昨年 three years ago (2 years before last) Adverbs --
おととし Particles --
一昨年 the year before last Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
きょねん and mimesis --
去年 last year Compound
ことし words --
今年 this year Sentence
らいねん structure
来年 next year
Word order --
さらいねん Emphasis --
再来年 the year after next
Pitch and
accents
Gender roles
年生 — Scholar year
ねんせい
§5.3.5.11.1 — Context
language
Verb
Listed as a separate counter only because this counter will be relevant to you as a student of Japanese, 年生 indicates "year grammar
of study", so that an 一年生 is a first year student, and a 四年生 is a fourth year student: More
grammar
とうだい にねんせい ひむら
Particles
東大 の二年生の日村です。 Counters
"(I) am Himura, 2nd year student at Tokyo University." and counting
がくぶせい いんせい
Language
patterns
Undergraduate students are referred to as 学部生, and graduate students as 院生 .
Conjugation
Schemes

§5.3.5.12 — 年間 — Years of duration

ねんかん
Set phrases
Glossary

Once more, adding 間 turns the counter into a durational counter:

ざ まも
三年間チャンピオンの座を 守 った。
"(He) kept with his title (literally: 'seat') as champion for three years."

§5.3.5.13 — 歳 / 才 — Years of age

さい さい

Liked this
book?
The one thing 年 cannot be used for is to indicate years of age. For this, two special counters are used: 歳 and its simpler
Buy the
counterpart 才 . While simpler, it's generally not a good idea to use it in every instance where writing age is required; author a beer
because it is simpler, using it is a sign that you're not quite good enough at kanji yet to write the "real" kanji form. The (or coffee)!
pronunciations are the same as for any other さ-counter:

一歳 二歳 三歳 四歳 五歳 六歳
いっさい にさい さんさい よんさい ごさい ろくさい

七歳 八歳 九歳 十歳 二十歳 何歳
ななさい はっさい きゅうさい じっさい はたち なんさい
じゅっさい
くさ
 くさ
The reading くさい for 九歳, while technically possible, should be avoided, since it sounds identical to 臭 い , meaning
"smelly/stinky". Also note that there is a special word for twenty years of age, はたち, just like there is a special word for Preface

twenty days, はつか. The syntax

The kana
An example sentence would be: The basics --
Writing the
とう あした kana --
父 さんは明日六十一歳になります。 Pronouncing
Japanese --
"My father will turn 61 tomorrow." Hiragana and
katakana
There is a special counter that is used for the ages 20 through 90, being 路(じ), and using native Japanese numbers (with differences --
十 pronounced そ), although typically only 30 through 60 are actively used: Writing
spoken
Japanese
age count reading
Katakana
20 二十路 ふたそじ specific --
Punctuation
30 三十路 みそじ and writing --
Kanji
40 四十路 よそじ
Types of Kanji -
-
50 五十路 いそじ Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
60 六十路 むそじ furigana --
Reading quirks:
70 七十路 ななそじ compound
words --
80 八十路 やそじ Looking up
kanji --
Styles --
90 九十路 ここのそじ
Words and
word classes
In addition to these counts, there are numerous terms and titles associated with virtually each age, but listing all of these
Articles --
goes well beyond the scope of this book. Verbs --
Nouns --
Pronouns --
§5.3.6 — Additional words for quantification Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
Adverbs --
There are also several adverbs that are used to quantify without relying on numbers. Some of these quantifiers can only be Particles --
used with verbs or verbal adjectives in positive or negative form, and whenever this is the case, this will be explicitly Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
mentioned. and mimesis --
Compound
words --
§5.3.6.1 — いつも — Always/never Sentence
structure
Word order --
As mentioned in the particle section on も , this word doesn't mean two different things in Japanese, but merely gets Emphasis --
translated with two different words depending on whether it's followed by a positive or negative verb. Pitch and
accents
こと い
いつもそんな 事 ばかり言っている。 Gender roles
literally: "(You)'re always saying only those kind of things." Context
language
meaning: "(You)'re always saying the same thing."
わ
Verb
いつもしないのに、どうして分かるんですか。 grammar
"Why is it (you) know (how to do it) when (you) never do it (in the first place)?" More
grammar
Particles

§5.3.6.2 — 大抵 — Usually, mostly

たいてい
Counters
and counting
Language
patterns
When indicating something happens 'most of the time', or 'usually', たいてい is used. There's not much else to say about it
Conjugation
other than that it's usually used in combination with a positive verb form: Schemes
しちじ お
Set phrases
たいてい七時に起きます。 Glossary
"(I) usually get up at 7."

§5.3.6.3 — よく — Often

We've already covered this adverb by virtue of it being the adverbial form of よ い . In a quantifying role, it signifies a
frequent occurrence of whatever verb it's being used with:
およ
よく 泳 ぎます。 Liked this
book?
"(I) often swim." Buy the
author a beer

余 り, あんまり — Not often / not much

あま (or coffee)!
§5.3.6.4 —

This adverb actually comes from the 五段 verb 余る, meaning "to be left over", and is the counterpart to よく. It is typically
only be used when followed by a negative verb or verbal adjective:
こうちゃ す
紅茶 はあんまり好きじゃありません。
"(I) don't like (red) tea very much."

There is no real difference between あまり and あんまり, but the latter sounds slightly more emphatic.
§5.3.6.5 — とても — Very
Preface
This quantifier only works when followed by a positive verbal adjective: The syntax
The kana
やす
これはとても 安 いですね。 The basics --
Writing the
"This is very cheap isn't it?" kana --
Pronouncing
Japanese --
This quantifier can be emphatically intensified by sticking a っ in, to form とっても: Hiragana and
katakana
たの differences --
とっても 楽 しかったよ。 Writing
"That was really, really fun." spoken
Japanese

時々 — Sometimes
ときどき Katakana
specific --
§5.3.6.6 — Punctuation
and writing --

The kanji form should already give it away, but when activities are performed from time to time, 時々 is used: Kanji
Types of Kanji -
えいが み い -
時々みんなで映画を見に行きます。 Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
"We all go to the cinema together from time to time." furigana --
Reading quirks:
The construction 時々 may frequently be found written as ときどき instead. The choice on whether to use a kanji or kana compound
words --
form depends mostly on intended style. In literary material the kanji form is preferred, while in informal writing the kana Looking up
form is used more. kanji --
Styles --
Words and

§5.3.6.7 — 全然 — Not at all

ぜんぜん
word classes
Articles --
Verbs --
Nouns --
Like あまり, this quantifier is usually followed by a negative verb or verbal adjective: Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
かま Adjectives --
全然構 いませんよ。 Adverbs --
Particles --
"(I) don't mind at all." Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
However, it derives its negative meaning only from these verbals — there is no rule that says this word cannot be used with Compound
affirmative verbals instead, in which case it translates to "completely". Like the こそあど+(で)も words, the meaning of 全 words --
然 itself is merely this "complete"-ness, connoting "not at all" only because it is paired with a verbal negative. Sentence
structure

可か Word order --
§5.3.6.8 — なり — Considerably, rather Emphasis --
Pitch and
accents
Like とても, this quantifier only works when followed by positive verbals: Gender roles
Context
たか
language
これはかなり 高 いんですね。
"This is rather expensive, isn't it?" Verb
grammar
More
§5.3.6.9 — さっぱり — Not at all grammar
Particles
Counters
Like あまり and ぜんぜん, this quantifier is typically followed by a negative verb: and counting
Language
わ patterns
これはさっぱり分かりません。 Conjugation
"(I) don't understand this at all." Schemes
Set phrases
However, on its own さっぱり just means "clean" or "neatly", again highlighting the fact that most quantifiers associated Glossary
with a negative quantity only do so thanks to the negative verb form.

§5.3.6.10 — 少 し — A little bit

すこ

Literally, this quantifier means "in small part", and is usually followed by a positive verb:
ま
少し待てばいいかな。
Liked this
literally: "Waiting for a little while is okay, isn't it?" book?
meaning: "Could (we) wait for just a bit?" Buy the
にほんご わ author a beer
日本語は少し分かります。 (or coffee)!
"I understand Japanese a little (bit)."

§5.3.6.11 — ちょっと — A little

This quantifier can be followed by either a positive verb or verbal adjective in normal statements, or by negative verbs and
verbal adjectives when used in the form of a question. When used in a negative question, the full sentence actually connotes
a positive, as can be seen in the following examples:

さむ
 さむ
ちょっと 寒 くないですか。
"Isn't it a little cold?" Preface
ある The syntax
ちょっと 歩 きませんか。
The kana
"Shall (we) take a little walk?"
The basics --
Writing the
Used with a positive, there is nothing remarkable to note: kana --
Pronouncing
たか Japanese --
これはちょっと 高 いですね。 Hiragana and
katakana
"This is a bit expensive, don't you agree?" differences --
Writing

§5.3.6.12 —
いっぱい
一杯 — A lot, to the brim spoken
Japanese
Katakana
specific --
Mentioned in the counter section for 杯, this quantifier can only be used with positive verbs: Punctuation
and writing --
ほんじつ よやく
Kanji
あいにく、 本日 は予約で一杯です。
Types of Kanji -
"(I)'m sorry, but today is fully booked." -
Writing Kanji --
Remember that this is only a quantifier if pronounced with the っぱい part in raised pitch. If pronounced with the っぱい Reading kanji:
furigana --
part in a lower pitch, it means "one cup (of something)". Reading quirks:
compound
words --
Looking up
§5.3.6.13 — もっと — Even more kanji --
Styles --
Words and
Used as the comparative for adjectives, as well as comparative for verb actions, this quantifier can only be used with word classes
positive verbs and verbal adjectives:
Articles --
Verbs --
た ざいりょう い
Nouns --
まだ足りないみたいね。 材料 をもっと入れて。 Pronouns --
"It looks like it's still not enough. (Please) add in (even) more (of the) ingredients." Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Particles --
§5.3.6.14 — ずっと — Very much Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Compound
This quantifier is only used with positive verbal adjectives: words --
かのじょ Sentence
彼女 はどんなモデルよりでもずっときれいだ。 structure
"She's much prettier than any model." Word order --
Emphasis --
This word actually translates to a wide spectrum of words, because of what it's composed of: the mimesis ず paired with と. Pitch and
accents
This mimesis represents a straight, through and through somethingness, so that it can be translated as "very much",
"completely", and even "forever", depending on the context. Gender roles
Context
language
§5.3.6.15 — 全部 — All, wholly
ぜんぶ
Verb
grammar
More
This quantifier means "all" or "wholly" by virtue of its literal meaning "all parts": grammar
かね ぜんぶ つか
Particles
お 金 をほとんど全部 使 ってしまった。 Counters
and counting
"(I)'ve spent almost all my money."
Language
すべ patterns
Beginning students will often mistakenly use this quantifier when meaning 全 て, which means "every(thing)" rather than Conjugation
"all", or vice versa, so make sure you picked the right one. Schemes
Set phrases

全 て — Every, everything
すべ Glossary
§5.3.6.16 —

ぜんぶ
This quantifier is usually paired with positive verbs (and should not be confused with 全部):
ほんだな ほん よ
本棚 にある 本 を全て読んでしまった。
"(I)'ve (sadly) read every book on (my) shelves."

Section 5-4 — Using numbers Liked this

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In addition to knowing what to call numbers and which particles to use for counting statements, there are two important author a beer
"number" subjects that deserve special mention: telling time, and arithmetic. In this section we shall look at these two (or coffee)!
subjects in depth.

§5.4.1 — Telling time and date

Times and dates are closely related subjects, so we'll treat them in one go. We've already looked at time for a bit in the
counter section, where we discovered that time counters and duration counters are two different things, leading us to guess at
how to properly tell time, but let's review these particles in a more specific setting of actually telling time. The Japanese time
format can be represented either in a 'before noon'/'after noon' system or using the 24 hour clock (but unlike the regular
concept of '24 hours', the Japanese clock can go beyond the number 24. For instance, a TV show that's on at 1:20 in the early
morning, may air at 25:20 in Japan).
 The Japanese way of formatting times is similar to the western system, namely: first the hour, then minutes, then seconds.
As an example:
Preface
ごじ にじっぷん ごじゅうびょう The syntax
五時二十分 五十秒
The kana
5:20′50″
The basics --
ごぜん ごご Writing the
kana --
As mentioned in the counters section, the a.m. and p.m. indications in Japanese are 午前 and 午後, which precede the actual Pronouncing
time: Japanese --
Hiragana and
ごご にじはん き katakana
午後(の)二時半に来ます。 differences --
"(I) will come at 2:30 p.m." Writing
spoken
Japanese
There are two things to note here. One is that の is optional. It can be left out, in which case the statement is slightly less
Katakana
formal. In fact, the whole 午 前 / 午 後 indication is optional, since typically it will be obvious whether you mean in the specific --
はん
Punctuation
morning or in the afternoon. The other thing to note is the use of the suffix 半 which indicates "half". In Japanese, adding and writing --
this indicates an additional half hour (unlike in some western languages, where the indicator 'half' means removing half an Kanji
hour from the time): Types of Kanji -
-
ななじはん
Writing Kanji --
七時半 Reading kanji:
7:30 furigana --
Reading quirks:
compound
This is of course the same as saying 七時三十分, but using 半 is shorter. words --
Looking up
kanji --
Unlike some western languages, Japanese doesn't have indicators for the quarters before and past the hour. Instead, it has a Styles --
まえ
"before" and "after" marker if the time is anywhere from 10-ish minutes before the hour to 10-ish minutes past the hour, 前 Words and
す word classes
and 過ぎ respectively. Literally, 前 means "before" or "in front of", and 過ぎ is the noun derived from the verb 過ぎる, "to
Articles --
be past (some conceptual point)". Two examples of their use are: Verbs --
Nouns --
よじ じっぷん す ま Pronouns --
もう四時 十分 過ぎだよ。まだ待つのか。 Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
"It's already 10 past 4, are we still going to wait?" Adverbs --
ばんぐみ いちじ ごふん まえ はじ Particles --
その 番組 は一時五分 前 に 始 まります。 Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
"That programme will start 5 (minutes) to 1." and mimesis --
Compound
words --
But telling time alone isn't everything. If you don't want to use 午前 or 午後, you can also say whether you mean in the
あさ ひる ばん よる Sentence
morning, afternoon, evening or night, by using the nouns 朝 , 昼 , 晩 and 夜 respectively: structure
Word order --
まいあさ ななじ いえ で
Emphasis --
毎朝 七時に 家 を出ます。
Pitch and
"(I) leave the house every morning at 7." accents
Gender roles
The prefix 毎, as you may remember from the outline, is a prefix used to indicate "every [...]" and is used here to indicate
frequent behaviour rather than just a single event. When you want to specifically refer to "this" morning, afternoon, evening Context
けさ こんばん こんや language
or night instead, the words to use are 今朝, [nothing], 今晩 and 今夜 respectively. There's no real reason why there is no Verb
きょう
grammar
word for "this afternoon", but there just isn't any. Instead, 今日 meaning "today" is typically used. Also notice the readings
More
for 'this morning' and 'this night', which might be different from what you would expect.
grammar
Particles
If we want to be more specific, we might add a date to the time we're stating. The Japanese format for this is "biggest
Counters
counter first", so the format is: and counting
Language
era → year → month → day → (day by name) \\* → hour → minutes → seconds patterns
The era bit is important here, as the Japanese calendar doesn't actually correspond to the western calendar. While the Conjugation
Japanese will use the Gregorian calendar when necessary, the "proper" Japanese way to count years is to name the era to Schemes
which you are referring, and then count the number of years since its epoch. Since these are reasonably important to Set phrases
know, the list of most recent eras — ordered most recent to oldest — is as follows: Glossary
へいせい
1. The 平成 era is the current era, which started in 1989 and will last as long as emperor Akihito remains emperor.
しょうわ
2. The 昭和 era was the era before the current era, running from 1926 till 1989.
たいしょう
3. The 大正 era is the last most recent era still covering the 1900's, running from 1912 till 1926.
めいじ
4. The 明治 era is the first of the "recent" eras, starting at the Meiji restoration in 1868 running till 1912.

The numbering for eras is reasonably intuitive: the first year of an era is the year the era started. Thus, " 大正 1" corresponds
to 1912, and " 昭和 30" corresponds to 1955. If we write out the full date for when this section was first written, we get: Liked this
book?
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平成十七年五月二十四日(の火曜日)二時十九分五十五秒 author a beer
Heisei 17 (= 2005), May 24th (Tuesday), 2:19′55″ (or coffee)!

While using kanji for the numerals is a perfectly valid way to write full dates, it's easier to read if numerals are used instead:

平成17年5月24日(の火曜日)2時19分55秒

It might also be a good idea to list the days while we're at it. The Japanese week is as follows:
にちようび
日曜日 "sun day of the week" Sunday
げつようび
月曜日 "moon day of the week" Monday
かようび
 かようび
"fire day of the week" Tuesday
火曜日
すいようび Preface
水曜日 "water day of the week" Wednesday
The syntax
もくようび
木曜日 "wood day of the week" Thursday The kana
きんようび The basics --
金曜日 "metal day of the week" Friday Writing the
kana --
どようび
Pronouncing
土曜日 "earth day of the week" Saturday Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
While many of the western days of the week derive their name from Norse mythology (more specifically, the names of the differences --
Norse gods), the Japanese — as well as several other Asian countries — use the elements for their day naming, with the sun Writing
and the moon to complete the set of seven. These two "come first", so the Japanese week conceptually starts on a Sunday, spoken
even if the first day of the work week is Monday. Japanese
Katakana
When indicating day-series such as "mon-wed-fri" in English, the Japanese use two syllable pronunciations for the days in specific --
ようび Punctuation
question. However, days with only a single syllable before the 曜日 part will have their vowel doubled: and writing --
Kanji
げっすいきん
Types of Kanji -
月水金 mon-wed-fri -
かーもくどう Writing Kanji --
火木土 tue-thu-sat Reading kanji:
furigana --
Reading quirks:
compound
Note that contractions occur when pairing 月 with 水, because of the つ in the pronunciation for 月. words --
Looking up
kanji --
§5.4.2 — Basic arithmetic Styles --
Words and
One of the most useful things you can do with numbers is turn them into other numbers, by applying such wonderful word classes
operations as addition, subtraction, division and multiplication. These four operations sum up the basic mathematical Articles --
Verbs --
operations one can perform on numbers, and covers what most people consider enough when it comes to doing maths. Nouns --
While, of course, explaining all mathematical operations is well beyond the scope of this book, we will also look at powers Pronouns --
and roots, in addition to the four basic arithmetic operations. Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Particles --
§5.4.2.1 — Addition Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Addition is the root of all things maths related. The idea of addition is a childishly simple one: you have something, you get Compound
more, you have more. The mathematical part of this concept is to determine how much more you have, and for this we need words --
three things: numbers, something that states addition, and something that marks an outcome. Luckily (though not Sentence
structure
unexpectedly) Japanese has all three of these. Numbers we have already seen plenty of, the outcome marker is simply です,
た Word order --
and the verb that we use for addition is 足す. Emphasis --
Pitch and
いち よん ご accents
一 足す 四 は五です。 Gender roles
"One plus four is five."
Context
language
In this use, 足す acts remarkably western in that even though 足す is used in 連体形, and should thus be attributive, 一足す
Verb
四 does not say "a one-added four", but merely says "one plus four" (this is also the case for the verb used for subtraction). grammar
More
We can also use 足す on its own, for such obvious things as: grammar
Particles
にじゅうえん た
Counters
二十円 を足せば、ちょうどにする。 and counting
"If (you) add 20 yen, that'll make it (a) round (number)." Language
patterns
Where ち ょ う ど is a nice little word meaning 'exact' or 'precise'. In this sentence, it is interpreted as "round number", Conjugation
because in the context of numbers, a precise number corresponds to a 'clean' number, which can either be a round number, or Schemes
a number without a decimal fraction. Set phrases
Glossary

§5.4.2.2 — Subtraction

ひ
For subtraction, 引く instead of 足す is used:
さんびゃく ごじゅうさん にひゃくよんじゅうなな
三百 引く 五十三 は 二百四十七 です。
"300 minus 53 is 247."
Liked this
§5.4.2.3 — Division book?
Buy the
author a beer
Division in Japanese is done in the same way as in western maths, but the phrasing is somewhat confusing if you don't pay (or coffee)!
attention: in western maths, the number that results from 3 × ⅕ is pronounced "three fifths". In Japanese, this 'factor, then
denominator' order is the reverse, so instead of saying "three fifths", in Japanese you say "five's three":
ごぶん さん
五分の 三 。
literally: "three five-parts"
"⅗"

This uses the genitive の to link 三, 3, as genitivally belonging to 五分, ⅕.

One thing to note here is that in this use, 分 is pronounced ぶん, and this is the reason why the counter series for minutes
has an oddity for three, where ふん becomes ぷん instead of ぶん: Preface
The syntax
kanji pronunciation meaning The kana
三分 さんぷん Three minutes The basics --
Writing the
kana --
三分 さんぶん A third Pronouncing
Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
§5.4.2.4 — Multiplication differences --
Writing
ばい
spoken
A final simple operation is multiplication, which uses the noun 倍 . This is actually a rather interesting word, because on its Japanese
own it means "two fold", such as in for instance: Katakana
specific --
もんだい
Punctuation
問題 が倍になった。 and writing --
"(Our) problems doubled." Kanji
Types of Kanji -
Interestingly, this noun can also be used in combination with other numbers (except of course the number 1) to indicate any -
random multiplication: Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
ごばい しち さんじゅうご furigana --
五倍の 七 は 三十五 です。 Reading quirks:
compound
"7 times 5 is 35." words --
Looking up
kanji --
Here, the literal statement is "the five-fold of seven is 35". Styles --
Words and
This is basic multiplication, but there's also another word that's used for the x-fold for one through ten involving the counter word classes
重, which is pronounced in various different ways this role:
Articles --

一重 二重 三重 四重 五重 六重
Verbs --
Nouns --
Pronouns --
ひとえ ふたえ みえ x いつえ x Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
Adverbs --
いちじゅう にじゅう さんじゅう しじゅう ごじゅう ろくじゅう Particles --
Prefixes --
七重 八重 九重 十重 幾重 Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Compound
ななえ やえ ここのえ とえ いくえ words --

しちじゅう くじゅう Sentence

structure
きゅうちょう Word order --
Emphasis --

You may have noticed that this is perhaps the most bizarre counter series the language has; the counter has three different Pitch and
accents
possible readings, has a mix of possible native Japanese and Chinese readings for the numbers, and the native reading used
for 10 is very rare one, not to mention the question word uses 幾 instead of 何. Gender roles
Context
Needless to say, this counter series is "special". In fact, it's so special that it's a mainly literary counter for "-fold", where it language
depends on the context which reading is used. In eloquent language, え is more likely, and in technical literature, じゅう Verb
grammar
will be used more.
More
grammar
§5.4.3 — More advanced mathematics Particles
Counters
While there are many topics that we could treat here, this isn't a book on mathematics in Japanese. Treating all mathematical and counting
topics would take up too many pages, and would for the most part be rather boring. Instead, we'll look at two more "simple", Language
patterns
but less basic, mathematical constructions before moving on to "real" language patterns.
Conjugation
Schemes
§5.4.3.1 — Squaring and cubing Set phrases
Glossary
へいほう りっぽう
There are two special words for squaring (x²) and cubing (x³), 平方 and 立方 , used to indicate squared and cubed units
respectively. For instance, when indicating something is 500 square kilometres, one would say:

500平方キロ(メートル)です。
"(It) is 500 square kilometres."

Or, if one wanted to say a particular vehicle has a 12 cubic meter interior, one could say:
なかみ
Liked this
中身は12立方メートルです。 book?
"The interior fits 12 cubic meters." Buy the
author a beer
(or coffee)!
§5.4.3.2 — Raising to a power and taking roots

じょう
Going beyond squares or cubes, and raising numbers to an arbitrary power in Japanese uses the counter 乗 , and is used in
the following way:
しち さんじょう さんびゃくよんじゅうさん
七 の 三乗 は 三百四十三 です。
"7 to the power 3 is 343."

