Curso - Teach Yourself Japanese - (207p)

Teach Yourself
Japanese
TAKASUGI Shinji
Teach Yourself Japanese

http://www.sf.airnet.ne.jp/~ts/japanese/cover.html
1. Introduction
1.1. Introduction to Japanese
1.2. Romanization, phonemes, and morae
1.3. Grammatical terms
2. Standard hiragana
2.1. Hiragana for vowels
2.2. Hiragana for k/g + vowels
2.3. Hiragana for s/z + vowels
2.4. Hiragana for t/d + vowels
2.5. Hiragana for n + vowels
2.6. Hiragana for h/b/p + vowels
2.7. Hiragana for m + vowels
2.8. Hiragana for y + vowels
2.9. Hiragana for r + vowels
2.10. Hiragana for w + vowels
2.11. Hiragana for /N/, /Q/, and /H/
3. Double hiragana
3.1. Double hiragana for consonants + y + vowels
3.2. Hiragana only for imported words
4. Other kana information
4.1. Romanized Japanese in English
4.2. Hiragana table
4.3. Hiragana shapes
4.4. Katakana table
4.5. Katakana shapes
4.6. Punctuation
4.7. Java program to memorize kana
4.8. Java program to display kana
4.9. Java program to draw hiragana strokes
4.10. Java program to draw katakana strokes
4.11. Java game of hiragana and katakana
5. Numbers
5.1. Small numbers
5.2. Large numbers
5.3. Counters
5.4. Decimals and fractions
5.5. The months and the days
5.6. Java program to display numbers
6. Greetings
7. Basic grammar
7.1. Cases and postpositions
7.2. Topics and focuses
7.3. Verbs
7.4. Copula
7.5. Adjectives
7.6. Relative clauses
7.7. Negative forms
7.8. Java program to display inflections
7.9. Emotion markers
7.10. Questions
8. Vocabulary
8.1. Pronouns
8.2. Demonstratives
8.3. Body parts
8.4. Kinship
8.5. Colors
8.6. Space-time
8.7. Vertebrates
8.8. Invertebrates
8.9. Plants
9. Dialogues
9.1. Dialogue 1
9.2. Dialogue 2
1.1. Introduction to Japanese

1.1.1. Preface
Thank you very much for visiting my Japanese language site. My name is TAKASUGI Shinji (surname first is the Japanese
way). I am a native Japanese speaker living in Yokohama, Japan. Please let me know when you find errors.
The purpose of this site is to provide a way to learn Japanese by yourself. I would like to introduce you Japanese, and I will
be glad if you are interested in it. I focus on the similarities and differences between Japanese and English.
If you really want to master Japanese, I recommend you to buy a good textbook and a dictionary, because I think it is
vocabulary, not grammar, that is the key to mastering a language. I do my best to make my site good, but the number of
words described here is still limited.
1.1.2. What is the Japanese language?

The Japanese language is the official language of Japan, and it is the eighth most popular language in the world. The table
below shows the principal languages of the world, according to Ethnologue, 13th edition, 1996-1999.
Rank
Language
Language Family Population
Area
Mandarin Chinese
Sino-Tibetan
Spanish
Indo-European
332,000,000 Latin America, Spain
English
Indo-European
322,000,000 North America, U.K., Australia
Bengali
Indo-European
189,000,000 Bangladesh, India
Hindi
Indo-European
182,000,000 India
Portuguese
Indo-European
170,000,000 Brazil, Portugal
Russian
Indo-European
170,000,000 Russia
Japanese
Japanese
125,000,000 Japan
Standard German
Indo-European
10
Wu Chinese
Sino-Tibetan
77,175,000 China
11
Javanese
Austronesian
75,500,800 Indonesia
12
Korean
Korean
75,000,000 Korea
13
French
Indo-European
72,000,000 France
14
Vietnamese
Austro-Asiatic
67,662,000 Viet Nam
15
Telugu
Dravidian
66,350,000 India
16
Yue Chinese
Sino-Tibetan
66,000,000 China
17
Marathi
Indo-European
64,783,000 India
18
Tamil
Dravidian
63,075,000 India
885,000,000 China
98,000,000 Germany
19
Turkish
Altaic
59,000,000 Turkey
20
Urdu
Indo-European
58,000,000 Pakistan
Note: Modern Arabic is so diverse that it is divided into dozens of languages. The most popular one is Egyptian Spoken
Arabic, which has a population of 42,500,000.
Linguists think languages of the same language family have a common ancestor, because they have similar grammar and
vocabulary. That's why it is relatively easy for English speakers to learn European languages. Almost all European languages
belong to the Indo-European language family. The exceptions are Basque, Hungarian, Finnish, and some minorities.
Japanese is not a member of the Indo-European language family. In fact, Japanese is virtually the only member of the
Japanese language family, considering Ryukyuan languages, languages of Okinawa, are not commonly used now. Korean,
which is the nearest kin to Japanese other than Ryukyuan languages, belongs to another language family. The origin of
Japanese and Japanese people is unknown, but anthropologists suppose that the majority of the ancestors of the Japanese
came to Japan from north Asia through the Korean Peninsula, and mixed with the native Japanese, who had a southeast
Asian origin.
Most European people are probably not aware of the diversity of Asian languages. Even though Korean grammar is similar
to Japanese, it has a very different vocabulary, which is why Korean and Japanese aren't considered to belong to the same
language family. Chinese had influenced Japanese for many years, in particular through imported words, but its grammar has
no relationship to Japanese. Ainu people, the other native people of Japan, speak the Ainu language, which is also different
from Japanese. The table below shows how different Mandarin Chinese and Ainu are from Japanese. All the sentences mean
"I drink water in my house."
Japanese
Watashi wa
ie de mizu
o
nomu.
(I) (topic) (house) (in) (water) (object) (drink)
Mandarin
W zi ji
h
shi.
(I) (in) (house) (drink) (water)
Ainu
K=uni ta wakka ku=ku.

(my house) (in) (water) (I drink)
Japanese doesn't seem to English speakers to be as approachable as other European languages at first, because it is very
different from English. But don't be afraid. Japanese is not as difficult as you might think. In a sense, Japanese is more logical
than English; for example, it has only two irregular verbs. It's also simpler than European languages in a sense; it has no
singular or plural, no gender, and no agreement of verbs.
Learning a non-European language is a good way for European language speakers to learn general ideas of human languages
and understand characteristics of European languages. You might think the subject-verb inversion for questions is nothing
strange, but the fact is that the inversion is rarely found outside of Europe. Among thousands of languages in the world,
English is the only language that uses a meaningless auxiliary verb for the inversion. When you change the sentence "He went
there" to the question "Did he go there?" , not to "Went he there?" , you experience a unique rule of English. Have you ever
imagined English is a strange language? I will explain in a later chapter the way to make questions in Japanese, which is
common and easy.
If you speak a non-European language, your language may be more similar to Japanese than to English. Don't think in English
in that case.
Further readings:
Re: Ryky-language
Re: German and Japanese
1.1.3. Japanese characters

