Grammar
Practical guides on speaking, grammar, pronunciation, listening, and study planning, written for learners who want to use Japanese in real life.
Grammar · Page 7
Japanese Ni Particle Uses: One Idea Behind Place, Time and Target
The Japanese particle ni pins an action or state to a single point: the place where something exists, the destination reached, the clock time, the person who receives, the purpose of a trip, the result of a change and the doer in a passive sentence.
12 min readJapanese To Particle Uses: And, With, Quotes and Mutual Verbs
The Japanese particle to joins two things as partners: it means and in a complete list of nouns, with for a companion, marks the other party of mutual verbs like kekkon suru and au, and carries quoted words and sounds to a verb.
13 min readJapanese Wo Particle Uses: Objects, Paths, Exits and Dropping O
The Japanese particle o, written with the character wo, marks the thing an action covers: the object you eat, read or buy, the space you walk through, the place you leave and the time you spend, while states like suki and wakaru take ga.
13 min readJapanese Demo Particle Uses: But, Even, Or Something and Nan Demo
Demo means but at the start of a sentence, even after a noun, as in kodomo demo wakaru, and or something in a gentle suggestion such as ocha demo nomimasen ka, and in each case it presents one example among others.
12 min readJapanese Double Particles: Ni Wa, De Mo, E No and Why They Stack
Japanese particles stack in a fixed order: a role particle such as ni, de, to or kara comes first, and wa, mo or no is added on top, while ga and o disappear when wa or mo takes their place.
12 min readJapanese Hodo Particle Uses: Amounts, Not As Much As, and Extent
Hodo marks the level something reaches on a scale: mikka hodo is about three days, A wa B hodo samukunai means A is not as cold as B, and shinu hodo tsukareta means tired to the point of dying.
12 min readJapanese Ka Particle Uses: Questions, Or, Nanika and Sō Desu Ka
The Japanese particle ka marks something as not yet settled: at the end of a sentence it turns a statement into a question, between nouns it means or, and after a question word it makes words like nanika, something.
13 min readJapanese Particle Omission in Speech: What Drops, What Stays, and Why
In casual spoken Japanese, wa, o, and sometimes ga and destination ni or e are dropped when the listener can put them back without effort, while de, to, kara, made and no stay because nothing else in the sentence carries their meaning.
12 min readKochira, Sochira, Achira, Dochira: Polite Directions, People and Phone Calls
Kochira, sochira, achira and dochira mean this way, that way, over there and which way, and because pointing at a side is gentler than pointing at a spot, they also serve as polite words for here, this, this person, I and you.
11 min readKonna, Sonna, Anna, Donna: This Kind Of, Sonna Ni and Sonna Koto Nai
Konna, sonna, anna and donna go straight before a noun and mean this kind of, that kind of and what kind of: they treat the thing you point at as a sample of a type, and with ni they measure degree.
12 min readKō, Sō, Ā, Dō in Japanese: Sō Desu, Dō Desu Ka and Dō Yatte Explained
Kō, sō, ā and dō are adverbs meaning in this way, in that way and in what way: they point at how something is done or how things stand, which is why sō desu means that's right and dō desu ka means how is it.
12 min readSono vs Ano in Conversation: So- and A- Words for Things Out of Sight
When the thing is not visible, ano and are refer to something both speaker and listener already know, while sono and sore refer to something only one of you knows or that has just been mentioned in the conversation.
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