じ う ん
 じょうこん
The inverse of this operation is taking the root of some power, which is done with the "counter" 乗根 , which is just the
counter for raising power paired with the noun for 'root': Preface

よんじゅうきゅう にじょうこん しち
The syntax
四十九 の 二乗根 は 七 です。 The kana
"The square root of 49 is seven." The basics --
Writing the
kana --
And that's it, that's all the mathematics you will probably care to know how to work with, so let's leave the numbers as what Pronouncing
they are and move on to the next chapter, which deals with more general language patterns. Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
differences --
Chapter 6 — Language patterns Writing
spoken
Japanese
So far we've covered verbal grammar, particles, and counters, as well as a handful of related "handy words" that fill in some Katakana
of the gaps. However, that still leaves quite a number of constructions that you should be familiar with if you want to use specific --
Punctuation
Japanese to any serious degree, and so in this last chapter we will look at the rest of the useful Japanese that we still need to and writing --
cover. Kanji
Types of Kanji -
In this chapter, we'll look at how to draw comparisons between things, making choices, indicating possibilities, talking about -
trying things and having things done, how to nominalise statements so that we can talk about them objectively (not an Writing Kanji --
unimportant trick!) and the exceedingly important rules for the core of true Japanese social language patterns: giving and Reading kanji:
furigana --
receiving, and humble and honorific speech. Reading quirks:
compound
words --
Section 6-1 — Comparisons, preferences and choice Looking up
kanji --
Styles --
Comparing and choosing are two very related subjects. Making a choice is essentially the same as making a subjective Words and
comparison, where one thing is more favourable than the other. In Japanese we see two types of choices: the binary choice, word classes
and the open choice. Articles --
Verbs --
Nouns --
§6.1.1 — Binary choices Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
The binary choice is simply a choice between two things. One's preference can swing one way or the other, or one can Adverbs --
ほう Particles --
indicate that either choice is fine, or both are to be rejected. This binary choice concept in Japanese uses the word 方 , Prefixes --
literally "direction", in the following questioning pattern: Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Compound
[X]と[Y]と、どちら(どっち)の方が(some judgement call)ですか。 words --

"Which is more (something); X, or Y?" Sentence

structure
Note that this uses a two item, inclusive list, with either two と particles, or a comma after the second choice item (though Word order --
Emphasis --
typically commas are avoided). Because of the use of どちらの方 or どっちの方 (the first being more formal than the Pitch and
second) this pattern literally asks "A and B; which direction is [more] [something]?" and can be applied to virtually accents
anything: Gender roles
す Context
バーガーとチキンサンドとどちらの方が好きですか。 language
"Which do (you) like best, hamburgers or chicken sandwiches?" Verb
でんしゃ はや
grammar
電車 とバスとどちらの方が 速 いですか。 More
grammar
"Which is faster? The train or the bus?"
Particles
Remember that adjectives in Japanese act both as attributives as well as comparatives, so the translation for the last line Counters
and counting
could also be "which one is fast, the train or the bus?", but it is far more likely that the speaker means "which one is faster?"
Language
because of the fact that a choice is being used in the question. patterns
Conjugation
There is always the possibility that the answer to this question is "both" or "neither", which use the same words in Japanese: Schemes
どちらも, or the more colloquial どっちも followed by a positive or negative evaluation (recall this from the section on Set phrases
りょうほう
interrogatives paired with も), or alternatively the noun 両方 meaning "either [option]" suffixed with も: Glossary

おんがく
A: 音楽 のジャズとクラシックとどちらの方が好きですか。
B: どちらも好きです。
べつ
C: どっちも 別 に好きじゃないよ。
りょうほう わ
D: 両方 も分かりません。
A: "Which music do you like best, jazz or classical?"
B: "I like either." Liked this
C: "I don't particularly like either." book?
D: "I don't (really) know either of the two." Buy the
author a beer
(or coffee)!
§6.1.2 — Open choices
If you want to have a larger collection of items to choose from, or you want to ask a categorical choice, then 方 cannot be
なか
used. Instead, a choice pattern involving ... の 中 で, meaning "from amongst ..." must be used. This pattern can be used for
anything, such as specific lists of items, or just categorical nouns asking the person who is offered the choice to pick
something that falls into the category. For instance:
おんがく なに す
A: 音楽 の中で 何 が好きですか。
B: そうですね。ジャズが好きです。
 A: "Music-wise, what do you like?" (literally: "from music, what do you like?")
B: "Hmm. I like jazz."
Preface
This is an example of a categorical choice where the respondent actually gives a specific answer. Questions like "What food The syntax
do you like?" and "Which cars are fast?" fit this pattern. The kana
The basics --
There is an exception to using this pattern which involves open choices for locations, such as "Which cities in Europe have Writing the
kana --
you been to?": as で is already a marker for location, the の中 part is dropped when asking location questions: Pronouncing
Japanese --
とし い こと Hiragana and
ヨーロッパでどんな都市に行った 事 がありますか。 katakana
differences --
"Which cities in Europe have you been to?"
Writing
spoken
Again, it might be that none of the choices are good, or that they're all equally fine. Instead of using どちらも, どっちも or Japanese
りょうほう
両方 も, 何も or 何でも are used for this particular pattern, to indicate "everything" or "nothing", depending on the verb Katakana
specific --
form that follows being positive or negative: Punctuation
and writing --
た もの なに おい おも
A: 食べ 物 の中で 何 が美味しいと 思 いますか。 Kanji
とく おも Types of Kanji -
B: 特 に何も美味しくないと 思 う。 -
なん Writing Kanji --
C: 何 でも美味しいよ。 Reading kanji:
furigana --
A: "Which foods are tasty?" Reading quirks:
compound
B: "I don't think there's anything particularly tasty about food." words --
C: "Everything's tasty!" Looking up
kanji --
Styles --
§6.1.3 — Comparison through likeness, and impressions Words and
word classes
Closely related to choices is the concept of comparing things. After all, if you cannot make comparisons, you cannot Articles --
determine preference. There are quite a number of ways in which to compare things in Japanese, with varying degree of Verbs --
Nouns --
strength in the comparison, and varying nuance in the exact way the likeness (or contrast) works. You have already seen Pronouns --
よう
Nominalisers --
some ways in which to do this, such as そう and 様 in the verb and particles sections, but there are quite a few more, which Adjectives --
we will now look at. Adverbs --
Particles --
Prefixes --

§6.1.3.1 — そう — Weak impression ( 連用形, 語幹), second hand information (連体形) Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Compound
words --

The noun adjective そう (a こそあど word) paired with a verb in 連用形 or a verbal adjective's stem, is used to create the Sentence
structure
construction of "appearing to be (at the point of) ..." or "seems to be ... (to the speaker)". And example of this using a verb
Word order --
is: Emphasis --
しごと でき Pitch and
仕事が出来そうですね。 accents
"It looks like (you)'ll be able to perform this job." Gender roles
Context
And examples of using verbal adjectives are: language
あたた Verb
温 かそうです。 grammar
"It seems warm." More
grammar
はや くるま
速 そうな 車 。 Particles
"A fast looking car." Counters
and counting
Language
For いい and ない, this construction is slightly different. Rather than よそう (remember that いい is just the alternative 連 patterns
体形 for よい) and なそう, these two adjectives become よさそう and なさそう respectively. Conjugation
Schemes
Set phrases
Note that this "そう as likeness" only works with verbs in 連用形, and verbal adjective stems. そう can also be used in
Glossary
combination with verbal 連 体 形 , but then it means something quite different: rather than indicating impression, this
combination indicates second hand information:
しごと でき
仕事が出来るそうです。
"I heard you'd be able to perform this job."
あたた
温 かいそうです。
"They say it's warm."
はや くるま
速 いそうな 車 。 Liked this
book?
"They say that's a fast car."
Buy the
author a beer
This kind of second hand information is also called "hearsay", although this term should not be taken too literally; it equally (or coffee)!
applies to second hand information from reading a book or watching a documentary on television, not just having been told
something. As long as it's strictly speaking unverified information, it counts as hearsay.

For nouns, a fully qualified statement involving the plain copula is used:

先生だそうです。
"I heard he's a teacher."

§6.1.3.2 — 様 — Strong impression, manner, having the appearance of

よう
To explain this word, we must briefly look at classical Japanese, in which the noun 様 , pronounced さ ま , was used to
くろう さま ちそう さま
indicate a "seemingness", which we still see in expressions such as ご 苦労 様 or ご 馳走 様 . These mean, respectively, Preface
"having the appearance of being a hardship" and "having the appearance of being a feast". This meaning is preserved in The syntax
modern Japanese through the use of 様 still, but read as よう. The kana
The basics --
Writing the
This noun adjective combines with 連 体 形 to create a conceptual likeness, relating two manners or behaviours to each kana --
other: Pronouncing
Japanese --
き くだ Hiragana and
聞かないようにして 下 さい。 katakana
differences --
connotes: "Please go about your business in a manner that makes it appear as if you didn't hear that."
Writing
meaning: "Please act like you didn't hear that."
spoken
Japanese
A special use of this likeness adverb is with the こそあど series この, その, あの and どの, with which it sets up an Katakana
explicit "manner" indicator: specific --
Punctuation
and writing --
このように - in this manner Kanji
そのように - in that manner Types of Kanji -
あのように - in that manner like so Writing Kanji --
-

どのように - in which manner Reading kanji:

furigana --
Reading quirks:
Very similar in meaning to the こう, そう, ああ and どう series, the decision of whether to use こう or このよう (or そ-, compound
words --
あ- and ど- equivalents) is mostly decided by what one's intention is. When you need to be instructive, or want to highlight Looking up
kanji --
a specific act and the performing of it, こう is used. If one instead wants to illustrate or describe, このように (etc.) is used. Styles --
As such, both of the following sentences are possible: Words and
word classes
はし つか
Articles --
お 箸 はこう 使 います。 Verbs --
"This is how (you) use chopsticks." Nouns --
Pronouns --
はし つか
Nominalisers --
お 箸 はこのように 使 います。 Adjectives --
"This is how (you) use chopsticks." Adverbs --
Particles --
Prefixes --
However, the first sentence is instructive (telling us what to do), whereas the second sentence is illustrative of a process, not Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
so much telling us what to do, but telling us how things are. To highlight the difference, imagine that some instructor says お Compound
箸はこう使います, and then picks up a pair of chopsticks to demonstrate how to hold them, and how to pick things up. For words --

the second sentence, the instructor has already demonstrated how to hold them, and is in the middle of showing how to pick Sentence
structure
things up with them when he says お箸はこのように使います. In the first setting, the sentence acts as a set-up for the
Word order --
actual process, whereas in the second setting, the sentence summarises what's already going on. Emphasis --
Pitch and
This also means that このように (etc.) can be used in certain situations where こう (etc.) do not make sense, such as in accents
purely illustrative settings. Gender roles
Context
language
様 + に + する/なる
よう
§6.1.3.2.1 — Verb
grammar
More
よう can also be used in the special combination 連体形 + ように + する. This construction literally translates to "Doing, grammar
Particles
in a way that is akin to ...", which is a bit cryptic, so an example to demonstrate the use:
Counters
でんわ and counting
電話をかけるようにする。 Language
literally: "(I) will do (something), in a way that is akin to telephoning". patterns
meaning: "(I) will try to call (you)" Conjugation
Schemes
However, do not confuse this —ように+する with —ように+なる, which indicates something ending up like something Set phrases
Glossary
else, rather than trying to do something:

電話をかけるようにした。
"(I) tried to (make sure to) call (you)"
電話をかけるようになった。
"(I) ended up calling (you)"

§6.1.3.3 — 風 — Manner, style

ふう

Liked this
book?
Buy the
The noun adjective 風 , like 様 , likens something to a particular manner. It closely translates to 'way', or 'style', and this author a beer
とうせいふう りょうふう
(or coffee)!
meaning is evident in words like 当世風 meaning "modern" ('the now-a-day style') or 良風 , "good customs" ('good
style'). A special set of words with this likeness adverb is its combination with the こそあど series こんな (etc.):

こんな風に - in this way/style

そんな風に - in that way/style
あんな風に - in that way/style like that
どんな風に - in which way/style
This combination is used when one wants to focus specifically on a way something is (or has been) done. It is, effectively, a
rhetorical adverb, qualifying a verb action with itself. That may sound a bit cryptic, so an example:
Preface
い でき The syntax
そんな風に言われても、出来ないものは出来ないだろう。
The kana
literally: "Even by talking (to me) in that fashion, things that cannot be done, cannot be done."
The basics --
meaning: "Ask (me) any way (you) want, (I) cannot do what (I) cannot do." Writing the
kana --
In this sentence, the そ ん な 風 に 言 わ れ て も highlights the way something was said, without saying what this way is, Pronouncing
Japanese --
instead relying on the listener to know "in which way" the verb action occurred. Hiragana and
katakana
differences --
§6.1.3.4 — らしい — Strong impression based on secondary information Writing
spoken
Japanese
Similar to likening something to something else, impressions are one's own projections of likeness onto something. For Katakana
instance, if we have the impression something is tall, then we can also describe it as "being like something that is tall". As specific --
Punctuation
such, impression words are also quite important to know. and writing --
Kanji
When we have an impression of something based on secondary information, or indirect observation, we can use the verbal
Types of Kanji -
adjective らしい to indicate this, by using it in combination with verbal 連体形, or following a noun phrase: -
Writing Kanji --
ほん やまだ くん Reading kanji:
この 本 は山田 君 のらしい(です)。 furigana --
Reading quirks:
It seems that this book is Yamada's. compound
words --
Looking up
In addition to this, らしい can be used to indicate that something generates a certain impression: kanji --
Styles --
い かた きむら
その言い 方 は、木村さんらしいですね。 Words and
word classes
literally: "That way of speaking (plus what was said), is just like (what) Kimura (would use)."
Articles --
meaning: "That's so like Kimura." Verbs --
Nouns --
There are two possible situations here. If we are dealing with someone other than Kimura saying something, then the Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
commenter's use of ら し い indicates that they are reminded of how Kimura would talk or behave in that situation. Of Adjectives --
Adverbs --
course, if Kimura herself was the one talking, then the use of らしい indicates that this fits Kimura's expected behavioural Particles --
pattern. Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Compound
§6.1.3.5 — みたい — Strong impression based on direct observation words --
Sentence
structure
When commenting on an impression based on direct observation, the noun adjective みたい is used after 連体形 clauses, as Word order --
well as noun phrases: Emphasis --
Pitch and
つか
accents
疲 れてるみたいですね。
Gender roles
"(He) looks likes (he)'s tired, doesn't (he)."
Context
language
Because みたい is a noun adjective, it can also be used to form (complex) attributive phrases:
Verb
かた grammar
硬 い先生です。 More
"(He is a) strict teacher." grammar
Particles
硬いみたいな先生です。 Counters
"(He is a) teacher who looks like (he)'s strict." and counting
Language
よう
patterns
みたい is very similar to らしい and 様 .
Conjugation
Schemes

§6.1.3.6 — ～的 — Likeness adverbs

てき Set phrases
Glossary

This is a noun adjective that is used primarily as a noun suffix, to create "-ly", "-al", or "-ive" nouns for comparisons, such
as:

adjective meaning from noun meaning

きほんてき
基本的 "basically" 基本 "basis".
じっさいてき
実際的 "practical" 実際 "the way things are now".
しゅたいてき Liked this
主体的 "subjective" 主体 "subject", "constituent". book?
Buy the
author a beer
These comparative nouns are used like normal noun adjectives for comparisons: (or coffee)!

基本的につまらないでしょう。
"It would basically be uninteresting."

§6.1.3.7 — っぽい — Traits, general likeness

This noun suffix is comparable to the English suffix "-ish":

き おと
 きみこ おとこ
君子さんって、 男 っぽいですよね。
"Kimiko's kind of a tomboy, isn't she?" Preface
The syntax
This sentence literally reads "Kimiko's mannish, don't you think?"
The kana
This suffix also works to indicate traits in something: The basics --
Writing the
kana --
りょうり おも
Pronouncing
この 料理 がフランスっぽいと 思 わない？ Japanese --
"Don't you think this food tastes kind of French?" Hiragana and
katakana
differences --
This sentence literally reads "Don't you think this food is French(ish)?"
Writing
spoken

§6.1.3.8 — 同 じ — Identical (in some way)

おな Japanese
Katakana
specific --
Punctuation
The adjective 同じ is actually an odd word, a remnant of the classical Japanese 同じき, not quite fitting in the modern and writing --

verbal adjective class, nor quite fitting in the noun adjective class. Using the construction [X]と同じです is the strongest Kanji
Types of Kanji -
possible comparison that can be made, as it doesn't so much liken two (or more) things to each other, but explicitly claims -
they are identical in some way. Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
へや となり furigana --
この部屋は 隣 のと同じです。 Reading quirks:
compound
"This room is the same as the neighbouring one." words --
Looking up
While this is a noun adjective, rather than using 同じ + に when we want to use it adverbially, we use the verbal adjective kanji --
Styles --
adverbial form: 同じく: Words and
word classes
だいがく にねんせい いしだ
A: 大学 の二年生の石田です。 Articles --
Verbs --
うえまつ
Nouns --
B: 同じく、 植松 です。 Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
A: "I am Ishida, 2nd year university student." Adjectives --
B: "I am Uematsu, also a 2nd year university student." Adverbs --
Particles --
Prefixes --
Of course, B literally says "I am Uematsu, the same", but unlike in for instance English, it is not impolite in Japanese to omit Onomatopoeia
this contextually already present information, since Japanese is a language in which context is presumed to remain known and mimesis --
Compound
throughout a conversation. words --
Sentence
Basically all you have to remember is that for all intents and purposes, 同じ is the noun and 同じく the adverb. If you can structure
remember that, you should be fine. Word order --
Emphasis --

§6.1.3.9 — 勝ち — Prone
が Pitch and
accents
Gender roles
Context
Closely related to likeness, the noun adjective が ち is used to compare something in the "prone to" way. While a noun
language
adjective, there are some instances where がち can be used with の, rather than with the 連体形 for だ, な, as well: Verb
grammar
いもうと びょうき ひと
妹 が 病気 がちの 人 です。 More
grammar
"My (younger) sister is someone who's prone to illness."
Particles
Counters
However, there are no clear rules on when one can use の, so typically it's best to stick with using がち as a normal noun and counting
adjective, using な. Language
patterns
For verbs and verbal adjectives, this suffix is added to the 連用形: Conjugation
Schemes
とけい すす Set phrases
この時計は 進 みがちです。 Glossary
"This clock tends to run fast."

§6.1.3.10 — 似る — Resemblance
に

A final way to indicate likeness is by using the verb 似る meaning "to resemble" or "to be similar". Typically used in - てい
る form, this verb is used in combination with the particles と or に, where the choice of particle determines the nuance of
likeness. Using と makes the statement describe near-exact likeness:
Liked this
かんが わたし
book?
その 考 えは 私 のと似ています。 Buy the
author a beer
"Those ideas are like the ones I had." (or coffee)!
きん いろ しんちゅう
金 は 色 が 真鍮 と似ている。
"The colour of gold is (sort of) the same as brass."

Using に , on the other hand, makes the statement describe general likeness, or a likeness in a particular (but unspecific)
way:
ははおや よ
母親 に良く似ている。
"(She) really takes after (her) mother."

やま
 やま
その 山 はアヒルに似てる、なぁ。
"That mountain (kind of) resembles a duck, doesn't it?" Preface
The syntax
§6.1.4 — Discussing possibilities The kana
The basics --
Related to choices, comparisons and likeness, there is the subject of possibilities. In English, we can indicate possibility in a Writing the
kana --
variety of ways; things "may" or "might" be, "can" or "could" be, they're possible, likely, unlikely, or even "stand a chance to Pronouncing
be". In Japanese, too, there are a number of useful ways to describe possibilities, which we shall look at in this section. Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana

§6.1.4.1 — かも 知れない — May or may not

し differences --
Writing
spoken
し
Japanese
The first, and probably most used, is the construction かも 知 れない. This construction technically consists of the particles Katakana
specific --
か and も, followed by the negative short potential of 知る, to know, or be informed; 知れない. This construction translates Punctuation
to "it could be that ...", implying that the speaker doesn't actually know, but is not ruling out that something could be the and writing --
case. Kanji
Types of Kanji -
い い
-
A: 行かないと言っただろう。 Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
B: まあ、そう言ったかもしれません。 furigana --
Reading quirks:
A: "Didn't he say he wasn't coming?" compound
B: "He might have said something like that." words --
Looking up
kanji --
As can be seen from the previous example, かもしれない can also be used as かもしれません — they're just different Styles --

politeness levels. Further alternatives are the highly colloquial かも知れん, and just the particles, かも: Words and
word classes
いしだ お Articles --
A: 石田さん、めがねを落としたか。 Verbs --
す Nouns --
B: 捨てたかも、な。 Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
A: "Did Ishida lose his glasses?" Adjectives --
Adverbs --
B: "Maybe he (actually) threw them away." Particles --
Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia

§6.1.4.2 — 多分 — Probably
たぶん
and mimesis --
Compound
words --
Sentence
When a speaker suspects something to be the case, but they're not 100% certain, they will use 多分 to indicate this. Looking structure
at just the kanji, the word literally reads "great part", and that's pretty much what it means, too. Word order --
Emphasis --
き なつやす おおさか
まだ決めてないんだが、 夏休 みは多分、 大阪 になる。 Pitch and
accents
"We've not quite decided yet, but we'll probably head off to Osaka for the summer."
Gender roles

可能性 — Possibility of
かのうせい Context
§6.1.4.3 — language
Verb
grammar
You can, of course, also be more literal when talking about the possibility of something, by using the actual noun for
かのうせい More
"possibility", 可能性 (often also used to refer to an available "option"). Usually this is paired with the verb ある, to indicate grammar
Particles
that the speaker believes there is the possibility of something, in a way that is more literal than using かも知れない.
Counters
じばく き
and counting
自爆する可能性があるから、気をつけて。 Language
patterns
"Now, this thing might self-detonate, so be careful."
Conjugation
Schemes
Of course, 可能性 can also be used with negative statements, usually involving ない:
Set phrases
しっぱい Glossary
失敗 する可能性でもありません。
"There's not even the possibility of failing."

§6.1.5 — Discussing certainty

In addition to objective possibilities, there's also the more subjective idea of certainty. There are a number of words that
express this more subjective kind of "possibility", which deserve just as much mention as the previous set of words.

Liked this
§6.1.5.1 — きっと — Surely book?
Buy the
author a beer
When a speaker is hopeful that something is the case, き っ と can be used. Associated with a positive kind of wishful (or coffee)!
thinking, it is typically translated as "surely":
く
きっと来るんだよ。
"I am sure (they)'ll show up!"

In this sentence, the speaker can either be confident, or can be hoping strongly for the outcome they are talking about, even
if there's the possibility that this will not be the case.

§6.1.5.2 — 必 ず — Certainly
かなら
When a speaker is positively certain of something, then 必 ず can be used, which translates to "necessarily" or, more in
keeping with the ず negative it really is, "without fail": Preface
The syntax
く
必ず来るんだ。 The kana
"(They)'re certain to show up." The basics --
Writing the
kana --
In this sentence, the speaker is highly confident in the outcome, even if their certainty is based purely on subjective Pronouncing
information. Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
differences --
§6.1.5.3 — Uncertainty — [X]かどうか[Y]
Writing
spoken
Japanese
Finally, there will be times when you are not so much certain, but actually uncertain about whether or not something is the
Katakana
case, or will happen. For this, we can use a construction we already saw in the particle section on か, namely [X]かどうか specific --
わ
Punctuation
分かりません: and writing --

ことし お わ
Kanji
今年は落とすかどうか分かりません。 Types of Kanji -
-
"I don't know whether or not I'll make this year's grade." Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
The way this is formed is very simple. The clause about which uncertainty is to be expressed is followed by かどうか, furigana --
Reading quirks:
which is basically the double question mentioned in the particle section for か, creating (essentially literally) "[clause] or compound
words --
what?" The final verb then comments on the fact that it's not clear which of the two choices are actually to be picked. Looking up
kanji --
Styles --
今年は落とす。
Words and
"(I) will fail this year." word classes
今年は落とすかどうか。 Articles --
Verbs --
"Will (you) fail this year or...?" Nouns --
Pronouns --
今年は落とすかどうか分かりません。 Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
"(I) don't know whether (I) will fail this year or not." Adverbs --
Particles --
Prefixes --
Section 6-2 — Nominalising Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Compound
Nominalisers are those words that turn words that aren't nouns, or entire phrases, specifically into noun phrases, so that they words --
can be used in larger sentences as topics, subjects, direct objects or what have you. We have already seen some nominalisers Sentence
structure
in the particle section (such as の, もの and こと), and these will be further explained in their roles as nominalisers in this
Word order --
section. It should be noted that most nominalisers require specific particles to follow them in order to work the way they do, Emphasis --
so when studying nominalisers, don't just study the words, but also remember which nominalisers take which particles.
Pitch and
accents
§6.2.1 — Back referral, using の Gender roles
Context
language
The simplest nominaliser is just the nominalising の. This turns any clause that precedes it into a back referral to something
Verb
either previously mentioned, or previously established as the topic somehow. Say we have the following sentence: grammar
びじゅつかん み い More
美術館 を見に行く。 grammar
"Going to an art gallery." Particles
Counters
and counting
We can nominalise this sentence into a back referral using の by appending it to this sentence:
Language
patterns
美術館を見に行くの Conjugation
Schemes
This has no direct translation on its own, but requires a bigger context to operate in; on its own it can mean anything that can Set phrases
be approximated with "the [going to the art gallery]". Only when used in a bigger sentence will this noun clause really make Glossary
sense:
たの
美術館を見に行くのが 楽 しかった。
"Going to (the) art gallery (today) was fun."

Here, the noun phrase has been turned into a back referral to something that happened.

§6.2.2 — Abstract conceptualisation, using 事

こと

Liked this
book?
The noun こと is used to turn clauses into an abstract thought, rather than the actual thing. For instance: Buy the
author a beer
べんきょう い こと かんが (or coffee)!
勉強 しにアメリカに行く 事 がまだよく 考 えていません。
"(I) have not yet seriously considered whether or not to go to America to study."

Here, the clause 勉強しにアメリカに行く, "to go to America to study", has been turned into an abstract idea, about which
the comment "I have not yet really thought about it" is made.

