Grammar
Practical guides on speaking, grammar, pronunciation, listening, and study planning, written for learners who want to use Japanese in real life.
Grammar · Page 16
Uchi ni in Japanese: While You Still Can, and Before It Changes
Eat it while it is warm. Let us go home before it gets dark. I started to understand while I was listening. All three sentences use the same two words in Japanese.
7 min readHow to Speak in Longer Japanese Sentences
You can say a lot of short, correct Japanese sentences and still sound like a beginner, because real speech joins ideas rather than listing them.
7 min readHow to Say a Lot With Beginner Japanese Grammar
The sentence you cannot say is almost never blocked by grammar you have not studied. It is blocked by insisting on the English version of the thought.
7 min readMaking Yourself Clear in Japanese Without Sounding Blunt
You said something perfectly grammatical and they understood a different sentence, because Japanese let you leave out the part that mattered.
7 min readJapanese Plain Form: Dictionary, Nai, Ta, and Nakatta
Plain form is not just casual Japanese. It is the shape almost every later grammar pattern attaches to, so building it accurately is what makes longer sentences possible.
14 min readJapanese Past Tense: Making and Using the Ta-Form
The Japanese past tense is quick to build once you know the five godan sound groups, and quietly wider than English past once you hear where speakers actually use it.
14 min readTe-Iru in Japanese: Progressive, Habit, and Resulting State
Te imasu is not the Japanese present continuous. The same shape can mean is doing, does regularly, or has already become, and the verb in front of it decides which.
13 min readKore, Sore, Are, Dore: Japanese Demonstratives Made Clear
Kore, sore and are are not this, that and that over there in a random pattern. They belong to a grid you can learn once and then apply to places, people, directions and manner.
13 min readAru and Iru: Saying Something Exists in Japanese
Japanese splits the verb to be in two: aru for things and iru for creatures that move under their own power. Once the split and the particle frame are automatic, you can describe any room, shop or street without hesitating.
15 min readNi vs De in Japanese: The Particle Pair That Trips Everyone
Ni and de both turn up where English would say at or in, which is why they are the pair learners get wrong most often. One question about the place sorts out the majority of cases in under a second.
14 min readSaying What You Want in Japanese: Tai, Hoshii, and Tagaru
Wanting is one of the first things you need to say out loud, and Japanese splits it into several patterns that are not interchangeable. This guide shows which one to reach for and who each one may describe.
14 min readJapanese Comparisons: Yori, Hou ga, and Ichiban
Comparing is how conversations move forward, from choosing a drink to explaining why you prefer one city to another. Japanese does it with a small set of patterns you can master in an afternoon.
13 min readPractical guides
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