Japanese learning blog
Practical guides on speaking, grammar, pronunciation, listening, and study planning, written for learners who want to use Japanese in real life.
All articles · Page 175
Hiku: Pull, Subtract, Look Up, and Catch a Cold
Hiku is one of those Japanese verbs that seems to mean everything. Once you see the picture underneath it, the dictionary entry stops being a list and becomes a family.
16 min readMono da and Koto da: Advice, Truths, and Reminiscence
Mono da and koto da look almost identical and do completely different jobs. One talks about how the world is, the other tells someone what to do.
19 min readBa Yokatta: How to Express Regret in Japanese
Regret in Japanese runs through one small pattern: a conditional plus yokatta, meaning it would have been good if. Learn the form and the softeners and you can own a mistake without dwelling on it.
16 min readJapanese Ordinal Numbers: Banme, Dai, and Me
Japanese does not add a single ending like -st or -th. It has three ordinal tools, and choosing the right one is what makes second corner, chapter two, and my third year sound natural.
15 min readTalking About Age and Generations in Japanese
Age comes up early in Japanese conversation because it quietly sets the register between two people. Learn the counter, the irregular readings, and the softer ways of asking, and the topic stops being a trap.
14 min readKan or Not: Durations Versus Points in Time in Japanese
One small syllable separates a clock reading from a length of time. Get kan and the particle that goes with it right, and half of your time sentences stop sounding odd.
13 min readHow to Say I Miss You in Japanese
There is no one Japanese sentence that covers I miss you. The natural choice depends on whether you mean I want to see you, I feel lonely, I long for something, or I remember it fondly.
12 min readHow to Read a Japanese Payslip
A Japanese payslip looks dense until you notice it is only three blocks and a final figure. Learn the field names once and you can check your own leave, spot a change, and ask about it calmly.
17 min readReading a Japanese Rental Contract
The viewing is the fun part; the contract is the part that decides what your flat really costs and how you leave it. This guide names each clause in kanji and gives you the question to ask about it.
18 min readJapanese Delivery Slips and Arranging Redelivery
A missed-delivery slip is one of the first pieces of real Japanese most residents have to read under pressure. Once you know its fields, rebooking the parcel takes about two minutes.
16 min readReading Allergen Charts and Stating Food Allergies in Japanese
Japanese packets and restaurant charts name allergens in a small, repeating set of words. Learn those words and the questions that go with them, and you can check a dish before you order rather than after.
17 min readTake Care and Get Well Soon in Japanese
English uses take care for a sick friend, a departing guest and an overworked colleague alike. Japanese uses a different phrase for each, and choosing the wrong one sounds odd at exactly the moment you were trying to be kind.
13 min readPractical guides
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