The Japanese language has three sets of characters - hiragana, katakana, and kanji.
The Japanese language didn't have written characters two thousand years ago. After contact with the Chinese, the Japanese
imported Han characters, which are called kanji in Japanese and hnz in Mandarin. Chinese, Koreans, and Japanese have
been using Han characters, and Vietnamese had used them until the 19th century.
Kanji are ideograms, i.e. they stand for both meaning and pronunciation. Here is an example of kanji:
The Japanese pronunciation of this kanji is "hito", which has nothing to do with its Chinese pronunciation "rn", while it means
human in both of the languages.
Kanji is a good writing system - they can carry meaning beyond the language barrier, and linguists also have proven that
reading ideograms is faster than reading phonograms such as alphabets because ideograms and their meanings are closely
connected in the brain while phonograms are connected only to their sounds. Dyslexics can hardly read phonograms but they
can understand ideograms, if they know them. The ability to read phonograms can be damaged more easily because of its
complexity.
But it is also useful to have phonograms, which describe only sounds. More than a thousand years ago, Japanese people
picked out about fifty kanji and simplified them to create new character sets now called hiragana and katakana. This process
was the same as how Egyptian created phonograms from hieroglyphs. The difference is that kanji are alive and hieroglyphs
are dead.
Hiragana and katakana are called kana. A kana stands only for a sound, unlike a kanji, which stands for a meaning and a
sound. Here is an example of hiragana:
These two hiragana represent the pronunciations "hi" and "to", which combination is "hito" (human). None of the hiragana
has meaning, just pronunciation.
The two kana sets, hiragana and katakana, are essentially the same, but they have different shapes, like English has capital
letters and small letters. Hiragana are used for Japanese words, while katakana are used for imported words. So you can
easily spot imported words.
Kanji, hiragana and katakana are used together, and you must master all of them eventually in order to read Japanese texts.
All you have to learn first is hiragana, because learning hiragana is enough for beginners to learn Japanese grammar and
words. Japanese children also learn to read and write hiragana first.
Japanese characters are written vertically from top to bottom, and lines are written from right to left. Japanese can be written
like European languages too, i.e. characters are written horizontally from left to right, lines from top to bottom. Newspapers
and novels are almost always written in the vertical way, and scientific books are almost always written in the horizontal way.
Computers use the latter, and they are rarely able to display characters in the vertical way. I use the horizontal way in this
site, because it is easier to use with alphabets.
The two ways are shown below.
Horizontal:
First line,
Second line,
Third line.
Vertical:
T
h
i
r
d
l
i
n
e
.
S
e
c
o
n
d
l
i
n
e
,
F
i
r
s
t
l
i
n
e
,
Further readings:
kanji difference
Re: Why use kanji?
Chinese and Japanese
Re: Mandarin and Cantonese
Re: Pre-horizontal writing
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Copyright(C) TAKASUGI Shinji (ts@sf.airnet.ne.jp)
1.2. Romanization, phonemes, and morae

1.2.1. Romanization
Writing Japanese with the Latin alphabet is called Romanization. Japanese people use kana and kanji to write Japanese, and
they aren't always able to write Romanized Japanese. Romanization is used mainly for non-Japanese. Vowels in Romanized
Japanese are based on Latin (Spanish) pronunciation, while consonants are mainly based on English pronunciation. English
speakers tend to mispronounce vowels when they read Romanized Japanese.
There are two major ways of Romanization. One is Kunrei and the other is Hepburn. The former is established as an
international standard (ISO-3602) because it reflects the Japanese sound system well, but the the latter is much more
commonly used and all Japanese words found in English are written with it because it's easier for English speakers to read
even though it doesn't reflect the Japanese sound system. The hiragana , for example, is written as "si" in Kunrei
Romanization and "shi" in Hepburn Romanization. Its pronunciation being very similar to the English word she, "shi" is easier
for English speakers to pronounce it correctly than "si", which might be pronounced like sea. However, writing it as "si" is
better to understand how native Japanese speakers treat it because native Japanese speakers categorize it as a syllable with
"s" like "sa" and consider it to be different from syllables with "sh" such as "sha". This irregularity comes from a historical
pronunciation shift.
I use Kunrei Romanization as well as kana, because it helps you to understand Japanese grammar, and I will also list
Hepburn Romanization in parentheses when it is different.
1.2.2. Phonemes
Phonemes are the smallest units of the sound system of a language. Actual sounds produced by phonemes are called phones.
Phones can vary with dialects and speakers, but the set of phonemes stays the same. For example, the English phoneme /t/
has the following phones:
Phoneme Phone Word Pronunciation
/t/
[th]
time
[thaIm]
[t]
style
[staIl]
[ ]
letter
[l
A letter enclosed by slashes is a phoneme and one enclosed by brackets is a phone. Even though [th], [t], and [ ] are
different sounds, they are the same phoneme because English speakers treat them as the same sound unit.
Understanding phonemes is not very important when you learn Japanese, as long as you can understand Romanized
Japanese, because Latin letters well reflect underlying Japanese grammar. The exceptions are the phonemes /N/, /Q/, and /H/,
which are not consistently written in Romanization.
Further readings:
The International Phonetic Association

Phonetic course
1.2.3. Morae and kana

Basically, consonants must be followed by vowels in Japanese. The exceptions are semivowels, which can be inserted
between a consonant and a vowel, and the two special phonemes /N/ and /Q/. This strict rule makes the Japanese syllable
structure very simple.
Japanese pronunciation always has either one of the following structures:
a vowel (including /H/)
a consonant + a vowel
a consonant + a semivowel + a vowel
/N/
/Q/
The most important rule is that Japanese pronunciation is metronomic - any of the five structures above has the same length
of time. Linguists calls this minimum beat of pronunciation mora. Morae (plural of mora) are close to syllables, but they are
slightly different. A syllable has one and only one sonority peak (a vowel or a vowel-like sound), while /N/ and /Q/ have no
vowel-like sound. Perhaps you know Latin also has morae and syllables. Since syllables are not important at all in Japanese,
some people call Japanese morae syllables in order to make it easier to understand. I use morae in this site.
One kana (hiragana or katakana) stands for one mora, not one phoneme. You cannot describe a consonant that is not
followed by a vowel, but you don't need it, because Japanese doesn't have such pronunciation.
Further readings:
Re: long vowels
1.2.4. Accent
There are three kinds of accent in world languages: stress accents, pitch accents, and tones. Here accent doesn't mean
different varieties of pronunciation, such as in "His English has a Texan accent," but it means a way to distinguish words other
than consonants and vowels. English has stress accents, where the strong voice determines accents. For instance, the words
subject in "the subject" and in "to subject" have different accents while they have the same consonants and vowels. Japanese
has pitch accents, where the high tone of voice determines accents. The strength of voice doesn't matter in Japanese to
differentiate words. Chinese has tones, where every syllable has either one of the four tones. Unlike Chinese, wrong accents
don't make much trouble in Japanese, so you can skip this section if you want to master kana first.
Let's think about the Japanese word kudamono (fruit) for an example. It consists of four morae: "ku", "da", "mo", and "no".
Each mora must have either a low pitch or a high pitch, because Japanese has pitch accents. In this case, the second mora
"da" has a high pitch, and the others have low pitches.
The most important thing for Japanese accents is a boundary between a high-pitch mora and a low-pitch one. For the word
kudamono, the boundary between the morae "da" and "mo" is important because the former has a high pitch and the latter
has a low pitch. The boundary is called an accent fall, which means a transition from a high-pitch mora to a low-pitch one.
There is an important rule: a word has at most one accent fall, and the pitch never rises again in a word if it becomes low.
You can determine each mora's pitch in a word if you know where the accent fall is.
In this course I use the bold face for accent falls. For instance, the accent of the word kudamono will be written as
"kudamono" or LHLL, which means its four morae have low, high, low, and low pitches respectively. Note that native
Japanese speakers don't always understand this way of notation, because it is highly grammatical. As you know, most people
don't understand the grammar of their own language.
Having at most one accent fall like a simple word, a compound word has a clearly different pitch from a mere combination of
the pitches of its root words. The accent fall of the last word often remains intact. It is opposite from English, in which the
first stress in a compound word is often kept, such as blackboard and darkroom.
1.2.5. Accent falls and pitches