Another example of the use of こと can be seen in the following example:

わたし い なに つ くわ
私 の言った事に 何 か付け 加 える事はありませんか。
 "Would (you) like to add anything to what (I)'ve said?"
Preface
In this sentence, there are two abstractions going on: one is the abstraction of 言った, "said", to 言った事 , "the thing that
The syntax
was said", and the second from 付け加える, "to add" (a compound verb coming from 付ける, "to attach", and 加える, "to
The kana
add"), to 付け加える事, "(a) thing to add". The basics --
Writing the
kana --
It should be noted that these are genuine abstractions; 言ったこと does not only refer to the actually spoken words, but also Pronouncing
Japanese --
the thoughts that they stood for, and 付け加える likewise stands not just for words, but for thoughts that can be added to the Hiragana and
already existent thoughts on whatever was being discussed. katakana
differences --
This plain past tense + 事 is also used to ask whether or not someone has experience with something, in the pattern [plain Writing
spoken
past tense] + 事がある: Japanese
Katakana
フランスに行った事がありますか。 specific --
Punctuation
"Have (you) ever been to France?" and writing --
Kanji
This sentence differs significantly from the direct question:
Types of Kanji -
-
ランスに行きましたか。 Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
"Did you go to France?" furigana --
Reading quirks:
This direct question implies a context in which someone has gone somewhere, and you're asking them where they went. compound
words --
Instead, by using 事, the concept of "having been to France" is turned into a generalised abstract concept. Rather than the Looking up
specific "having been to France (when you went on your trip)", the question is now about "having been to France", in kanji --
general. Styles --
Words and

物
もの word classes
§6.2.3 — Real conceptualisation, using Articles --
Verbs --
Nouns --
As mentioned in the outline, 物, often written as もの, conceptualises real, but not necessarily tangible, things. For instance, Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
the following sentence is about a very intangible, but very real thing: Adjectives --
Adverbs --
ひみつ かく Particles --
いつまでもその秘密を 隠 しておけるものじゃないよ。 Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
"(You) can't keep that secret hidden forever." and mimesis --
Compound
words --
Here, 秘密を隠しておける, "to be able to keep a secret a secret" is conceptualised using もの to form 秘密を隠しておけ
Sentence
るもの, which translates to "that which is 'being able to keep a secret a secret'". This is different from an abstraction using structure
こと (事): Word order --
Emphasis --
Pitch and
秘密を隠しておけること
accents
The concept 'being able to keep a secret a secret'
Gender roles
いつまでも秘密を隠しておけること Context
The concept 'being able to keep a secret a secret forever' language
Verb
This concept can be talked about as, for instance, 'being hard' or 'being impossible', or even 'is unnatural'. However, using も grammar
More
の such as in: grammar
Particles
秘密を隠しておけるもの Counters
That which is 'being able to keep a secret a secret' and counting
Language
or patterns
Conjugation
Schemes
いつまでも秘密を隠しておけるもの
Set phrases
That which is 'being able to keep a secret a secret forever' Glossary

only lets use say that it exists or not, and that's roughly all it allows us to say; the concept of being able to keep a secret
hidden from the rest of the world is something abstract, while the actual act of being able to keep some secret hidden is
concrete. For the abstract idea, こと is used. For the concrete event, もの is used.

§6.2.4 — Illustrating a circumstance, case or occasion, using 場合

ばあい

When you want to illustrate an occasion, circumstance or situation, you use the nominaliser ば あ い , which is typically
Liked this
followed by the particle に to indicate point in time. Used as a noun on its own, 場合 has these same meanings: book?
Buy the
ちが author a beer
場合によって 違 います。 (or coffee)!
literally: "It is different depending on circumstances"
meaning: "It depends on the circumstances."

Used as a nominaliser, it turns the preceding part into a circumstance, which can be commented on, by connecting it to either
a noun phrase using の, or directly to verbal 連体形:
きみ れいがい
君 の場合には 例外 とする。
"(We)'ll consider your case an exception."
In this sentence, the clause 君, a personal pronoun meaning "you", has been paired with 場合 to create "your circumstance",
about which a comment is made. 場合 can of course also be used for verb phrases, in which case it follows the 連体形: Preface
かね た ばあい ともだち か The syntax
お 金 が足りない場合には 友達 から借ります。
The kana
"In case (I) don't have enough money, (I)'ll borrow it off (my) friends."
The basics --
Writing the
In this sentence, the clause お 金 が 足 り な い , "(I) do not have enough (sufficient) money", has been turned into a kana --
Pronouncing
circumstance, with a comment concerning that circumstance, should it arise. Japanese --
Hiragana and

次第
しだい katakana
differences --
§6.2.5 — Indicating a moment of opportunity, using Writing
spoken
つぎ だい
Japanese
If we look at the kanji form of this nominaliser we see 次 , meaning "next", and 第 meaning "number" or "instance". The
Katakana
combination 次第 means "when [some event], [something else]". For instance: specific --
Punctuation
み し くだ and writing --
見つけ次第知らせて 下 さい。 Kanji
"Please let (me) know the moment (you) find out"
Types of Kanji -
れんようけい -
This sentence turns the clause 見つけ, the 連用形 for 見つける, "to discover/find out", into a moment of opportunity Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
should it occur, where the action to then take is to let someone know of this discovery. furigana --
Reading quirks:
れんたいけい compound
In this use, 次第 follows verbs in 連用形. It can also come after 連体形 forms, but when used this way, the meaning of 次 words --
Looking up
第 is the same as that of わけ (訳), treated later on. kanji --
Styles --
Words and
When paired with nouns 次第, often also found written as しだい, tends to be translated as a "dependence on": word classes
ねだん か Articles --
値段しだいで買います。 Verbs --
Nouns --
"I'll buy it, depending on the price." Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
However, in this use there is no の between the noun and しだい. In fact, adding one will radically change the meaning of Adverbs --
the phrase, as the noun 次第 means "agenda" or "programme" : Particles --
Prefixes --
ねだん か
Onomatopoeia
値段のしだいで買います。
and mimesis --
Compound
"Due to the pricing programme (being the way it is), I'll buy it." words --
Sentence

§6.2.6 — Describing an occurrence, using 度

たび structure
Word order --
Emphasis --
Pitch and
If you want to describe something that occurs or can occur at times, then 度 , also often written as た び , lets you say
accents
something general about these occurrences. This is in part obvious because of the meaning of the kanji 度, which is typically
Gender roles
pronounced ど and meaning "... time", such as 一度, "one time" or 三度, "three times".
Context
language
ほしぞら み よる おも だ
星空 を見るたびに、あの 夜 のことを 思 い出す。 Verb
"Whenever (I) look up at a starry sky, (I) remember that (special) night." grammar
More
grammar
Here, the clause 星空を見る, "looking up at a starry sky" is presented as something that occurs with some frequency, and a
Particles
comment on what is associated to this occurrence is then given. 度 nominalises sentences in 連体形, and is followed by に, Counters
as it marks a time. and counting
Language

時
とき patterns
§6.2.7 — Indicating a specific time or event, using Conjugation
Schemes
Set phrases
時, also often written as just とき, means "time" on its own, which explains why it does what it does. This nominaliser can Glossary
be used either by itself or followed by に or は, and follows sentences in 連体形:
はじ にほん き じゅうはっさい
初 めて日本に来たときにまだ 十八歳 だった。
"When (I) first came to Japan, (I) was only 18."

Here the clause 日 本 に 来 た , "came to Japan" is modified with 初 め て , "for the first time", and turned into a specific
time/event using とき, after which a comment about this specific time/event is made.

Be careful when using 時 with present tense 連体形, because this will be interpreted as a general "every time ..." statement. Liked this
book?
く Buy the
日本に来る時はどきどきします。 author a beer
(or coffee)!
"Every time I come to Japan, I get excited."

The reason for this is that 時 needs to refer to some event, but there cannot be a specific event when using present tense, as
this describes either the present (in which case you would not refer back to it), or the immediate future (in which case, the
event wouldn't have even occurred yet). The only event, then, that 時 can refer to is the general event of whatever you're
describing. In the case of 日本に来る, this means the general event "coming to Japan", rather than some specific instance of
having come to Japan.

§6.2.8 — Stating an expectation, using 筈

はず
In English, which is the language this book is written in, there are two interpretations possible for "should": it can mean
"must", such as in "you should clean up your room", and it can mean "expect", such as in "she should be showing up any
Preface
minute now". In Japanese these are very different concepts, and for the second kind of "should", the nominaliser 筈 is used
The syntax
(often also written as just はず), marking expectation. It follows 連体形 and noun phrases:
The kana
きょう く The basics --
今日はみんなが来るはずなんだ。 Writing the
kana --
literally: "It should be that everyone will come today." Pronouncing
meaning: "Everyone should be coming today." Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
Here, the clause みんなが来る, "everyone will come", is turned into the expectancy that everyone will come, using はず. differences --
Writing
§6.2.9 — Stating a social expectation or custom, using べき spoken
Japanese
Katakana
Where はず is used to indicate the expecting "should", べき is used to indicate the somewhat imperative "should". Now, specific --
Punctuation
this is a genuinely strange word, unclassifiable using the modern Japanese word classes. and writing --
Kanji
It comes from べし (with a 連体形 form べき), an overloaded classical verb with "two" sets of conjugational bases; one for Types of Kanji -
-
べし, and one for the derived "verb" べかる, which is itself a contracted version of べくあり, in which the べく part comes Writing Kanji --
from べし... Basically, none of this is important to know in the slightest (unless you're also taking classical Japanese), as Reading kanji:
furigana --
long as you can remember its modern bases: Reading quirks:
compound
words --
classical べし classical べかり modern Looking up
kanji --
未然形 べから べから べから Styles --

連用形 べく べかり べく
Words and
word classes

終止形 べし × べし
Articles --
Verbs --

連体形 べき べかる べき
Nouns --
Pronouns --

已然形 べけれ × not used

Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Particles --
Prefixes --
In modern Japanese, this word is so curious that there's no real way to describe it. べき is used as a noun, with its inflections Onomatopoeia
being constructions using the copulae (だ, です, etc.), but its negative adverbial form can still be formed in the traditional 未 and mimesis --
Compound
然形+ず way, giving us べからず. This word, then, is actually a remnant of classical Japanese that defies modern word words --
Sentence
classes, so we're kind of left with exploring it as the need arises. In this case, as the nominaliser べき, where it turns phrases
structure
in 連体形 into a social expectation: Word order --
Emphasis --
きみ せきにん と
君 が 責任 を取るべきだったのだ。 Pitch and
accents
"You should have taken responsibility."
Gender roles
Here the clause 責 任 を 取 る , "to take responsibility", is illustrated as being something that is socially expected from Context
language
someone in whichever context this phrase was said in. Sometimes this social expectation is a given, or common sense, but
sometimes the expectation is very context dependent, such as: Verb
grammar
まじめ えいご べんきょう More
真面目に英語を 勉強 すべきです。 grammar
"(You) should study English seriously." Particles
Counters
Here the clause 真面目に英語を勉強する, "to study English seriously", is turned into a social expectation because of the and counting
behaviour of whoever it is said to right now. Probably, they are goofing off, while a "proper" person would be studying hard Language
patterns
in order to meet the social standards.
Conjugation
Schemes
This sentence also shows a special contraction when using べき with する, in that it turns into すべき instead of するべき Set phrases
as expected. Glossary

Like だ, べき has both a 終止形 and a 連体形, and this should make it reasonably obvious when to use which: if you're
ending your sentence on it, べし must be used. If, on the other hand, you're using it as an attributive, then べき must be
used.

Truly, there is nothing simple, or ordinary, about this word.

§6.2.10 — Indicating a moment in time, using 所

ところ

Liked this
book?
This word takes a clause and turns it into a nominalisation representing a point in space time. For instance: Buy the
author a beer
しき はじ
(or coffee)!
もうすぐ 式 が 始 まるところだ。
"The ceremony will start soon."

This sentence literally says "We will soon be at the point where the ceremony starts".
かれし ともだち こ
彼氏といるところに、 友達 に来られた。
"Just as (I) was (together) with my boyfriend, (I) was imposed upon by a friend."

This sentence literally says "at the point of being with my boyfriend, I was ...". While ところ on its own means "place", and
can be followed by several particles, as a nominaliser it is typically followed by either に or で, depending on whether the
 こ
focus of the sentence has to do with the place or time, or with the event that occurs. Also note the use of 来 られる, which
should be interpreted as a "passive form of bother" here. Preface
The syntax

§6.2.11 — Stating an intention, using 積もり

つ
The kana
The basics --
Writing the
Derived from the verb 積もる, "to intend", the nominaliser つもり turns a 連体形 clause into an intention: kana --
Pronouncing
Japanese --
きょう わかやま い Hiragana and
今日和歌山まで行くつもりだ。 katakana
differences --
"(We) intend to go up to Wakayama today."
Writing
spoken
In this sentence, the clause 和 歌 山 ま で 行 く , which translates to "going up to Wakayama", is turned into an intention. Japanese
よてい
Notice that this nominaliser really only states intention. Planning, rather than intending, is indicated using the noun 予定, Katakana
specific --
"plan", instead. To indicate a negative intention, generally the statement "(I) don't have the intention to ..." is used: Punctuation
and writing --
かれ いっしょうけんめい はたら
もし 彼 が 一生懸命 働 くつもりがないなら、くびだ。 Kanji
"If he has no intention of giving it his all, he will be fired." Types of Kanji -
-
Writing Kanji --
Literally, this sentence reads "Should he have no intention to work hard, it'll be his head". Aside from this nice reference to Reading kanji:
how being fired was handled in the old days, it also shows how a negative intention is used. furigana --
Reading quirks:
compound

§6.2.12 — Stating a situational explanation, using 訳

わけ words --
Looking up
kanji --
Styles --
This nominaliser is somewhat interesting in that it is next to impossible (or often even necessary) to translate, because it Words and
denotes situational commentary. In English, we leave the situation outside our conversations, but in Japanese you can use word classes
this word to indicate you are directly commenting on the situation at hand, commenting on it in an explanatory or reasoning Articles --
manner. Verbs --
Nouns --
Pronouns --
Typically a translation works just fine with 訳 (also often written as just わ け ) left untranslated, but its presence in a Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
Japanese sentence makes quite a difference in terms of nuance: Adverbs --
Particles --
ゆうざい Prefixes --
A: まだ 有罪 にならなかった。 Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
B: まだ有罪になった訳ではない。 Compound
words --
A: "(He) has not been proven guilty yet."
Sentence
B: "(it's not as if he)'s been proven guilty yet." structure
Word order --
The first sentence states that some "he" hasn't been proven guilty yet, as a factoid. The second sentence, however, states the Emphasis --
same but does so in order to counter something that was said or was concluded that might imply the opposite. A good way to Pitch and
further illustrate this is by looking at a proper conversation: accents
いしだ くび Gender roles
A: 石田さんが 首 になったそうです。 Context
B: うん、首になった。 language
いっしょうけんめい はたら
Verb
A: もっと 一生懸命 に 働 いたら... grammar
い
B: いいえ、そう言うわけじゃないけど。 More
grammar
A: ならどうして？ Particles
かいしゃ せいさん ちょうえい すうにん かいこ
B: 会社 が 生産 調整 したから 数人 が解雇された。 Counters
and counting
A: "I heard Ishida got fired." Language
B: "Yeah, he did." patterns
A: "If only he'd worked harder..." Conjugation
B: "No, that's not the reason why." Schemes
A: "Then why?" Set phrases
B: "The company has cut back on production so several people were laid off." Glossary

In the fourth line, B literally says "no, the just-said (そう言う) is not the reason [for the situation we are talking about]". If
we were to omit the construction with 訳, instead using the negative form of 言う to form そう言わないけど, B would
instead be saying "However, (I) am not saying (that)", something rather different.

In fact, this use of 言う paired with 訳 is fairly standard, and indicates a description of the situational comment. Imagine a
situation where someone is being held accountable for low grades on their language courses, and they are asked to explain
why:
Liked this
べつ ごがく のうりょく きほんてき おも べんきょう book?
別 に語学に 能力 がないと言う訳ではないが......まあ、基本的につまらないだと 思 うから、 勉強 しません。 Buy the
"(Well,) It's not particularly because (I) don't have the brains to learn languages, but ...well, I just think it's boring, so I author a beer
don't study." (or coffee)!

Here‚ the situational comment is made in regards to a misunderstanding concerning the situation. The situational aspect that
is being commented on is described by と言う as being 語学に能力がない, and is commented on by what follows 訳, in
this case a simple negation, followed by an explicit correction of the assumed reason for failing a language course.

§6.2.13 — Describing a way, using 様

よう
We already dealt with よう in the section on comparison and likeness, in which we also touched on the subject that it can be
used to indicate ways in which things need to be done. We can nominalise sentences in 連体形 for use as subphrase: Preface
きょうかしょ も い くだ The syntax
教科書 を持ってくるように言って 下 さい。 The kana
"Please tell (her) to bring (her) textbook." The basics --
Writing the
kana --
Literally, よう in this sentence turns 教科書を持ってくる, "to bring (along) (one's) textbook", into a way some action may Pronouncing
be performed, and then qualifies the act of "saying" as this particular way, thus creating the (now somewhat elaborately Japanese --
Hiragana and
translated) statement "please tell her in such a way as to effect her bringing along her textbook". katakana
differences --
We also saw that よう can be used adverbially in combination with する to create a construction similar to "try to ...": Writing
spoken
じゅぎょう で Japanese
授業 に出るようにする。 Katakana
"To try to make it class." specific --
Punctuation
and writing --
In this sentence, the act of する, doing, is likened to the act of 授業に出る, to attend class. This in effect creates the phrase
Kanji
"To do in a manner that is like going to class" which is interpreted as "trying to go to class".
Types of Kanji -
-
Aside from nominalising verb phrases, よう is also used as manner-conceptualiser when paired with の, in the pattern [...]の Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
よう: furigana --
Reading quirks:
でんごん つぎ か compound
伝言 は 次 のように書いてある。 words --
Looking up
"The message reads as follows." kanji --
Styles --
Literally, this sentence turns the very short noun phrase 次 , meaning "next" or "following", into the manner 次 の よ う , Words and
word classes
meaning "as follows" or "like what follows", and qualifies 書いてある, "being written (by someone)" as being done in this
Articles --
"following" manner. Verbs --
Nouns --
Pronouns --
§6.2.14 — Indicating an exact manner, using まま Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Particles --
Unlike よう, まま actually specifies an exact manner. It takes a clause and specifies that what follows occurs in the exact Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
same fashion. It follows nouns, linked with の, or verbal 連体形: and mimesis --
Compound
つづ くだ words --
そのまま 続 いて 下 さい。 Sentence
"Please continue like that." structure
い とど かれ き Word order --
行くか 留 まるか 彼 の決めるままにさせよう。 Emphasis --
"(We)'ll let him go or stay as he decides to." Pitch and
accents
In this second sentence, 決める, "to decide", is turned into an exact way of decision, and linked to "him", (彼), to create "the Gender roles
way he decides (on something)", 彼の決めるまま. Note that while 決める is a verb, 決めるまま is, by the very role of ま Context
language
ま as nominaliser, a noun phrase, and thus can be used in a genitive の linking.
Verb
grammar
Another example, this time with a Japanese past tense that maps to an English present progressive, is: More
ぼうし きょうしつ はい
grammar
帽子をかぶったままで 教室 に 入 るべきじゃない。 Particles
"(One) shouldn't enter the classroom while wearing (their) hat/cap." Counters
and counting
The literal (though rather ungrammatical) translation of this sentence would be "in the manner of wearing one's cap, it is not Language
patterns
the social thing to enter a classroom".
Conjugation
Schemes

§6.2.15 — Stating purpose, using 為

ため
Set phrases
Glossary

When stating the purpose of a particular action, ため is used. This nominaliser takes a clause and links it up to a verb in the
pattern [clause](の)ために[verb], where の is used if the clause is a noun phrase, and is omitted when it's a verb phrase in
連体形:
そつぎょう いっしょうけんめい べんきょう
卒業 するために 一生懸命 勉強 します。
"(I) give studying (my) all so that (I) will graduate."

In this sentence, the purpose of 勉強する (to study) is 卒業する (to graduate). Another translation would be "in order to Liked this
book?
graduate, I give my all at studying", but the concept of purpose is the same in both translations. In pairings between a noun Buy the
and ため, the noun is typically a general concept noun, such as in: author a beer
(or coffee)!
あい なん
愛 のために 何 でもする。
"(I) will do anything for love."

In this sentence, the purpose of する is the noun 愛, giving rise to the obvious translation.

§6.2.16 — Indicating apparent behaviour, using 真似

まね
The noun まね literally means imitation, and it is typically used to indicate apparent (and insincere) behaviour. When an
observer knows that certain behaviour is not typical, or is uncertain about whether it is genuine, まね can be used to show Preface
they are not sure that what they are observing is sincere. This usually comes down to ま ね being used in qualitatively The syntax
negative (meaning it's the opposite of 'positive', rather than of 'affirmative') statements, implications or questions: The kana
The basics --
おとな まね
Writing the
大人の真似はやめるよ。 kana --
"Stop acting like an adult." Pronouncing
Japanese --
かのじょ な Hiragana and
彼女 はいつもいつも泣くまねをして、おかしいだよ。 katakana
differences --
"It's just weird (how) she always pretends to be upset (at the smallest things)."
Writing
spoken
Of course, it can also be used for blanket questions such as 何 の ま ね だ , which literally asks someone to explain their Japanese
behaviour, with the implication that the actions are perceived as not being sincere or genuine. Translations for this can vary Katakana
wildly, due to the fact that it refers to behaviour, but typical translations are "What do you think you are doing?" or "What's specific --
going on here?". Punctuation
and writing --

言 い Kanji
§6.2.17 — Talking about a 'something', using と う Types of Kanji -
-
Writing Kanji --
There is one last nominalising statement we need to look at, and that's the nominaliser that lets us make comments regarding Reading kanji:
furigana --
"somethings". In English, a sentence such as "The beach is a crowded place" can be interpreted in two different ways - the Reading quirks:
first as a specific statement pertaining to a particular beach, the second as a commentary on beaches in general. In Japanese, compound
words --
these two different interpretations use different grammatical patterns, with the first being a simple [X]は[Y]です statement, Looking up
and the second using と言う: kanji --
Styles --
うみ にぎ Words and
海 は 賑 やかです。 word classes
"The beach is (so) busy." Articles --
Verbs --
うみ にぎ
Nouns --
海 と言う、 賑 やかなものです。 Pronouns --
"The beach (in general,) is (a) busy (place)." Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
Adverbs --
The difference in interpretation comes from what と言う literally means: [X]と言う translates to "that which we call X". と Particles --
Prefixes --
言う can be suffixed with の, のは, もの and こと to do the expected things, and usually is: Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
いなか き かれ うみ ひと Compound
田舎から来た 彼 が、 海 と言うものを見たこともない 人 だった。 words --

"He, having come from a rural area, had never (even) seen anything like (what we call) the beach." Sentence
structure

To demonstrate the contrast, the sentence without と言うもの means something subtly different: Word order --
Emphasis --
Pitch and
田舎から来た彼が、海を見たこともない人だった。 accents
"He, having come from a rural area, had never (even) seen the sea." Gender roles
Context
In the sentence without と 言 う も の , the crucial "what we call" is missing, changing the meaning of 海 from what we language
generally understand as being called "the beach", to its literal meaning of "sea". Verb
grammar
This construction is also quite convenient when you want to ask questions: More
grammar
にほんご かいわ
A: 日本語で会話をしましょうか。 Particles
Counters
B: どうもすみませんが、「かいわ」と言うのは、何ですか？ and counting
Language
A: "Shall we have a Japanese kaiwa?"
patterns
B: "I'm terribly sorry, but what is a 'kaiwa'?"
Conjugation
Schemes
This "using と言う in order to turn a specific thing into a general statement" is a very common practice in Japanese, and Set phrases
you'll be hearing it a lot, which makes this both an important construction to know, as well as not that important to learn; Glossary
since you’re going to be continuously exposed to it anyway‚ you’re most likely to learn it through pure conditioning.

Section 6-3 — Social language patterns

In addition to language constructions, it is also important to know how to talk to other people. Social status and
respectfulness are important facets of the Japanese culture, and thus are reflected in the Japanese language. In fact, the
Japanese language is so interwoven with social levels that the rest of this chapter is devoted to it, foucssing on such matters
as giving and demanding face (a concept akin to showing and demanding social respect), addressing others, giving and
receiving, and steering people's behaviour through suggestions and recommendations. Liked this
book?
Buy the
§6.3.1 — Showing and demanding face author a beer
(or coffee)!
In Japan, and thus when using Japanese, you must constantly be aware of what your relation is to speakers and listeners with
respect to social position. You do not speak to your boss in the same way that you speak to your friends, but you will not
speak to the visiting boss of a different company as you will speak to your own boss. While you might speak informally with
your friends, if one of your friends shows up as part of an ambassadorial delegation, you will be required to speak to him as
part of the ambassadorial delegation, not as your friend — the style of Japanese used heavily depends on which group you
are in, and whether others are in the same group or not.

