Complete Guide to Japanese

Complete Guide to Japanese

Disclaimer: This is still a work in progress!

What is a complete guide to Japanese?

Despite what many are lead to believe, learning Japanese is not significantly more difficult than learning any other language. The truth is mastering any foreign language is quite an endeavor. If you think about it, you are essentially taking everything you've learned in life and re-learning it in a completely different way. Obviously, no single book can really claim to teach you

everything about a language including all the vocabulary a fluent adult commonly obtains during her life. So what do I mean by a complete guide to Japanese?

Most Japanese textbooks only go over a small subset of what you need to learn Japanese, typically covering a certain amount of grammar and vocabulary with a smattering of dialogues and readings. However, mastering a language requires much more than just learning grammar and vocabulary. What most Japanese textbooks fail to recognize is that they can't possibly hope to cover all the necessary vocabulary and kanji (Chinese characters) to obtain full fluency. This guide fully recognizes that it cannot teach you everything word by word and character by character. Instead, it will give you a solid understanding of the fundamentals with a wide

collection of dialogues and examples. In addition, it will go over various techniques and tools to enable you to teach yourself. Essentially, this book is a guide on how you can learn Japanese to complete fluency by actually using Japanese in the areas of reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

Another important distinction in the complete guide is that it does not try to hide or avoid more casual but perfectly acceptable aspects of the language. Many textbooks often avoid styles of speech and vocabulary you would normally use regularly with close friends, family, and

acquaintances! In this guide, you will be introduced to all aspects of the language based on real-world practicality and usefulness; not on an artificial, filtered version of what others consider to be "proper" Japanese.

Resources and Tools

There are a large number of useful tools on the web for learning Japanese. Not only are there excellent online dictionaries, which are often better than many print dictionaries, there are also great tools and social networking sites for online collaboration and language study.

In order to fully utilize these online resources or if you're reading this book online, you'll need to setup your computer to support Japanese.

You can see a full list of these resources and instructions on how to setup your computer at the following link:

Corrections

I'm currently writing this as quickly as possible without a lot of proofreading so there WILL be many typos and mistakes for the first few revisions. Please feel free to point out any mistakes in the comments. I may delete your comment after making the correction to keep the comment sections clean for more in-depth discussion but I do appreciate them very much!!

Credits & Copyright

The Complete Guide is currently NOT licensed under a creative commons or any other license.

Artwork for comic strips are provided by Martyn.

Table of Contents

Writing Systems and Pronunciation

The Scripts

The Japanese writing system is comprised of three main written scripts: Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji.

Hiragana is the main phonetic writing system used to represent every distinct sound in Japanese. Because of its phonetic nature, we will first learn Hiragana to also learn how to pronounce all the sounds in the Japanese language.

While Katakana represents the same sounds as Hiragana, it is mainly used to represent words imported from other languages.

Kanji, which are Chinese characters adapted for Japanese, are heavily used in writing. There are no spaces in Japanese so Kanji is necessary in order to separate the words within a sentence. Kanji is also useful for distinguishing homophones, which occurs quite often given the limited number of distinct sounds in Japanese.

Pronunciation

In the next section, we will learn all the characters in Hiragana and how to pronounce them. As we will see, every character in Hiragana (and the Katakana equivalent) corresponds to a specific sound. This makes pronunciation very easy as each letter has exactly one pronunciation.

However, because there are relatively few distinct sounds in the Japanese language, you must pay extra attention to proper intonation.

Unlike English pronunciation which is based on accents, Japanese pronunciation is based on alterations between a high and low pitch. For example, homophones can have different pitches of low and high tones resulting in a slightly different sound despite sharing the same pronunciation. The biggest obstacle for obtaining proper and natural sounding speech is incorrect intonation. Therefore, as you listen to Japanese and begin to imitate the sounds, it is very important that you pay attention to pitch in order to sound like a native speaker.

Hiragana

Use Firefox, Chrome, or Safari for audio

The table below represents the entire Hiragana syllabary categorized by the consonant and vowel sounds. With the exception of a few sounds (as shown by the pronunciation in parentheses), most sounds in Japanese are easily represented by a vowel or consonant-vowel. There is also one consonant-only sound: 「ん」.

Hiragana - Click for stroke order and sound

n w r y m h n t s k ん (n) わ ら や ま は な た さ か あ a り み ひ に ち (chi) し (shi) き い i る ゆ む ふ (fu) ぬ つ (tsu) す く う u れ め へ ね て せ け え e を (o) ろ よ も ほ の と そ こ お o

To understand how this chart works, let's start by looking at the right-most column, which are all the vowel-only sounds.

あ a い i う u え e お o

Here are some sample words for reading practice. Example: あい - love (read as "ai")

1. あう - to meet 2. いえ - house 3. おい - nephew 4. うえ - above 5. いう - to say

Each additional column represents a consonant sound with each of the five vowel sounds. For example, the "k" column has the following sounds.

か ka き ki く ku け ke こ ko

「ん」 is the only character with no vowel sound. It adds an "n" sound as shown in the examples below.

 きん - gold (read as "kin")

 おんな - woman; girl (read as "on-na")

 おんがく - music (read as "on-ga-ku")

Here are my recommendations for learning how to read, write, hear, and say the characters and sounds in Hiragana.

 Reading: You'll be getting plenty of reading practice with the material in this book.

 Writing: You'll need to develop muscle memory so use regular pen and paper. Below are

o Hiragana trace sheets

o japanese-lesson.com

o Hiroshi & Sakura

 Hearing: You can listen to the pronunciation for each character by clicking on it in the

first chart. If your browser doesn't support audio, you can also download them at

http://www.guidetojapanese.org/audio/basic_sounds.zip. There are also other free resources with audio samples.

 Speaking: Practice repeating the sounds. I recommend recording yourself to get an

accurate idea of what you sound like. Pay careful attention to the "r" sounds!

While most of the sounds are pretty straightforward, the "r" sounds deserve careful attention for English speakers because there is no equivalent sound in English. It is more similar to the "r" sound in Spanish.

What works for some English speakers (even if it may not be technically correct) is to shape the lips something like the sound that is made for the English "r," but to make the sound with a single trill or flap of the tongue against the front of the palate.

Katakana

Use Firefox, Chrome, or Safari for audio

Katakana, as already mentioned, is mainly used to represent words imported from other languages. We've already learned all the sounds when we learned Hiragana. All you need to learn is a different way of writing them.

Katakana - Click for stroke order and sound

n w r y m h n t s k ン (n) ワ ラ ヤ マ ハ ナ タ サ カ ア a リ ミ ヒ ニ チ (chi) シ (shi) キ イ i ル ユ ム フ (fu) ヌ ツ (tsu) ス ク ウ u レ メ ヘ ネ テ セ ケ エ e ヲ* (o) ロ ヨ モ ホ ノ ト ソ コ オ o * = rarely used

Due to the straight lines and relatively few strokes, there are many characters in Katakana that look very similar. In particular, 「シ」、「ツ」 「ソ」、and 「ン」. You should pay careful attention to the stroke order and direction. You may also notice that the Katakana 「ヘ」 is virtually identical to its Hiragana counterpart 「へ」. They are in fact, written pretty much the same way. Below are handy PDFs for writing practice.