As I have explained, a Japanese word has at most one accent fall. If a word is followed by a postposition, the word's accent
fall also affects the pitch of the postposition. Let me give some four-mora words to show accent falls and pitches. I use the
postposition ga here, which will be explained later.
Accent fall position no postposition
With ga
Meaning
mi do ri
mi do ri ga
H L L
H L LL
1 2 3
1 2 3 4
i to ko
i to ko ga
LH L
1 2 3
LH L L
1 2 3 4
ka ta na
L HH
1 2 3
ka ta na ga
L H H L Japanese sword
1 2 3 4
none
ko do mo
L H H
1 2 3
ko do mo ga
L H H H
1 2 3 4
green
cousin
child
As you have learned, the accent fall is a transition from high pitch to low pitch. If the first mora has an accent fall, it has high
pitch and the rest have low pitch like this:
H L ... L
1 2
last
If the nth mora has an accent fall, the second mora through the nth mora have high pitch and the rest have low pitch like this:
L H ... H
1 2
...
n n+1
L
last
If there is no accent fall, all morae including postpositions except for the first mora have high pitch like this:
L H ...
1 2
last
The accent fall rule shown here is advanced grammar, so you don't have to memorize it now.
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1.3. Grammatical terms

I use several grammatical terms in this site, and they might be difficult if you haven't learned English grammar. Since most
grammatical terms are used in both English grammar and Japanese grammar, knowing English grammar will help you learn
Japanese grammar. You can skip this section if you are familiar with them.
I explain some of them here.
Addressee
An addressee is a person who receives a sentence, i.e. a listener or a reader. In English, an addressee is referred to
with the second-person pronouns such as you.
Adjective
An adjective is a word that means an attribute of a thing and adds information to a noun. An adjective is almost always
placed before a noun in English. Beautiful, tasty, and good-looking are all adjectives.
Adposition
An adposition is a word that works as a marker of the grammatical relation of the accompanying noun or noun phrase.
It is called a preposition if placed before a noun, and is called a postposition if placed after a noun.
Adverb
An adverb is a word that adds information to a verb, an adjective, or an adverb. An adverb is often a form of an
adjective in English. Very, quickly, and beautifully are all adverbs.
Copula
A copula is a word that combines the subject and its explanation. The verb be is the English copula. The Japanese
copula is not a verb.
Inflection
Inflection is having more than one form to express different grammatical roles. English nouns have inflection to show
number, such as cat and cats. Verb inflection is sometimes called conjugation. English verbs have inflection to show
tense, such as eat and ate.
Interjection
An interjection is a word that is independent from other words and used as it is. Yes, hello, and hi are all interjections.
Interrogative
An interrogative is a word to ask specific information. In English, who and what are interrogative pronouns, and when
and how are interrogative pro-adverbs.
Noun
A noun is a word that means a thing, either concrete or abstract. A noun can be the subject or the object of a
sentence in English. Textbook, PC, and web site are all nouns. A proper noun is a noun that is the name of a person
or a thing. In English, proper nouns are always capitalized. John and Japan are both proper nouns.
Phone
A phone is actual pronunciation of a phoneme. A phone is represented between brackets.

Phoneme
A phoneme is the smallest unit of the sound system of a language. If two sounds have the same phoneme, they are
treated equally. A phoneme is represented between slashes.
Postposition
A postposition is an adposition placed after a noun. Japanese has several postpositions, but English has few
postpositions.
Preposition
A preposition is an adposition placed before a noun. In, for, and from are all prepositions. Japanese has no
prepositions.
Pronoun
A pronoun is a word that refers to a person or a thing that has already talked about. It is a kind of noun, but its
function is different from nouns in English. What a pronoun actually means depends on context. Me and yourself are
pronouns.
Speaker
A speaker is a person who sends a sentence, i.e. a person who speaks or writes. In English, a speaker is referred to
with the first-person pronouns such as I and we.
Verb
A verb is a word that means an event or an action, and it combines things involved in the event in a sentence. A verb
has several forms such as present, past, and gerund in English. Read and have are all verbs.
Further readings:
Glossary of linguistic terms

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2.1. Hiragana for vowels

Japanese has only five vowels like Latin and Spanish, and they are easy to distinguish.
Vowels:
Hiragana Romanization Pronunciation
Description
[a]
Similar to the first sound of eye [aI], but without the ending [I]. It is pronounced
in the front of the mouth, while the [:] in father [f: ] is pronounced in the
back of the mouth. The [] in ash [ ] is not as wide as [a].
[i]
Similar to the [i:] in eat [i:t].
[ ]
Similar to the [u:] in cool [ku:l], but [ ] is a more relaxed sound than that. You
don't have to round your lips tightly. It is quite different from the [U] in good
[gUd].
[e]
Similar to the first sound of the [eI] in day [deI], but without the ending [I]. The
[] in end [nd] is wider than [e].
[o]
Similar to the first sound in owe [oU], but without the ending [U].
You don't have to worry about the vowel pronunciations very much. What is really important is the metronomic rhythm of
Japanese. You must pronounce vowels with the same time length.
It is believed that Japanese had eight vowels: a, i, u, e, o, , , and . The last three were lost more than a thousand years
ago.
Hiragana examples:
Hiragana:
Pitch:
H
L
Romanization: a
i
Meaning:
love (noun)
Hiragana:
Pitch:
L
H
Romanization: u
e
Meaning:
upper (noun)
Hiragana:
Pitch:
Romanization:
Meaning:
king (noun)
Note: A combination of a kana with the vowel "o" and a kana for "u" is pronounced with [o:], not [o ]. A combination of a
kana with the vowel "o" and a kana for "o" is also pronounced with [o:], not [oo]. In these cases, the second kana is there
just to make the previous "o" longer and is technically described as the phoneme /H/. The sound [o:] is the same as [o] but
twice as long as [o]. When Romanized, it is written as either "" ("o" with a circumflex) or "" ("o" with a macron).
Remember that Japanese is metronomic. The sound [o] ("o") has one mora, while [o:] ("") has two morae. If you pronounce
the former in 0.2 second, you must pronounce the latter in 0.4 second.
Hiragana:
Pitch:
Romanization:
Meaning:
hollyhock (noun)
Hiragana:
Pitch:
Romanization:
Meaning:
L
i
H
e
house (noun)
Hiragana:
Pitch:
Romanization:
Meaning:
sulfur (noun)
Note: This word has three morae, not two.

