Vocabulary and phrases
Practical guides on speaking, grammar, pronunciation, listening, and study planning, written for learners who want to use Japanese in real life.
Vocabulary and phrases · Page 28
How to Memorise Japanese Vocabulary That Lasts
Most Japanese vocabulary is forgotten not because your memory is poor but because the word was stored with nothing attached to it. Give each word a sentence, a particle, and a situation, and it stays.
13 min readJapanese Internet Slang and Social Media Language
Japanese online is a register of its own, not a corrupted version of the language you are studying. Learning to read it is useful; learning where it is safe to speak it is what keeps you out of trouble.
12 min readJapanese Colours: Words, Grammar, and Everyday Uses
Japanese colours are easy to memorise and surprisingly easy to get wrong, because red and green do not follow the same grammar. This guide sorts the colours by how they behave and puts each one into a sentence you will actually say.
14 min readJapanese Animal Words and the Sounds They Make
Animal words are some of the first Japanese you learn and some of the last you use correctly, because each one arrives with a counter, a verb, and a sound of its own.
15 min readJapanese Body Parts Vocabulary for Daily Life
Body words turn up far beyond the clinic: you need them to describe a friend, book a haircut, tell a masseur where it hurts, and understand why a colleague says their hands are not free.
15 min readJapanese Weather Words for Small Talk and Forecasts
Weather is the first thing Japanese people say to each other and the last thing learners prepare for, even though the whole exchange runs on about forty words.
15 min readJapanese Food and Drink Vocabulary Beyond the Menu
Menu Japanese gets you fed. The words in this guide let you say what the food was like, ask what is in it, choose a drink the way you want it, and talk about what you cook at home.
14 min readJapanese Words for Emotions and Feelings
Feeling words are among the first Japanese adjectives you learn and the last you use correctly, because the grammar around them decides whose feeling you are describing.
13 min readJapanese Jobs and Occupations Vocabulary
Your job is one of the first three things anyone asks about in Japanese, and the answer needs more than a noun. Here are the words, the endings hidden inside them, and the grammar that makes the answer sound natural.
14 min readTalking About Hobbies in Japanese
Shumi wa nan desu ka is the question every Japanese learner is asked in the first five minutes, and a one-word answer wastes it. This post gives you the pattern, the verbs, and the follow-ups that turn it into a real conversation.
14 min readJapanese Clothing Vocabulary and Shopping Talk
Japanese does not have one verb for wearing. The verb changes with the part of the body, so learning clothing words means learning which verb each one takes.
13 min readDescribing Your Daily Routine in Japanese
Your daily routine is the one topic you can talk about every single day without needing new material, which makes it the best speaking warm-up a learner has.
14 min readPractical guides
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