One of the big grammatical differences between Japanese and English is the way adjectival clauses are formed, and getting familiar with this will help you on the road to better understanding of Japanese, and more advanced sentence creation. The basic use of single-word adjectives is the same in Japanese in English, and the reverse in… Read More »
As most of you studying Japanese probably know, the language has to types of adjectives: Na-adjectives (i.e. 素敵(な)）and I-adjectives (i.e. 大きい). Each of these has different rules for conjugation into various forms. There is a few words in Japanese that look like Na-adjectives that derived from a I-adjective. Here is a list of a few… Read More »
At popular request, I’ve decided to make a list for computer science and software development terms. If you know of any ones not listed here that you use frequently please let me know in the comments! Many of these words can be used as both a noun and a verb with する. For details check your… Read More »
The Japanese suffix ーがる is one of those things you aren’t too likely to learn about in a beginner Japanese course. You may have seen it in a advanced textbook if at all. I understand the reason for not introducing this expression until a student has more experience with the language’s fundamentals. After all you… Read More »
One day in the middle of January, I woke up in the morning with an idea in my head for a new way to learn foreign languages. In the next month and a half, I spent many late nights and weekends working on a prototype for the site, which is now ready for a limited alpha… Read More »
“っぽい” is a very useful expression that has three main usages. Expressing the tendency to do something っぽい can be used to express the tendency or high chance of doing something, and is generally added to the end of a verb in the pre-masu form. Though you can try using it with any verb, initially you should… Read More »
In this post I’d like to discuss a few ways to express the concept of “except” in Japanese. 以外（いがい) 以外 is one of the most basic ways to say “except” in Japanese. You typically put it after a noun, pronoun, or verb. Here are a few examples: ゲーム以外のアプリはダウンロードしたことがない I’ve never downloaded an (computer/mobile) application except… Read More »
There are several verb suffixes used in Japanese which are used to represent something is easy or difficult. [verb in “pre-masu” form] + づらい => hard to do “verb” [verb in “pre-masu” form] + にくい => hard to do “verb” [verb in “pre-masu” form] + やすい => easy to do “verb”… Read More »
Once in awhile comes along a study resource thats so good, you revel in the treasure you’ve found and for a moment the thought of keeping it to yourself flashes through your mind. Podcastle is one such site, and when I first discovered it I thought it was too good to be true. It’s a… Read More »
In this post I’d like to discuss a few ways in Japanese to express the various shades of meaning of the English word ‘only’. First, there is だけ which one of the simplest and most common ways of expressing ‘only’ or ‘just’. Let’s see a few examples. 言ってみたかっただけ。 I was just saying. (this expression… Read More »