Japanese learning blog
Practical guides on speaking, grammar, pronunciation, listening, and study planning, written for learners who want to use Japanese in real life.
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Japanese 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 readJapanese Adverbs: How to Make Them and Which to Learn
Adverbs are what turn a correct Japanese sentence into a sentence that sounds like a person speaking. They tell your listener how often, how much, how fast, and how well.
13 min readSou, You, Mitai, Rashii: Four Ways to Say It Seems
Japanese does not have one word for it seems. It has four, and the choice tells your listener whether you saw it, worked it out, heard it, or are describing what is typical.
13 min readKara, Node, and Tame: Giving Reasons in Japanese
Japanese has several ways to say because, and choosing the wrong one makes a polite excuse sound like an argument. This guide shows when a speaker reaches for kara, when node is safer, and where tame belongs.
14 min readKedo, Ga, Demo, Noni: How to Say But in Japanese
The Japanese words for but do two very different jobs. One is contrast. The other is a soft opening before a request, and it is the reason sumimasen ga and onegai ga aru n desu kedo appear in almost every polite conversation.
13 min readTe-Shimau, Te-Oku, Te-Miru: Japanese Auxiliary Verbs
Once your te-form is reliable, a small set of helper verbs attaches to it and carries most of the shading a Japanese speaker adds to a plain action.
13 min readPractical guides
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