§6.3.1.1 — The in- and out- groups

Whether you're at home, at school, at work or at play in your own time, there is always the concept of the in-group, or うち,
and the out-group, or そと. These words also literally mean "in" and "out", respectively, and are highly relevant to deciding Preface
what levels of politeness and humble or honorific speech are required in your speech. The syntax
The kana
Familiar speech can only be used with people in your familiar in-group. This group may include family, or good friends.
The basics --
Speech patterns such as highly contracted speech, plain form and same-level giving or receiving may be used, and you may Writing the
refer to people in this group by a nickname or by their name either without any title suffix or with an affectionate suffix such kana --
Pronouncing
as ちゃん or くん. However, for older in-group members, simply by virtue of them being older and thus deserving more Japanese --
respect, it is customary to show face by using someone's title (such as for parents or older siblings) or their family name Hiragana and
katakana
suffixed with さ ん (for friends that have earned a measure of respect). This means that a younger sibling might call her differences --
にい
Writing
brother お 兄 さん, using his title, but he might in turn refer to her by her given name, or given name suffixed with ちゃん, spoken
instead. Japanese
Katakana
The formal in-group constitutes people who you are associated with through your daily activities, work, hobbies or through specific --
some other means of direct association. With these people, and in the setting of that association, politeness is the key. If you Punctuation
and writing --
work with several people, two of which are good friends of yours, then you may use informal speech when talking only to
them, but when the discussion involves other co-workers, the setting changes to formal in-group, and formal polite speech is Kanji
required. Just as you cannot mix "proper speech" with "banter style" speech in most western countries, you should not mix Types of Kanji -
ていねいご -
speech patterns when using Japanese. Speech patterns in the formal in-group involve 丁寧語, polite speech, characterised by Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
the use of です/ます form, making sure ありがとう is always followed by ございます, and by using the appropriate name furigana --
Reading quirks:
and title suffixes. People are referred to, directly and indirectly, by their family name suffixed with さ ん , and people in compound
words --
special positions are referred either by their title, or by using their family name suffixed with their title. Looking up
kanji --
The informal out-group consists of people that you have no special relationship with. People that ask you a question in the Styles --
street, the bus conductor, the fast food employee - all of these belong to the informal out-group, and when talking to them Words and
you are expected to use 丁寧語, and address them if you must by using their family name suffixed with さん, or a title if it word classes
is apparent that their role deserves one. Articles --
Verbs --
Nouns --
The formal out-group is a complex group, because in this setting the social differences come into play. Anyone not in your Pronouns --
in-group in a particular setting, who is of identifiable higher social status than you, is part of the formal out-group, and Nominalisers --
そんけいご けんそんご Adjectives --
Adverbs --
deserves to be spoken to respectfully. This does not just mean using 丁寧語, but also 尊敬語 and 謙遜語, the honorific and Particles --
humble speech patterns. For instance, while you may work at a company, the company's vice president will typically not be Prefixes --
part of your work in-group, and certainly doesn't fall in the informal out-group. He should be spoken to using polite Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
honorific forms, and when speaking about your own actions, you should humble yourself by using humble speech patterns. Compound
words --
Finally, there is one last group that needs mentioning: the "not relevant in terms of social setting (yet)" group, associated for Sentence
instance with small children, or newcomers to a school, job or club. People in this group may be referred to using structure
affectionate terms such as ちゃん or くん, but interpreting these as an indication that they are part of the speaker's familiar Word order --
Emphasis --
in-group would be a huge mistake to make. Instead, these terms indicate the they have no social value yet.
Pitch and
accents
§6.3.1.2 — Moving between groups Gender roles
Context
While these group definitions sound relatively straightforward, transitions from out-group to in-group, or from formal to language
familiar in-group, are much harder to characterise, and can lead to considerable problems if one party believes a transition Verb
from out- to in-group or from formal to familiar has occurred, when the other party does not. grammar
More
Imagine you have just accepted a job at a Japanese company. You are assigned a mentor, and at first the division is clear. grammar
You know nothing, are nothing, and your mentor is responsible for shaping you into a proper employee. To your mentor, you Particles
will rank as 'not on the social ladder yet', and to you, your mentor will sit in the formal out-group. This means that you may Counters
せんぱい and counting
be addressed using ちゃん or くん, and you will address him or her with their title, 先輩 , while you are being mentored. Language
patterns
Now we move the clock forward by half a year. You have been accepted into the workforce formal in-group, and have even Conjugation
made some good friends from within that group, going drinking on the weekends with them. You are still working with your Schemes
mentor, but no longer under a mentor/trainee relation, but as a co-worker relation, and you decide that it is time you start to Set phrases
use their name suffixed with さ ん , rather than keep calling them 先 輩 , and in doing so you have made a critical and Glossary
relationship-breaking mistake.

Moving people from a group to a more intimate group always requires explicit permission from the person you're moving —
if your mentor never indicated that he or she believed you were now well integrated into the workforce, then you could sing
high or low, work there for six months or six years, but until they give notice that they consider you worth giving more face,
they will stay a 先輩, and unilaterally deciding that you no longer consider them one means that you are not showing them
the right amount of face.

The same goes for making friends in school. You address people as if they're part of the informal out-group until they
indicate that you may refer to them in a way consistent with the formal or familiar in-group. When the relation is between Liked this
book?
someone of higher social status and someone of lower social status, the permission has to come from the person of higher Buy the
social status, but in situations where the social status is on equal footing, such as with classmates or co-workers, it typically author a beer
involves a period of feeling around for the boundaries of your personal relationship, and at some point at least indicating that (or coffee)!
you do not mind if they refer to you in a way that corresponds to a closer group.

§6.3.1.3 — Demanding face

If things go wrong, it would be wonderful if someone would just say that it did, but typically this will not happen. Instead,
rather than explaining that they are uncomfortable with you addressing them using the speech patterns belonging to a more
intimate group than they expect to be in, their own speech pattern will become more distal. What was natural Japanese one
day may suddenly be changed to formal and distant Japanese after your mistake, and that's usually the only clue you'll get
that something went wrong. Rather than demand face, you will be confronted with the fact that you acted inappropriately by
 a change in speech pattern, and you would do well to notice it - making someone lose face, or not giving enough face, can
only be compensated by observing the right levels of formality again until the incident has been forgotten, or at least left in
Preface
the past.
The syntax
This also means that you are responsible for demanding face yourself. Not demanding face because you're just that nice a The kana
person doesn't fly. You are responsible for behaving properly according to Japanese custom, and that means you must take The basics --
responsibility when it comes to maintaining the social balance. If someone gets too familiar with you, a change from formal Writing the
kana --
polite to distal polite language is the clearest signal you can give that certain boundaries have been crossed. Pronouncing
Japanese --
Hiragana and
§6.3.2 — Addressing people katakana
differences --
Certainly one of the things that is more important in Japanese than in a lot of western cultures, in terms of social language Writing
use, is picking the right pronouns and names when addressing people. Not because the terms are particularly difficult, but spoken
Japanese
just because there are actually a great number to choose from. Personal pronouns and name suffixes play an important role
Katakana
in being able to navigate your way through interpersonal dealings, so a brief moment to examine which words can be used, specific --
and when, will go a long way to helping you stay on top of every day Japanese. Punctuation
and writing --
Kanji
§6.3.2.1 — Personal pronouns
Types of Kanji -
-
Writing Kanji --
Some people may tell you that Japanese has no word for "you", based on the fact that the standard way to address someone Reading kanji:
in Japanese is to use their name, paired with a suffix to indicate their title, rank, or social relation to you. However, this furigana --
would be drawing the wrong conclusion: one avoids using direct personal pronouns as much as possible in Japanese, but Reading quirks:
compound
there are in fact a great number of direct personal pronouns that can be used when the need arises. The important thing to words --
note is that because of the way in which people are normally addressed, using personal pronouns carries "extra weight" — Looking up
all of them mean more than just "I" or "you". Specific pronouns connote differences in social levels, as well as different kanji --
Styles --
politeness levels.
Words and
word classes
As mentioned all the way at the beginning of this book, Japanese is a sparse language, and personal pronouns fall in the
Articles --
category of words that are omitted once established in a conversation. While in English, for instance, one would constantly Verbs --
use the personal pronoun "you" to indicate a listener or reader, in Japanese this is considered poor language skills and would Nouns --
be experienced as highly annoying to have to listen to. This goes for all personal pronouns; after they have been used, and Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
while the conversation is focused on the person(s) they indicate, they are left out of the conversation. Explicitly keeping Adjectives --
them in is not just considered bad form, it can even be considered an insult, as it amounts to indicating that you believe your Adverbs --
conversational partner is unable to understand what you mean if you leave them out. Particles --
Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
That said, sometimes you simply need personal pronouns, and for those occasions it serves to know which can be used in and mimesis --
which setting. Compound
words --
Sentence
§6.3.2.1.1 — First person pronoun - I structure
Word order --
Emphasis --
わたくし
Pitch and
1. 私 — an overly formal version of "I". This personal pronoun is typically too formal for any situation you will be in. accents
わたし
2. 私 — the gender-neutral, formality-neutral personal pronoun for "I" or "me". Gender roles
あたし
Context
3. 私 — a female-only version of the formality-neutral person pronoun language
わし
4. 私 — the formality-neutral personal pronoun for "I" or "me" used predominantly by elders. Verb
ぼく grammar
5. 僕 — literally, this noun means servant. Used predominantly by men, this personal pronouns means you humble yourself in More
respect to the listener. While predominantly used by men, it can be used by women too, and due to its meaning as noun, may grammar
actually also be used to mean "you" when addressing servants (although this does make the speaker look down upon Particles
whomever 僕 is used for). Counters
おれ
and counting
6. 俺 — a boastful first person personal pronoun, which is used when you are confident that sounding boastful is accepted. Language
Predominantly used by men, this can also be used by go-getting women. patterns
せっしゃ
7. 拙者 — a classical personal pronoun meaning "I". You are most likely to hear this pronoun used in samurai drama, rather Conjugation
Schemes
than in every day Japanese.
Set phrases
Glossary
§6.3.2.1.2 — Second person pronoun - you

きみ
1. 君 — a version of "you" that contains a slight element of looking down on someone. You are technically placing yourself
higher on the social ladder when you use it.
まえ
2. お 前 — a crass and almost rude way to say "you"
あなた
3. 貴方 — the distal, deferred way to say "you". Because it is very formal, it can also be considered impolite outside of very
formal settings. Remember from the こそあど section that あなた can also be used as an intimately familiar personal Liked this
pronoun. book?
Buy the
4. あんた — the shortened version of あなた, this is roughly the same as using お前. author a beer
きさま
(or coffee)!
5. 貴様 — something to avoid. While 貴 means "precious" or "honor", and 様 is an honourable suffix, this word has made a
half turn from being used as a classical honorific pronoun to a modern day accusative pronoun, and is as close to a curse
word as possible without actually being one.
おのれ
6. 己 — another pronoun to avoid. While classically this pronoun meant "you", its meaning has shifted to an accusative
pronoun instead, similar to 貴様.
ぬし
7. お 主 — a classical personal pronoun meaning "you". You are most likely to hear this pronoun used in samurai drama, rather
than in every day Japanese.

§6.3.2.1.3 — Third person pronoun - he/she

かれ
 かれ
1. 彼 — while a neutral "he", this word should be avoided simply because it is considered bad practice to use personal
pronouns. Because of this, it is slightly derogative to the person you're referring to if you know them by name. Preface
かのじょ
The syntax
2. 彼女 — when used as personal pronoun, has the same connotation as 彼, except for girls. However, in addition to being a
かれし The kana
personal pronoun it can also mean "girlfriend" as a regular noun (with the noun version of 'boyfriend' being 彼氏). The basics --
やつ わるぐち
Writing the
3. 奴 — A derogatory gender neutral third person pronoun. This pronoun is generally associated with 悪口 , literally kana --
"speaking evil of someone", meaning talking (derisively) about someone, behind their back. Pronouncing
Japanese --
Hiragana and
Japanese has no explicit plurals, so you might think that expressing "we" or "them" might require separate words too, but katakana
this is not the case. There exist "group suffixes" in Japanese that can be used with personal pronouns to turn the single differences --
person "me" into the group "we", the single person "you" into the group "you [people]" and the single persons "he"/"she" Writing
たち
spoken
into the group "them". There are two in common use in modern Japanese, the first of which is ～ 達 , which is used to turn Japanese
virtually all personal pronouns into personal group pronouns. The second, which is used with a few specific pronouns, is ～ Katakana
ら
等. This is an older suffix, and can be used to turn お前 ('you') into お前等 (plural 'you'), 彼 ('he') into 彼等 ('them') and 貴
specific --
Punctuation
様 (accusative 'you') into 貴様等 (plural accusative 'you'). and writing --
Kanji
When using group suffixes for 彼 or 彼女, it depends entirely on the gender of the first person in the group that you refer to. Types of Kanji -
If there's a group of mixed gender but you were just talking about a female member of the group, then the entire group can -
Writing Kanji --
be referred to using 彼女達. Similarly, if a male member of the group was talked about, 彼等 will refer to the exact same Reading kanji:
group. It should be noted that these markers are not true plural markers. 私達 literally means "the group I am part of", and furigana --
can refer to either a physical group gathered at some point in time at a specific location, or can refer to someone's in group. Reading quirks:
compound
Similarly, 等 is also a group marker, where for instance お 前 等 means "the group you are part of". It is important to words --
Looking up
remember this, as some translations for sentences that have plural personal pronouns cannot use these 達/等 markers: kanji --
Styles --
"As the committee on social affairs we have decided to ...." Words and
word classes
This kind of sentence, in which someone speaks for an entire group, requires the "group representative" personal pronoun Articles --
わ われ
Verbs --
我, pronounced either as わ, in the pattern 我 が[...] or as われ in the pattern 我 は[...]. To turn this pronoun into a group Nouns --
われわれ
Pronouns --
pronoun, the special word 我々 is used, rather than adding the group suffixes 達 or 等. Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
Adverbs --
However, the most important thing to remember is that you should try to use personal pronouns as little as possible. Instead, Particles --
if you're referring to someone of whom you know the name, use their name suffixed with さん, or a more specific name Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
suffix instead. If you do not know their name, find out what it is. The only polite way to refer to people is as people — avoid and mimesis --
referring to them as mere objects by using pronouns. Compound
words --
Sentence
§6.3.2.2 — Name suffixes structure
Word order --
Emphasis --
There are various name suffixes that indicate different kinds of social relations, and using them out of place can have an
effect anywhere from sounding like you're joking around a bit, to simply insulting someone. For this reason, it's a good idea Pitch and
accents
to go over the list of common name suffixes, and see what they do. Also important is to note that people in Japan refer to
each other by their family name, suffixed with the appropriate name suffix, and not by first name until there is a clearly Gender roles
defined friendship. Context
language
Verb
§6.3.2.2.1 — –さん grammar
More
grammar
This is the standard name suffix that is used across Japan to refer to, as well as to call the attention of, people to whom you Particles
have no particular relationship. Counters
and counting
Language

様
さま patterns
§6.3.2.2.2 — – Conjugation
Schemes
Set phrases
An honorific suffix, this name suffix is used when someone is of considerably higher status, used to indicate a master in a
Glossary
master/servant relation, or a patron in a patron/proprietor relation. This suffix is also used when writing someone's name as
recipient on a letter or card, where it can be followed by へ to indicate that this name is to be the recipient of the
communiqué.

殿
どの
§6.3.2.2.3 — –

さま
A classical honorific suffix, that is in use today principally for formal addressing in writing. Like 様 , 殿 can be used on
Liked this
letters and cards for indicating the recipient. book?
Buy the
author a beer
氏
し
(or coffee)!
§6.3.2.2.4 — –

This name suffix is used to indicate that someone is a representative of a specific house or has a particular lineage, similar to
the official English title "sir" or "distinguished gentleman". Historically this name suffix has only been used for men, as
women did not act as representatives of a house, and this gender specific use has not changed to date.

先生
せんせい
§6.3.2.2.5 — –
Commonly associated with meaning "teacher", someone who is referred to with 先 生 is not necessarily a teacher by
profession. For instance, a doctor is a 先生, as is a school teacher, a lawyer, or an expert on politics. When someone is called Preface
upon for their knowledge, then in this role they are addressed with 先生.
The syntax
The kana
§6.3.2.2.6 — –ちゃん The basics --
Writing the
kana --
Pronouncing
While typically associated with little girls, —ちゃん is actually an affectionate suffix. It can be used for boys, girls, men Japanese --
Hiragana and
and women alike, but only when there is a relation that is close and/or amiable. While it can be used for anyone, it does katakana
deserve mention that it is indeed used for women more than for men. differences --
Writing
spoken

君
くん
Japanese
§6.3.2.2.7 — –
Katakana
specific --
Punctuation
This suffix is an amicable suffix, similar to ちゃん, but has a slightly different connotation. While ちゃん finds it origin in and writing --
Kanji
young children who cannot say さ ん yet, and thus is readily associated with little kids and other cute things, 君 doesn't
Types of Kanji -
actually come "from" anything, but is a word on its own, also used to mean "junior", both in the naming sense as well as the -
social hierarchy system. While still being used for this, it has also picked up the added meaning of being a suffix used Writing Kanji --
amongst equals who have an amicable relationship. Reading kanji:
furigana --
Reading quirks:
compound

呼 び捨 て
よ す
words --
§6.3.2.2.8 — Looking up
kanji --
Styles --

This is not so much a suffix as the complete opposite: the practice of 呼び捨て refers to calling someone by just their name, Words and
word classes
without any suffix, and the word refers to discarding (捨てる) formalities when calling (呼ぶ) each other.
Articles --
Verbs --
Nouns --
Pronouns --
§6.3.2.2.9 — Nicknames Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
Adverbs --
A final, drastically different, approach is to come up with a nickname for someone based on their name, a habit, some Particles --
Prefixes --
personal feature, or whatever random thing you can think of that might make good material for a nickname. This practice is Onomatopoeia
fairly obviously reserved for close relationships. and mimesis --
Compound
words --
Section 6-4 — Acknowledging social status Sentence
structure
The most important way in which to acknowledge social status, and differences in status, is through your choice of phrasing Word order --
Emphasis --
when it comes to asking for things, or doing things for people. These are not trivial subjects, and the next two sections will
explain this in (perhaps excruciating) detail. Pitch and
accents
Gender roles
§6.4.1 — Giving and receiving
Context
language
Giving, or doing something for someone, and receiving, or taking a liberty (i.e., helping oneself to something) are concepts
Verb
that seem simple if you're used to the English way of expressing yourself, but in Japanese, these seemingly trivial things grammar
require quite a bit of explanation, as they are dependent on relative social status and the direction of giving or receiving, as More
well as involving a careful choice in particles to use. Involving both plain verb forms and て form conjunctions, the acts of grammar
giving, or doing for someone, and receiving, or taking a liberty or having someone do something, cover some of the more Particles
complicated verb constructions in the language. Counters
and counting
What makes things so complicated is that the verb used, and its implied meaning, can make the difference between Language
respectful behaviour and rather blatant indirect insults; confidently using the wrong verb can pretty much declare that you patterns
experience your status relative to your partner very differently from what they thought it was. In the best case, this can lead Conjugation
Schemes
to short lived misunderstandings, but more often than not it will result in a suddenly much more distal relationship.
Set phrases
So, let us look at the right way, as well as the wrong way, to handle this culturally grounded practice. Glossary

§6.4.1.1 — Giving, or doing for someone

In Japanese, "giving" and "doing ... for (someone)" are, at least grammatically, the same thing. However, while in English
"giving" involves just the one verb, in Japanese things are not that simple: depending on the social status of the individual
parties and who is doing the giving, different verbs are used. This comes down to two possible "directions" of giving/doing
for, the first of which is giving 'away':

first person ("I" or "we") to second person ("you"), i.e. "I give to you", Liked this
book?
second person to third person ("him", "her", "them" or "it"), i.e. "you give to her", and Buy the
first person to third person, i.e. "I give to them". author a beer
(or coffee)!
Giving or doing for, in this "direction", can be done using three different verbs, with the choice depending on the social
difference between the giver and the receiver:

if the giving is being done to someone or something whose status is irrelevant (very good friends, young children,
pets, etc.), (連用形+て+) やる is used.
あ
if the giving is being done to someone of equal or higher status, (連用形+て+) 上げる is used. In writing, both kanji
and kana forms may be used.
さ あ
if the giving is being done to someone of greatly higher status, (連用形+て+) 差し上げる is used. In writing, both
kanji and kana forms may be used.
Now, this requires a bit more explaining because when it comes to giving, virtually any situation involves giving to "equal or
higher status". Unless you intend to highly offend someone, basically anyone capable of normal interaction will, for the
Preface
purpose of being given to, be of equal status at the very least. If we have never met before, and I have something to give
The syntax
you, then I will describe this giving from me, to you, using either 連用形+て+上げる (for the giving of an action, i.e., doing
The kana
for you) or just 上げる (for the giving of an object):
The basics --
Writing the
し ひと なになに
kana --
ぜんぜん知らない 人 に 何々 を上げました。 Pronouncing
"I gave something-or-other to a person I don't know in the slightest." Japanese --
Hiragana and
ぜんぜん知らない人に何々をして上げました。 katakana
differences --
"I did something-or-other for a person I don't know in the slightest." Writing
spoken
The reason that we are of equal status (at the least) is essentially one of politeness. Unless I despise you, any event in which Japanese
I give you something means there is at least a modicum of respect, and as such I will indicate this by using the verb 上げる, Katakana
specific --
which literally translates to "lift (something)". By using this verb, and for the duration of the giving, I lower my own social Punctuation
status, and elevate yours. If you accept my gift, things go back to normal. However, in typical Japanese style, most gifts and writing --
(even the gift of doing something for someone) between non-familiar people, meaning not good friends or family members, Kanji
will at first be mock-refused. This is one of those interesting cultural patterns where behaving like a foreigner can cause Types of Kanji -
serious problems: it is customary to kindly refuse any gifts or offers for help, so that the giver can insist. Only then will a -
gift or offer for help be accepted. Not because the receiver had to be persuaded, but because that's simply the only proper Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
way to go about the issue of giving, in Japan. If you are offered tea, kindly refuse, then accept once offered again. Flat out furigana --
accepting could easily be considered rude, and flat out rejecting quite possibly even more so. Reading quirks:
compound
words --
So with that covered, a few examples of giving: Looking up
kanji --
きみこ はな か Styles --
君子さんにお 花 を買ってあげました。 Words and
"(I) bought flowers for Kimiko." word classes
かあ す
Articles --
母 さんにゴミお捨ててあげました。 Verbs --
"I threw the garbage away for my mother." Nouns --
Pronouns --
ともだち たんじょうび おもしろ ほん Nominalisers --
友達 に 誕生日 ですごく 面白 い 本 をあげました。 Adjectives --
"(I) gave my friend a really interesting book for (his) birthday." Adverbs --
Particles --
Prefixes --
You may have noticed that all the parts of these sentences that translate to "for ..." have been marked with the particle に. As Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
mentioned in the section on verb particles in the chapter on basic grammar, this kind of prepositional phrase is simply Compound
treated as a verb detail in Japanese, and as such is marked with に. You may have also noticed that in the last sentence, 上げ words --
Sentence
る was used on its own: when used alone, it strictly means "give". When used in 連用形+て+上げる for, it typically means structure
"doing ... for (someone)". Word order --
Emphasis --
In cases of severe difference in status, such as a maid serving dinner for a household, or a clerk handing a CEO a report, 上 Pitch and
げる is not enough. The more formal 差し上げる must be used. However, as you are unlikely to find yourself in a situation accents

warranting this verb, 上げる (for actual gifts) and 連用形+て+上げる (for actions) should be all you need. Gender roles
Context
Before we move on, the previous example sentences may have created a wrong impression concerning who can do the language
giving when using this verb. As mentioned, this concerns giving from first to second, second to third, and first to third Verb
person, so in fact all the following translations are correct (in the absence of some disambiguating context): grammar
More
grammar
友達に誕生日ですごく面白い本をあげました。
Particles
"I gave my friend a really interesting book for his birthday." Counters
"We gave our friends really interesting books for their birthdays." and counting
"You gave my friend a really interesting book for his birthday." Language
"You gave your friend a really interesting book for his birthday." patterns
"I gave your friends really interesting books for their birthdays." Conjugation
etc. Schemes
Set phrases
The variations are quite numerous, but usually sentences such as these will be used in a setting where it is relatively easy to Glossary
determine which of the multitude of interpretations is the most likely intended one, due to contextual information.

So that leaves the verb やる. We can be fairly brief about it: you do not use やる, except in the rare event where the giving
is done to something inherently without social status:
こども かし
子供たちにお菓子をやった。
"(I) gave the children some candy."

But even this is not without danger: if the children in this example sentence were, for instance, your boss's children, then Liked this
saying you got them candy using this phrase to your boss would in fact be quite rude, as you have just implied his children book?
are without social value. So, be careful, and if at all possible avoid using やる entirely. Buy the
author a beer
(or coffee)!
やる technically means "do", similar to する, but while it is possible to use this verb as alternative to する in a highly
informal intimate setting (with close friends, for instance), it's all too easy to accidentally use it with someone who was not
aware you considered them part of the group for which status was irrelevant. So again, use with care, and if possible, simply
do not use it.

