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Practical guides on speaking, grammar, pronunciation, listening, and study planning, written for learners who want to use Japanese in real life.
All articles · Page 122
How to Say I Am on My Way in Japanese: Ima Mukatte imasu and Arrival Times
I'm on my way in Japanese is ima mukatte imasu, and you usually add how long you will be with a phrase such as mō sugu tsukimasu, I'll arrive soon, or ato go-fun de tsukimasu, I'll be there in five minutes.
12 min readHow to Say It Was Fun in Japanese: Tanoshikatta, Thank-yous and Follow-up Texts
It was fun in Japanese is tanoshikatta, or tanoshikatta desu when you are speaking politely, and it is almost always said together with a thank-you such as kyō wa arigatō and a wish to meet again like mata asobō.
12 min readHow to Say Where Are You From in Japanese: Asking, Answering and Following Up
The most natural way to ask where someone is from in Japanese is go-shusshin wa dochira desu ka, and the simplest answer is your country or city followed by shusshin desu, or kara kimashita if you have just arrived.
12 min readDarake, Mamire and Zukume: Three Ways to Say Full Of in Japanese
Darake means scattered all over with something unwanted, such as mistakes or mud, mamire means physically coated in a substance like blood or sweat, and zukume means made up entirely of one thing, which can be good news or bad.
13 min readNi Oite and Ni Okeru: The Formal In, At and Regarding in Japanese
Ni oite is the formal equivalent of de, marking the place, time or field in which something happens, and ni okeru is its noun-modifying form, so both replace de when you write a report, give a presentation or make an announcement.
14 min readNi Watatte, Ni Kakete and O Tsūjite: Talking About Spans in Japanese
Ni watatte says something covered a whole span of time or space, kara ni kakete says it ran from roughly one point to roughly another, and o tsūjite or o tōshite say it held throughout a period or happened via a channel.
12 min readTa Bakari vs Ta Tokoro: Saying You Just Did Something in Japanese
Ta bakari means you did something recently and it still feels fresh, whether that was five minutes or five months ago, while ta tokoro means you finished it at this very moment, so the two overlap only when the action really has just ended.
13 min readTo Ieba and To Iu To: Changing the Subject Naturally in Japanese
To ieba picks up a word someone just said and uses it to switch topics, speaking of which, while to iu to means when you say that, this comes to mind, and both let you change the subject in Japanese without sounding abrupt.
13 min readConnecting Adjectives in Japanese: Kute, De and Nakute for Longer Descriptions
To link two descriptions in Japanese, change an i-adjective's final i to kute (yasukute), put de after a na-adjective or noun (shizuka de, gakusei de), and only the last adjective in the chain takes the tense and politeness.
13 min readGa with Suki, Wakaru and Dekiru: Why These Japanese Words Do Not Take O
Suki, kirai, wakaru, dekiru, hoshii, jōzu, heta, hitsuyō, aru and iru mark their object with ga, not o, because in Japanese they are not actions done to something but states that hold about something, and the thing they hold about is a grammatical subject.
13 min readIku vs Kuru: Why Japanese Says Ima Ikimasu When English Says I'm Coming
Iku means moving away from where the speaker is now, and kuru means moving towards where the speaker is now, so when someone calls you from the door and you answer, you say ima ikimasu, I am going, where English would say I am coming.
14 min readKaneru, Kanenai and Yō ga Nai: Polite Refusals and Worst Cases in Japanese
Kaneru attaches to a verb stem to refuse something formally, kanenai says that an unwanted outcome might well happen, and yō ga nai says there is no way to do something, and the three are easy to mix up because they look like one family.
13 min readPractical guides
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