 Katakana trace sheets

 japanese-lesson.com

 Hiroshi & Sakura

English words in Japanese

Many words from foreign languages, particularly English, have become part of the Japanese language via Katakana throughout the years. However, there are relatively few distinct sounds in Japanese and only five vowel sounds. As a result, these words usually don't bear much

resemblance to their original pronunciations. An important thing to remember is to stay true to the Japanese pronunciation and completely forget how it's really supposed to be pronounced. To give you an idea, here is a short list of foreign words and their Japanese equivalents.

Sample Katakana Words

English Japanese

America アメリカ Russia ロシア bus バス motorcycle バイク

French fries フライドポテト (fried potato)

Additional Sounds

Though we have covered all the distinct characters in both Hiragana and Katakana, there are additional variations and sounds that still remain to be learned.

Voiced Consonants

Voiced consonants are consonant sounds that require a voice, creating a vibration in your throat. A number of consonant sounds in Hiragana and Katakana can be changed to their voiced

counterpart by adding two small dashes to the upper-right corner of the character; namely the "k", "s", "t", and "h" consonant sounds. There is also a semi-voiced consonant sound "p", which is created by putting a small circle in the upper-right corner of the "h" characters.

Voiced Hiragana - Click for Sound

p b d z g ぱ ば だ ざ が a ぴ び ぢ (ji) じ (ji) ぎ i ぷ ぶ づ (dzu) ず ぐ u ぺ べ で ぜ げ e ぽ ぼ ど ぞ ご o

Voiced Katakana - Click for Sound

p b d z g パ バ ダ ザ ガ a ピ ビ ヂ (ji) ジ (ji) ギ i プ ブ ヅ (dzu) ズ グ u ペ ベ デ ゼ ゲ e ポ ボ ド ゾ ゴ o

Y-vowel sounds

A consonant can precede the three y-sounds: 「や」、「ゆ」、 and 「よ」. This is done by attaching a small, half-size version of the y-sounds to the consonant+i sounds as you can see in the table below.

All small や、ゆ、and よ combinations in Hiragana - Click for Sound

p b j g r m h n c s k

ぴゃ びゃ じゃ ぎゃ りゃ みゃ ひゃ にゃ ちゃ しゃ きゃ ya

ぴゅ びゅ じゅ ぎゅ りゅ みゅ ひゅ にゅ ちゅ しゅ きゅ yu

ぴょ びょ じょ ぎょ りょ みょ ひょ にょ ちょ しょ きょ yo

All small や、ゆ、and よ combinations in Katakana - Click for Sound

ピャ ビャ ジャ ギャ リャ ミャ ヒャ ニャ チャ シャ キャ ya

ピュ ビュ ジュ ギュ リュ ミュ ヒュ ニュ チュ シュ キュ yu

ピョ ビョ ジョ ギョ リョ ミョ ヒョ ニョ チョ ショ キョ yo

Hard Consonant Sounds

While no single letter ends in a consonant sound （except 「ん」）, Japanese does have a way to carry over the next consonant sound back with a small 「つ」. This can be used with the consonants "p, k, t, s" to create a hard stop.

For example, 「ひと」 (meaning "person") would normally be read as "hi-to". However, by adding a small 「つ」: 「ひっと」, the "t" consonant sound is carried back and is pronounced "hit-to" (meaning "hit").

Here are some more examples.

1. トラック (to-rak-ku) - truck 2. ざっし (zas-shi) - magazine 3. カップ (kap-pu) - cup

The Long Vowel Sound

We will now go over the long vowel sound which is simply extending the duration of a vowel sound. You can extend the vowel sound of a character by adding either 「あ」、「い」、or 「 う」 depending on the vowel as shown in the following chart.

Extending Vowel Sounds

Vowel Sound Extended by

/ a / あ / i / e / い / u / o / う

For example, if you wanted to create an extended vowel sound from 「か」, you would add 「 あ」 to create 「かあ」. Other examples would include: 「き → きい」, 「く → くう」, 「 け → けい」, 「こ → こう」, 「さ → さあ」 and so on. The reason for this is quite simple. Try saying 「か」 and 「あ」 separately. Then say them in succession as fast as you can. You'll notice that it's easier to drag out the vowel.

It's important to make sure you hold the vowel sound to the full length of both characters because there are many similar words that are only different by the length of the vowel. For example, 「 ここ」 means "here" while 「こうこう」 means "High school".

Here is a short list of example words with long vowel sounds. The long vowel sound is highlighted.

1. がくせい (ga-ku-se) - student 2. せんせい (sen-se) - teacher 3. きょう (kyo) - today

4. おはよう (o-ha-yo) - good morning 5. おかあさん (o-ka-san) - mother

There are also a small number of exceptions where an "e" vowel sound is extended by adding 「 え」 or an "o" vowel sound is extended with 「お」. We'll see example of these words in later sections.

Long vowel sounds in Katakana are much easier. You simply need to use a dash: 「ー」.

1. ツアー (tsu-a) - tour 2. メール (me-ru) - email 3. ケーキ (ke-ki) - cake

Additional Katakana Sounds

「ふ」 is the only sound that is pronounced with a "f" sound, for example 「ふとん」 (futon) or 「ふじ」 (Fuji). That's fine in Japanese because there are no words with other "f" sounds such as "fa", "fi", or "fo". However, it's problem when converting foreign words such as "fork" into Katakana.

This problem was solved by using small vowel sounds. For example, the small 「ォ」 can be attached to 「フ」 to create 「フォ」 (fo). "Fork" then becomes ［フォーク」. There are other gaps that are filled with this technique. The "v" sounds are also expressed by putting two dashes to the vowel sounds. However, "v" sounds are rarely used due to the difficulty native Japanese speakers have in pronouncing them.

The following table shows the gaps that were filled using these techniques for Katakana.

Additional sounds

v w f ch d t j sh

ヴァ ワ ファ チャ ダ タ ジャ シャ a ヴィ ウィ フィ チ ディ ティ ジ シ i

ヴ ウ フ チュ ドゥ トゥ ジュ シュ u ヴェ ウェ フェ チェ デ テ ジェ シェ e ヴォ ウォ フォ チョ ド ト ジョ ショ o

1. ソファ (so-fa) - sofa

2. ウィンドウズ (win-do-u-zu) - Windows (as in MS Windows) 3. ウォッカ (wok-ka) - vodka

4. チェック (chek-ku) - check

Kanji

The last and most notorious aspect of the Japanese written language is Kanji, which are Chinese characters adapted for Japanese. Most words in Japanese are written in Kanji even though they are still pronounced with the Japanese phonetic sounds represented by Hiragana and Katakana.

Stroke Order

When learning Kanji, it is very important to learn it with the proper stroke order and direction from the beginning in order to avoid developing any bad habits. Japanese learners often think that stroke order doesn't matter as long as the end product looks the same. However, what they don't realize is that there are thousands of characters and they are not always meticulously written the way they appear in print. Proper stroke order helps ensure the characters look recognizable even when you write them quickly or use more cursive styles.

The simpler characters called radicals are often reused as components in larger characters. Once you learn the radical stroke order and get used to the patterns, you'll find that it's not difficult to figure out the correct stroke order for most Kanji.

One good general rule of thumb is that strokes usually start from the top-left corner toward the bottom-right. This means that horizontal strokes are generally written from left to right and vertical strokes are written from top to bottom. In any case, if you're not sure about the stroke order, you should always verify by looking the character up in a Kanji dictionary.