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2.2. Hiragana for k/g + vowels

k + vowels:
Description
ka
[ka]
English "k" + Japanese "a".
ki
[kji]
Similar to English "k" + Japanese "i", but the tongue position gets closer to the
hard palate (the hard roof of the mouth).
ku
[k
English "k" + Japanese "u".
ke
[ke]
English "k" + Japanese "e".
ko
[ko]
English "k" + Japanese "o".
g + vowels:
Description
ga
[ga]
English "g" + Japanese "a".
gi
[gji]
Similar to English "g" + Japanese "i", but the tongue position gets closer to the
hard palate.
gu
[g ]
English "g" + Japanese "u".
ge
[ge]
English "g" + Japanese "e".
go
[go]
English "g" + Japanese "o".
The consonants before "i" are different from others. This is called palatalization.
As you see, the double points at the right top of hiragana mean they have a voiced consonant. This mark is called a voiced
sound mark (
"dakuten" in Japanese).
The "g" in the middle of words can be pronounced as the [] in the English word singer [sI ]. You don't have to use [] at
all.
Hiragana examples:
Hiragana:
Pitch:
Romanization:
ki
ku
Meaning:
chrysanthemum (noun)
For your interest: The chrysanthemum is the symbol flower of the emperor of Japan.
Hiragana:
Pitch:
Romanization: ke
i
Meaning:
plan (noun)
ka
ku
Note: A combination of a kana with the vowel "e" and a kana for "i" is often pronounced as [e:], not [ei], in colloquial
Japanese. As a result, this word is often pronounced [ke:kak ] instead of [keikak ]. The sound [e:] is the same as [e], but
twice as long as [e]. Its Romanization is always "ei", not "".
Hiragana:
Pitch:
Romanization:
Meaning:
L
ga
H
ka
painting artist (noun)
Hiragana:
Pitch:
Romanization:
Meaning:
H
k
high school (noun)
Note: Remember a combination of a kana with the vowel "o" and a kana for "u" is pronounced with [o:], which is twice as
long as [o]. In this case, the combination of the hiragana for "ko" and that for "u" is pronounced as [ko:], not [ko ]. Its
Romanization is "k", not "kou".
Hiragana:
Pitch:
L
H
H
L
Romanization:
k
g
Meaning:
empress consort (noun)
Hiragana:
Pitch:
L
H
Romanization: ka
gi
Meaning:
key (noun)

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2.3. Hiragana for s/z + vowels

s + vowels:
Description
sa
[sa]
English "s" + Japanese "a".
si (shi)
[ i]
Similar to English "sh" + Japanese "i". You shouldn't round your lips when you
pronounce [ ], unlike the [ ] in she [ i:].
su
[s ]
English "s" + Japanese "u".
se
[se]
English "s" + Japanese "e".
so
[so]
English "s" + Japanese "o".
z + vowels:
Description
za
a]
English "dz" + Japanese "a".
zi (ji)
i]
Similar to English "j" + Japanese "i". You shouldn't round your lips when you
pronounce [ ], unlike the [ ] in jeep [ i:p].
zu
English "dz" + Japanese "u".
ze
e]
English "dz" + Japanese "e".
zo
o]
English "dz" + Japanese "o".
Note that "si" and "zi" have different consonants from others because of palatalization.
The "z" in the middle of a word is commonly pronounced as [z] instead of [ ]. Similarly, "zi" can be pronounced as [ ] (as
in azure [ ]) instead of [ ]. Since Japanese speakers don't distinguish [ ] and [z] actually, you can pronounce "z" as
the latter, which is easier for English speakers.
Hiragana examples:
Hiragana:
Pitch:
H
L
Romanization: su
si
Meaning:
sushi (noun)
For your interest: Sushi is a popular food in Japan. It is made of raw seafood (!) and rice. It tastes good, so give it a try if
you have a chance. Some people expect Japanese foods to be hot like Thai and Korean foods, but actually Japanese foods
have delicate and elegant tastes. Japanese foods boast of being low-fat and healthful, which is one of the reasons why the
Japanese have the longest life expectancy in the world.
Hiragana:
Pitch:
Romanization: sa
zi
Meaning:
spoon (noun)
Hiragana:
Pitch:
Romanization: su
zu
Meaning:
small bell (noun)
Hiragana:
Pitch:
Romanization: se
ka
Meaning:
world (noun)
Hiragana:
Pitch:
Romanization:
s
z
Meaning:
imagination (noun)
Hiragana:
Pitch:
H
L
Romanization:
z
Meaning:
elephant (noun)
Hiragana:
Pitch:
L
H
Romanization: se
i
Meaning:
politics (noun)
H
zi

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2.4. Hiragana for t/d + vowels

t + vowels:
Description
ta
[ta]
English "t" + Japanese "a".
ti (chi)
[ i]
Similar to English "ch" + Japanese "i". You shouldn't round your lips when you
pronounce [ ], unlike the [ ] in cheese [ i:z].
tu (tsu)
English "ts" + Japanese "u".
te
[te]
English "t" + Japanese "e".
to
[to]
English "t" + Japanese "o".
d + vowels:
da
zu
English "d" + Japanese "a".
[da]
zi (ji)
i]
Description
Exactly same as
Exactly same as
de
[de]
English "d" + Japanese "e".
do
[do]
English "d" + Japanese "o".
Note that ,
, , and
have different consonants from others, because of a historical pronunciation shift. They are
considered to have had the proper sounds "ti", "tu", "di", and "du" respectively.
The kana
and
have the same pronunciations as
and
, and the latter two are almost always used.
are used only for morae that come from
and
etymologically.
Hiragana examples:
Hiragana:
Pitch:
L
H
Romanization: te
tu
Meaning:
iron (noun)
and
Hiragana:
Pitch:
Romanization: ka
ta
ti
Meaning:
shape (noun)
Hiragana:
Pitch:
Romanization:
Meaning:
H
t
H
da
H
i
lighthouse (noun)
Hiragana:
Pitch:
Romanization:
ti
zu
Meaning:
map (noun)
Hiragana:
Pitch:
Romanization:
ta
da
si
Meaning:
right, correct (adjective)
Hiragana:
Pitch:
L
H
Romanization: tu
tu
Meaning:
pipe (noun)

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2.5. Hiragana for n + vowels

n + vowels:
Description
na
[na]
English "n" + Japanese "a".
ni
[nji]
Similar to Spanish "" + Japanese "i". Since the Japanese don't distinguish [nji]
from [ni], you can use the latter pronunciation (English "n" + Japanese "i").
nu
[n ]
English "n" + Japanese "u".
ne
[ne]
English "n" + Japanese "e".
no
[no]
English "n" + Japanese "o".
Hiragana examples:
Hiragana:
Pitch:
Romanization: ka
ta
na
Meaning:
Japanese sword (noun)
For your interest: Japanese swords are single-bladed curved swords. They are not only weapons but also artistic creations.
Some Japanese swords are priceless.
Hiragana:
Pitch:
H
L
Romanization: ne
ko
Meaning:
cat (noun)
Hiragana:
Pitch:
L
H
Romanization: nu
no
Meaning:
cloth (noun)
Hiragana:
Pitch:
Romanization: ni
zi
Meaning:
rainbow (noun)
Hiragana:
Pitch:
Romanization: o
ni
Meaning:
demon (noun)
For your interest: Even though this word is often translated to demon, they are more human-like than ghost-like in many fairy
tales, so they are often more similar to ogres and trolls.
Hiragana:
Pitch:
Romanization:
Meaning:
L
sa
H
ka
H
na
fish (noun)

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2.6. Hiragana for h/b/p + vowels

h + vowels:
ha
hi
hu (fu)
Description
[ha]
English "h" + Japanese "a".