With so much explanation, one would almost forget that this only covered the first of the two directions for giving.
However, there's also the opposite direction:

third person to second person, i.e. "he gives to you",

second person to first person, i.e. "you give to me",
third person to first person or, i.e. "she gives to me", and
 third person to (other) third person, i.e. "they give to them".
Preface
Giving, or doing for, in this "direction" can be done using two very different verbs, the choice of which — again — depends
on the social difference between the giver, and the receiver: The syntax
The kana
くだ
if the giving is being done by someone of equal or higher status, (連用形+て+) 下 さる is used. In writing, both kanji The basics --
Writing the
and kana forms may be used. kana --
く
Pronouncing
if the giving is being done by someone you are on a familiar basis with, (連用形+て+) 呉れる is used. In writing, this Japanese --
typically uses the kana form. Hiragana and
katakana
differences --
This should be relatively obvious in terms of how to use it. If a teacher, a boss, or simply someone you don't know gives you
くだ Writing
something, or does something for you, 連用形+て+ 下 さる is used: spoken
Japanese
ははおや Katakana
母親 がプレゼントをくださいました。 specific --
"(I) received a gift from (my) mother" Punctuation
and writing --
せんせい み
先生 がいいものを見せてくださいました。
Kanji
"(My) teacher showed (me) something quite good." Types of Kanji -
-
Writing Kanji --
Rather than using に, these are normal verb actor phrases, so 母さん and 先生 are simply marked with が, or は if we need Reading kanji:
furigana --
to disambiguate. If we wanted to use に (which is possible), then we would have to first make the sentence passive, so that Reading quirks:
compound
the tense matches the particle: words --
Looking up
kanji --
先生にいいものを見せられてくださいました。 Styles --
"(I) was shown something quite good by (my) teacher." Words and
word classes
Now, again, the sentences might create the wrong impression that it all centres around third to first person. To once more Articles --
show the multitude of possible interpretations in the absence of disambiguating context, a list of possible translations for the Verbs --
last phrase: Nouns --
Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
先生がいいものを見せてくださいました。 Adjectives --
Adverbs --
"My teacher showed me something quite good." Particles --
"Your teachers showed them something quite good." Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
"His teacher showed you something quite good." and mimesis --
"Our teacher showed us something quite good." Compound
etc. words --
Sentence
In a familiar setting, rather than 下さる, which literally translates as "issuing (something)", such as issuing orders to (lower structure
く Word order --
ranked) troops, we can use the verb 呉 れ る . When talking to, or about, friends or even family members, this verb does Emphasis --
exactly the same as 下さる: Pitch and
accents
はるか すてき かばん Gender roles
春香ちゃんが素敵な 鞄 をくれた。
Context
"(I) got (this) wonderful (new) bag from Haruka." language
ともだち ほ か
Verb
友達 がずっと欲しかったDVDを買ってくれた。 grammar
"(I) was bought the DVD (that I) wanted for a long time by (my) friend." More
grammar
Regardless of whether we use 下さる or くるれ, we can explicitly add in the receiver, if that information is required. In this Particles
case, we are forced to use に to mark the recipient of the action, but do not confuse this for what に does in the presence of a Counters
and counting
passive verb form:
Language
きみこ patterns
春香さんが君子さんに素敵な鞄を下さった。 Conjugation
"Haruka gave Kimiko a wonderful (new) bag." Schemes
Set phrases
In this sentence, because it's in the active voice, 春 香 is the verb actor, and 君 子 the receiver. If we use a passive Glossary
construction instead, we get:

春香さんが君子さんに素敵な鞄を下さられた。
"Haruka was given a wonderful (new) bag by Kimiko."

Here, because it is a passive voice, the buying was done by 君子, and 春香 is actually the subject of "having been bought
for", now being the receiver! Not only the verbs count, so do the particles!

§6.4.1.2 — Receiving, having done for, or taking a liberty Liked this

book?
もら いただ いただ
Buy the
Receiving, luckily, only concerns one "direction" and uses the two verbs 貰 う and 頂 く or 戴 く (the choice of which author a beer
(or coffee)!
kanji to use is mostly arbitrary, as in this use いただく and もらう are typically written in kana, rather than using kanji
forms):

a) third person to second person, i.e. "you get from her",

b) second person to first person, i.e. "I get from you",
c) third person to first person, i.e. "I get from them", and
d) third person to (other) third person, i.e. "they get from him"

Just like the verbs for giving, も ら う and い た だ く apply to different status levels respectively. While both apply to
receiving from someone of higher or equal social status, the difference in social level determines which verb is used:
 1) if the receiving is from someone of equal or higher status, (連用形+て+) もらう is used. The kanji form is rarely used
for this verb. Preface
2) if the receiving is from someone of significantly higher status, (連用形+て+) いただく is used. The kanji forms are The syntax
rarely used for this verb. The kana
The basics --
You may recognise いただく from its polite present tense: いただきます, which is used as a set phrase, spoken before Writing the
kana --
starting a meal. Literally, this phrase means "I (humbly) receive (this food)" or "I will (humbly) help myself to (this food)". Pronouncing
Both meanings are essentially simultaneously true, which highlights an interesting aspect of "receiving" in Japanese: just as Japanese --
"giving" and "doing for (someone)" are considered essentially the same thing, so too "receiving", "having done for" and Hiragana and
katakana
"helping oneself to (something)" are considered the same thing. differences --
Writing
When the verbs も ら う and い た だ く are used on their own, then the "receiving" as well as the "helping oneself" spoken
Japanese
interpretation are possible, and when used combined with a 連用形+て combination, the interpretation is typically "having
Katakana
(something) done for (someone)": specific --
Punctuation
か ほん かえ もら
and writing --
おばさんに貸した 本 を 返 して 貰 った。
Kanji
"(I) got back from (my) aunt the book (I) lent (to her)."
Types of Kanji -
とう あたら じてんしゃ か
-
父 さんに 新 しい自転車を買っていただきました。 Writing Kanji --
"(I) got bought a new bicycle by my father." Reading kanji:
furigana --
Reading quirks:
When the activity in question involves direct contact, に may also be substituted by か ら , which rather literally means compound
words --
"from": Looking up
kanji --
Styles --
おばさんから貸した本を返して貰った。
Words and
"(I) got back from (my) aunt the book (I) lent (to her)." word classes
Articles --
The interesting fact about these statements is that they can also be interpreted as quite selfish: both 貰う and いただく have Verbs --
an element of prompted action to them. Rather than things being given, or acts being performed out of the kindness of Nouns --
Pronouns --
people's hearts, we are in some way responsible for them being done for our benefit, which is why we can interpret these Nominalisers --
verbs as expressing taking a liberty, too: Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Particles --
おばさんに貸した本を返して貰った。 Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
"(I) got (my) aunt to return the book that (I) lent her." and mimesis --
Compound
父さんに新しい自転車を買ってただきました。 words --
"(I) got my father to buy (me) a new bicycle." Sentence
structure
This may sound odd, but think of it this way: if the actions were genuinely unprompted, they would have been gifts. And for Word order --
gifts we use very different verb constructions: Emphasis --
Pitch and
おばさんが貸した本を返して下さった。 accents
"(My) Aunt gave me back the book (I) had lent (her)." Gender roles
Context
父さんが新しい自転車を買って下さった。 language
"My father bought (me) a new bicycle." Verb
grammar
Another good example of using もらう or いただく for taking a liberty is the following short conversation: More
grammar
だれ
Particles
A: 誰 のリンゴですか。
けいこ
Counters
B: 恵子さんのよ。 and counting
Language
A: そうですか。 patterns
(A takes an apple) Conjugation
いっこ
Schemes
A: なら、一個もらうわ。
Set phrases
Glossary
Which translates to:

A: "Whose apples are these?"

B: "Oh, they're Keiko's."
A: "I see..."
A: "Well then, I'll just help myself to one."

It should be fairly obvious what's happening in this exchange: much like how the verbs あげる, くださる and くれる can
mean "give", もらう and いただく can be used to mean "take".
Liked this
book?
§6.4.1.3 — In summary Buy the
author a beer
(or coffee)!
To summarise these rather complex patterns, what follows are three images representing the three different acts: giving
(something), being given (something), and receiving (something). Note that the numbers 1, 2 and 3 in the images represent
"first person", "second person" and "third person" respectively:

§6.4.1.3.1 — Giving
 Preface
The syntax
The kana
The basics --
Writing the
kana --
Pronouncing
Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
differences --
Writing
spoken
Japanese
Katakana
specific --
Punctuation
and writing --
Kanji
Types of Kanji -
-
Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
furigana --
Reading quirks:
compound
words --
Looking up
kanji --
Styles --
Words and
word classes
Articles --
Verbs --
Nouns --
Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
A schematic representation of verbs involved in giving in Japanese Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Particles --
We see three "areas" in this image: Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
さ あ and mimesis --
When giving to someone socially much higher, we must use 差し上げる, Compound
あ words --
when giving to someone who is either socially higher or equal, we must use 上げる, and Sentence
when giving to someone (or something) without social status, we can use やる. structure
Word order --
Emphasis --
§6.4.1.3.2 — Being given Pitch and
accents
Gender roles
Context
language
Verb
grammar
More
grammar
Particles
Counters
and counting
Language
patterns
Conjugation
Schemes
Set phrases
Glossary

Liked this
book?
Buy the
author a beer
(or coffee)!

A schematic representation of verbs involved in 'being given' in Japanese

We see two "areas" in this image:

くだ
When being given something by someone who is socially higher, we describe their giving by using 下 さる, and
く
 く
when being given something by someone who is socially equal or lower, we describe their giving by using 呉れる.
Preface
The syntax
§6.4.1.3.3 — Receiving
The kana
The basics --
Writing the
kana --
Pronouncing
Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
differences --
Writing
spoken
Japanese
Katakana
specific --
Punctuation
and writing --
Kanji
Types of Kanji -
-
Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
furigana --
Reading quirks:
compound
words --
Looking up
kanji --
Styles --
Words and
word classes
Articles --
Verbs --
Nouns --
Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Particles --
Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Compound
words --
A schematic representation of verbs involved in receiving in Japanese Sentence
structure
We see two "areas" in this image: Word order --
Emphasis --
いただ いただ
When receiving something from someone who is socially higher, we describe our receiving by using 頂 く or 戴 く Pitch and
accents
(the choice of which to use being essentially arbitrary, as いただく is generally written in hiragana in this use), and
もら
Gender roles
when receiving something from someone who is socially equal or lower, we describe our receiving by using 貰 う. Context
language

§6.4.2 — Indirect speech Verb

grammar
More
One of the important things in using Japanese is to be indirect whenever possible in formal situations. This entails asking grammar
indirect questions instead of direct questions, making indirect suggestions instead of telling people what they should do Particles
according to you, and stating assumptions rather than stating truths, even if they are truths. This section will explain how to Counters
turn direct speech into indirect speech, and for which constructions this is easily done. and counting
Language
patterns
§6.4.2.1 — Expressing hearsay Conjugation
Schemes
One way to state something indirectly is by making explicit the fact that you only heard or read something somewhere, Set phrases
rather than it being something that you believe or know. As mentioned in the section on comparison and likeness, this is Glossary
done using the noun adjective そう, in combination with a clause in 連体形, to form a hear-say construction. Compare the
following two statements:
にんき かいさん
あの人気なグループが 解散 する。
"That popular group will disband."
あの人気なグループが解散するそうだ。
"I hear that popular group will disband."
Liked this
While the first sentence implies that the speaker is certain of the stated fact, the second sentence states the information more book?
carefully, stating that it seems the case that something is a fact, based on having heard or read it somewhere. This indirect Buy the
form of stating something can only be done for second hand information, and should never be used to soften a statement that author a beer
(or coffee)!
isn't actually hearsay.

§6.4.2.2 — Negative questions

Asking a negative question is, in many languages, a way to politely ask someone to do something. For instance, "won't you
join us for dinner?" is an English phrase that has the implied meaning "please join us for dinner", rather than the literal "you
will not be joining us for dinner, will you?".

In Japanese the same applies:

あそ き
 あそ き
また 遊 びに来ませんか。
"Won't (you) come over (for a social visit) again some time?" Preface
The syntax
(In this sentence 遊ぶ is not used to mean "play" but "to spend time leisurely", hence the implied clause "for a social
The kana
visit")
The basics --
Writing the
A more polite way to ask negative questions is to use the て form with a negative form of 下さい: kana --
Pronouncing
ちゃ の くだ Japanese --
お 茶 を飲んで 下 さいませんか。 Hiragana and
katakana
"Won't (you) have some tea?" differences --
Writing
These negative questions can also be formed with plain negative form, but they become more informal that way: spoken
Japanese
た
ケーキを食べない？ Katakana
specific --
"Won't you have some (literally: eat) cake?" Punctuation
and writing --
Giving answers to negative questions can trip up beginning students quite easily, as the following example illustrates: Kanji
いっしょ い Types of Kanji -
A: 一緒 に行かない？ -
Writing Kanji --
B: はい。 Reading kanji:
furigana --
Reading quirks:
A: "Won't you go (with me)?" compound
B: "Yes (I won't go with you)." words --
Looking up
kanji --
The problem lies with the fact that an affirmative answer to a negative question affirms the negative. Usually it is easier to Styles --
answer with what you will be doing, rather than using yes or no:
Words and
word classes
A: 一緒に行かない？
Articles --
B: 行きます。 Verbs --
Nouns --
Pronouns --
A: "Won't you go (with me)?" Nominalisers --
B: "I will." Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Particles --
An even better solution is to express your answer in the form of a motivation plus answer, when a negative question is Prefixes --
asked, thus making it virtually impossible for your answer to be misinterpreted: Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Compound
A: 一緒に行かない？ words --
ひま
B: まあ, 暇 だし、行きますよ。 Sentence
structure
A: "Won't you go (with me)?" Word order --
B: "Well, (I'm) free (anyway), (so) sure, I'll go (with you)." Emphasis --
Pitch and

方 がいい
ほう accents
§6.4.2.3 — Recommending, using past tense + Gender roles
Context
language
If we want to make a recommendation, there are various direct and indirect ways of doing so. One of the most common
Verb
approaches uses a verb in plain past tense, paired with 方がいい, which creates a construction that essentially says "It might
grammar
be better if you [...]". More
お かのじょ きら
grammar
A: 遅くれてたから 彼女 に 嫌 われてる。どうしよう。 Particles
あやま Counters
B: まあ、 謝 った方がいいだろう？ and counting
Language
A: "(My) girlfriend is angry with (me) because (I) was late. What should (I) do?" patterns
B: "Well, wouldn't it be sensible (literally: good) to apologise (to her)?"
Conjugation
Schemes
This kind of recommendation is fairly direct, and thus some care must be taken in making sure that your relationship to Set phrases
whomever you make a recommendation to allows for this level of directness. Glossary

§6.4.2.4 — Offering your opinion using -ば

A less direct way of recommending something is by offering your own opinion. Using a hypothetical conditional paired with
your own opinion on how good or bad this situation would be is a less direct way to suggest a course of action to someone.
For instance:
まちが か
A: しまった。間違いばかり書いてた。
なお Liked this
B: 直 せばいいでしょう。 book?
Buy the
A: "Oh no, I've been writing mistakes all over the place." author a beer
B: "Well, it won't be that big of a deal if you just fix them?" (or coffee)!

While this is of course still reasonably direct in the sense that you're imposing your own opinion on someone, it is less direct
than the previous past tense + 方がいい.

§6.4.2.5 — Asking about an option using -たらどう

A truly indirect way of making a suggestion is by offering it as an option, without actually saying whether you think it's the
right course of action or not, effectively leaving the process of deciding whether it's a good idea or not entirely up to the
listener:
べんき う わ
 べんきょう わ
A: どれほど 勉強 してもこれが分かりませんよ。
せんせい き
Preface
B: そうですか。じゃあ、 先生 に聞いたらどうですか。
The syntax
A: "No matter how much I study I don't seem to understand this." The kana
B: "Hmm. Well, what about asking the teacher?"
The basics --
Writing the
This is the most polite way of making a suggestion, because it only stays at making the suggestion, without adding a kana --
personal recommendation to it, meaning you do not decide what the other person should do. Pronouncing
Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
§6.4.2.6 — Pseudo-future suggesting and presuming differences --
Writing
As you may remember from the section on the pseudo-future from chapter 3, the pseudo-future can be used for three things, spoken
Japanese
namely the dubitative, cohortative and presumptive, and it turns out that these last two are ideal for use in indirect speech, as
they guess at the world and leave the conclusions or decisions based on these guesses up to the listener, instead of imposing Katakana
specific --
your own opinions on them: Punctuation
and writing --
きょう すし た い
今日はお寿司を食べに行こうか。
Kanji
"Shall (we) go (out) for sushi today?" Types of Kanji -
-
Writing Kanji --
This question leaves the decision up to the listener, which is typically a polite thing to do, unless of course you're dealing Reading kanji:
with someone who is bad at making decisions, in which case using indirect speech is arguably not a good idea in the first furigana --
Reading quirks:
place. compound
words --
こしょう ふる Looking up
このコンピュータが 故障 してるのは、 古 いからでしょう。 kanji --
Styles --
"The reason this computer is broken is (probably) because it's old (right?)."
Words and
In this sentence, the speaker assumes that the computer in question is old, and leaves the matter of whether this assumption word classes
is correct up to the listener to decide, thus not providing potential disinformation to the listener. Of course, this is an over- Articles --
Verbs --
analysis, and these forms aren't actually so much used to prevent disinformation as just used because indirect speech is Nouns --
polite, and that's what you use. However, the analysis does hold up to scrutiny for a good reason: not presuming to know Pronouns --
better means you're never forcing anyone into anything, which makes you quite civilised. Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Particles --
§6.4.2.7 — Double negative statements Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
In addition to these reasonably obvious suggestions, recommendations and opinions, we can also let our intentions shine Compound
words --
through by using roundabout phrasing, thus softening our own convictions, opinions and intentions. The most common way
this is done is by using double negative patterns, as described in the following sections. Sentence
structure
Word order --
§6.4.2.7.1 — Regular double negative Emphasis --
Pitch and
accents
The regular double negative construction is essentially the same as in English, relying on the presence of volitional verbs Gender roles
(say, do, believe, promise, etc.): Context
い
language
しないとは言えません。 Verb
"(I) cannot say (I) won't do it." grammar
ぶちょう やくそく More
部長 に言わないとは 約束 しませんよ。 grammar
"I won't promise not to tell your boss." Particles
Counters
and counting
Note that in this use, the double negative is set up using と, in its role as 'quoting' particle.
Language
patterns
However, there is a more frequently used double negative pattern in Japanese, used in a more subtle way to express an Conjugation
affirmative, which deserves special attention. Schemes
Set phrases
Glossary
§6.4.2.7.2 — Complex double negative

Frequently used, but certainly confusing the first time one sees or hears it, is the double negative hypothetical construction
未 然 形 + な け れ ば + な ら な い / い け な い . While it uses two negatives to do its job, it's actually used to imply an
affirmative action instead. In a way, this makes sense: "I will not not-drink the coffee" has two negatives, but the first
negates the second, so the sentence might as well read "I will drink the coffee". We see the same happening in the Japanese
complex double negative, but with an added nuance:
べんきょう
勉強 しなければなりません。 Liked this
book?
literally: "It should not become a fact that I am not studying"
Buy the
meaning: "I really should go study." author a beer
(or coffee)!
This construction requires some analysis: the construction is formed by inflecting a verb in plain negative form, 未然形 + な
い, and turning this into a hypothetical: 未然形 + なけれ + ば. This negative hypothetical is then followed by either the
negative form of なる, "become", or the negative form of いける, which is a verb that expresses the figurative "will do"
such as in "Yes, that will do nicely". Because they express slightly different things, the choice of which to use depends on
what a speaker wants to express.

Using 未然形 + なければ + ならない (or polite, using なりません) expresses that something "should" be done, i.e. that
the negative verb action "should not come to be". Using 未然形 + なければ + いけない (or polite, using いけません)
expresses that something "has to" be done, i.e. that the negative verb action simply "will not do". As such, な ら な い
typically translates to a "need" to do something, whereas いけない typically translates to a "must": Preface
The syntax
ピアノの勉強をしなければなりません。 The kana
"I (really) need to practise piano (now)." The basics --
Writing the
In this sentence, there are no additional connotations: the speaker simply notes that they should practise piano. They might kana --
Pronouncing
need to do so in order to improve, or because a recital is coming up, but this is left in the middle. Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
ピアノの勉強をしなければいけません。 differences --
"I must practise piano." Writing
spoken
In this sentence‚ there is the additional hidden information that not merely should the speaker practise‚ but that not Japanese
practising will have undesirable consequences. Rather than just needing to practise‚ this practice has to be done to avoid Katakana
whatever these undesirable consequences may be. specific --
Punctuation
and writing --
Colloquially, there are shorter versions of なければ, namely なけりゃ and なきゃ. Because of the colloquial nature of the Kanji
shorter forms, these are typically paired with the plain negatives ならない and いけない, as well as even more colloquial Types of Kanji -
-
ならん and depending on who you talk to, いかん or あかん. The first is strictly speaking the short negative form of いく, Writing Kanji --
rather than いける; the second is a word often associated with the dialects spoken in the Kansai region, although it is also Reading kanji:
furigana --
used in other parts of Japan. Reading quirks:
compound
words --
Section 6-5 — More advanced grammar Looking up
kanji --
Styles --
While there are a lot more topics available in the discussion of Japanese grammar, a selection had to be made for a book Words and
titled an "introduction" to Japanese. This book already covers more than what you would traditionally find in an introductory word classes
reader on the language, and sticking in even more topics would make it a far more complete work, but also tremendously Articles --
more voluminous. As such, this is the end of this introduction to Japanese syntax, grammar and language. For further Verbs --
Nouns --
grammar, I can recommend picking up copies of the Dictionaries of Basic, Intermediary and Advanced Japanese Grammar Pronouns --
by Seichi Makino and Michio Tsutsui, and referring to them whenever you run across interesting grammar use in Japanese Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
material, or going on in search of more specialised dictionaries and reference works — there are plenty available! Adverbs --
Particles --
I hope you enjoyed this book, and I wish you all the best in your studies! Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Compound
Conjugation Schemes words --
Sentence
structure
This appendix focuses entirely on the conjugation schemes that have been treated in this book, organised in two sections. Word order --
Emphasis --
The first lists all the base forms for the various verbals treated in this book, the second lists the actual conjugation tables for
all these verbals. Pitch and
accents
Gender roles
Bases Context
language
ぶんご こうご
There are two sets of bases, one associated with 文語, classical (or literary) Japanese, and one associated with 口語, modern Verb
grammar
(or colloquial) Japanese. These are:
More

base 文語 口語 grammar
Particles
みぜんけい
Counters
imperfect 未然形 未然形
and counting
れんようけい
Language
continuative 連用形 連用形
patterns
しゅうしけい
sentence ending 連体形 Conjugation
終止形 Schemes
れんたいけい
attributive 連体形 Set phrases
連体形 Glossary
いぜんけい
perfect 已然形 已然形
めいれいけい
commanding 命令形 命令形

ごかん
In addition to these bases, all verbal words have a stem, called the 語幹, which is that part of the verbal that does not change
during inflection.