Kanji in Vocabulary

There are roughly over 2,000 characters used in modern Japanese so you can imagine that memorizing them one-by-one as you might for syllabaries such as Hiragana does not work very well.

An effective strategy for mastering Kanji is learning them with new vocabulary within a larger context. This way, we can associate various contextual information with the character in order to reinforce memory. Remember that Kanji, ultimately, is used to represent actual words. So it is

important to focus not so much on the characters themselves but the words and vocabulary that include those characters.

In this section, we will learn how Kanji works by learning a few common characters and vocabulary.

Kanji Readings

The first Kanji we will learn is 「人」, the character for 'person.' It is a simple two-stroke character where each stroke starts at the top. you may have noticed that the character as rendered by the font is not always the same as the hand-written style below. This is another important reason to check the stroke order.

Definition: person Kun-yomi: ひと

On-yomi: ジン

Kanji in Japanese can have one or several readings. The reading for Kanji is split into two major categories called kun-yomi and on-yomi. Kun-yomi is the Japanese reading of the character while on-yomi is based on the original Chinese pronunciation.

Generally, Kun-yomi is used for words that only use one character. The actual word for "person" is one example.

Example: 人 【ひと】 - person

Kun-yomi is also used for native Japanese words including most adjectives and verbs.

On-yomi, on the other hand, is mostly used for words that originate from Chinese, which often use 2 or more Kanji. For that reason, on-yomi is often written in Katakana. We'll see more examples as we learn more characters. With 「人」, one very useful example of an on-yomi is to attach it to names of countries to describe nationality.

Example

 アメリカ人 【アメリカ・じん】 - American (person)

 フランス人 【フランス・じん】 - French (person)

While most characters will not have multiple kun-yomi or on-yomi, the more common characters such as 「人」 will generally have a lot more readings. Here, I only list the ones that are

applicable to the vocabulary we learned. Learning a reading without a context within vocabulary will only create unnecessary confusion so I do not recommend learning all the readings at once.

Now that you have the general idea, let's learn some more vocabulary and the Kanji used within them. The stroke order diagrams with red highlights show you where each stroke starts.

1. 日本 【に・ほん】 - Japan 2. 本 【ほん】 - book

日

Definition: sun; day

Stroke Order

On-yomi: ニ

本

Definition: origin; book

Stroke Order On-yomi: ホン 1. 学生 【がく・せい】 - student 2. 先生 【せん・せい】 - teacher

学

Definition: academic Stroke Order On-yomi: ガク

先

Definition: ahead; precedence

Stroke Order On-yomi: セン

生

Definition: life Stroke Order On-yomi: セイ 1. 高い 【たか・い】 - tall; expensive 2. 学校 【がっ・こう】 - school 3. 高校 【こう・こう】 - high school

高

Definition: tall; expensive

Stroke Order

Kun-yomi: たか・い On-yomi: コウ Definition: school

校

Stroke Order On-yomi: コウ 1. 小さい 【ちい・さい】 - small 2. 大きい 【おお・きい】 - big 3. 小学校 【しょう・がっ・こう】 - elementary school 4. 中学校 【ちゅう・がっ・こう】 - middle school 5. 大学 【だい・がく】 - college; university

6. 小学生 【しょう・がく・せい】 - elementary school student 7. 中学生 【ちゅう・がく・せい】 - middle school student 8. 大学生 【だい・がく・せい】 - college; university student

小

Definition: small Stroke Order Kun-yomi: ちい・さい On-yomi: ショウ

中

Definition: middle; inside

Stroke Order On-yomi: チュウ

大

Definition: large Stroke Order Kun-yomi: おお・きい On-yomi: ダイ 1. 国 【くに】 - country 2. 中国 【ちゅう・ごく】 - China 3. 中国人 【ちゅう・ごく・じん】 - Chinese (person)

国

Definition: country Stroke Order Kun-yomi: くに On-yomi: コク 1. 日本語 【に・ほん・ご】 - Japanese language 2. 中国語 【ちゅう・ごく・ご】 - Chinese language

3. 英語 【えい・ご】 - English 4. フランス語 【フランス・ご】 - French 5. スペイン語 【スペイン・ご】 - Spanish

英

Definition: England Stroke Order On-yomi: エイ

語

Definition: language Stroke Order On-yomi: ゴ

With only 14 characters, we've managed to learn over 25 words ranging from China to

elementary school student! Kanji is usually regarded as a major obstacle but as you can see, you can easily turn it into a valuable tool if you learn it in the context of vocabulary.

Okurigana and changing readings

You may have noticed some words that end with Hiragana such as 「高い」 or 「大きい」. Because those words are adjectives, the trailing Hiragana, called Okurigana are needed to perform various conjugations without affecting the Kanji. The thing to watch out for is

remembering exactly where the Kanji ends and Hiragana begins. For example, you never want to write 「大きい」 as 「大い」.

You may have also noticed that the Kanji readings don't always match the reading in a particular word. For example, 「学校」 is read as 「がっこう」 and not 「がくこう」. Readings often go through these small transformations to make pronunciation easier.

Ultimately, you'll want to check the reading for any new words you encounter. Fortunately, it has become much easier to look up new Kanji thanks to online tools and electronic dictionaries. You can find a tutorial on how to use these tools at the following link

http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/resources/findingkanji

Different Kanji for similar words

Kanji is often used to make subtle distinctions or give a different shade of meaning for a word. In some cases, it is very important to remember to use the correct Kanji for the correct situation. For example, while the adjective for hot is 「あつい」, when used to describe the climate, you must write it as 「暑い」. When you are describing a hot object or person, you must write it as 「熱い」 instead.

Definition: hot (for climate only)

暑

Kun-yomi: あつ・い

熱

Definition: heat; fever

Stroke Order

Kun-yomi: あつ・い；ねつ

In other cases, while there is generic Kanji that can be used for all situations for a given word, the writer may use a more specialized version for stylistic reasons. The examples in this book will generally use the generic and usually simpler Kanji. If you want to learn more about learning the different Kanji for a single word and new words in general, go to the tutorial at the following link:

http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/resources/learning_words

Basic numbers and age

1 to 10

Learning the first ten numbers is a one good way to get started in learning any language. For Japanese, it also allows us to get familiar with some basic and important Kanji. One thing to pay attention to is the fact that 4 and 7 have two possible pronunciations. The more common is in bold.

Numerals 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Kanji 一 二 三 四 五 六 七 八 九 十

Reading いち に さん し／よん ご ろく しち／なな はち きゅう じゅう

11 to 99

As an added bonus, we don't need to learn any more numbers to count up to 99. The tens digit is simply the number and ten. For example, two-ten is twenty, three-ten is thirty, etc. We will learn higher numbers past 99 in a later chapter.

Example

1. 十一 【じゅう・いち】 - 11 2. 二十 【に・じゅう】 - 20 3. 二十一 【に・じゅう・いち】 - 21 4. 三十九 【さん・じゅう・きゅう】 - 39 5. 四十 【よん・じゅう】 - 40

6. 七十四 【なな・じゅう・よん】 - 74 7. 九十九 【きゅう・じゅう・きゅう】 - 99

Counters and Age

Let's use the numbers we just learned to talk about our age. In Japanese, we must use counters to count different types of things. The counter for counting age is 「～歳」（さい）. Because the Kanji is rather difficult, it is also written as 「才」 (though it's actually a completely different character)

Counters are simply attached to the end of the number. However, as we saw in the last section, Kanji readings can often go through small changes to aid pronunciation. The following digits are read slightly differently when used with the age counter. The age 20 is also a completely

irregular reading.

