Grammar
Practical guides on speaking, grammar, pronunciation, listening, and study planning, written for learners who want to use Japanese in real life.
Grammar · Page 10
Japanese Negative Forms Guide: Nai, Masen, Nakatta and Ja Nai Explained
Japanese negates verbs with nai in plain speech and masen in polite speech, puts those negatives into the past as nakatta and masen deshita, and negates nouns and na-adjectives with ja nai or de wa arimasen, while i-adjectives change their own ending to kunai.
13 min readJapanese Verb Groups: Ichidan, Godan and the Two Irregulars Explained
Japanese verbs fall into three groups, ichidan (ru-verbs), godan (u-verbs) and the two irregulars suru and kuru, and the group a verb belongs to decides how every one of its forms is built, so sorting verbs correctly is the first skill of conjugation.
13 min readKana at the End of a Sentence: Wondering Aloud and Soft Requests
Kana at the end of a sentence turns a statement into a wondering, so ma ni au ka na means I wonder if I'll make it, and the same ending softens requests, fills the pauses when you talk to yourself and marks a question you are not sure anyone needs to answer.
13 min readKedo at the End of a Sentence: Requests, Soft Disagreement and Openers
A sentence-final kedo is not an unfinished but; it hands the turn to the listener, so yoyaku shita n desu kedo means I have a reservation, over to you, and it is the standard way to open a request or a mild objection in spoken Japanese.
12 min readN Ja Nai Ka To Omou: How Japanese Speakers Hedge an Opinion
N ja nai ka to omou wraps an opinion in a rhetorical question, so the speaker suggests that something is probably the case without stating it outright, and it is the everyday way Japanese people offer a view they expect others to weigh.
13 min readTo Omou vs To Omotte Iru: Momentary Opinions and Held Beliefs in Japanese
To omou gives an opinion you are forming right now, while to omotte iru reports a belief you already hold, and Japanese keeps the two apart far more strictly than English keeps apart I think and I believe.
13 min readTte Iu Ka: How Japanese Speakers Correct Themselves Mid-Sentence
Tte iu ka, literally or should I say, is the spoken tool Japanese people use to swap a word for a better one, restart a sentence that went wrong and buy a second of thinking time without leaving an awkward silence.
12 min readHazu datta and Tsumori datta: Explaining Plans That Went Wrong in Japanese
Hazu datta says something was supposed to happen and did not, tsumori datta says you meant to do something and did not, and both are the natural way to explain a plan that went wrong without sounding like you are making excuses.
13 min readMitai na Kanji in Japanese: Describing the Feel of Places, People and Food
When Japanese speakers describe how a place, a person or a dish feels rather than what it is, they reach for mitai na, tte kanji and kanji ga suru, casual comparisons that say it is like this without committing to a hard fact.
13 min readNakya and Nakucha in Japanese: How Natives Say 'I Have To' in Casual Speech
In everyday Japanese speech, nakereba naranai almost always shrinks to nakya, nakucha or nai to, and very often the sentence simply stops there: ikanakya, I have to go, is a complete and natural utterance.
13 min readToka and Nanka in Japanese: The Vague Words That Make You Sound Natural
Toka, nanka and their relatives let Japanese speakers blur the edges of a statement on purpose, and using them well is one of the quickest ways to move from textbook sentences to speech that sounds like a real person.
13 min readTokoro de and Tokoro ga: Changing the Subject and Springing a Surprise
Tokoro de opens a new topic, as in by the way, while tokoro ga announces that what happened next was not what anyone expected, and both sit at the start of a sentence to steer a conversation or a story.
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