There is a single-kana postposition with this kana whose actual pronunciation is
"wa". It will be explained in a later lesson.
[i]
German "ch" in ich + Japanese "i".

The tongue position for this consonant is the same as that for English "y", but it
is a voiceless consonant. Since the Japanese don't distinguish [i] and [hi], you
can pronounce it as English "h" + Japanese "i".
Japanese "" + Japanese "u", or English "h" + Japanese "u".

The lips position for Japanese "" is the same as that for English "w", but it is a
voiceless consonant. Japanese people don't distinguish [ ] and [h ]. Using
English "f" is not recommended.
he
[he]
English "h" + Japanese "e".

There is a single-kana postposition with this kana whose actual pronunciation is
"e". It will be explained in a later lesson.
ho
[ho]
English "h" + Japanese "o".
b + vowels:
Description
ba
[ba]
English "b" + Japanese "a".
bi
[bi]
English "b" + Japanese "i".
bu
[b
English "b" + Japanese "u".
be
[be]
English "b" + Japanese "e".
bo
[bo]
English "b" + Japanese "o".
Even though these hiragana are combinations of hiragana for "h" + vowels and voiced sound marks, their consonants are not
voiced "h". See the next group for corresponding voiceless hiragana.
p + vowels:
pa
[pa]
Description
English "p" + Japanese "a".
pi
English "p" + Japanese "i".
[pi]
pu
[p
English "p" + Japanese "u".
pe
[pe]
English "p" + Japanese "e".
po
[po]
English "p" + Japanese "o".
The circles at the right top of hiragana are used only for these hiragana. This mark is called a semi-voiced sound mark (
"handakuten" in Japanese).
Thousands of years ago, syllables now represented by hiragana for "h" + vowels were pronounced as "p" + vowels. That's
why those hiragana with voiced sound marks have the sound of "b". After the pronunciation of "p" shifted to "h", the semivoiced sound mark was invented to stand for the sound of "p".
Hiragana examples:
Hiragana:
Pitch:
H
Romanization: hu
Meaning:
L
bu
L
ki
snow storm (noun)
Hiragana:
Pitch:
Romanization: he
bi
Meaning:
snake (noun)
Hiragana:
Pitch:
L
H
Romanization: ha
ba
Meaning:
width (noun)
Hiragana:
Pitch:
H
L
L
Romanization: ha
na
bi
Meaning:
fireworks (noun)
Hiragana:
Pitch:
Romanization:
bi
Meaning:
H
b
beautiful face (noun)
Further readings:
Re: pronunciation for hu

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2.7. Hiragana for m + vowels

m + vowels:
Description
ma
[ma]
English "m" + Japanese "a".
mi
[mi]
English "m" + Japanese "i".
mu
[m ]
English "m" + Japanese "u".
me
[me]
English "m" + Japanese "e".
mo
[mo]
English "m" + Japanese "o".
Hiragana examples:
Hiragana:
Pitch:
L
H
Romanization: ki
mo
Meaning:
kimono
H
no
For your interest: Kimonos are Japanese traditional clothes. The English word kimono means only Japanese-style casual
ones. There are several kinds of kimonos, such as
"hurisode" (beautiful formal kimonos for women) and
"yukata" (light kimonos for summer).
Hiragana:
Pitch:
H
L
Romanization: mi
so
Meaning:
miso (noun)
For your interest: Miso is fermented paste made from
(miso soup) and other foods.
Hiragana:
Pitch:
L
H
Romanization: ma
me
Meaning:
pea, bean (noun)
"daizu" (soy beans). It is used for
"misosiru"
Hiragana:
Pitch:
L
Romanization: mi
Meaning:
H
mi
ear (noun)
Hiragana:
Pitch:
Romanization: mu
su
me
Meaning:
daughter (noun)
Hiragana:
Pitch:
Romanization:
Meaning:
L
su
H
mo
H
mo
plum (noun)
Hiragana:
Pitch:
Romanization: me
ma
Meaning:
dizziness (noun)

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2.8. Hiragana for y + vowels

y + vowels:
Description
ya
[ja]
Japanese "y" + Japanese "a".

Japanese "y" sounds like English "y" but is slightly softer. Don't cause friction of
breath.
[i]
This is the hiragana for "i".
yu
[j ]
[e]
This is the hiragana for "e".
yo
[jo]
Japanese "y" + Japanese "o".
Japanese "y" + Japanese "u".
There are no hiragana for "yi" or "ye".
Hiragana examples:
Hiragana:
Pitch:
L
H
H
H
Romanization:
y
ya
ke
Meaning:
the red sky at sunset (noun)
Hiragana:
Pitch:
L
H
Romanization: yu
ka
Meaning:
yukata (noun)
H
ta
For your interest: Yukatas are light kimonos for summer. Kimonos are scarcely worn today because of Westernization, but
Japanese people, especially young women, have begun to wear yukatas again, which are casual and yet have traditional
beauty.
Hiragana:
Pitch:
L
H
H
Romanization: yo
ya
ku
Meaning:
reservation (noun)
Hiragana:
Pitch:
Romanization:
Meaning:
L
o
H
yu
hot water (noun)

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2.9. Hiragana for r + vowels

r + vowels:
Description
ra
[ a]
Japanese "r" + Japanese "a".