Irregular readings

1. 一歳 【いっ・さい】 - 1 year old 2. 八歳 【はっ・さい】 - 8 years old 3. 十歳 【じゅっ・さい】 - 10 years old 4. 二十歳 【はたち】 - 20 years old

Example

1. 二十歳 【はたち】 - 20 years old 2. 二十一歳 【に・じゅう・いっ・さい】 - 21 years old 3. 四十八歳 【よん・じゅう・はっ・さい】 - 48 years old 4. 七十歳 【なな・じゅっ・さい】 - 70 years old

We will learn many more counters in a later chapter.

Chapter summary and practice

We covered all the sounds in Japanese, how they are written in Hiragana and Katakana, and how Kanji works. In addition, we also learned numbers up to 99 and how to count a person's age. Let's apply what we learned to come up with a simple self-introduction. The best way to learn a language is to regularly interact in that language and the only way to do that is to meet Japanese speakers so a self-introduction is an ideal way to practice.

Learning the expressions

1. はじめまして

Shortened form of an expression originally meaning "I meet you for the first time". it's a standard greeting similar in intent to "Nice to meet" or "How do you do?"

2. よろしくおねがいします

There is no easy direct translation but it means something along the lines of "please treat me well" when used at the end of an introduction.

Telling people your name

If you haven't done so already, you'll need to decide on what to call yourself in Japanese. As we've learned, Japanese has a relatively limited set of sounds so it's very likely that your name will need to sound very different from its native pronunciation.

I would recommend asking your teacher or a Japanese speaker for help in converting your name to the Katakana equivalent. You may even want to ask the first person you introduce yourself to.

If you want to give it a try on your own (like right now), you can try this tutorial on finding your name in Japanese: http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/resources/nameinjapanese

To say you are that name, you need only attach 「です」 to the name. The pronunciation is usually shortened to just "dess". We will learn more about 「です」 in the next chapter.

Example

Toggle Translations [name]です。 (I am) [name]. 1. ブラウンです。 (I am) Brown. 2. アリス・スミスです。 (I am) Alice Smith.

In Japan, the last name is given more weight so it is common to just go by your last name especially in a more formal environment such as the classroom or workplace. When using the full name, the last name always comes first for Japanese names. However, it can go either way for names from countries where the order is reversed.

Using the fixed expressions and the vocabulary we learned in the last section, we now have everything we need for our simple self-introduction.

Below is a short list of potentially useful nouns to describe yourself for your self-introduction. Don't forget that you need to add 「人」（じん） to the country for nationality.

1. 自己紹介 【じ・こ・しょう・かい】 - self-introduction 2. 大学生 【だい・がく・せい】 - college student 3. 社会人 【しゃ・かい・じん】 - working adult 4. 中国 【ちゅう・ごく】 - China 5. 韓国 【かん・こく】 - South Korea 6. カナダ - Canada 7. イギリス - England 8. オーストラリア - Australia 9. フランス - France 10. スペイン - Spain 11. ブラジル - Brazil 12. メキシコ - Mexico

Here's an example of a simple self-introduction.

Toggle Translations

はじめまして。アリス・スミスです。 アメリカ人です。大学生です。

十八歳です。

よろしくおねがいします。

Nice to meet you. (I am) Alice Smith. (I'm) American. (I'm a) college student. (I'm) 18 years old.

Please treat me well.

Other expressions

In addition to practicing your self-introduction, a good way to practice pronunciation is to use various expressions for different scenarios. It's ok if nobody around you speaks Japanese. They'll understand you're hard at work practicing.

1. ありがとうございます - thank you (polite) 2. すみません - sorry (polite)

3. さようなら - good-bye (notice the long vowel sound!

5. ごちそうさまでした - used after finishing a meal (lit: It was a feast) 6. いってきます - used when leaving home (lit: I'm going and coming back)

7. いってらっしゃい - used as farewell for someone leaving the house (lit: Go and come back)

8. ただいま - used when returning home

9. お帰りなさい 【お・かえ・りなさい】 - welcome home

Nouns and Adjectives

At the end of the last chapter, we used Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji to create a simple self-introduction. In the process, we used 「です」 to express state-of-being. In this chapter, we will learn more about the state-of-being and how to use nouns and adjectives.

State-of-Being

In English, the verb "to be" is used to describe what something is or where it is, for example: "He is a student" and "He is at school". In Japanese, the two are described very differently. The state-of-being we will learn is used to describe only what something is and not where it exists.

The state-of-being is very easy to describe because it is implied within the noun or adjective. There is no need to use a verb nor even a subject to make a complete sentence in Japanese. Take for example, a casual conversation among friends asking, "How are you?"

How are you? (casual)

 元気 【げん・き】 - healthy; lively

※Used as a greeting to indicate whether one is well

Toggle Translations

A： 元気？ A: (Are you) well?

B： 元気。 B: (I'm) fine.

Polite State-of-being

While the previous dialogue may be fine among close friends, you should use the polite form when speaking to a teacher, a superior such as your boss, or people you're not very familiar with.

For nouns and adjectives, all that is required for the polite form is to add 「です」 to the end of the sentence. We did this in our simple self-introduction in the last section and because it's understood by context that you are talking about yourself, there is no need to add a subject.

We can ask questions in the polite form by further adding 「か」 to 「です」. The 「か」 is a question marker so a question mark is not necessary. Below is a simple greeting in the polite form.

How are you?

Toggle Translations

A： 元気ですか？ A: (Are you) well?

B： 元気です。 B: (I'm) well.

Practical Applications

Here's an example of a casual morning greeting between two classmates and a polite morning greeting with the teacher.

Casual Morning Greeting

1. おはよう - Good Morning (casual)

Toggle Translations アリス： おはよう。 リー： おはよう。 アリス： 元気？ リー： 元気。 Alice: Morning. Lee: Morning.

Alice: (Are you) well? Lee: (I'm) good.

Polite Morning Greeting

1. 先生 【せん・せい】 - teacher

2. おはようございます - Good Morning (polite)

Toggle Translations 先生： おはようございます。 スミス： おはようございます！ 先生： お元気ですか？ スミス： 元気です。 Teacher: Morning. Smith: Good Morning! Teacher: Are (you) well? Smith: (I'm) well.

You can follow a similar model to practice greeting people in the morning. We'll learn the expressions for afternoon and evening greetings in the next section.

Topic Particles

Context plays a powerful role in Japanese so one word sentences are perfectly fine for simple question and answers. However, longer and more sophisticated sentences will consist of many words that perform various grammatical roles. In Japanese, the grammatical role each word plays in a sentence is defined by particles. Particles are one or more Hiragana characters that assign a certain grammatical function to the word that comes before it. We'll see how this works by first learning the topic particle.

「は」 Topic Particle

As mentioned previously, context is very important in Japanese and is often silently understood by the situation. However, what you want to talk about may not always be obvious or you may want to change the topic of the conversation. For that purpose, the 「は」 topic particle is used to indicate a new topic for the conversation.

Important note!

The topic particle while written as 「は」, is pronounced 「わ」.

