Particles––small words that can have a big impact on the meaning and nuance of a sentence––are arguably one of the most difficult things to master in Japanese grammar (the other being various forms of politeness). Over time I’ve written a bunch of posts about particles, which you can see here. This time I would like… Read More »
The Japanese language has a small number of verb tenses, but in place of those are various combinations of words that can be tricky to understand and translate. In this article I’d like to go over the phrase 疲れにくくなる(tsukare nikuku naru) that combines three words to create one idea. First I’d like to review the… Read More »
In this post I illustrate 50+ sentence patterns in Japanese using example sentences and English translations. The examples are minimal and the focus is on how small changes (especially involving particles) can lead to very different meanings.
While I believe it’s a good idea to learn fundamentals of a language in a relatively formal setting like a classroom or at least using a textbook, often expressions that are considered slang will be omitted or deemphasized in those forums. That’s why I think it’s good to actively seek out slang expressions that you… Read More »
Because of the unfortunate situation in the world at this time, many people are turning to online options to continue their learning, social interactions, or even exercise. Blogs like this one already take advantage of the internet, and if anything I have seen a rise in hits over the last few weeks. But I’ve been… Read More »
In this article I wanted to go over a Japanese phrase that I think is used fairly commonly in everyday conversation, 食べていく (tabete iku).
The Japanese particle を (called “wo” or “o”) is argubly one of the most straightforward particles in the language, with only one major use: describing the direct object of an action. First, let’s look at a simple example of its usage: 僕は本を読んでいます (boku wa hon wo yonde imasu) I am reading a book. Here, the… Read More »
Verbs are an extremely important part of the Japanese language. One reason for that is the large variety of verbs available in Japanese, some which don’t seem to have direct equivalents in other languages (or at least not in English). But I think it’s also because Japanese tends to omit words deemed unnecessary based on… Read More »
In this article I’d like to focus on a few ways to state that something is obvious, in the sense that it should be clearly understood or known by everyone. Another way we express this in English is with the phrase “of course”. Before we get started, I’ll be using the words “darou” and “deshou”… Read More »
Verb order is one of the most fundamental things about a language’s grammar, and for Japanese we have Subject + Object + Verb. Of course, this is just for the most basic of sentences, and there are various ways to build onto a sentence to make it more complex. For example, expressing a chain of… Read More »