Japanese "r" is similar to Spanish "r". It is quite different from English "r", and
using English "l" is better. When you pronounce English "l", you touch the front
upper gums with the tip of your tongue. To pronounce Japanese "r", broaden
your tongue and touch the front upper gums. You can shut the mouth with the
tongue. In that case, Japanese "r" sounds almost like "d" to English speakers,
but they are different. American /t/ in water sounds like Japanese "r".
ri
[ ji]
Japanese "r" + Japanese "i".
ru
Japanese "r" + Japanese "u".
re
[ e]
Japanese "r" + Japanese "e".
ro
[ o]
Japanese "r" + Japanese "o".
Hiragana examples:
Hiragana:
Pitch:
L
H
H
Romanization: sa
ku
ra
Meaning:
cherry blossom (noun)
For your interest: Cherry blossoms are the symbol flower of Japan. Many Japanese people go to parks to have a casual
party under cherry blossoms in the spring. Those parties are called
"hanami".
Hiragana:
Pitch:
H
L
Romanization: ru
ri
Meaning:
lapis lazuri (noun)
Hiragana:
Pitch:
L
H
Romanization: i
ro
Meaning:
color (noun)
Hiragana:
Pitch:
Romanization: re
i
z
Meaning:
refrigerator (noun)
L
ko
Hiragana:
Pitch:
Romanization:
to
ro
ro
Meaning:
a kind of yam (noun)
Hiragana:
Pitch:
Romanization: tu
ra
Meaning:
icicle (noun)
ra
Further readings:
Re: How do you pronounce ra, ri, ru, re, ro

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2.10. Hiragana for w + vowels

w + vowels (modern Japanese):
Description
Japanese "w" + Japanese "a".
Japanese "w" sounds like English "w" but is slightly softer. Unlike English "w",
you don't have to round your lips.
wa
[wa]
[i]
This is the hiragana for "i".
[ ]
This is the hiragana for "u".
[e]
This is the hiragana for "e".
[o]
This is the hiragana for "o".
Note that there are no hiragana for "wi", "wu", "we", or "wo".
w + vowels (ancient Japanese):

wa
[wa]
Description
Japanese "w" + Japanese "a".
This hiragana is not used in modern Japanese.* It shares the same phoneme
with . Its pronunciation was "wi", but "w" has been lost.
[i]
[ ]
This is the hiragana for "u".
[e]
This hiragana is not used in modern Japanese.* It shares the same phoneme
with . Its pronunciation was "we", but "w" has been lost.
[o]
There is a single-kana postposition with this kana in modern Japanese. Other

than that, this kana is not used in modern Japanese. It shares the same
phoneme with .
Its pronunciation was "wo", but "w" has been lost. The Romanization is "o", but
some people use "wo" instead.
* Since the kana

interest.
Hiragana examples:
and
are not used in modern Japanese, you don't have to memorize them. I show them just for your
Hiragana:
Pitch:
Romanization: he
i
Meaning:
peace (noun)
wa
For your interest: Japan has had a relatively peaceful history, even though the World War II was disastrous. Japan had a
policy of
"sakoku" (self-isolation) from 1639 to 1858, and Japan hadn't experienced war for more than 200 years.
The Constitution of Japan, which was established after the World War II, denies the nation's rights of war.
Hiragana:
Pitch:
Romanization:
Meaning:
L
ji
H
wa
H
re
earthquake chasm (noun)
For your interest: Most earthquakes are caused by the pressure between plates, which are parts of the earth's surface
moving slowly to different directions. There are a dozen plates on the earth, and four plates are in conflict around Japan; they
are Eurasian Plate, Pacific Plate, North American Plate, and Phillipine Sea Plate. That's why Japan is a nest of earthquakes.
Hiragana:
Pitch:
Romanization:
wa
sa
bi
Meaning:
Japanese horseradish (noun)
For your interest: Japanese horseradish (wasabi) is a spice which has a similar taste to mustard and used for sushi.
Hiragana:
Pitch:
L
H
Romanization: wa
ra
Meaning:
laugh (verb)
H
u

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2.11. Hiragana for /N/, /Q/, and /H/

/N/:
Hiragana
Romanization
Pronunciation
Description
Basically, the pronunciation of /N/ is "n" with one-syllable

length. It is important to correctly pronounce the mora following
/N/. Modify /N/ if necessary.
[m] before p/b/m If /N/ is followed by any vowel, "s", "h", "w", or "y", don't shut
[n] before t/d/n/r your mouth completely like "n". Keep your breath going out
n' (before a vowel or y)
[] before k/g from both your nose and your mouth.
n (otherwise)
[N] otherwise If /N/ is followed by "m", "b", or "p", pronounce /N/ as "m".
(m before m/p/b in Hepburn)
If /N/ is followed by "k" or "g", pronounce /N/ as "n" in think.
(see right)
The Romanization is "n" in most cases. If followed by vowels or

"y", the Romanization is "n'" to avoid confusion with n + vowels.
In Hepburn Romanization, "m" is used when followed by "b",
"p", or "m".
The following phrases are pronounced differently:

"kani" (crab) has two morae.
"kan'i" (simplified) have three morea, the second of which is /N/. Don't let your tongue stop the breath from your
mouth when you pronounce the /N/.
"kan ni" (into a can) has three morae, the second of which is /N/ pronounced as "n".
/Q/:
the next letter

(t before ch in
Hepburn)
Description
Pronounce the next consonant longer than usual.
When followed by a plosive like "t" and "k", /Q/ is a breath stop with the
mouth position to pronounce the next consonant.
When followed by a fricative like as "s", /Q/ is a continuous consonant.
(see right)
This hiragana looks like the hiragana
"tu", but they differ in size.
The Romanization is duplicating the next letter. In Hepburn Romanization, use

"tch" instead of "cch".
Note for /N/ and /Q/:
Even though /N/ and /Q/ contain no vowel, they are morae. Each mora has the same length of time.
/H/:
^ or
the previous
Description
Pronounce the vowel of the previous kana. For instance, if this kana follows
"ka", its pronunciation is "a". This kana is used only for imported words,
(over a vowel)
vowel
and is called the long vowel mark.
Hiragana examples:
Hiragana:
Pitch:
Romanization: Ni
po
Meaning:
Japan (noun*)
* There is no grammatical difference between common nouns and proper nouns in Japanese.
Note: This word is the official name of Japan in Japanese, but another word
colloquial Japanese.
Hiragana:
Pitch:
Romanization: si
n
bu
Meaning:
newspaper (noun)
Hiragana:
Pitch:
L
Romanization: ha
Meaning:
H
n
H
za
H
i
H
i
H
n
H
pa
H
i
crime (noun)
Hiragana:
Pitch:
L
H
Romanization: ge
n'
Meaning:
cause (noun)
Hiragana:
Pitch:
L
H
Romanization: si
p
Meaning:
failure (noun)
Hiragana:
Pitch:
"Nihon" is more commonly used in
Romanization: ro
k
Meaning:
rib (noun)
ko
tu
Note: The hiragana for /tu/ and the hiragana for /Q/ have different size.
Hiragana:
Pitch:
Romanization: ko
ka
Meaning:
national parliament (noun)
Hiragana:
Pitch:
Romanization:
r
me
n
Meaning:
Chinese soup noodle (noun)
Hiragana:
Pitch:
Romanization:
ka
Meaning:
H
r
curry, curry and rice (noun)
For your interest: Chinese soup noodles and curry and rice are the most popular foods in Japan. Both are so Japanized that
Chinese and Indians think they are Japanese foods.