Example

1. これ - this 2. 何 【なに／なん】 - what 3. それ - that 4. ペン - pen 5. 今 【いま】 - now 6. ちょっと - a little (casual)

7. 忙しい 【いそが・しい】 - busy 8. 映画 【えい・が】 - movie

9. 好き 【す・き】 - likable (unlike English "like" is an adjective not a verb)

Toggle Translations

1. これは、何（なん）ですか？ (As for) this, what is (it)? 2. それは、ペンです。

(As for) that, (it's) a pen.

1. 今は、忙しい？ (As for) now, busy? 2. 今は、ちょっと忙しい。

(As for) now, (I'm) a little busy.

1. 映画は、好きですか？

(As for) movie(s), (do you) like? (lit: is likable?) 2. 好きです。

(I) like (them). (lit: Is likable.)

Greetings

The topic particle is also used in the greetings for daytime and evening. The expressions were originally full sentences with a topic meaning, "As for today/tonight, how is your mood?" but they were eventually shortened to just "As for today" and "As for tonight".

1. こんにちは - Good day (pronounced 「こんにちわ」) 2. こんばんは - Good evening (pronounced 「こんばんわ」)

How are things lately?

1. 最近 【さい・きん】 - recent; lately 2. どう - how 3. 忙しい 【いそが・しい】 - busy Toggle Translations 先生： こんにちは。 スミス： こんにちは。 先生： 最近は、どうですか？ スミス： 忙しいです。

Smith: Good day.

Teacher: (As for) lately, how (is it)? Smith: Busy.

「も」 Inclusive Topic Particle

The 「も」 particle used the same way as 「は」 topic particle but adds the meaning of "as well" or "also".

Suspiciously busy

1. 今日 【きょう】 - today 2. 明日 【あした】 - tomorrow 3. あさって - day after tomorrow 4. うん - yes (casual) 5. 本当 【ほんとう】 - truth; reality Toggle Translations リー： 今日は忙しい？ スミス： うん、忙しい。 リー： 明日は？ スミス： 明日も忙しい。 リー： あさっては？ スミス： あさっても。 リー： 本当？

Lee: As for today, (are you) busy? Smith : Yeah, (I'm) busy.

Lee: What about tomorrow? Smith: Tomorrow is also busy.

Lee: What about the day after tomorrow? Smith: The day after tomorrow too. Lee: Really? (lit: Is it true?)

Addressing People

Addressing other people directly

In Japanese, the word "you" is seldom used to refer to a person except in the case of very close relationships. Most of the time, you will refer to people using their name (last name is more polite than first) usually followed by a name-suffix. You have probably already heard 「さん」

somewhere at some point. It is the polite name-suffix used to refer to your social superiors, elders, or people you are unfamiliar with. The most common name-suffixes are listed below.

 ～さん - Polite name-suffix (gender-neutral)

 ～君 【くん】 - Casual name-suffix (generally for males)

 ～ちゃん - Casual name-suffix (generally for females)

If you're not sure which to use to address someone, 「さん」 with the person's last name is generally the safest option. You can also always ask the person what they prefer to be called by.

Always sleepy

1. はい - yes (polite) 2. でも - but

3. 眠い 【ねむ・い】 - sleepy 4. それ - that

5. 大変 【たい・へん】 - hardship; rough time; tough 6. 大丈夫 【だい・じょう・ぶ】 - ok 7. いつも - always Toggle Translations 先生： スミスさんは、元気ですか。 スミス： はい、元気です。 先生： リーさんは、元気ですか？ リー： はい、元気です。でも、眠いです。 先生： それは、大変です。 スミス： 大丈夫です。リーさんはいつも眠いです。 Teacher: Smith-san, (are you) well?

Smith: Yes, (I'm) fine.

Teacher: Lee-san, (are you) well? Lee: Yes, (I'm) fine. But (I'm) sleepy. Teacher: That's tough.

Smith: (It's) ok. Lee-san is always sleepy.

Talking about yourself

We already saw that it's usually understood implicitly by context when you're talking about yourself. However, there are times you may still want to refer to yourself as a topic to say, "As for me..." or "me too".

List of different words meaning me, myself, and I

1. 私 【わたし】 - polite, gender-neutral

2. 私 【わたくし】 - same Kanji as 「わたし」 but this reading is only used in very formal situations

3. 僕 【ぼく】 - polite, masculine 4. あたし - casual, very feminine

5. 俺 【おれ】 - very casual and masculine

How's the pizza?

1. ピザ - pizza 2. おいしい - tasty 3. ううん - no (casual) Toggle Translations ジョン： ピザは、おいしい？ リー： ううん。 アリス： 私は、おいしい。 John: As for pizza, tasty? Lee: No.

Alice: As for me, tasty.

This short conversation highlights a very important point. The topic only brings up the general topic of the conversation and does not necessarily indicate the subject of any one particular sentence. The last sentence 「私は、おいしい」 would be very strange if it meant "I am tasty". However, because "I" is only a general topic, from the context of the entire conversation, we know that Alice is saying that as for her, the pizza is tasty.

Addressing family members

We've already encountered the honorific prefix 「お」 in 「お元気」. This prefix is used in all sorts of words and comes from a Kanji which can be read as either 「ご」 or 「お」. However, determining which reading to use is usually not an issue as this Kanji is usually written in

Hiragana.

御

Definition: honorable Stroke Order Kun-yomi: お On-yomi: ゴ

1. お金 【お・かね】 - money 2. ご飯 【ご・はん】 - rice; meal 3. お茶 【お・ちゃ】 - tea

The reason we're looking at it here is because of how the honorific prefix is used to refer to family members. The basic idea is to use the honorific prefix when referring to somebody else's family. You would not use honorifics to refer to your own family unless you are speaking to someone within your family. We will learn more about the concept of inner and outer circle for honorifics in a much later chapter.

The list below is by no means complete and only covers the more common words for the primary family members.

Family member chart

One's own family Someone else's family

Family 家族【か・ぞく】 ご家族【ご・か・ぞく】 Parents 両親【りょう・しん】 ご両親【ご・りょう・しん】 Mother 母【はは】 お母さん【お・かあ・さん】 Father 父【ちち】 お父さん【お・とう・さん】 Wife 妻【つま】 奥さん【おく・さん】 Husband 夫【おっと】 ご主人【ご・しゅ・じん】 Older Sister 姉【あね】 お姉さん【お・ねえ・さん】 Older Brother 兄【あに】 お兄さん【お・にい・さん】 Younger Sister 妹【いもうと】 妹さん【いもうと・さん】 Younger Brother 弟【おとうと】 弟さん【おとうと・さん】 Son 息子【むすこ】 息子さん【むすこ・さん】 Daughter 娘【むすめ】 娘さん【むすめ・さん】

Smith's parents

1. 山田 【やま・だ】 - Yamada (surname) 2. アジア人 【あじあ・じん】 - Asian (person) 3. いいえ - no

4. でも - but

5. 母 【はは】 - (one's own) mother

6. 日本人 【に・ほん・じん】 - Japanese (person) 7. そう - so

8. お父さん 【お・とう・さん】 - father 9. 父 【ちち】 - (one's own) father

10. アメリカ人 【アメリカ・じん】 - American (person) 11. なるほど (exp) - I see Toggle Translations 山田： スミスさんは、アジア人ですか？ スミス： いいえ。でも、母は、日本人です。 山田： そうですか。お父さんは？ スミス： 父はアメリカ人です。 山田： なるほど。

Yamada: Smith-san, are (you) Asian (person)? Smith: No. But, (my) mother is Japanese. Yamada: Is that so? As for (your) father? Smith: (My) father is American.

