Japanese has two verb types, consonant (godan) verbs and vowel (ichidan) verbs, each with their corresponding conjugations. Here is an example of each with conjugation into the past and -masu forms. Vowel (ichidan) 食べる (taberu) – to eat Past: 食べた (tabeta) ~Masu (polite): 食べます (tabemasu) Consonant verb (godan) 分かる (wakaru) – to understand Past: 分かった… Read More »
Japanese, unlike English, has the convenience of a pretty direct mapping between writing and sounds, at least where Hiragana and Katakana are concerned. In other words, if you see a word in writing it’s pretty easy to guess how it should sound and vice versa. However, there are some cases where things are pronounced a… Read More »
When first learning Japanese numerals, you probably have learned that the numbers 4 and 7 have two different ways to express them in Japanese: 4 ＝＞ し / よん 7 ＝＞しち/なな In some references and textbooks, they may leave it at that, which can leave you wondering which number to use when. To begin with,… Read More »