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3.1. Double hiragana for consonants + y + vowels

A double kana consists of two kana, but it stands for a single mora, not two morae. All of the double hiragana shown here
are combinations of a hiragana for a consonant + "i" and a smaller kind of hiragana of either , , or
("ya", "yu",
"yo"). The rule is simple: to write the mora "CyV" ("C" is a consonant and "V" is a vowel), use the kana for "Ci" and the small
kana for "yV". For example, the mora "kya" is written with the kana for "ki" and the small kana for "ya".
k + y + vowels:
Description
kya
[kja]
English "k" + Japanese "y" + Japanese "a".
kyu
[kj ]
English "k" + Japanese "y" + Japanese "u".
kyo
[kjo]
English "k" + Japanese "y" + Japanese "o".
g + y + vowels:
Description
gya
[gja]
English "g" + Japanese "y" + Japanese "a".
gyu
[gj ]
English "g" + Japanese "y" + Japanese "u".
gyo
[gjo]
English "g" + Japanese "y" + Japanese "o".
s + y + vowels:
Description
sya (sha)
[ a]
Similar to English "sh" + Japanese "a".

See
for Japanese "sh".
syu (shu)
Similar to English "sh" + Japanese "u".
syo (sho)
[ o]
Similar to English "sh" + Japanese "o".
z + y + vowels:
zya (ja)
a]
Description
Similar to English "j" + Japanese "a".
See
for Japanese "j".
zyu (ju)
Similar to English "j" + Japanese "u".
zyo (jo)
o]
Similar to English "j" + Japanese "o".
t + y + vowels:
Description
tya (cha)
[ a]
Similar to English "ch" + Japanese "a".

See
for Japanese "ch".
tyu (chu)
Similar to English "ch" + Japanese "u".
tyo (cho)
[ o]
Similar to English "ch" + Japanese "o".
d + y + vowels:
Description
zya (ja)
a]
Similar to English "j" + Japanese "a".
zyu (ju)
Similar to English "j" + Japanese "u".
zyo (jo)
o]
Similar to English "j" + Japanese "o".
n + y + vowels:
Description
nya
[nja]
Similar to Spanish "" + Japanese "a".

See
for actual pronunciation.
You can pronounce it as English "ny" + Japanese "a".
nyu
[nj ]
Similar to Spanish "" + Japanese "u".

You can pronounce it as English "ny" + Japanese "u".
nyo
[njo]
Similar to Spanish "" + Japanese "o".

You can pronounce it as English "ny" + Japanese "o".
h + y + vowels:
hya
[a]
Description
German "ch" + Japanese "a".
See
for German "ch".
You can pronounce it as English "hy" + Japanese "a".
German "ch" + Japanese "u".
hyu
[ ]
You can pronounce it as English "hy" + Japanese "u".
hyo
[o]
German "ch" + Japanese "o".

You can pronounce it as English "hy" + Japanese "o".
b + y + vowels:
Description
bya
[bja]
English "b" + Japanese "y" + Japanese "a".
byu
[bj ]
English "b" + Japanese "y" + Japanese "u".
byo
[bjo]
English "b" + Japanese "y" + Japanese "o".
p + y + vowels:
Description
pya
[pja]
English "p" + Japanese "y" + Japanese "a".
pyu
[pj ]
English "p" + Japanese "y" + Japanese "u".
pyo
[pjo]
English "p" + Japanese "y" + Japanese "o".
m + y + vowels:
Description
mya
[mja]
English "m" + Japanese "y" + Japanese "a".
myu
[mj ]
English "m" + Japanese "y" + Japanese "u".
myo
[mjo]
English "m" + Japanese "y" + Japanese "o".
r + y + vowels:
Description
rya
[ ja]
Japanese "r" + Japanese "y" + Japanese "a".
ryu
[ j ]
Japanese "r" + Japanese "y" + Japanese "u".
[ jo]
ryo
Japanese "r" + Japanese "y" + Japanese "o".
Hiragana examples:
Hiragana:
Pitch:
L
H
Romanization: o
tya
Meaning:
green tea (noun)
For your interest: This word actually means all kinds of tea, and tea often means green tea in Japan. If you want to distinguish
various teas, use the word
"ryokutya" for green tea and the word
"ktya" for European tea.
Japanese tea is not always green;
"hzitya" (roasted tea) and
"genmaitya" (roasted tea
with popped rice) are brown. Other than them,
"rontya" (oolong tea) and
"mugitya"
(barley tea) are popular. Japanese people never use sugar or milk for any tea but European tea.
Hiragana:
Pitch:
Romanization:
sy
Meaning:
soy sauce (noun)
H
yu
Hiragana:
Pitch:
Romanization:
gy
Meaning:
cow's milk (noun)
H
ny

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3.2. Double hiragana used only for imported words

The double hiragana shown here are used only for imported words. You don't have to memorize these hiragana now,
because they are not necessary to learn Japanese grammar.
Instead of the smaller hiragana of
are often used.
, and
, the smaller hiragana of
, and
(hiragana for vowels)
Since katakana are used for imported words, these morae are commonly written with katakana, not hiragana as shown here.
I will explain katakana later.
Description
ye
[je]
Japanese "y" + Japanese "e".
wi
[wi]
Japanese "w" + Japanese "i".
we
[we]
Japanese "w" + Japanese "e".
wo
[wo]
Japanese "w" + Japanese "o".
kye
[kje]
English "k" + Japanese "y" + Japanese "e".
gye
[gje]
English "g" + Japanese "y" + Japanese "e".
sye
[ e]
Similar to English "sh" + Japanese "e".
zye
Similar to English "j" + Japanese "e".
s'i (si)
z'i (zi)
e]
[si]
i]
English "s" + Japanese "i".

English "dz" + Japanese "i".
You can pronounce it as English "z" + Japanese "i".
tye (che)
[ e]
Similar to English "ch" + Japanese "e".
tsa
[ a]
English "ts" + Japanese "a".
tsi
[ i]
English "ts" + Japanese "i".
tse
[ e]
English "ts" + Japanese "e".
tso
[ o]
English "ts" + Japanese "o".
t'i (ti)
[ti]
English "t" + Japanese "i".
d'i (di)
[di]
English "d" + Japanese "i".
t'yu (tyu)
[tj ]
English "t" + Japanese "y" + Japanese "u".
d'yu (dyu)
[dj ]
English "d" + Japanese "y" + Japanese "u".
t'u (tu)
[t ]
English "t" + Japanese "u".
d'u (du)
[d ]
English "d" + Japanese "u".
nye
[nje]
English "ny" + Japanese "e".
hye
[hje]
German "ch" + Japanese "e".
bye
[bje]
English "b" + Japanese "y" + Japanese "e".
pye
[pje]
English "p" + Japanese "y" + Japanese "e".
fa
[a]
Japanese "" + Japanese "a".

You can pronounce it as English "f" + Japanese "a".
fi
[i]
Japanese "" + Japanese "i".

You can pronounce it as English "f" + Japanese "i".
fe
[e]
Japanese "" + Japanese "e".

You can pronounce it as English "f" + Japanese "e".
fo
[o]
Japanese "" + Japanese "o".

You can pronounce it as English "f" + Japanese "o".
fyu
[j ]
Japanese "" + Japanese "y" + Japanese "i".

You can pronounce it as English "fy" + Japanese "u".
mye
[mje]
English "m" + Japanese "y" + Japanese "e".
rye
[[ je]
Japanese "r" + Japanese "y" + Japanese "e".
bu (vu)
[b ]
English "b" + Japanese "u".