Yamada: I see.

Sentence-Ending Particles

Let's add some life to our sentences by using sentence-ending particles. These particles are attached at the very end of the sentence to add an emotion or tone.

「よ」 and 「ね」 sentence endings

「よ」 and 「ね」 are two of the most frequently used sentence ending particles.

1. 「ね」 is used when the speaker is seeking agreement and confirmation. It adds a tone similar to saying, "right?" or "isn't it?".

2. 「よ」 is used when the speaker wants to point something out or make something aware to the listener. It adds a tone similar to saying, "you know?".

3. The two can be used together as 「よね」.

Example

1. 今日 【きょう】 - today

3. 明日 【あした】 - tomorrow 4. 忙しい 【いそが・しい】 - busy 5. ラーメン - ramen 6. おいしい - tasty, delicous Toggle Translations 1. 今日は、暑いですね。 As for today, (it's) hot, isn't it? 2. 明日は、忙しいですよ。

As for tomorrow, (I'm) busy, you know. 3. ラーメンは、おいしいですよね！

As for ramen, (it's) tasty you know, isn't it?!

You look young for a teacher

1. 田中 【たなか】 - Tanaka (surname) 2. いいえ - no 3. とても - very 4. 若い 【わか・い】 - young 5. （お）いくつ - how old 6. それ - that 7. 秘密 【ひ・みつ】 - secret Toggle Translations スミス： はじめまして。スミスです。 田中： はじめまして。田中です。 スミス： 田中さんは、学生ですか？ 田中： いいえ、先生です。 スミス： 本当ですか？ 田中： 本当ですよ。 スミス： とても若いですね。おいくつですか？ 田中： それは、秘密です。

Smith: Nice to meet you. (I'm) Smith. Tanaka: Nice to meet you. (I'm) Tanaka. Smith: Tanaka-san, (are you) a student? Tanaka: No, (I'm) a teacher.

Smith: Really?

Tanaka: It's true, you know.

Smith: (You) are very young, right? How old (are you)? Tanaka: That's a secret.

Adjectives

We've already used some adjectives as the state-of-being but we have yet to describe a noun directly with adjectives. In order to do this, we first have to learn the two different types of adjectives in Japanese.

There are two types of adjectives called i-adjectives and na-adjectives.

Examples of i-adjectives

All i-adjectives end in 「い」.

1. いい - good 2. かっこいい - cool; handsome 3. 忙しい 【いそが・しい】 - busy 4. 楽しい 【たの・しい】- fun 5. 暑い 【あつ・い】 - hot 6. 寒い 【さむ・い】 - cold

Examples of na-adjectives

All adjectives that do not end in 「い」 are na-adjectives.

1. 好き 【す・き】 - likable

2. 元気 【げん・き】 - healthy; lively 3. 静か 【しず・か】 - quiet

Examples of na-adjectives that end in 「い」

Though most adjectives that end in 「い」 are i-adjectives, there are a small number of na-adjectives that end in 「い」. The examples below are some of the most common na-na-adjectives that end in 「い」.

1. きれい - clean; pretty

2. 嫌い 【きら・い】 - distasteful

3. 幸い 【さいわ・い】 - luckily, fortunately

Describing nouns directly

You can easily describe a noun by placing the adjective directly in front of the noun. For na-adjectives, you first need to add 「な」 before you can attach the adjective to the noun (hence the name).

Example

1. 人 【ひと】 - person 2. 時 【とき】 - when 3. ゲーム - game 4. 物 【もの】 - object; thing Toggle Translations 1. いい人 good person 2. 元気な人

lively; healthy person 3. きれいな人 pretty person 4. 忙しい時 when busy 5. 楽しいゲーム fun game 6. 好きな物 likable thing

You're so-so handsome

1. 山本 【やまもと】 - Yamamoto (surname) 2. 新しい 【あたら・しい】 (i-adj) - new 3. とても (adv) - very

4. まあまあ (adv) - so-so

5. ありがとうございます - thank you (polite)

Toggle Translations スミス： 田中先生は、新しい先生ですか？ 山本： そうですよ。 スミス： とてもきれいな人ですね。 山本： そうですか？ スミス： あっ、山本先生も、まあまあかっこいいですよ！ 山本： ・・・ありがとうございます。

Smith: Is Tanaka-sensei a new teacher? Yamamoto: That's right.

Smith: (She's) a very pretty person, isn't she? Yamamoto: Is that so?

Smith: Ah, Yamamoto-sensei is so-so handsome too！ Yamamoto: ...Thank you.

Male/Female Speech

As opposed to polite speech, which is mostly gender-neutral, casual speech has many

constructions that make it sound masculine or feminine to varying degrees. Of course, you do not have to be a specific gender to use either masculine or feminine manners of speech but you do need to be aware of the differences and the impression it gives to the listener. The first example of this is how 「ね」 and 「よ」 are used in casual speech.

Declarative 「だ」

The declarative 「だ」 is attached to nouns and na-adjectives to give it a more declarative tone and make the state-of-being explicit. This is important in some grammatical forms we will cover later. For now, we can use it in casual Japanese to give a more definitive, confident, and

somewhat masculine tone (though females often use it as well). For males, in particular, it is important to use it before 「ね」 or 「よ」 to avoid sounding too feminine.

Note: Only attach 「だ」 to nouns and na-adjectives. Never to i-adjectives.

Example

1. 日本語 【に・ほん・ご】 - Japanese language 2. 上手 【じょう・ず】(na-adj) - skillful, good at 3. 楽しい 【たの・しい】(i-adj) - fun

1. 日本語は、上手ね。

As for Japanese, (you're) good at it, aren't you? (feminine) 2. 日本語は、上手だね。

As for Japanese, (you're) good at it, aren't you? (masculine) 3. 日本語は、楽しいよ。

As for Japanese, (it's) fun, you know. (gender-neutral as 「だ」 cannot be used for i-adjectives)

Comic 3

1. おはよう - Good Morning (casual)

2. 元気 【げん・き】(na-adj) - healthy; lively 3. 眠い 【ねむ・い】(i-adj) - sleepy 4. でも - but 5. もう - already 6. 昼 【ひる】 - afternoon 7. じゃ - then （abbr. of それでは） 8. こんにちは - Good day

9. お休み 【お・やす・み】 - Good night (expression for going to sleep)

ジョン：アリスちゃん、おはよう。 John: Alice-chan, good morning.

アリス：おはよう、元気？ Alice: Morning, how are (you)?

ジョン：眠い。 John: Sleepy.

アリス：でも、もう昼だよ

Alice: But (it's) already afternoon, you know.

ジョン：そう？じゃ、こんにちは。 John: Is that so? Then, good afternoon.

アリス：こんにちは Alice: Good afternoon.

ジョン：お休み。 John: Good night.

The homework is easy!

1. 宿題 【しゅく・だい】 (n) - homework 2. 難しい 【むずか・しい】 (i-adj) - difficult 3. 簡単 【かん・たん】 (na-adj) - easy 4. うーん - umm

5. 多分 【た・ぶん】 - probably; maybe 6. どっち - which one; which way

アリス： 宿題は、難しい？

Alice: As for homework, (is it) difficult?

ジョン： 簡単だよ！ John: It's easy!

アリス： 本当？ Alice: Really?

ジョン： うーん、多分難しいよ。 John: Umm, (it's) probably difficult.

