One aspect of Japanese grammar that is easy to overlook is the omission of subjects and other words which would normally be included in English. If you’re not careful about subject omission you can end up with grammatically “correct” sentences that sound awkward. Let’s start with a simple example: When I got home, my television… Read More »
”気” in Japanese, pronounced “ki”, represents something like “natural energy”, though it can also mean “air” or “atmosphere” in some cases. A similar word is used in many other Asian cultures, including Chinese (‘Chi’ or ‘Qi’), Korean, Vietnamese, and Thai. The large character pictured above is a more complex version of more the commonly used… Read More »
Regardless of your level of Japanese ability, there are always times when you want to say something in Japanese, but your mental book of words, phrases, and grammar doesn’t give you a good answer. Even if you have friends or family who speak Japanese fluently, it may be a bit annoying to constantly asking them… Read More »
This time I’d like to introduce an expression whose meaning I picked up after hearing it several times in conversations with native speakers. As you probably know, いい means good as an adjective, and its adverbial form is よく (not いく）. That may seem irregular, but if you remember that よい is another way to say… Read More »
There is one type of Japanese reference book that I often run across in bookstores that always makes me wonder. It’s the Japanese verb dictionary which have several hundreds of pages, each containing a verb and its various conjugations. For a beginner where money is no object and you just need to double check your… Read More »
Just like the particle は, it can take some time to get the hang of understanding and using the Japanese particle の。I’ll use what I’ve learned from textbooks, from experience, and from dictionary.goo.ne.jp to illustrate the many uses of this important element of the language. 1) Possessive or descriptive This is by far the easiest… Read More »
One of the convenient and frequently used set of expressions in Japanese is those for giving and receiving, which can be used for both objects and actions. These are discussed in many basic Japanese textbooks, but since their usage is a little tricky I thought I would review them here so it might help others.… Read More »
As I mentioned in a previous article, in my initial years of studying Japanese I made a huge emphasis on learning as much grammar as I could. For me, one of the most difficult elements of Japanese grammar is distinguishing between the particles は and が. There are surely hundreds of books and websites that describe… Read More »
All through my Japanese studies I have always dedicated a large portion of time to learning grammar, almost to the extent that I would call it “grammar-driven learning”. Of course it’s great to have a rich vocabulary, but without knowing the rules for how to transform and combine words to get across your intended meaning,… Read More »