JLPT N3 Vocabulary by Topic: Abstract Nouns, Suru Verbs, Adverbs and Expressions

Why N3 vocabulary feels different

Up to N4, most words name something you can see or do: a fridge, a ticket, a meeting. At N3 the words name relations between things. Eikyō, influence, has no picture. Keikō, tendency, describes a pattern across many events. Jōken, condition, only makes sense in relation to a promise or a deal. Each has a small set of verbs and particles it prefers.

The second change is the register. N3 sentences move freely between polite and plain forms, and the vocabulary follows: a reading passage might say kekka to shite, as a result, where a conversation would say dakara. Paraphrase questions live exactly here.

• Abstract nouns: causes, results, tendencies, conditions, attitudes
• Suru verbs: confirm, report, cancel, complete, exercise, travel for work
• Adverbs: certainty, degree, timing, and the speaker's attitude
• Set expressions: idioms with kuchi, te, kao and me, plus workplace phrases
• Verbs of change: increase, decrease, continue, compare, admit

Abstract nouns and the verbs they take

The twelve nouns below appear across N3-style reading passages, listening scripts and vocabulary items. Each is a two-kanji compound, so the reading questions test them as well, and the on-readings need care: gen'in has a syllable break between gen and in, keikō is not keiko, and jōkyō and jōken share their first kanji but not their meaning.

Suru verbs for work and daily life

A large share of N3 verbs are a two-kanji noun plus suru. They sound formal in English, confirm, report, suspend, but in Japanese they are ordinary workplace and daily words: kakunin suru is what you do before sending an email, hōkoku suru is what you do after a meeting, and chūshi suru is what happens to a picnic when it rains. Others cover life outside work: undō suru, shutchō suru, kansei suru and sōdan suru.

The trap is the noun form. Each of these can appear without suru, as chūshi ni naru, the event is cancelled, or kakunin ga hitsuyō da, confirmation is needed, and the usage questions offer both. Learn the noun with ni naru and with ga aru or ga hitsuyō as well as with suru, and note which verbs take o for the object and which take ni for the person, as in buchō ni hōkoku suru.

Adverbs and the sentence shapes they need

Adverbs are the hardest N3 words to learn from a list, because their meaning is a nuance rather than a thing. Kanarazu means without fail, but what that really tells you is that the sentence is a strong promise, order or certainty. Betsu ni means not particularly, and it needs a negative verb after it. Kekkyoku means in the end, and it implies that events took a turn. The table gives the sentence shape each adverb demands, which is what the usage questions actually test.

Set expressions and idioms

N3 introduces the body-part idioms that Japanese uses in place of many single adjectives. Kuchi ga katai, a hard mouth, means discreet. Kao ga hiroi, a wide face, means well connected. Te ga hanasenai, cannot let go of the hands, means too busy to stop. Me o tōsu, pass the eyes over, means to look through a document. Paraphrase questions ask you to match one to its plain meaning.

Alongside them sit the workplace set phrases that every N3 learner should be able to say without thinking: enryo naku, without hesitation; sekinin o motte, taking responsibility; ki ni naru, to be on your mind; and anshin shite, with peace of mind. Learn each as a whole phrase with its particle.

Verbs of change that carry reading passages

Reading passages at N3 are often short opinion pieces about society, and they run on a small set of verbs: fueru and heru, to increase and decrease; agaru and sagaru, to rise and fall; kawaru, to change; tsuzuku, to continue; kuraberu, to compare; tsutaeru, to convey; and mitomeru, to admit or recognise.

They also pair naturally with the adverbs above: jojo ni fueru, gradually increase; kyū ni kawaru, change suddenly; zutto tsuzuku, continue the whole time. Say the sentences below, then swap in subjects from your own life.

How to learn N3 words in context

The method has three steps and takes about twenty minutes a day. First, meet the word in a real sentence, from a short article, a listening script or one of the tables above, and copy the whole phrase, not the word. Second, write one sentence of your own with the same phrase and say it aloud, changing only the subject or the situation. Third, use it in a conversation within a day.

Two habits make the method work. Keep a running list of phrases rather than words, so eikyō o ataeru is the entry, not eikyō. And review by producing, not by recognising: cover the Japanese, read the English, and say the sentence.

• Copy the phrase with its particle and partner verb, never the bare word
• Write one sentence of your own with the phrase and say it aloud
• Use the phrase in a real conversation within twenty-four hours
• Review by producing the Japanese from the English, not the other way round
• Read one short Japanese article a day and mark the phrases you already know

Mistakes with near-synonyms

Most lost N3 points come from choosing a word that translates correctly but does not fit. Learners write wakaru where the passage needs rikai suru, taisetsu where the sentence needs jūyō, and owari where kekka is meant. Paraphrase questions exploit this, offering the everyday word as a distractor for the formal one.

The four sentences below each use the more precise N3 word where a lower-level word would have sounded slightly off. Say what the lower-level alternative would have been and why the N3 word fits better.