Grammar
Practical guides on speaking, grammar, pronunciation, listening, and study planning, written for learners who want to use Japanese in real life.
Grammar · Page 15
You to Suru in Japanese: About To, Trying To, and Refusing To
Dekakeyō to shita toki, denwa ga natta: just as I was about to go out, the phone rang. You to suru captures the moment an action is intended but not yet done.
6 min readTabi ni in Japanese: Every Time Something Happens
Kono kyoku o kiku tabi ni, gakusei jidai o omoidasu: every time I hear this song, I remember my student days. Tabi ni links a trigger to what follows it each time.
5 min readDake de Naku: Saying Not Only… But Also in Japanese
Adding a second point is one of the most common moves in conversation. Japanese has a range of ways to do it, from casual to formal.
5 min readThe Japanese Masu Form: The Polite Verb Form You Speak In
If you only had one verb form to speak Japanese with strangers, shop staff and colleagues, it would be the masu form, and it would carry you further than you expect.
8 min readSugiru in Japanese: How to Say Too Much, Too Big and Too Late
Too expensive, too spicy, ate too much, worked too late: Japanese handles all of them with one ending, and it is one of the most useful endings a beginner can add.
6 min readYasui, Nikui and Zurai: Easy and Hard to Do in Japanese
Easy to understand, hard to hear, uncomfortable to say: three short endings turn any verb into a judgement, and they are everywhere in reviews, feedback and everyday complaints.
7 min readMae ni, Ato de and Te kara: Before and After in Japanese
Before I eat, after I ate, once I have eaten: Japanese sequences events with three short patterns, and each one locks the verb in front of it into a specific tense.
7 min readToki in Japanese: How to Say When, and the Tense Trap
Nihon ni iku toki and Nihon ni itta toki both translate as when I went to Japan, and they describe two different moments. That difference is the whole secret of toki.
7 min readTe mo in Japanese: Even If, Even Though and No Matter What
Even if it rains, I will go. No matter how much I study, I forget. Japanese builds both sentences from the te form plus one small particle.
7 min readMō vs Mada: Already, Still, Not Yet and No Longer in Japanese
Have you eaten yet? Answering that question correctly in Japanese depends on one word, one verb form and a rule that trips up almost every learner once.
6 min readNi tsuite, Ni yotte, Ni taishite and Ni totte in Japanese
About, depending on, towards, from my point of view: Japanese says each of these with ni plus a verb that has frozen into a particle, and each has its own job.
7 min readDeshō and Darō: Probably, Right? and I Wonder in Japanese
The weather forecast says deshō, a friend says deshō? with a rising voice, and a character in a novel thinks darō. Same word family, three different jobs.
7 min readPractical guides
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