アリス： どっちよ。 Alice: Which is it?

Because John is male, he decides to use 「だ」 with 「よ」 with the na-adjective 「簡単」. However, regardless of gender, you cannot use 「だ」 with i-adjectives so he says 「難しいよ 」. 「難しいだよ」 is grammatically incorrect.

Noun properties

The 「の」 particle has many different uses but one of the most basic usages is for describing nouns with other nouns similar to how we described nouns with adjectives. This is usually used to describe ownership, membership, property or any other description that involves another noun.

It is important to remember the order the modification takes place. You don't want to

inadvertently say "name's me" when you meant to say "my name". If you're unsure of the order, I recommend translating 「の」 as "of" and reading it in reverse.

Examples

1. 私 【わたし】 - me; myself; I 2. 名前 【な・まえ】 - name 3. この - this 4. 車 【くるま】 - car 5. 日本 【に・ほん】 - Japan 6. ペン - pen 7. 机 【つくえ】 - desk 8. 上 【うえ】 - up; above 9. かばん - bag 10. 下 【した】 - down; below 11. 先生 【せん・せい】 - teacher

12. 日本語 【に・ほん・ご】 - Japanese language

1. 私の名前は、キムです。 Name of me (my name) is Kim. 2. この車は、日本の車です。

This car is car of Japan (Japanese car). 3. ペンは、机の上です。

Pen is above of desk. 4. かばんは、机の下です。

Bag is below of desk.

5. 田中先生は、日本語の先生です。

Tanaka-sensei is teacher of Japanese (Japanese teacher).

What's your first name again?

1. 下の名前 - first name (lit: bottom name) 2. 何 【なに】 - what

3. なんで - why 4. え - huh, eh

リー： スミスさんの下の名前は、何？ Lee: What is Smith-san's first name?

スミス： アリスよ。 Smith: (It's) Alice.

リー： アリスちゃんね。 Lee: Alice-chan, huh?

スミス： リーさんの下の名前は？ Smith: What is Lee-san's first name?

リー： ジェユン Lee: JaeYoon.

スミス： ・・・リー君ね。 Smith: ...Lee-kun, huh?

リー： え、なんで？ Lee: Huh, why?

The 「の」 particle can also replace the noun entirely when it's understood by the context.

Examples

1. 赤い 【あか・い】 - red 2. どれ - which

1. 赤いのは、好き。 Like the red one.

2. スミスさんのは、どれですか？ Which one is Smith-san's?

Negative State-of-Being

Because the state-of-being is implied within nouns and adjectives, expressing the negative is a bit different from English. The noun or adjective is conjugated directly to say that [X is not Y]. Conjugating nouns and adjectives into the negative is done through two simple rules.

There are only two exceptions to the rule for i-adjectives both involving the adjective meaning "good". The words 「いい」 and 「かっこいい」 (which is a combination of another word 「 格好」（かっこう） with 「いい」) originally come from the adjective 「良い」（よい）. Though it is usually pronounced 「いい」 in modern Japanese, all conjugations still derive from the original 「よい」 reading. You will see similar examples later as we learn different types of conjugations.

Negative for nouns and adjectives

 For nouns and na-adjectives: Attach 「じゃない」 to the end

Example

1. 元気＋じゃない＝元気じゃない 2. きれい＋じゃない＝きれいじゃない

 For i-adjectives: Drop the 「い」 at the end and replace with 「くない」

Example

1. 忙しい＋くない＝忙しくない 2. かわいい＋くない＝かわいくない

 Exceptions: 「いい」 conjugates from 「よい」

1. いい → よい＋くない＝よくない

2. かっこいい → かっこよい＋くない＝かっこよくない

Note: The negative form is very similar grammatically to i-adjectives. Similar to i-adjectives,

you must never use the declarative 「だ」 with the negative.

1. サラダ - salad 2. ステーキ - steak

3. あまり - not very (when used with negative) 4. この - this 5. 本 【ほん】 - book 6. 面白い 【おも・しろ・い】(i-adj) - interesting 7. 今年 【ことし】 - this year 8. 冬 【ふゆ】 - winter 9. 寒い 【さむ・い】(i-adj) - cold 1. サラダは、あまり好きじゃない。 As for salad, don't like very much.

2. ステーキ・サラダは、サラダじゃないよ。 As for steak salad, (it's) not salad, you know. 3. この本は、面白くないよ。

As for this book, (it's) not interesting, you know. 4. 今年の冬は、寒くないね。

As for this year's winter, (it's) not cold, is it?

That's not a good thing!

1. 授業 【じゅ・ぎょう】 (n) - class; lecture 2. あまり - not very (when used with negative)

3. 面白い 【おも・しろ・い】 (i-adj) - interesting; funny 4. でも - but

5. 難しい 【むずか・しい】 (i-adj) - difficult 6. それ - that

7. いい (i-adj) - good 8. こと (n) - matter; event

9. 全然 【ぜん・ぜん】 (adv) - not at all (when used with negative)

ジョン： 山本先生の授業は、あまり面白くない。 John: Yamamoto-sensei's class is not very interesting.

アリス： 私は、面白いよ。 Alice: As for me, (it's) interesting.

ジョン： でも、難しくない？ John: But isn't it very difficult?

アリス： それは、いいことよ。 Alice: That's a good thing.

ジョン： 全然よくない！ John: It's not good at all!

Negative Nouns/Adjectives in Polite Form

As before, all that's required for the polite form is to add 「です」 to the end of the sentence.

I'm not an otaku!

1. 趣味 【しゅ・み】 (n) - hobby; interest

2. 何 【なに／なん】 - what （read as なん when used with です）

3. パソコン - computer (abbreviation of パーソナル・コンピューター or PC) 4. ゲーム - game

5. 好き 【す・き】 (na-adj) - likable 6. スポーツ - sports

7. いいえ - no (polite)

8. オタク - otaku; geek; enthusiast

山本： リーさんの趣味は何ですか？ Yamamoto: What is your hobby, Lee-san?

リー： パソコンです。ゲームも好きです。 Lee: Computers. (I) also like games.

山本： スポーツは、好きですか？ Yamamoto: Do (you) like sports?

リー： いいえ、あまり好きじゃないです。 Lee: No, I don't like (it) that much.

スミス： リーさんは、オタクです。 Smith: Lee-san is an otaku.

リー： オタクじゃないですよ！ Lee: I'm not an otaku！

Identifying the unknown

「が」 identifier particle

With the 「は」 topic particle, you have to know what you want to talk about ahead of time. Obviously this will not always be the case. For example, if you wanted to know what kind of food somebody liked, it would be impossible to ask if each kind was his/her favorite using the topic particle saying "as for this" and "as for that". That is what the 「が」 particle is for: to identify or seek to identify an unknown.

1. ピザ - pizza

2. 好き 【す・き】 (na-adj) - likable 3. どんな - what kind of

 ピザは、好きですか？ As for pizza, do (you) like it?

 どんなピザが好きですか？

What kind of pizza do (like)? (Among all possibilities)

You can sometimes restructure your sentence to mean the same thing with and without the 「が 」 particle.

1. 好き 【す・き】 (na-adj) - likable 2. 食べ物 【た・べ・もの】 - food 3. 何 【なに／なん】 - what

 好きな食べ物は、何ですか？ As for food that (you) like, what is it?

