I said grammar-centric language teaching doesn’t work in “how to learn foreign language“, and you should learn language naturally through learning phrases actually spoken by native speakers. While I stand by the statement, sometimes it helps to clarify specific grammatical points, especially because Japanese and English (or any other language for that matter) are quite different.
Instead of going through pedantic (and usually useless) detailed explanations of Japanese grammar like many others have already done, I focus on clarifying the differences and correspondences between English and Japanese to make things easier for English speakers. I also focus on the differences between similar concepts within Japanese grammar so that you learn not only what is correct, but what is wrong and why too, and it will be clear to you when to use what how in real-life applications.
This section is under development and I will be adding more posts soon. Please support so that I can keep developing the website.
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Noun + する, をする
Noun + する, をする is a very common construction in Japanese. Most of the nouns were originally imported from Chinese, and while nouns and verbs have the same forms in Chinese, する, をする (to do) are added to nouns to turn them into verbs in Japanese. Obviously when the noun is modified by an adjective…
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Overview of Japanese grammar
Here are a quick summary of the characteristics of Japanese language, especially in contrast with European languages […]
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Overview of Japanese Grammar 2
Here I only present the grammatical terminologies that are relevant and useful while learning Japanese using this website […]
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Participles (verbs as adjectives)
The ways Japanese verbs are used as adjectives are a little different from English. What is expressed using past participles are expressed with [verb 連用形 + aux verb of perfect た(だ)] Usually what are expressed with [verb + た(だ)] can also be expressed with [verb 連用形 + て + いる] There are no definitive differences…
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Particle of direct object
Particles が, は, を, と all define direct object in sentences from English’s perspective, but they work differently. を defines a direct object as the target of some action: が is used when the object has an effect on the subject, instead of subject actively working on the object. For instance が defines an object…
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Particle of indirect object に
Some of the Japanese counterparts of the English verbs that take a direct object take に. Here are some of them:
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Particle of subject が and は
Particles が and は both define the subject of the sentence from English’s perspective, but they work differently. は is called a “topic marker”, and since it is a grammatical function found only in a handful of languages in the world (Japanese, Korean and a few others), you may find it difficult to understand. As…
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Particle は
The particle は is called “topic marker” and it can mark both the subject and object of a sentence. You might wonder how you can tell if it is marking a subject or object. You can tell from the relation with other particles in the sentence, because usually は will not be used more than…
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Passive voice
The passive voice in Japanese is formed by adding れる・られる to the main verb. れる comes after 五段 or サ変 verbs. られる comes after 上一段, 下一段 or カ変 verbs, and they both come after 未然形 of the preceding verbs.
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Personal pronoun – I
Unlike in European languages, Japanese has a plethora of “I“, and it is extremely important to use a right one depending on the occasion […]
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Personal pronoun – You
Unlike in European languages, personal pronouns other than “I” and “we” are not commonly used in Japanese. Textbooks and dictionaries may say “あなた” is “you”, but that is only because among all other “you” in Japanese, “あなた” is relatively close to being neutral […]
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Personal pronouns – He, She, They
Most of the practices explained in the article on personal pronoun “you” in Japanese also apply to “he/him“, “she/her” and “they/them” with some differences. Just like “あなた”, it is very rude to refer to your senior with “彼” or “彼女”, and it sounds too formal and/or pompous for everybody else. If you know the person’s…
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Personal pronouns (or omission of thereof)
In Japanese it is common to omit personal pronouns, especially the first person and the second person […]
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Plural
Plurals are used only for people and animals in Japanese, and are optional even for them. Especially in conversation most Japanese don’t bother to pluralize nouns […]
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Tense – Future
Japanese doesn’t have explicit future tense. Instead the near future is usually expressed with the present tense, while specifying the timing […]
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Tense – Past
The simple past is expressed using aux verb た(だ) […]
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Tense – Perfect
Modern Japanese doesn’t differentiate the simple and perfect tenses. The auxiliary verb た(だ) expresses them both. The present perfect [have done] can be expressed with the continuous aspect ている as well. The past perfect [had done] are expressed with the continuous aspect ている+た as well. The present perfect continuous tense [have been doing] can be…
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Tense – Present
The simple present tense is expressed with 終止形 of verbs and aux verbs, which is the same with the base form […]
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Verbs – Causative
Causative (make someone/something do something) in Japanese is expressed with [verb 未然形 + aux verbs せる/させる]. 五段 verbs and する are followed by せる, and 上一段, 下一段 and 来る are followed by させる […]
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Verbs – Intransitive/Transitive
The vast majority of Japanese original verbs (as opposed to Chinese-derived …する verbs) are pairs of an intransitive and a transitive […]