On a functional note, the term "dictionary form" used in this chapter (and preceding chapters) refers the modern 連体形,
which is the form used for listing verbal words in dictionaries. While synonymous, the term "dictionary form" will only be Liked this
used to explain how to form bases. For everything else, the proper term 連体形 is used. book?
Buy the
author a beer

Regular verbs: 五段 verbs

ごだん
(or coffee)!

base how to form

語幹 remove final う—row syllable from dictionary form
未然形 final う—row syllable is replaced with the corresponding あ—row syllable
連用形 final う—row syllable is replaced with the corresponding い—row syllable
連体形 dictionary form ending on the う-row syllable
 已然形 final う—row syllable is replaced with the corresponding え—row syllable
命令形 final う—row syllable is replaced with the corresponding え—row syllable Preface
The syntax

一段 verbs
いちだん The kana
Regular verbs: The basics --
Writing the
kana --
base how to form Pronouncing
Japanese --
語幹 remove final る Hiragana and
katakana
differences --
未然形 remove final る
Writing
連用形 remove final る spoken
Japanese
連体形 dictionary form ending on る Katakana
specific --
已然形 replace final る with れ Punctuation
and writing --
命令形 remove final る Kanji
Types of Kanji -
-
Irregular verbs: する (ずる/じる) Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
furigana --
Reading quirks:
base する ずる じる compound
words --
未然形 さ, せ, し ざ, ぜ, じ じ Looking up
kanji --
連用形 し じ じ Styles --
Words and
連体形 する ずる じる word classes
Articles --
已然形 すれ ずれ じれ Verbs --
Nouns --
命令形 せ(よ), し(ろ), せい ぜ(よ), じ(ろ), ぜい じ(よ, ろ) Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
The 未然形 for these verbs follows special rules, because not all 未然形 forms are used for all inflections that require this Adverbs --
base. Particles --
Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
For the classical negation: and mimesis --
Compound
words --
1. する uses the せ—未然形
Sentence
2. ずる uses the ぜ—未然形 structure
Word order --
For the (modern) passive and causative: Emphasis --
Pitch and
1. する acts as either an 一段 or a 五段 verb for these forms; せ—未然形 + られる or さ—未然形 + れる to form the accents
Gender roles
passive, さ—未然形 + せる to form the causative.
Context
2. ずる acts as a normal 一段 verb, using just the じ—未然形, forming じられる for the passive and じさせる for the language
causative. Verb
3. じる also acts as a normal 一段 verb, forming じられる for the passive and じさせる for the causative. grammar
More
でき grammar
For the potential form, all three use 出来る instead.
Particles
Counters
Irregular verbs: 来る
く and counting
Language
patterns
base kanji form pronunciation Conjugation
Schemes
未然形 来 こ Set phrases
Glossary
連用形 来 き
連体形 来る くる
已然形 来れ くれ
命令形 来い こい

Special verbs: ある
Liked this
base form book?
Buy the
未然形 あら author a beer
(or coffee)!
連用形 あり
連体形 ある
已然形 あれ
命令形 あれ

Special verbs: だ
 base form
未然形 だろ Preface
The syntax
連用形 で (だつ)
The kana
終止形 だ The basics --
Writing the
連体形 な kana --
Pronouncing
已然形 なら Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
differences --
Special verbs: です Writing
spoken
Japanese
base form
Katakana
未然形 でしょ specific --
Punctuation
連用形 でし and writing --
Kanji
連体形 です Types of Kanji -
-
Writing Kanji --
Special verbs: ます Reading kanji:
furigana --
Reading quirks:
compound
base form words --
Looking up
未然形 ませ (ましょ) kanji --
Styles --
連用形 まし Words and
word classes
連体形 ます
Articles --
Verbs --
已然形 ますれ Nouns --
Pronouns --
命令形 ませ (まし) Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Particles --
Verbal adjectives Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
base how to form Compound
words --
語幹 Remove the い from the dictionary form. Sentence
structure
未然形 語幹 + く
Word order --
連用形 語幹 + く Emphasis --
Pitch and
連体形 語幹 + い accents
已然形 語幹 + けれ Gender roles
Context
(命令形 語幹 + かれ) language
Verb

Special bases for 御座る

ござ grammar
More
grammar
Particles
base form Counters
未然形 ござら and counting
Language
連用形 ござい patterns
Conjugation
連体形 ござる Schemes
已然形 ござれ Set phrases
Glossary
命令形 ござい

Special bases for いらっしゃる

base form
未然形 いらっしゃら
連用形 いらっしゃい Liked this
book?
連体形 いらっしゃる Buy the
author a beer
已然形 いらっしゃれ (or coffee)!
命令形 いらっしゃい

Special bases for おっしゃる

base form
未然形 おっしゃら
連用形 おっしゃい
 連体形 おっしゃる
已然形 おっしゃれ Preface
The syntax
命令形 おっしゃい
The kana
The basics --

Special bases for 下 さる

くだ Writing the
kana --
Pronouncing
Japanese --
Hiragana and
base form katakana
differences --
未然形 下さら
Writing
連用形 下さい spoken
Japanese
連体形 下さる Katakana
specific --
已然形 下され Punctuation
and writing --
命令形 下さい Kanji
Types of Kanji -
-
Special bases for なさる Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
furigana --
Reading quirks:
base form compound
words --
未然形 なさら Looking up
kanji --
連用形 なさい Styles --
Words and
連体形 なさる word classes
已然形 なされ Articles --
Verbs --
命令形 なさい Nouns --
Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
Conjugation schemes Adverbs --
Particles --
Prefixes --

Regular verbs: 五段 verbs

ごだん Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Compound
words --
Contractions in the inflections are indicated with (c) Sentence
structure
inflection formality affirmative negative Word order --
Emphasis --
present informal 連体形 未然形 + ん Pitch and
accents
未然形 + ない
Gender roles
formal 連用形 + ます 連用形 + ません Context
language
past informal 連用形 + た (c) 未然形 + なかった
Verb
formal 連用形 + ました 連用形 + ませんでした grammar
More
て form informal 連用形 + て (c) 未然形 + ないで grammar
Particles
未然形 + なくて
Counters
formal 連用形 + まして 連用形 + ませんで and counting
Language
past conditional informal 連用形 + たら (c) 未然形 + なかったら patterns
Conjugation
formal 連用形 + ましたら 連用形 + ませんでしたら Schemes
representative informal 連用形 + たり (c) 未然形 + なかったり Set phrases
Glossary
formal 連用形 + ましたり 連用形 + ませんでしたり
pseudo-future informal 未然形 + う (c) 連体形 + まい
formal 連用形 + ましょう 連用形 + ますまい
past pseudo-future informal 連用形 + たろう (c) 未然形 + なかったろう
formal 連用形 + ましたろう 連用形 + ませんでしたろう
presumptive plain 連体形 + だろう 未然形 + ないだろう
Liked this
polite 連体形 + でしょう 未然形 + ないでしょう book?
Buy the
past presumptive plain 連用形 + ただろう (c) 未然形 + なかっただろう author a beer
(or coffee)!
polite 連用形 + たでしょう (c) 未然形 + なかったでしょう
hypothetical neutral 已然形 + ば 未然形 + なければ
emphatic 連体形 + なら 未然形 + ないなら
formal(1) 連用形 + ませば 連用形 + ませんなら
formal(2) 連用形 + ますれば
commanding informal 命令形 連体形 + な
連用形 + な 未然形 + ないで
 連用形 + なさい (連用形 + なさるな)
お + 連用形 + なさい お + 連用形 + Preface
The syntax
なさらないで
The kana
very formal お + 連用形 + お + 連用形 + The basics --
Writing the
なさいませ なさいますな kana --
Pronouncing
くだ
Japanese --
requesting neutral 連用形 + 未然形 + ないで 下 さい Hiragana and
くだ katakana
て 下 さい (c) differences --
Writing
formal お + 連用形 + お + 連用形 + spoken
くだ くだ Japanese
なさって 下 さい なさらないで 下 さい Katakana
specific --
passive, honorific, informal 未然形 + れる 未然形 + れない Punctuation
and writing --
potential formal 未然形 + れます 未然形 + れません Kanji
え
short potential informal 連用形 + 得る (c) 連用形 + えない (c) Types of Kanji -
-
Writing Kanji --
formal 連用形 + えます (c) 連用形 + えません (c) Reading kanji:
furigana --
causative informal 未然形 + せる 未然形 + せない Reading quirks:
compound
formal 未然形 + せます 未然形 + せません words --
Looking up
causative passive informal 未然形 + せられる 未然形 + せられない kanji --
Styles --
formal 未然形 + せられます 未然形 + せられません Words and
word classes
humble I お + 連用形 + する お + 連用形 + しない Articles --
Verbs --
お + 連用形 + します お + 連用形 + しません Nouns --
いた いた Pronouns --
II お + 連用形 + 致 す お + 連用形 + 致 さない Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
いた いた Adverbs --
お + 連用形 + 致 します お + 連用形 + 致 しません Particles --
Prefixes --
honorific I お + 連用形 + に + なる お + 連用形 + に + Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
ならない Compound
words --
お + 連用形 + に + お + 連用形 + に + Sentence
structure
なります なりません
Word order --
Emphasis --
II お + 連用形 + なさる お + 連用形 + なさらない
Pitch and
お + 連用形 + お + 連用形 + なさいません accents
Gender roles
なさいます お + 連用形 + なさいません
Context
language

Regular verbs: 一段 verbs

いちだん
Verb
grammar
More
inflection formality affirmative negative grammar
Particles
present informal (未然形 + ぬ) Counters
and counting
連体形 未然形 + ない
Language
formal 連用形 + ます 連用形 + ません patterns
Conjugation
past informal 連用形 + た 未然形 + なかった Schemes
Set phrases
formal 連用形 + ました 連用形 + ませんでした Glossary
て form informal 連用形 + て 未然形 + ないで
未然形 + なくて
formal 連用形 + まして 連用形 + ませんで
past conditional informal 連用形 + たら 未然形 + なかったら
formal 連用形 + ましたら 連用形 + ませんでしたら
representative informal 連用形 + たり 未然形 + なかったり
Liked this
formal 連用形 + ましたり 連用形 + ませんでしたり book?
Buy the
pseudo-future informal 未然形 + よう 未然形 + まい author a beer
(or coffee)!
formal 連用形 + ましょう 連用形 + ますまい
past pseudo-future informal 連用形 + たろう 未然形 + なかったろう
formal 連用形 + ましたろう 連用形 + ませんでしたろう
presumptive plain 連体形 + だろう 未然形 + ないだろう
polite 連体形 + でしょう 未然形 + ないでしょう
past presumptive plain 連用形 + ただろう 未然形 + なかっただろう
polite
 連用形 + たでしょう 未然形 + なかったでしょう
hypothetical neutral 已然形 + ば 未然形 + なければ Preface
The syntax
emphatic 連体形 + なら 未然形 + ないなら
The kana
very formal 連用形 + ませば 連用形 + ませんなら The basics --
Writing the
連用形 + ますれば kana --
Pronouncing
commanding informal 命令形 + よ Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
命令形 + ろ 連体形 + な differences --

連用形 + な 未然形 + ないで Writing

spoken
連用形 + なさい (連用形 + なさるな) Japanese
Katakana
formal お + 連用形 + なさい お + 連用形 + specific --
Punctuation
なさらないで and writing --
Kanji
very formal お + 連用形 + お + 連用形 +
Types of Kanji -
なさいませ なさいますな -
Writing Kanji --
くだ くだ Reading kanji:
requesting neutral 連用形 + て 下 さい 未然形 + ないで 下 さい furigana --
Reading quirks:
formal お + 連用形 + お + 連用形 + compound
words --
くだ くだ
Looking up
なさって 下 さい なさらないで 下 さい kanji --
Styles --
passive, honorific, informal 未然形 + られる 未然形 + られない Words and
potential formal 未然形 + られます 未然形 + られません word classes
Articles --
causative informal 未然形 + させる 未然形 + させない Verbs --
Nouns --
formal 未然形 + させます 未然形 + させません Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
causative passive informal 未然形 + させられる 未然形 + させられない Adverbs --
Particles --
formal 未然形 + させられます 未然形 + させられません Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
humble I お + 連用形 + する お + 連用形 + しない and mimesis --
Compound
お + 連用形 + します お + 連用形 + しません words --
いた いた Sentence
II お + 連用形 + 致 す お + 連用形 + 致 さない structure
いた いた Word order --
お + 連用形 + 致 します お + 連用形 + 致 しません Emphasis --
Pitch and
honorific I お + 連用形 + に + なる お + 連用形 + に + accents
ならない Gender roles
Context
お + 連用形 + に + お + 連用形 + に + language
なります なりません Verb
grammar
II お + 連用形 + なさる お + 連用形 + なさらない More
grammar
お + 連用形 + お + 連用形 +
Particles
なさいます なさいません Counters
and counting
Language
Irregular verbs: する (ずる/じる) patterns
Conjugation
Schemes
inflection formality affirmative negative Set phrases
Glossary
present informal せ—未然形 + ん
連体形 未然形 + ない
formal 連用形 + ます 連用形 + ません
past informal 連用形 + た 未然形 + なかった
formal 連用形 + ました 連用形 + ませんでした
て form informal 連用形 + て 未然形 + ないで
Liked this
未然形 + なくて book?
Buy the
formal 連用形 + まして 連用形 + ませんで
author a beer
past conditional informal 連用形 + たら 未然形 + なかったら (or coffee)!

formal 連用形 + ましたら 連用形 + ませんでしたら

representative informal 連用形 + たり 未然形 + なかったり
formal 連用形 + ましたり 連用形 + ませんでしたり
pseudo-future informal 未然形 + よう 連体形 + まい
formal 連用形 + ましょう 連用形 + ますまい
past pseudo-future informal 連用形 + たろう 未然形 + なかったろう
 formal 連用形 + ましたろう 連用形 + ませんでしたろう
presumptive plain 連体形 + だろう 未然形 + ないだろう Preface
The syntax
polite 連体形 + でしょう 未然形 + ないでしょう
The kana
past presumptive plain 連用形 + ただろう 未然形 + なかっただろう The basics --
Writing the
polite 連用形 + たでしょう 未然形 + なかったでしょう kana --
Pronouncing
hypothetical neutral 已然形 + ば 未然形 + なければ Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
emphatic 連体形 + なら 未然形 + ないなら differences --

formal (1) 連用形 + ませば 連用形 + ませんなら Writing

spoken
formal (2) 連用形 + ますれば Japanese
Katakana
commanding informal せ-命令形 + よ specific --
Punctuation
し-命令形 + ろ 連体形 + な and writing --
Kanji
連用形 + な 未然形 + ないで
Types of Kanji -
formal なさい なさらないで -
Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
(なさるな) furigana --
Reading quirks:
formal (2) なさいませ なさいますな compound
くだ words --
requesting neutral 連用形 + て 下 さい 未然形 + ないで下さい Looking up
kanji --
Styles --
formal なさって下さい なさらないで下さい
Words and
passive, honorific informal see note 〜れない word classes
Articles --
formal 〜れます 〜れません Verbs --
Nouns --
causative informal see note 〜せない Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
formal 〜せます 〜せません Adjectives --
Adverbs --
causative passive informal see note 〜せられない Particles --
Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
formal 〜せられます 〜せられません and mimesis --
Compound
words --
inflection replacement verb
いた Sentence
humble 致す structure
Word order --
honorific なさる Emphasis --
でき Pitch and
potential 出来る accents

来る)
Gender roles
Irregular verbs: くる ( Context
language
Verb
inflection formality affirmative negative grammar
More
present informal 未然形 + ん (ぬ) grammar
連体形 未然形 + ない Particles
Counters
formal 連用形 + ます 連用形 + ません and counting
Language
past informal 連用形 + た 未然形 + なかった patterns
formal 連用形 + ました 連用形 + ませんでした Conjugation
Schemes
て form informal 連用形 + て 未然形 + ないで Set phrases
Glossary
未然形 + なくて
formal 連用形 + まして 連用形 + ませんで
past conditional informal 連用形 + たら 未然形 + なかったら
formal 連用形 + ましたら 連用形 + ませんでしたら
representative informal 連用形 + たり 未然形 + なかったり
formal 連用形 + ましたり 連用形 + ませんでしたり
Liked this
pseudo-future informal 未然形 + よう 未然形 + まい book?
Buy the
formal 連用形 + ましょう 連用形 + ますまい author a beer
(or coffee)!
past pseudo-future informal 連用形 + たろう 未然形 + なかったろう
formal 連用形 + ましたろう 連用形 + ませんでしたろう
presumptive plain 連体形 + だろう 未然形 + ないだろう
polite 連体形 + でしょう 未然形 + ないでしょう
past presumptive plain 連用形 + ただろう 未然形 + なかっただろう
polite 連用形 + たでしょう 未然形 + なかったでしょう
hypothetical neutral 已然形 + ば 未然形 + なければ
 emphatic 連体形 + なら 未然形 + ないなら
formal (1) 連用形 + ませば 連用形 + ませんなら Preface
The syntax
formal (2) 連用形 + ますれば
The kana
commanding informal 命令形 連体形 + な The basics --
Writing the
連用形 + な 未然形 + ないで kana --
Pronouncing
連用形 + なさい (連用形 + なさるな) Japanese --
Hiragana and
い katakana
formal お + 出で + なさい differences --
い い Writing
very formal お + 出で + なさいませ お + 出で + なさいますな spoken
くだ くだ Japanese
requesting 連用形 + て 下 さい 未然形 + ないで 下 さい Katakana
specific --
passive, honorific informal 未然形 + られる 未然形 + られない Punctuation
and writing --
potential formal 未然形 + られます 未然形 + られません Kanji
causative informal 未然形 + させる 未然形 + させない Types of Kanji -
-
formal 未然形 + させます 未然形 + させません Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
furigana --
causative passive informal 未然形 + させられる 未然形 + させられない Reading quirks:
compound
formal 未然形 + させられます 未然形 + させられません words --
Looking up
kanji --
inflection replacement verb Styles --
まい
Words and
humble 参る word classes
honorific いらっしゃる Articles --
Verbs --
Nouns --
Pronouns --
Special verbs: ある Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Contractions in the inflections are indicated with (c), standard Japanese indicated with (標準語). Particles --
Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
inflection formality affirmative negative and mimesis --
Compound
present informal ない (標準語), 未然形 + ない words --
Sentence
formal 連用形 + ます 連用形 + ません structure

past informal 連用形 + た (c) なかった Word order --

Emphasis --
formal 連用形 + ました 連用形 + ませんでした Pitch and
accents
て form informal 連用形 + て (c) なくて Gender roles
formal 連用形 + まして 連用形 + ませんで Context
language
past conditional informal 連用形 + たら (c) なかったら Verb
grammar
formal 連用形 + ましたら 連用形 + ませんでしたら
More
representative informal 連用形 + たり (c) なかったり grammar
Particles
formal 連用形 + ましたり 連用形 + ませんでしたり Counters
and counting
pseudo-future informal 未然形 + う (c) 連体形 + まい
Language
formal 連用形 + ましょう 連用形 + ますまい patterns
Conjugation
past pseudo-future informal 連用形 + たろう (c) なかったろう Schemes
Set phrases
formal 連用形 + ましたろう 連用形 + ませんでしたろう Glossary
presumptive plain 連体形 + だろう なかろうないだろう
polite 連体形 + でしょう ないでしょう
past presumptive plain 連用形 + ただろう (c) なかっただろう
polite 連用形 + たでしょう (c) なかったでしょう
hypothetical neutral 已然形 + ば なければ
emphatic 連体形 + なら ないなら
Liked this
formal (1) 連用形 + ませば 連用形 + ませんなら book?
Buy the
formal (2) 連用形 + ますれば author a beer
(or coffee)!
commanding informal 命令形
passive, honorific informal 未然形 + れる 未然形 + れない
potential formal 未然形 + れます 未然形 + れません
え
short potential informal 連用形 + 得る 連用形 + えない
formal 連用形 + えます 連用形 + えません
causative informal 未然形 + せる 未然形 + せない
formal 未然形 + せます 未然形 + せません
 causative passive informal 未然形 + せられる 未然形 + せられない
Preface
formal 未然形 + せられます 未然形 + せられません
The syntax
inflection replacement verb The kana
The basics --
polite ござる Writing the
kana --
Pronouncing
Special verbs: だ/です Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
differences --
inflection politeness affirmative negative Writing
spoken
present plain だ じゃない Japanese
ではない Katakana
specific --
polite です じゃありません Punctuation
and writing --
ではありません Kanji
Types of Kanji -
past plain だった じゃなかった -
Writing Kanji --
ではなかった Reading kanji:
furigana --
polite でした じゃありませんでした Reading quirks:
compound
ではありませんでした words --
Looking up
kanji --
て form plain だって じゃなくて Styles --

ではなくて Words and

word classes
polite でして じゃありませんでして Articles --
Verbs --
ではありませんでして Nouns --
Pronouns --
past conditional plain だったら じゃなかったら Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
Adverbs --
ではなかったら Particles --
Prefixes --
polite でしたら じゃありませんなら Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
ではありませんなら Compound
words --
representative plain だったり じゃなかったり Sentence
structure
ではなかったり
Word order --
polite でしたり じゃありませんでしたり Emphasis --
Pitch and
ではありませんでしたり accents

pseudo-future plain だろう じゃなかろう Gender roles

Context
ではなかろう language

じゃないだろう Verb
grammar
ではないだろう More
grammar
polite でしょう じゃありませんでしょう Particles
Counters
ではありませんでしょう and counting
past pseudo-future plain だったろう じゃなかったろう Language
patterns
ではなかったろう Conjugation
Schemes
polite でしょう じゃありませんでしょい Set phrases
ではありませんでしょう Glossary

hypothetical I なら じゃなければ
II ならば ではなければ

Note that these verbs have special humble and honorific counterparts. For the humble copula, で+ござる is used, and for
the honorific copula, で+いらっしゃる is used. The verbs for these forms have special bases, which are listed in their own
section.
Liked this
Special verbs: ます book?
Buy the
author a beer
(or coffee)!
inflection affirmative negative
present 連体形 未然形 + ん
past 連用形 + た 未然形 + んでした
て form 連用形 + て 未然形 + んで
past conditional 連用形 + たら 未然形 + んでしたら
representative 連用形 + たり 未然形 + んでしたり
pseudo-future ましょう 未然形 + んでしょう
 past pseudo-future 連用形 + たろう 未然形 + んでしたろう
hypothetical 未然形 + ば 未然形 + んなら Preface
The syntax
已然形 + ば
The kana
commanding 命令形 The basics --
Writing the
kana --
Verbal adjectives Pronouncing
Japanese --
Hiragana and
Contractions in the inflections are indicated with (c) katakana
differences --
Writing
inflection formality affirmative negative spoken
present informal 連体形 未然形 + ない Japanese
Katakana
formal 連体形 + です 連用形 + ありません specific --
Punctuation
past informal 連用形 + あった (c) 未然形 + なかった and writing --
Kanji
formal 連用形 + ありませんでした
Types of Kanji -
-
て form informal 連用形 + て 未然形 + ないで Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
formal 未然形 + なくて furigana --
Reading quirks:
past conditional informal 連用形 + あったら (c) 未然形 + なかったら compound
words --
formal 連用形 + ありませんでしたら Looking up
kanji --
Styles --
pseudo-future informal 連用形 + あろう (c) 未然形 + なかろう
Words and
未然形 + ないだろう word classes
Articles --
formal 連体形 + でしょう 未然形 + ないでしょう Verbs --
Nouns --
連用形 + ありませんでしょう Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
past pseudo- informal 連用形 + あったろう(c) 未然形 + なかったろう Adjectives --
Adverbs --
future 未然形 + なかっただろう Particles --
Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
formal 連用形 + 未然形 + なかったでしょう and mimesis --
Compound
あったでしょう (c) 連用形 + ありませんでしたろう words --
Sentence
hypothetical neutral 已然形 + ば 未然形 + なければ
structure
emphatic 連体形 + なら 未然形 + ないなら Word order --
Emphasis --
commanding informal 連用形 + あれ (c) Pitch and
accents
Gender roles
Classical adverb form
Context
language
い
The following table shows the rules for using verbal adjectives as adverbs to classical verbs such as ござる and 出でる. Verb
grammar
More
adjective written as ... becomes ... grammar
語幹 ending in an あ-row syllable + い 語幹 ending in an お-row syllable + う Particles
Counters
語幹 ending in an い-row syllable + い 語幹 ending in an い-row 'ゆ' glide and counting
Language
語幹 ending in an う-row syllable + い the same 語幹 + う patterns
語幹 ending in an お-row syllable + い the same 語幹 + う Conjugation
Schemes
Set phrases
Glossary
Set phrases
Every language has its set phrases for things like thanking people, or excusing yourself, or phrases that are used
idiomatically, meaning something other than what the words would literally imply, such as telling someone to "take a chair"
or "make themselves at home". This appendix lists several common Japanese phrases, and per phrase gives the grammatical
decomposition that can be made given all the material that has been presented in this book, with the phrases being ordered
according to Japanese custom (starting at あ through お, and ending at ん).

上がって 下 さい — Please come in

あ くだ Liked this
book?
Buy the
author a beer
(or coffee)!
Coming from the verb 上がる (あがる), this sentence literally says "please be raised". Its non-literal meaning comes from
the fact that the traditional Japanese house has a raised floor at the entrance, where one takes off one's shoes and steps up
into the house itself.

有 難 御座います — Thank you

あり がと
う
ご ざ

As mentioned in the adjective section, this is an example of classical adjective pronunciation, and is actually a long chain of
conjugations:

がた
 がた
ある in 連用形 + 難 い in classical pronunciation + ござる in 連用形 + ます
↓ Preface
あり + がとう + ござい + ます The syntax
↓ The kana
ありがとうございます The basics --
Writing the
kana --
This literally means "this is a difficult thing to accept", stemming from the concept of becoming indebted to someone who Pronouncing
helps you. As becoming (further) indebted to someone is always a hard thing to accept, this phrase is used instead of a Japanese --
Hiragana and
separate word for thanking. katakana
differences --
There are various ways to use this sentence, the most indebting being どうもありがとうございます, which adds the word Writing
spoken
どうも to the phrase, meaning "in all possible ways", coming from the question pronoun どう (how, in what way) and the Japanese
generalising pronoun suffix も. Katakana
specific --
Punctuation
Still formal indebting is あ り が と う ご ざ い ま す . Just あ り が と う , however, is not polite. It comes down to saying and writing --
"thanks", and pays improper respect to people who do something for you and are of higher social status. Never just say あり Kanji
がとう to your teacher for instance. Always use ありがとうございます. Types of Kanji -
-
Writing Kanji --
This expression can either be used in present, or future, tense (ありがとうございます) or it can be used in past tense (あり Reading kanji:
furigana --
がとうございました), with the difference lying in when the thanking is being done: if it is after the fact, ありがとうござ Reading quirks:
compound
いました will be used, and if it's either prior to, or during whatever we're being thankful for, ありがとうございます is words --
Looking up
used. kanji --
Styles --

いいえ — Disagreement Words and

word classes
Articles --
The Japanese version of "no". Alternatives to いいえ are the more colloquial ううん, and the more emphatic いや. Verbs --
Nouns --
Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
いけない — Oh no, this won't do Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Particles --
This word is often used to express that something will not do, is about to be done wrong, or is at this very moment going Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
wrong. It's technically the short potential form of 行く, 行ける, and literally means "this cannot go". Used in this way, it is and mimesis --
Compound
typically written in hiragana only. words --
Sentence
いただきます — Said when one is about to eat structure
Word order --
Emphasis --
This statement literally means "I will accept [this]", in the receiving meaning of accept, and is used when one is about to eat Pitch and
in the company of others. This is similar to, for instance, the Christian practice of giving thanks for the food about to be accents
received, but without the religious aspect. When one is done eating, one uses ごちそうさまでした to indicate that one is Gender roles
done. Context
language

行
い
って 来ます — I will go and come back
き
Verb
grammar
More
This is said when one leaves a place that one expects to come back to. The most obvious example is when one goes off for grammar
one's job or school in the morning, when it is used to say goodbye to whoever is still in the house. The standard reply, if Particles
warranted, is いってらっしゃい. Counters
and counting
Language
いって(い)らっしゃい — Said when someone who will return, leaves. patterns
Conjugation
Schemes
い き
Literally this is the honorific version of the command 行って来て, "go and come back", where the speaker tells the listener Set phrases
to go on their business and come back afterwards. This phrase is said to people who are leaving a place where they are Glossary

expected to return, such as their house, typically in response to 行ってきます. The first い in the いらっしゃい part of い
ってらっしゃい is typically omitted after a て form, similar to how the い in いる is typically omitted when used with the
て form.