 食べ物は、何が好きですか？

As for food, what is it that you like? (Among all possibilities)

However, while the topic particle can only bring up a general topic of conversation, the identifier particle plays a specific role in that it's identifying a particular thing among other possibilities.

1. 忙しい 【いそが・しい】 (i-adj) - busy

 スミスさんは、忙しい。 As for Smith-san, busy.

 スミスさんが忙しい。

Smith-san is the one that is busy.

Which teacher do you like the most?

1. どの - which

2. 一番 【いち・ばん】 - number 1; the best; the most 3. かわいい (i-adj) - cute

5. 来年 【らい・ねん】 - next year

6. 楽しみ 【たの・しみ】 - something to look forward to 7. なんで - why

8. 授業 【じゅ・ぎょう】 - class

9. 面白い 【おも・しろ・い】 - interesting 10. 難しい 【むずか・しい】 - difficult

リー： ジョンさんは、どの先生が一番好き？

Lee: As for John-san, which teacher do (you) like the most?

ジョン： 田中先生が好きだね。 John: (I) like Tanaka-sensei.

リー： そうだね。かわいいよね。でも、二年生の先生だよね。 Lee: That's so, isn't it? She is cute. But (she's) second-year teacher.

ジョン： 来年が楽しみだ！ John: Looking forward to next year!

アリス： 私は、山本先生が好きよ。

Alice: As for me, I like Yamamoto-sensei, you know?

ジョン： え？なんで？ John: Huh? Why?

アリス： 授業が面白くない？ Alice: Isn't (his) class interesting?

ジョン： 面白くないよ！難しいよ！ John: It's not interesting! It's difficult!

アリス： そう？ Alice: Is that so?

The one or thing that...

Though it doesn't work all the time, a simple trick to easily distinguish 「が」 is to translate it as "the one or thing that...". This way, it clearly illustrates the 「が」 particle as identifying a particular thing or person.

1. 田中先生が好き。

Tanaka-sensei is the one that (I) like. 2. 授業が面白くない？

Conjunctions

There are really only two conjunctions in Japanese that can combine two sentences together into a compound sentence: "but" and "because". However, there are several versions of each with a slightly different level of politeness.

Combining two sentences with "but"

You may remember we already used 「でも」 to mean "but" or "however". While 「でも」 is always used at the beginning of a new sentence, there are two conjunctions that also mean "but" and can be used to combine two sentences together into one compound sentence, similar to English. The two conjunctions are 「けど」 and 「が」. 「けど」 is fairly casual while 「が 」 is slightly more formal and polite. (Note that this 「が」 is completely different from the identifier particle we learned in the last section.)

Example

1. 今日 【きょう】 - today

2. 忙しい 【いそが・しい】 - busy 3. 明日 【あした】 - tomorrow

4. 暇 【ひま】 (na-adj) - free (as in not busy)

 今日は忙しいけど、明日は暇。 (I'm) busy but (I'm) free tomorrow.

 今日は忙しいですが、明日は暇です。 (I'm) busy but (I'm) free tomorrow.

Note: If the first clause ends with a noun or na-adjective without any tense and you're not using

「です」, you must add 「だ」.

Example

 (I'm) free today but (I'm) busy tomorrow. 1. 今日は暇だけど、明日は忙しい。

2. 今日は暇ですけど、明日は忙しいです。 3. 今日は暇だが、明日は忙しい。

4. 今日は暇ですが、明日は忙しいです。

If the noun or na-adjective is already conjugated （such as the negative 「じゃない」）, you don't need to add 「だ」.

1. 今日は暇じゃないけど、明日は暇。 2. 今日は暇じゃないが、明日は暇。

Combining two sentences with "so"

You can combine two sentences with 「から」 or 「ので」 to show a reason and result but it's important to remember that the reason comes first. Therefore, it may be helpful to remember the definition as "so" rather than "because" to match the order. 「ので」 is slightly more polite and formal compared to 「から」.

Example

1. ここ - here 2. うるさい - noisy

 ここは、うるさいから、あまり好きじゃない。 (It's) noisy here so (I) don't like it very much.

 ここは、うるさいですので、あまり好きじゃないです。 (It's) noisy here so (I) don't like it very much.

Note: Once again, If the first clause ends with a noun or na-adjective without anything else （

such as 「です」 or 「じゃない」）, you must add 「だ」 for 「から」 and 「な」 for 「の で」.

Example

1. ここ - here

2. 静か 【しず・か】 - quiet

 (It's) quiet here so (I) like it.

1. ここは静かだから、好き。

2. ここは静かですから、好きです。 3. ここは静かなので、好き。

4. ここは静かですので、好きです。

Once again, this only applies to nouns and na-adjectives that are not conjugated to another tense.

 (It's) not quiet here so (I) don't like it very much.

1. ここは静かじゃないから、あまり好きじゃない。 2. ここは静かじゃないので、あまり好きじゃない。

Combining two sentences with "despite"

Similarly, you can attach two sentences with 「のに」 to mean "despite" or "in spite of". Similar to 「ので」, you must attach 「な」 when the first clause ends with a plain noun or na-adjective.

Example

1. 先生 【せん・せい】 - teacher 2. とても - very 3. 若い 【わか・い】 (i-adj) - young 4. 今年 【こ・とし】 - this year 5. 不景気 【ふ・けい・き】 - (economic) recession 6. クリスマス - Christmas 7. お客さん 【お・きゃく・さん】 - customer 8. 少ない 【すく・ない】(i-adj) - few, scarce 9. かわいい (i-adj) - cute

10. 真面目 【ま・じ・め】 (na-adj) - serious; diligent 11. 男 【おとこ】 - man

12. 友達 【とも・だち】 - friend

1. 田中さんは、先生なのに、とても若いです。

Despite the fact that Tanaka-san is (a) teacher, (she) is very young. 2. 今年は、不景気だから、クリスマスなのに、お客さんが少ない。

This year is recession so despite it being Christmas, customers are few. 3. アリスは、かわいいのに、真面目だから、男の友達が少ない。

Although Alice is cute, because (she's) serious, (she has) few male friends.

Leaving parts out

You can leave out either side of the conjunction if it's understood by context.

Example

スミス： ここは、好きじゃない。 Smith: I don't like (it) here.

リー： なんで？ Lee: Why?

スミス： うるさいから。 Smith: Because it's noisy.

If you leave the first part out, you still need to add 「です」, 「だ」, or 「な」 just as if the first sentence was there.

1. 図書館 【と・しょ・かん】 - library 2. ここ - here

3. あまり - not very (when used with negative) 4. 好き 【す・き】 - likable

りー： 図書館なのに、ここはいつもうるさいよね。 Lee: Despite the fact (it's) library, (It's) always noisy here, huh?

スミス： だから、あまり好きじゃない。 Smith: That's why I don't like (it) very much.

Other options would be the same as it would be with both sentences.

1. ですから、あまり好きじゃないです。 2. なので、あまり好きじゃないです。

You can even leave out both parts of the conjunction as seen in the next dialogue.

So what?

リー： 最近は、忙しいよ。 Lee: I'm busy lately, you know?

スミス： だから？ Smith: So?

リー： だから、大変だよ！だけど今日は、やっと暇だから、うれしい！ Lee: So (it's) tough, you know! But (I'm) finally free today so (I'm) happy!

スミス： あっ、そう？ Smith: Oh, is that so?

Listing multiple nouns

「と」 complete list particle

The 「と」 particle is used to group multiple nouns together in a complete list.