いらっしゃいませ — Be welcome

This is literally the commanding form of the honorific verb い ら っ し ゃ る , and is used by tenants to welcome their
Liked this
customers into their place of business. It doesn't technically mean "be welcome", but that's what it has come to be considered book?
to mean. Buy the
author a beer

帰 りなさい — Welcome back

かえ (or coffee)!
お

This phrase is the typical response to た だ い ま , and welcomes someone back home, or back to a place that can be
considered a base of departure, such as your office, when you went out for a power meeting with management and have
returned unscathed.

This phrase is technically the honorific commanding form of 帰る, "to return [to some base]":

お + 帰る in 連用形 + なさる in 命令形

 ↓
お + 帰り + なさい Preface
↓ The syntax
お帰りなさい The kana
The basics --

お 蔭様 で — Thanks to you
かげさま Writing the
kana --
Pronouncing
Japanese --
This phrase is a typical reply to the question お元気ですか ("how do you do?"), in which case it is usually preceded by an Hiragana and
katakana
affirmative such as は い . It is also used frequently in situations where someone receives praise from someone who differences --

contributed to whatever the praise is for. Traditionally, a 陰 — meaning "shadow" or "shadow figure" — is used to mean Writing
spoken
someone who acts as the unseen driving force behind other people. Literally, saying お蔭様で means "due to your being Japanese
like a shadow for me", and can be interpreted as "because of [your] contributing actions, [I am where I am now, at this Katakana
moment]". specific --
Punctuation
and writing --

お 元気で — Get better, stay well

げんき
Kanji
Types of Kanji -
-
This phrase can be considered the statement お元気でいて, "be well", with the いて left off. It is used as a general parting Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
phrase with people who you will not be seeing the very next day, such as when seeing an incidental friend off, as well as a furigana --
parting phrase for people who can use well-wishing, such as friends who seem a bit down. Reading quirks:
compound
words --

お 元気ですか — How are you?

げんき Looking up
kanji --
Styles --
Words and
This is a terribly misused phrase by people who start to take an interest in Japanese, who mistaken it for "hello". word classes
Articles --
お元気ですか literally asks "are you 元気", which means that it asks whether someone is feeling good about things in Verbs --
Nouns --
general. This is something you do not ask someone every day, but only when you haven't seen someone in a while, or when Pronouns --
there is a reason to ask them, such as when someone has just recovered from an illness. In this last case, the question may Nominalisers --
also be of the form もう元気ですか, meaning "are you 元気 again (already)?". Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Particles --
Prefixes --
元 気 の な い 人 , people who are not 元 気 , are typically depressed, gloomy, glum, down and out, and for all intents and Onomatopoeia
purposes a mood killer for everyone around them. Asking these people whether they are 元気 is a bit like driving home the and mimesis --
Compound
point that they aren't happy with a big pointy stick, so instead the phrase 元気ないみたいですね is typically used, carefully words --
remarking that they "do not seem very 元気". Sentence
structure

お 先 に — Said when leaving early

さき Word order --
Emphasis --
Pitch and
accents
Said when leaving earlier than you normally would (namely when everyone else leaves), お 先 に literally says "before
しつれい しつれい Gender roles
[you/everyone else]" and is short for お先に 失礼 します, itself short for お先に[...]、 失礼 します where the placehold is Context
some action taken at a time that would be considered inappropriate. This can be met with three responses, namely either a language
つか さま くろさま
set phrase such as お 疲 れ 様 でした, ご 苦労様 でした, or お先にどうぞ (in context typically translated as "okay" or Verb
grammar
"sure", rather than a literal "go ahead"). Or, of course, it might be met with surprise at the act of leaving early for no clear More
reason. grammar
Particles
お 邪魔します — Entering someone's house
じゃま
Counters
and counting
Language
The noun 邪魔 means obstruction or interference, and this sentence is a particularly good example of Japanese formality: patterns
this phrase is used when one is invited into a house. Courtesy demands that you indicate that even though you have been Conjugation
invited, you will intrude upon their home life by accepting this invitation and entering their house. Schemes
Set phrases
Because this phrase literally means "I'll be intruding", it can also be used when one really is intruding, such as breaking up Glossary
an intimate conversation because you need to talk to one of the conversationalists, or when barging in on people.

お 世話します — Treating someone

せわ

世話 means caring, in the giveable caring kind of way. Paired with する, the combination 世話(を)する means "to give care
to someone" in the positive sense, and is generally understood as meaning you will be treating someone to something. This
phrase is used, for instance, when picking up the tab for someone (this will naturally be paired with some refusal by the
treatee, and insistence on the part of the treater, but this is part of the Japanese process of doing things for people). Liked this
book?

お 世話になります — To be taken care of

せわ Buy the
author a beer
(or coffee)!

Pairing 世話 with the verb なる, "become", the combination 世話になる means "to be taken care of by someone" in the
positive sense. For instance, when someone is offering to do something for you like pay the bill after dinner, or take care of
you when you're sick and you wish to oblige them, you use the phrase お世話になります to indicate that you will be taken
care of in some way by them.

お 大事に(して) — Take care

だいじ

くだ
 くだ
大事 is a "valuable thing", in the figurative sense. When someone is told お大事にして 下 さい, they are told to "please act
in a way so that they are treating themselves as something valuable". This full sentence is often shortened to just お大事に. Preface
The syntax
For instance, when saying goodbye to someone who you will not see in a while, you typically wish them お大事に so that The kana
you may meet them again in good health at some point in the future. The basics --
Writing the
kana --

お 疲 様 (です/でした) — You've worked hard

つか
れ
さま Pronouncing
Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
お 疲 れ 様 literally means "the appearance of tiredness", and comes from the noun form of the verb 疲 れ る , "to tire", differences --
さま Writing
prefixed with the honorific お and suffixed with the more classical likeness suffix 様 . This statement is used when someone spoken
has performed a tiring job, or when one goes home after a day of working. Japanese
Katakana

腹 が空きました — Being hungry

なか す specific --
お Punctuation
and writing --
Kanji
One states that one is hungry by saying their stomach has become empty. Variations on this theme are the plain past tense Types of Kanji -
はら
-
instead of formal past tense お腹が空いた or with the subject marker omitted, お腹すいた. Colloquial versions are 腹 が Writing Kanji --
へ
Reading kanji:
減った (note the different pronunciation for 腹) or simply 腹減った. furigana --
Reading quirks:

願 いします — Please
compound
ねが
お words --
Looking up
kanji --
Styles --
Literally this phrase reads "(I) wish it", but is commonly interpreted as meaning "please" in the context of prompting Words and
someone to do something for you. It comes from the verb 願う, to wish: word classes
Articles --
お + 願う in 連用形 + する in 連用形 + ます Verbs --
Nouns --
↓ Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
お + 願い + します Adjectives --
↓ Adverbs --
Particles --
お願いします Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --

お 早 うございます — Good morning

はよ Compound
words --
Sentence
This phrase doesn't actually contain the word "morning" in any way, which explains why it's possible to use this phrase at structure
Word order --
later points in the day. Literally, this is the statement 早いです, only in humble classical form: Emphasis --
Pitch and
早い in classical form + 連用形 of ござる + ます accents
↓ Gender roles
おはよう + ござい + ます Context
↓ language
お早うございます Verb
grammar
This statement basically affirms that some meeting is reasonably early for when it occurs. For school goers, 8:30 am could More
grammar
be early; for bookmakers, 1 p.m. could be early. It all depends on when your daily routine day starts.
Particles

久 振りです — It's been a long time

ひさ ぶ Counters
お し and counting
Language
patterns
This phrase is actually grammatically quite interesting as it consists of a noun compound formed of the verbal adjective 久 Conjugation
しい, "long (timed)" and the verb 振る, "to end/give up", which as compound is turned into a noun and prefixed with the Schemes
Set phrases
honorific particle お, covering all the major word groups (verb, adjective, noun and particle) in a single term:
Glossary

お + 久しい as 語幹 + 振る in 連用形 (suffering from a voiced pronunciation as compound) + です

↓
お + 久し + ぶり + です
↓
お久し振りです

This phrase is used when a silence between two people is broken after some time, be this in writing, by virtue of a phone
call, or by actually seeing someone in person again. Liked this
book?
おめでとうございます — Congratulations Buy the
author a beer
(or coffee)!
Literally this phrase is a combination of めでたい (meaning auspicious) in classical form paired with ござる:

お + めでたい in classical form + ござる in 連用形 + ます

↓
お + めでとう + ございます
↓
おめでとうございます
This phrase can be used with a million and one words to congratulate on any number of things, usually following the て
form of descriptions of what the congratulations are offered for: Preface
けっこん The syntax
結婚 しておめでとうございます。 The kana
"Congratulations on getting married." The basics --
たんじょうび Writing the
誕生日 おめでとうございます。 kana --
Pronouncing
"Congratulations on your birthday." Japanese --
そつぎょう Hiragana and
卒業 しておめでとうございます。 katakana
differences --
"Congratulations on graduating."
Writing
spoken
et cetera, et cetera. Japanese
Katakana

お 休 みなさい — Good night

やす specific --
Punctuation
and writing --
Kanji
This phrase is said when one goes to bed, and is repeated by those who wish you a good night. It is technically the honorific
Types of Kanji -
commanding form of 休む, to rest, and is used to wish everyone else a good night too. -
Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
お + 休む in 連用形 + なさる in 命令形 furigana --
↓ Reading quirks:
compound
お + 休み + なさい words --
Looking up
↓ kanji --
お休みなさい Styles --
Words and

気を付けて( 下 さい) — Take care, Be careful

き つ くだ word classes
Articles --
Verbs --
Nouns --
Literally, this phrase instructs someone to apply 気, in this case best translated as "vigilance", to whatever it is they are, or Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
will be, doing. It is used when you wish someone to be careful, such as when they are about to do something potentially Adjectives --
dangerous — whether it's rewiring a wall socket, or heading out in a storm at midnight without a torch — or when they're Adverbs --
going to be in an environment that may be hazardous in some way — be it starting a school term at a new school, or going Particles --
Prefixes --
off to do your job as a fireman. Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --

苦労様(です/でした) — Job well done

くろうさま Compound
ご words --
Sentence
structure
Literally, this phrase doesn't say "well done" at all, but actually translates to "it would appear that you have exerted Word order --
considerable effort", 苦労 (くろう), with the fact that this was actually "good" effort only being implied by the fact that Emphasis --
you're not being told you've done a bad job instead. This phrase can be used whenever someone has finished doing a tough Pitch and
job, or has had a rough day, but is typically reserved as a response to those of equal or lower standing. accents
Gender roles
さき
This phrase is also used as a reply to お 先 に, when used by someone for whom it's okay to leave work before others do Context
language
(even if only by a few minutes). Colloquially the 様 in ご苦労様 can be replaced with さん, to create the more relaxed
Verb
sounding ご苦労さん. grammar
More

馳走様(でした) — Said when one is done eating

ちそうさま grammar
ご Particles
Counters
and counting
This expression has no usable translation because it's a customary saying. Literally this phrase means "it was a feast",
ちそう Language
stemming from the noun 馳走 which means banquet and all the things a banquet entails such as good food and decent patterns
さま Conjugation
entertainment, and the likeness suffix 様 . Schemes
Set phrases
This phrase is the counterpart to the customary saying いただきます, said prior to consuming anything in the company of Glossary
others.

ご 免 下 さい — Please excuse me
めん くだ

This phrase is used in two common settings. The first is when hanging up on a phone conversation when you are the one
hanging up, and the second is when you're entering a place which you know is someone else's, but you don't see anyone
around. Literally, 免 means dismissal, and this phrase asks for the listener to please dismiss your behaviour as it is
intrinsically rude.
Liked this
book?
ご 免 なさい — Please forgive me
めん
Buy the
author a beer
(or coffee)!
This construction is more oriented towards asking for forgiveness rather than just being excused. When you have done
something wrong, and you know you did, apologise with ごめんなさい.

This phrase is also used to turn down important offers, where the act of turning down the offer may lead to problems for the
other party (such as when someone is depending on you, or when someone confesses their love for you).

When being specific about what you are asking forgiveness for, ごめんなさい follows the description in て form:
た
ケーキを食べて、ごめんなさい。
 "I'm sorry for eating (your) cake."
Preface

今日 は — Good day
こんにち
The syntax
The kana
This is the particle は (pronounced わ), added to the noun 今日 meaning "day" (pronounced こんにち instead of きょう). The basics --
Writing the
It's technically an unfinished phrase just raising the topic of "today" and then saying absolutely nothing in regards to it, but kana --
this has become the standard way to say "good day" in Japanese. Pronouncing
Japanese --
Hiragana and

今晩 は — Good evening
こんばん katakana
differences --
Writing
spoken
Like こんにちは, this is just は added to 今晩, "this evening". Japanese
Katakana
specific --
さようなら — Farewell Punctuation
and writing --
さよう いとま もう Kanji
Realise the full meaning of this word before you use it: さようなら is short for 左様ならばお 暇 を 申 します, which is Types of Kanji -
old Japanese for "Things being as they are, I shall speak my farewells". The modern version, too, really does mean -
Writing Kanji --
"farewell" and not just a plain "good bye". There is a very explicit connotation that it will be a considerable time until the Reading kanji:
speaker will see again the person they're seeing off, if ever. furigana --
Reading quirks:

仕方がない — There is nothing (...) can do about it

compound
しかた
words --
Looking up
kanji --
Styles --
This phrase is quite often (and to the horror of many a translator) translated literally as "there is no helping it". Now, the Words and
number of times you will hear that phrase used in English is probably a very small number indeed, and as such this phrase is word classes
much better translated with "there's nothing [I/he/she/we] can do about it". Articles --
Verbs --
仕方 is a conceptual noun for a "something that can be done", and is an example of kanji being applied to a reading instead Nouns --
Pronouns --
of the other way around: this is actually the "way of doing" construction for する, し方, where し has been given the kanji Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
仕 , meaning doing/service. Variations on this theme involve omitting が , 仕 方 な い , or replacing し 方 with the more Adverbs --
いた Particles --
humble 致 し方, and ない with the more polite ありません, leading to statements such as 致し方がありません. Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia

失礼 しました — I have committed a rudeness

and mimesis --
しつれい
Compound
words --
Sentence
This is used as an excuse after the facts, when admitting that one has committed a rudeness. structure
Word order --

失礼 します — Excuse me
しつれい Emphasis --
Pitch and
accents
Gender roles
失 礼 literally means "a rudeness", and 失 礼 す る means to commit a rudeness. When one has to excuse oneself from
Context
somewhere, for instance, when one is talking to a superior and is called away for some reason, or one has to go before the language
conversation is truly over, this expression is used (in combination with the appropriate level of bowing) to indicate that one
Verb
is aware that one's actions will be somewhat rude. grammar
More
じゃあ、また — See you again (later) grammar
Particles
Counters
This phrase is an unfinished phrase that literally means "well then, again [some other time]", and is used as an informal and counting
goodbye when you expect to see each other again soon. The じゃあ comes from では, which in turn is short for それでは Language
patterns
meaning "with this" or "by this" as context. また (又) means "again", and so the whole sentence can be unwrapped to それ
あした あと Conjugation
で は 、 ま た [...], where the final part of the sentence can be things like 明日, "tomorrow", 後 で , "later", and so forth. Schemes
Because of all this dropping of terms, there are several statements that can be used which all mean the same thing, but Set phrases
varying in level of formality: Glossary

それでは、また後で。 formal polite

では、また後で。 formal polite
では、また。 casual polite
じゃあ、また。 informal
じゃ、また。 informal
Liked this
またね。 very informal book?
Buy the
author a beer

済みません — Thank you, Excuse me

す
(or coffee)!

A prime example that Japanese conceptualises certain things differently, すみません can actually mean "thank you" and
"excuse me" at the same time when used. While meaning a simple "excuse me" if used when (for instance) bumping into
someone in the street, it is also used when someone does something for you that will indebt you to them, such as catching
your hat and handing it back if the wind catches it, or fixing some typos in an email you had written. Using すみません in
these instances means both "thank you for doing this for me" as well as "I'm sorry to have caused you to do this for me" at
the same time.

す
 す
This is technically the polite negative of 済 む, "to end", indicating that the debt between the two parties involved remains
unsettled. Variations on the theme include the more colloquial すいません and very informal すまない and すまん. Preface
The syntax
When being specific about what you are thanking apologetically for, すみません follows the description in て form. The kana
The basics --
てつだ Writing the
手伝ってすみません。 kana --
Pronouncing
"Thank you for helping out, and sorry for somehow having made you do so." Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
そうですか — Is that so?, Really, I see, Aha differences --
Writing
spoken
This is a typical phrase that doesn't mean what it seems to mean, even if half the time it does. Much like how half the time
Japanese
when a Japanese person says はい, they won't mean "yes" but are only indicating they're listening, そうですか is used to Katakana
acknowledge that the speaker is still being listened to just as much as it's used to genuinely ask "is that so?". specific --
Punctuation
and writing --
Only the context of the conversation is an indicator whether it's just a polite way to show that someone is still being listened
to, or whether the listener is genuinely wondering about something said. Kanji
Types of Kanji -
-
そうですね — Showing agreement Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
furigana --
Reading quirks:
This phrase is often used when someone wants to emphatically agree in a conversation. It may also be used to indicate that compound
the speaker has heard what has just been said and will respond to it, similar to はい. Misinterpreting it can lead to quite a bit words --
Looking up
of confusion: kanji --
Styles --
お
A: もう終わってますか。 Words and
word classes
B: そうですね。まだ終わってません。 Articles --
Verbs --
A: "Have you finished yet?" Nouns --
B: "Ah, yes... not yet." Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
Here, B is first merely acknowledging that they heard the question, possibly even indicating that they think it's a good Adverbs --
question, and the real answer comes after そうですね. Particles --
Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
ただいま — I'm back, Right away Compound
words --
Sentence
There are three meanings to this phrase, although typically you will only be familiar with the first: when returning from structure
something that one had to leave for (at which point an いってきます would have been used), this phrase is used to signal Word order --
かえ Emphasis --
the return. It is usually met with お 帰 りなさい, an idiomatic expression translating to "welcome back".
Pitch and
accents
The second meaning is quite different. When given an order to perform some task, using た だ い ま as response Gender roles
idiomatically translates to "right away". This use is typical in settings where someone is commanded to do something, such Context
as in a master/servant relationship. language
いま Verb
Lastly, ただいま can also be used as a formal version of just 今 , meaning "now". In this meaning, you may also find it used grammar
a lot in the expression ただいまより[...], in which より is used in its classical (literary) meaning, being the same as the More
grammar
modern particle から, with the expression translating to "starting now", "as of now" or "from this moment on". Particles
Counters

頼 む — Please
たの and counting
Language
patterns
Conjugation
This is just the verb 頼 む , "to leave in someone's care", but is frequently used as an expression both when offloading Schemes
something to someone else (which can be considered quite rude), to mean "please do this for me", or when someone offers Set phrases
to do something for you and is giving off all the signals that they're being serious instead of being polite, as an implicit Glossary
"thank you".

どう 致 しまして - Don't mention it, you're welcome

いた

This phrase is used in response to an expression of gratitude. Similar to how in English one might be polite by responding to
"Thank you very much" with "you're welcome" or "it was my pleasure", this phrase acts as both an acknowledgement of the
gratitude, as well as an indicator that the gratitude should not be experienced to the degree that the person doing the thanking
is expressing (similar to how in English one might go "no, no, it was nothing").
Liked this
book?
Grammatically speaking this construction is the humble version of どうして, but idiomatically these two expressions mean
Buy the
wildly different things, with どういたしまして being used to acknowledge or waive gratitude, and どうして being used to author a beer
(or coffee)!
enquire the "why" of something.

どうした — What happened?

Being a combination of the pronoun どう, "how" or "in what way", and the past tense of する, this literally asks "by what
way did [...] happen?". However, it is interpreted to mean "what happened?", instead. ど う し た is a short question to
enquire what happened when someone seems upset, taken aback, or give off the impression that something happened that is
unusual. A more formal way to ask this, though also more effeminate, is どうかしましたか.
どうして(ですか) — Why?, How come?
Preface

This is the combination of どう, "how", and the verb する in て form. Using just どうして is technically an incomplete The syntax
sentence, and implies that it should be finished with whatever verb best describes the situation that is being questioned. For The kana
てつだ
The basics --
instance, if someone refuses to help, the full sentence could be どうして手伝わないんですか, "why won't you help?", but Writing the
just saying どうして is enough to act as question. kana --
Pronouncing
Japanese --
Hiragana and
どうぞ — Urging someone, If it pleases you, ... katakana
differences --
Writing
One of the power words in Japanese social language, どうぞ is used whenever you wish to politely urge someone to do spoken
Japanese
something. For instance, if one has just served tea to guests and wishes to urge the guests to start drinking, a ど う ぞ
Katakana
combined with a sweeping hand gesture at the cups will convey the message that they should start drinking. specific --
Punctuation
This word can frequently be heard in combination with urging requests, forming a more polite version of the request. For and writing --
あ
Kanji
instance, the earlier entry 上がって(ください) could be made more polite by turning it into どうぞ上がって(ください).
Types of Kanji -
-

どうぞお 先 に — After you

さき Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
furigana --
Reading quirks:
A common form of politeness in Japan (although arguably in any culture) is to repress your own feelings and desires so that compound
words --
others might benefit. Of the many ways in which this can be expressed, probably the most common way is letting other Looking up
people do something before you get a chance to do them, such as opening a door for someone else to pass through first, or kanji --
Styles --
letting someone else queue up before you queue up.
Words and
word classes
The phrase combines どうぞ with 先に ("before") in honorary form, translating to -- if we're translating the intention of the
Articles --
expression rather than the literal words -- "If it pleases [you], [allow me to let you do whatever I wanted to do] before [I do Verbs --
so, too]". Nouns --
Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
どうぞよろしく — Pleased to meet you Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Particles --
Prefixes --
"Pleased to meet you" is actually the "best cultural approximation" translation. The Japanese statement doesn't actually mean Onomatopoeia
"pleased to meet you" at all, but relies on knowing what よ ろ し く means. Being a noun derived from よ ろ し い , and mimesis --
Compound
"agreeable/acceptable", this statement literally says that the speaker hopes that everything that is the result of this meeting is words --
of a good nature. It's only used once, when you first meet someone in a setting where you will work together in some Sentence
capacity, and is more accurately described as saying "please treat me well in our future dealings". structure
Word order --
ねが
Emphasis --
The more formal version is どうぞよりしくお 願 い し ます, which adds the verb for "wishing" to the statement, thus
Pitch and
expressing a sincere wish to be treated favourably in the future. accents
Gender roles
The short form, just よろしく, can be used in a broader setting to indicate you will leave something to someone under the
たの Context
assumption that all will be well, and is similar to 頼 む in this use. language
Verb
grammar
なぜ(ですか) — Why? More
grammar
This is the most direct version of "why", and is a pure interrogative; it's short, and literally means "what reason". Being the Particles
most direct, it's also quite rude, and there is no polite way to use this word, so it's best to try and avoid using it at all. Counters
and counting
Because it is technically a noun, it can be used in a softer form using です, but even then this is still considered more direct
なん
Language
than asking the other two versions of "why" with です: 何 でですか or どうしてですか. patterns
Conjugation
Schemes

何 で(ですか) — Why?
なん
Set phrases
Glossary

This particular version of "why" is considered more direct than どうして, but less direct than なぜ. It is indirect in that it
literally asks "by which means [do you reason this way]?" or "by which means [did this situation arise]?", but is more direct
because it's shorter than どうして and thus sounds more curt.

喉 渇 いています — Being thirsty

のど
が
かわ

When one is thirsty in Japan, one doesn't say "I am thirsty" but instead uses the less direct statement "my throat is dry", Liked this
similar to how one could say "I am a bit parched" in English rather than saying "I'm a bit thirsty". book?
Buy the
author a beer
はい — Acknowledgement (or coffee)!

While generally understood to mean "yes", は い actually signifies acknowledgement in general — it can be used as an
acknowledging response to questions, in which case it means the same as "yes", but it can also be used to indicate that some
speaker is still being listened to. Like そうですね, this may lead to situations where はい can be interpreted as either:
わ
A: じゃあ、分かってますね。
B: はい。分かりません。
A: "So, (you) know (what this means), (don't you)."
 B: [acknowledges the question] "No."
Preface
Alternatives to はい are the more colloquial うん and the more explicitly acknowledging そう.
The syntax

始
はじ The kana
めまして — A formal greeting used when meeting someone for the first time The basics --
Writing the
kana --
Like どうして, this is technically an unfinished sentence, being the polite て form of 始める, "to start (something)", and Pronouncing
Japanese --
め
Hiragana and
comes from the original expression 初めてお目 にかかります literally translating to an acknowledgement that "this is the katakana
first time I have come before you". Consequently, 初めまして is used as a set phrase greeting when meeting someone for differences --

the first time. In a setting where there will be a lasting cooperation between you and whoever you say this to, the Writing
ねが spoken
conversation will typically steer towards どうぞよろしく or よろしくお 願 いします, depending on the whether you will Japanese
be potentially relying on the other person a lot. Katakana
specific --
Punctuation

腹 立つ — Getting upset
はら
が
た and writing --
Kanji
Types of Kanji -
This phrase literally means "to raise [my] stomach", and is used to indicate something causes genuine upset or upset anger. -
Like being hungry or thirsty, being upset, too, is typically indicated by describing the physical feeling. Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
furigana --

申 訳 ありません — Extreme apology

もう
し
わけ Reading quirks:
compound
words --
Looking up
kanji --
Literally this phrase reads "[this is] not [a situation in which] saying [something] [is appropriate]". Effectively it means "I Styles --
have no excuse [for what I have done]" and makes it clear that the speaker is genuinely at fault for something.
Words and
Grammatically decomposing the phrase, we see: word classes
Articles --
申す in 連用形 + meaning/reason nominaliser 訳 + formal polite negation of ある Verbs --
Nouns --
申し + 訳 + ありません Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
い Adjectives --
Variations on this theme involve more, or less, formal versions of the verbs "to say" and "be", such as 申し訳ない, 言 い訳 Adverbs --
Particles --
ない, 申し訳ございません, etc. Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
もしもし — Said when picking up the phone Compound
words --
Sentence
The story goes that this word was used because demons cannot pronounce it, and it would allow people to tell whether a real structure
もう もう
person had picked up the phone on the other end. Regardless of whether it's true (it's not, もしもし comes from 申 し 申 し, Word order --
Emphasis --
もう
from the humble verb 申 す), it makes for a nice story to tell people when they get curious about the phrase that the Japanese Pitch and
accents
use when they pick up the phone, or when it appears the signal has dropped during a conversation.
Gender roles
This phrase is also used to call someone's attention when they seem to be lost staring into the distance, similar to how one Context
might yell "helloooo?" to someone who seems to have started day dreaming, in English. language
Verb
grammar
Glossary More
grammar
Particles
Counters
Abstraction and counting
Language
A generalisation, either through simplification(s) or by omission(s) of some (or more) part(s). For instance, the concept of patterns
"friendship" is an abstraction from all the individual instances of people being friends (an abstraction by generalisation). Conjugation
Similarly, the concept of "walking" is an abstraction of the concerted effort of all the muscles moving in the human body to Schemes
effect that body walking on two legs (an abstraction by omission, because for "walking", all the unrelated information of Set phrases
muscles working, the brain balancing the body, the eyes determining the direction of travel, etc. is irrelevant), and the Glossary
Japanese kana are abstractions of Chinese characters (either by simplification in the case of hiragana, or omission in the case
of katakana).

Accent
Accent in speech is that part of a word that seems to jump out at the listener, placing more focus on one or more syllables
than on the rest of the word. For instance, the word "attention" has its accent on "ten" in English, while the accent lies on
"on" in French. Accents are typically in the form of a noticeably different pitch level or gradient for the syllable(s) in
question than for the rest of the word. Liked this
book?
Accusative Buy the
author a beer
(or coffee)!
In this book, 'accusative' is used in the natural language meaning, not the grammatical meaning, representing a construction
that accuses someone of something. The grammatical "accusative" form refers to the role of a direct object to a word that
can take such direct objects (which typically means verbs).

Active
The verb form that describes actions taking place in the world, as performed by someone or something. For instance "I
throw the ball" describes an activity performed by me. Contrast to "passive".

Adverb
Words that are used to describe the way in which a verb action or state is in effect. For instance, "To walk quickly" has the
adverb "quickly" describing the way in which "walking" is performed.
Preface
The syntax
Affirmative The kana
The basics --
A word or part of phrase that states ("asserts") something is the case. Contrast to "negative". Writing the
kana --
Pronouncing
Animate Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
The quality of things that allows us to say they are alive, or seem lifelike. This covers not just things like people or animals, differences --
but also things that seem to move on their own, or even things which possess a "lively" quality, such as an animate Writing
conversation. Contrast to "inanimate". spoken
Japanese

Article Katakana
specific --
Punctuation
A particular kind of word that references particular objects. In English, these are the indefinite articles "a" and "an" and the and writing --
definite article "the". Kanji
Types of Kanji -
-
Assertive Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
furigana --
Bold, confident, or even aggressively self-assured. Reading quirks:
compound
words --
Attributive Looking up
kanji --
Styles --
Attributing a particular quality to something. For instance, used attributively, the word "blue" in the phrase "The blue book" Words and
attributes the quality "blue" to the object "book". Common attributive word classes include the adjectives (attributing quality word classes
to nouns) and adverbs (attributing qualities to verbs). Articles --
Verbs --
Nouns --
Auxiliary verb Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
A verb that is used to give additional meaning to another verb. For instance, in the English phrase "I can do this", the verb Adverbs --
"can" is an auxiliary verb, combining with "do" to form a potential form, rather than a plain predicative form. These may Particles --
Prefixes --
also be referred to as 'helper verbs'. Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Compound
Binary words --
Sentence
Anything in which only two choices can be made, such as binary signals (high and low), binary numbers (zero or one) or structure
any arbitrary choice ("one or the other"). Notice that no choice is ever truly binary, since there is always the choice to not Word order --
pick either, and sometimes even allowing both to be picked, thus making binary choices secretly ternary choices, and Emphasis --
sometimes even quaternary choices. Pitch and
accents

Cardinal Gender roles

Context
language
A cardinal number differs from a normal number in that it refers to a number belonging to a particular set. Contrast this to
ordinal numbers, which indicate a number is part of some sequence. For example, if we have a collection of 10 marbles Verb
grammar
marked 1 through 10, then the marble with number 6 written on it has cardinal number 6. However, if we look at in which
More
order we can take the marbles out of some container and the marble marked with the number 6 is the first marble we pull grammar
out, then its ordinal number is 1 (because it's the first in the series of "drawn marbles"), but its cardinal number is still 6
Particles
(because it's still marble 6 in the collection of marbles).
Counters
and counting
Clause Language
patterns
A group of words that contain a subject and a predicate, but do not form a full sentence. Conjugation
Schemes
Set phrases
Cohortative Glossary

A word form or construction that suggests performing some action. In English, cohortatives are typically statements such as
"shall we ...?" or "let's ...".

Colloquial
Spoken conversation, usually used to mean the informal spoken version of a language, as contrasted to formal language.

Commanding Liked this

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A word form or construction that commands the listener or reader to perform some action. Contrast to "prohibiting". author a beer
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Comparative
A word form or form of phrase that compares one or more things to each other in some way.

Compound
A word that has been formed by combining two or more words.

Conditional
A word form or construction that indicates something is dependent on something else happening, or being a particular way.
The general description is in the form "If A, then B", with A representing a condition, and B representing the consequence
Preface
should the condition be met.
The syntax
The kana
Conjugation
The basics --
Writing the
A derived form of a verb, adjective or noun through inflection, either by modification, additions, or both. kana --
Pronouncing
Japanese --
Conjugational bases Hiragana and
katakana
differences --
A conjugational base is the most basic verbal "building block" in Japanese grammar, upon which all verbal inflections are Writing
みぜんけい れんよけい しゅうしけい
spoken
built. These are: 1) the 未然形, imperfect base, 2) the 連用形, continuative base, 3) the 終止形 , finalising base, 4) the Japanese
れんたいけい いぜんけい めいれいけい
連体形 , attributive base, 5) the 已然形, perfective base, and 6) the 命令形 , commanding base. Katakana
specific --
かていけい Punctuation
and writing --
Of these, the 終止形 is no longer used, and the 已然形 is also referred to as the 仮定形 (potential base) in modern Japanese,
as it is only used for hypothetical constructions. Kanji
Types of Kanji -
-
Connotation Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
furigana --
The commonly understood meaning of a word or phrase, rather than its literal meaning. For instance, "take a chair" connotes Reading quirks:
sitting down, rather than the literal taking of a chair. Contrast to "denotation". compound
words --
Looking up
Context kanji --
Styles --
Words and
All information, both explicit and implied, that indicates how to interpret pronouns and referential information in one or word classes
more sentences. Articles --
Verbs --
Nouns --
Continuative Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
An inflection indicating that the action represented by the inflected word is still in effect, either 'as is', or as part of a more Adverbs --
complex inflection. Particles --
Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
Contraction and mimesis --
Compound
words --
The phenomenon in which certain parts of speech get shortened by either dropping (series of) syllables or replacing series of Sentence
syllables with shorter, different syllables. An example of this in English is the word "cannot" being turned into "can't" structure
through omission. An example in Japanese is なければ being turned into なきゃ through a combination of omission and Word order --
Emphasis --
replacement.
Pitch and
accents
Contrasting Gender roles
Context
Showing two things as being different in one or more respects. The biggest possible contrast is called polar contrast, where language
two things are presented as opposites ('lying on opposite poles'), rather than merely differing. Verb
grammar
Copula More
grammar
Particles
A word or part of phrase used to define, or couple, things. In English, this is the verb "to be", which is used in definitions,
Counters
such as "the sky is blue". In Japanese, these are a large number of copulae, with the two words だ and です being the most and counting
used, for informal and formal coupling respectively. Language
patterns
Conjugation
Counter Schemes
Set phrases
A word used to indicate that a numerical statement should be considered as representing a count of some thing(s), rather Glossary
than a plain number.

Decomposition
Reducing compound constructions to their individual parts.

Deferred
Indirect. Liked this
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Denotation author a beer
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The literal meaning of a word or phrase. For instance, "take a chair" denotes actually physically taking a chair, and nothing
else. Contrast to "connotation".

Derogative
A word or phrase that suggests someone or something is worth less than they really are. Belittling, detracting, expressing
low opinion of.

Desirative
A word or phrase that expresses desires.
Preface
Diacritic The syntax
The kana
A mark or symbol added or attached to a letter or character to distinguish it from another of similar form.
The basics --
Writing the
Direct kana --
Pronouncing
Japanese --
Hiragana and
Not hiding one's true intentions behind suggestive phrasing or formality patterns, "speaking one's mind". katakana
differences --
Direct object Writing
spoken
Japanese
That part of phrase that receives the action of a transitive verb. For instance, in "I throw a ball" the word "ball" as direct
Katakana
object receives its action from the verb "throw". Contrast to "indirect object", compare to "subject". specific --
Punctuation
and writing --
Discourse Kanji
Types of Kanji -
The flow of a text or conversation, of such length that it deals with at least one context. -
Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
Distal furigana --
Reading quirks:
compound
Impersonal. words --
Looking up
kanji --
Dominant Styles --
Words and
That which is most important. Contrast to "subordinate". word classes
Articles --
Verbs --
Dubitative Nouns --
Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
A word or part of phrase that expresses doubt about some matter. Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Particles --
Effeminate Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
A word or part of phrase that is associated with being used predominantly by women. Contrast to "masculine". Compound
words --
Sentence
Emphatic structure
Word order --
A word or part of phrase that places emphasis on a matter. Emphasis --
Pitch and
accents
Existential
Gender roles

Referring to "being", either as a concrete or abstract thing. Context

language
Verb
Familiar speech grammar
More
A speech pattern used when talking to people whom you are intimately acquainted with. grammar
Particles
Counters
Formal speech and counting
Language
A speech pattern used when talking to people who you are not intimately acquainted with. Contrast to "informal speech". patterns
Conjugation
Formality Schemes
Set phrases
Glossary
A particular behavioural pattern used for the sake of procedure or decorum.

Future tense
A verb tense that indicates that something will occur in the future. In English, this uses the auxiliary verb "will". In
Japanese, this tense does not explicitly exist.

Genitive
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Expressing a word or part of phrase belongs to, or is specified by, another word or part of phrase. From the Latin "genitus", book?
meaning "begotten". Buy the
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Gerund
Using a verb in a way that acts as a noun. For instance, in the sentence "I like whistling", the verb "whistling" acts as
gerund, as it can be replaced with any other noun, while remaining a valid sentence.

Gerundive
A verb or verb phrase that that is being used as noun or noun phrase.

Glottal stop
A stop consonant, formed by briefly closing the glottis while attempting to speak anyway, followed by opening the vocal
cords to release the built up pressure.
Preface
The syntax
Grapheme The kana
The basics --
A collection of strokes that form an identifiable part of a kanji. All kanji are implicitly graphemes. Writing the
kana --
Pronouncing
Habitual Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
An act that is performed regularly, or some state that is regularly the case. differences --
Writing
Hepburn spoken
Japanese
Katakana
A phonetic romanisation scheme devised by the Reverend James Curtis Hepburn for his 1867 Japanese/English dictionary. specific --
This is a phonetic transcription system that approximates Japanese pronunciation in English. Punctuation
and writing --
Kanji
Hiragana
Types of Kanji -
-
The cursive Japanese sound script. Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
furigana --
Honorific Reading quirks:
compound
words --
A form of language in which one raises the perceived status of subjects. Looking up
kanji --
Styles --
Humble Words and
word classes
A form of language in which one lowers one's own projected status. Articles --
Verbs --
Nouns --
Imperative Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
Adverbs --
A word, part of phrase or full phrase that expresses a command or plea. Contrast to "prohibiting". Particles --
Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
Imperfect and mimesis --
Compound
words --
A verb form expressing that some action has not (yet) been performed, or some state is not (yet) the case.
Sentence
structure
Implication Word order --
Emphasis --
A statement that suggests that something is the case without explicitly saying this. Pitch and
accents

In-group Gender roles

Context
language
The group of people that in a particular setting are considered part of the same group that you are part of. The in-group is a
dynamic concept, and people who are part of one's in-group in one setting need not automatically be part of one's in-group Verb
grammar
in another setting. Contrast to "out-group".
More
grammar
Inanimate Particles
Counters
Anything that is not animate. and counting
Language
patterns
Indirect Conjugation
Schemes
Hiding one's true intentions by using suggestive phrasing and formality patterns. Contrast to "direct". Set phrases
Glossary
Indirect object
Those parts of phrase that indirectly receive the action of a transitive verb or are described as state by an intransitive verb.
For instance, in "Throw the ball to me", "me" is an indirect object to the verb "throw". There can be more than one indirect
object. Contrast to "direct object", compare to "subject".

Inflection
Modifying a verbal word to indicate its grammatical role. Liked this
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A speech pattern used when talking to people whom you are either familiar or intimately acquainted with. Contrast to
"formal speech".

Instrumentalis
A part of phrase that is used to indicate actions are performed by some indicated means. For instance, "We went to school by
car" has the word "by" acting as instrumentalis.

Intangible
Not being perceivable by any of the physical senses. Contrast to "tangible".
Preface
Intelligible The syntax
The kana
Something that can be understood.
The basics --
Writing the
Interpunction kana --
Pronouncing
Japanese --
Hiragana and
The use of punctuation marks in written language to indicate its structure. katakana
differences --
Interrogative Writing
spoken
Japanese
A word used to question something. In English these are words such as "who", "what", "where", "why", "when", "how", etc.
Katakana
specific --
Intimate Punctuation
and writing --
Kanji
Close or personal association or acquaintanceship.
Types of Kanji -
-
Intonation Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
furigana --
Reading quirks:
The way something is pronounced in terms of tonal progression. compound
words --
Looking up
Intransitive kanji --
Styles --
A verb category that indicates that a verb is used to describe states of (part of) the world, rather than actions that take place Words and
in it. Contrast to "transitive". word classes
Articles --
Verbs --
Intuit Nouns --
Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
Using one's intuition to determine what is going on. Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Particles --
Irregular verb Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
A verb that conjugates in a manner that does not follow the usual rules of conjugation. Compound
words --
Sentence
Kana structure
Word order --
The collective term for the hiragana and katakana scripts. Also used to refer to syllables from these scripts. Emphasis --
Pitch and
accents
Kanji
Gender roles

The Japanese version of Chinese characters. Note that not all kanji exist in the Chinese character set, and not all Chinese Context
language
characters exist in the Japanese character set.
Verb
grammar
Katakana More
grammar
The angular Japanese sound script. Particles
Counters
and counting
Kunrei Language
patterns
Short for "kunrei shiki" (訓令式), this is a syntactic romanisation scheme developed by the Japanese cabinet and officially Conjugation
in use in its current form since 1954. However, both in and outside of Japan, it is not as popular as the phonetic Hepburn Schemes
romanisation. Set phrases
Glossary
Masculine
A word or part of phrase that is associated with being used predominantly by men. Contrast to "effeminate".

Mimesis
Words that illustrate an aspect of the world. An example is the Japanese "kira kira" which represents a sparkling or
intermittently shining state. Compare to "onomatopoeia".
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A word or part of phrase that modifies or narrows down the definition of another word or part of phrase.

Mood
For verbs, mood is that aspect of a verb that indicates how the verb's subphrase relates to the rest of the sentence. In English,
common moods are "imperative", "subjective", and "indicative".

Negation
Indicating the absence or opposite of what something would otherwise mean.
Negative
Preface
A word or part of phrase that states ("asserts") that something is "not". The syntax
The kana
Nominaliser The basics --
Writing the
kana --
A word or part of phrase that changes the grammatical role of other words or parts of phrase into the one played by nominals Pronouncing
(nouns). Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
Nominalising differences --
Writing
Turning a word or part of phrase into a nominal. spoken
Japanese
Katakana
Nominals specific --
Punctuation
and writing --
The class of words that act as nouns.
Kanji
Types of Kanji -
Noun -
Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
A word class that is used to name a person, place, thing, quality, or action. furigana --
Reading quirks:
compound
Noun adjective words --
Looking up
kanji --
A word that can be used both as a noun on its own, or as an adjective, attributing some quality to other nouns. Styles --
Words and
word classes
Onomatopoeia
Articles --
Verbs --
A word that illustrates a sound made by something, such as the word "thunk" in the phrase "The rock went 'thunk' as it hit Nouns --
Pronouns --
the floor". Compare to "mimesis". Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Operative Particles --
Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
A word that is the focus of some effect, state or action. and mimesis --
Compound
words --
Ordinal Sentence
structure
A number representing some place in an ordered sequence or list. Word order --
Emphasis --

Out-group Pitch and

accents
Gender roles
Everyone who is not part of your in-group.
Context
language
Particles Verb
grammar
A class of words that are used to characterise words or parts of phrase as having a particular grammatical role. More
grammar
Part of phrase Particles
Counters
and counting
See "part of speech". Language
patterns
Part of speech Conjugation
Schemes
Set phrases
A word or collection of words that act as a single grammatical entity inside a phrase.
Glossary

Passive
The verb form that describes some state of (part of) the world, rather than some action taking place in it. For instance, the
sentence "the cake was eaten by the children" is in passive voice, as it describes the state of the cake (eaten) rather than the
action taken to effect this state. Contrast to "active".

Past tense
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The verb tense that indicates some state was the case, or some action took place, in the past. book?
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A verb tense that indicates the action described by the verb has been completed.

Personal zone
Refers to the conceptual locations available for referencing to. In English, there are two personal zones, namely "near me"
and "not near me", leading to the pronouns "here" and "there" or "this" and "that" respectively. In Japanese, there are three
personal zones, namely "near me", "near my conversational partner(s)" and "not near either of these two", leading to the
kosoado words "koko", "soko" and "asoko" or "kore", "sore" and "are" respectively.
Phonetic
Preface
Having to do with the way in which language is pronounced. The syntax
The kana
Pitch The basics --
Writing the
kana --
The perceived frequency (for speech usually described in terms of 'height' rather than physical waveform period length) of Pronouncing
sounds. Japanese --
Hiragana and
katakana
Plural differences --
Writing
The word form used to indicate multiple instances. spoken
Japanese
Katakana
Polarity specific --
Punctuation
and writing --
It indicates what a verb asserts. In English, as in Japanese, "affirmative" and "negative".
Kanji
Types of Kanji -
Postposition -
Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
A word that is added after another word or part of phrase to indicate its relation to the rest of the phrase. furigana --
Reading quirks:
compound
Potential words --
Looking up
kanji --
Indicating that some state or action is possible. Styles --
Words and
word classes
Predicative
Articles --
Verbs --
Attributing a particular quality to objects or concepts. Nouns --
Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
Prefix Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Particles --
Something that is added to the front of a word to change its meaning in some way. Contrast to "suffix". Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Compound
Preposition words --
Sentence
A word that is added before another word or part of phrase to indicate its relation to the rest of the phrase. structure
Word order --
Present tense Emphasis --
Pitch and
accents
The verb tense that indicates some state is the case, or some action is taking place, at this moment.
Gender roles
Context
Presumptive language
Verb
Expressing a belief about some matter without evidence to support the belief. grammar
More
Progressive grammar
Particles
Counters
Some action that is taking place, or "progressing", in the world, leading up to some resultant state. For instance, "the and counting
window is opening" is a progressive action, which will result in the window being in an opened state. Language
patterns
Prohibiting Conjugation
Schemes
Set phrases
Forbidding something. Contrast to "imperative" and "commanding".
Glossary

Pronoun
A word that takes the place of a noun in a sentence and refers to this replaced noun instead.

Pronunciation
The way language sounds when spoken.
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A verb form that is not a true future form, but has certain aspects of it. In Japanese, the pseudo-future does not indicate a (or coffee)!
future tense, but is only used when some verb may turn out to describe a state in the world or an action taking place in it at a
later time, such as a cohortative, dubitative or presumptive.

Punctuation
Symbols added to written text for visual separation, such as full stops, commas, quotation marks, etc.

Quantification
Expressing something as a quantity, either in numerical values or conceptual quantities such as "a little" or "a lot".
Radical
Preface
A kanji that can be used to index and look up other kanji with. There are 214 of these radicals, called the "classical radicals", The syntax
but many of these have one or more variations when used as graphemes in larger kanji, leading to roughly 400 graphemes
The kana
being used as radical.
The basics --
Writing the
Reserved speech kana --
Pronouncing
Japanese --
A form of speech where one exercises self-restraint, trying to keep one's thoughts and ideas to oneself, by stating matters as Hiragana and
katakana
impersonal possibility or as fact. differences --
Writing
Resultant state spoken
Japanese
Katakana
A state describing (part of) the world, that comes from a certain action having been performed. For instance, the act of specific --
opening the window leads to the resultant state of an open window. See "progressive". Punctuation
and writing --
Kanji
SOV
Types of Kanji -
-
A linguistic category for languages, indicating that in the full formal language model, sentences generally follow a "subject, Writing Kanji --
then verb object, then verb" order, such as Japanese. This category does not in any way indicate what valid sentences in such Reading kanji:
furigana --
a language look like, just that if there is a subject, it will generally come before a verb object or verb, and similarly that if Reading quirks:
there is a verb object, it will generally follow the subject but precede the verb, and if there is a verb, it will generally come compound
words --
last. Looking up
kanji --
Styles --
Stem
Words and
word classes
The part of a word that does not change when that word is inflected.
Articles --
Verbs --
Nouns --
Subphrase Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
Adjectives --
A section of a phrase that can act as a phrase on its own. Adverbs --
Particles --
Prefixes --
Subject Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Compound
The principal actor or performer in a verb phrase. words --
Sentence
Subordinate structure
Word order --
Emphasis --
That which is less important. Contrast to "dominant".
Pitch and
accents
Suffix Gender roles
Context
Something that is added to the end of a word to change its meaning in some way. Contrast to "prefix". language
Verb
Superlative grammar
More
grammar
The word that expresses the highest level of some quality. English superlatives are "best", "most", "highest", "largest",
Particles
"quickest", etc.
Counters
and counting
SVO Language
patterns
A linguistic category for languages, indicating that in the full formal language model sentences follow a subject, verb, object Conjugation
Schemes
order, such as English. This category does not in any way indicate what valid sentences in such a language look like, just
Set phrases
that if there is a subject, it will generally come before a verb or verb object, and similarly that if there is a verb, it will
Glossary
generally follow the subject, and if there is a verb object, it will generally follow the verb.

Syllabaries
The set of written characters of a language of which each character stands for a syllable.

Syllable
A unit of spoken language, typically of uniform duration.
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The compositional rules of a language, typically consisting of the rules for how to write sounds and interpunction, and how
to combine entities in the language in grammatically sound ways.

Tangible
Being perceivable by any of the five major physical senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste or touch), especially the sense of
touch. Contrast to "intangible".

Tense
Indicating the time frame in which the verb action takes place. For instance, past, present or future.
Preface
Tonal progression The syntax
The kana
The way pitch changes during pronunciation.
The basics --
Writing the
Topic kana --
Pronouncing
Japanese --
Hiragana and
At the sentence level, topic refers to the word(s) that describe(s) information that the rest of the sentence bears relation to. At katakana
the discourse ('full text') level, the topic describes the concepts that the whole text is about. differences --
Writing
Transitive spoken
Japanese
Katakana
A verb category that indicates verbs describing actions that are being performed by some actor, taking place in the world. specific --
Contrast to "intransitive". Punctuation
and writing --
Kanji
Transliteration
Types of Kanji -
-
The act of writing out a language in a script different from the one used in that language, without translating. Writing Kanji --
Reading kanji:
furigana --
Verbal Reading quirks:
compound
words --
Relating to verbs. Looking up
kanji --
Styles --
Verbal adjectives Words and
word classes
Words that act as adjectives, attributing some quality to nouns, which can be inflected to show tense, mood, and polarity in Articles --
Verbs --
the same way verbs can. Nouns --
Pronouns --
Nominalisers --
Verbs Adjectives --
Adverbs --
Particles --
Words that describe a particular state of (part of) the world, or actions taking place in it. Prefixes --
Onomatopoeia
and mimesis --
Voicing Compound
words --
Sentence
Vocalising sound, while having air pass through the vocal chords. For English this means tuning 'k' into 'g', 't' into 'd', 's' into
structure
'z', 'p' into 'b', and 'ch' into 'j'.
Word order --
Emphasis --
Volitional Pitch and
accents
Making a conscious choice or decision yourself, as opposed to being forced to make one, or having it made for you. Gender roles
Context
language
Verb
grammar
More
grammar
Particles
Counters
and counting
Language
patterns
Conjugation
Schemes
Set phrases
Glossary

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