This kana is used to transliterate "v", but Japanese pronounce it with "b".
ba (va)
[ba]
English "b" + Japanese "a".
bi (vi)
[bi]
English "b" + Japanese "i".
be (ve)
[be]
English "b" + Japanese "e".
bo (vo)
[bo]
English "b" + Japanese "o".

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4.1. Romanized Japanese in English

The words at the beginning of sentences, as well as proper nouns, are written with a capital letter in Romanized Japanese
exactly like in English.
As I have explained, a long vowel is written with a vowel letter with a circumflex ("^") or a macron ("") instead of two
duplicating letters. Circumflexes are often omitted in English even though that makes confusion. Remember that in colloquial
Japanese, "ei" is often pronounced as [e:] like "".
Hiragana Pronunciation
Romanization
Standard without circumflexes
[a:]
[i:]
ii
[ :]
[ei] or [e:]
ei
ei
[e:]
[o:]
[o:]
Here is an example:
Hiragana:
Pitch:
L
H
Romanization:
T
Meaning:
Tky (noun)
H
ky
The phonemes of this word are /to/, /H/, /kyo/, and /H/. /H/ means a long vowel. Using circumflexes for long vowels produces
"Tky", which becomes "Tokyo" if the circumflexes are omitted. In fact the circumflexes are almost always omitted in
English. Even though this word has four morae, its English notation Tokyo looks like it had only two morae. I recommend to
use circumflexes whenever possible. If you can't, writing "oo" instead of "" is better than just removing circumflexes.
The time length necessary to pronounce this word is the same as that for
"Yokohama" because both have four
morae. Many English speakers pronounce Yokohama much longer than a native Japanese speaker would do.
Four your interest: Tky has been capital of Japan since 1603, and it was called

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"Edo" before 1868.
4.2. Hiragana table

A table of the hiragana (
"hiragana") is called
"gozyonzu", which means a fifty-sound
chart. It contains all the hiragana except ones with voiced sound marks, ones with semi-voiced sound marks, and small
hiragana (/Q/ and double hiragana). Since Japanese characters are ordinarily written vertically from top to bottom, the table
items are written in that way. The lines are written from right to left.
Each hiragana is shown with its Romanization, and it is linked to audio files.
wa
ra
ya
ma
ha
na
ta
sa
ka
a
a
n*3
wa
ra
ya
ma
ha*1
na
ta
sa
ka
a
i
i*2
ri
mi
hi
ni
ti
(chi)
si
(shi)
ki
i
u
ru
yu
mu
hu
(fu)
nu
tu
(tsu)
su
ku
u
e
e*2
re
me
he*1
ne
te
se
ke
e
o
o*1
ro
yo
mo
ho
no
to
so
ko
*1 There are special single-kana words with these kana.

*2 These two kana are not used in modern Japanese.
*3 This kana actually doesn't contain the vowel "a".
This is an additional table that contains hiragana with voiced sound marks and semi-voiced sound marks:
pa
ba
da
za
ga
a
pa
ba
da
za
ga
i
pi
bi
zi
(ji)
zi
(ji)
gi
u
pu
bu
zu
zu
gu
e
pe
be
de
ze
ge
o
po
bo
do
zo
go
Consonant groups are called

"gy", which means lines in Japanese, and vowel groups are called
"dan",
which means columns. So the hiragana
is the hiragana of
"sagy idan" (sa-line, i-column). The
hiragana
is the only exception; it doesn't belong to a vowel column because it has no vowel.
Voiced sound marks and semi-voiced sound marks have no effect on the order of characters in dictionaries. So
, ,
and
have the same order. Small hiragana also have the same order as ordinary ones. So
and
have the same
order.
As you know, some of the hiragana have different pronunciations from what you might expect them to have. You may think
the vowel "i" works almost like "yi". Linguists call it palatalization. That's why "si" is like "shi" and "ti" is like "chi".
The order of kana came from Devanagari, which is a phonetic alphabet used for Indian languages such as Sanskrit and Hindi.
Devanagari's vowel order is: a, , i, , u, , r, e, , o, . Its consonant order is from the back of the tongue to the lips: velars
(k, g, ng), palatals (ch, j, ny), retroflexes (.t, .d, .n), alveolars (t, d, n), bilabials (p, b, m), semivowels (y, r, w), and fricatives
(sh, s, h). Japanese doesn't have retroflexes, and the consonant of the syllables now represented by "h" + vowels was "p". In
addition, some linguists think the consonant of the syllables now represented by "s" + vowels was "ch". (Other linguists think
it was either "ts" or "sh".) Devanagari's consonant order thus gives the Japanese consonant order: k, ch (later s), t, n, p (later
h), m, y, r, and w.

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4.3. Hiragana shapes

4.3.1. Hiragana fonts
The following hiragana often have different shapes for different fonts. Since all the Japanese characters have the same height
and width, they don't have a different width in proportional fonts. Even the smaller kana used for double kana have the same
height and width, considering the space around them.
Romanization
ki
ko
sa
na
fu
mu
ya
yu
ra
ri
Minch
Gothic
Kaisho
Fonts
Textbook
Maru Gothic
Pop
Most newspapers and books published in Japan use the Minch font, which is a modern font equivalent to the Times Roman
font in English. This font is based on the style of China's Mng Dynasty (1368-1644), which is called Minch in Japanese. By
the way, Chinese people prefer the Sch font, which is based on the style of Sng Dynasty (960-1279).
The Gothic font is equivalent to the Helvetica font in English. The font has nothing to do with the German Gothic font. This
font is easier to learn with, because it has no serif. The Minch font and Gothic font are the two most popular fonts on
computers.
The Kaisho font is similar to the Script font in English, and hiragana are often drawn like this font in calligraphy. The
traditional equipment to write characters that has been used for more than two thousand years in East Asia is a brush and
paper, not a quill and parchment, and the Kaisho font has beautiful brushstrokes that apeal to East Asians.
The Textbook font is a kind of Kaisho font, but its brushstrokes are not so strong. This font is good to learn Japanese with,
because it is similar to hand-writing. Textbooks for elementary schools in Japan use the Textbook font.
The Maru Gothic font and the Pop font are funny fonts often used for advertisements.
4.3.2. Confusing hiragana
The following hiragana resemble one another.

Romanization
ri
nu
Minch
Gothic
Kaisho
Fonts
Textbook
Maru Gothic
Pop
Romanization
Minch
Gothic
Kaisho
Fonts
Textbook
Maru Gothic
Pop
Romanization
Minch
Gothic
Kaisho
Fonts
Textbook
Maru Gothic
ra
me
Pop
Romanization
ki
sa
ti
ke
ni
ha
ne
re
wa
Minch
Gothic
Kaisho
Fonts
Textbook
Maru Gothic
Pop
Romanization
Minch
Gothic
Kaisho
Fonts
Textbook
Maru Gothic
Pop
Romanization
Minch
Gothic
Kaisho
Fonts
Textbook
ho
Maru Gothic
Pop
Romanization
ru
ro
Minch
Gothic
Kaisho
Fonts
Textbook
Maru Gothic
Pop

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4.4. Katakana table

This is
"gozyonzu" (kana table) of katakana (
"katakana"). Note that kana in the table
are written in Japanese way, characters from top to bottom and lines from right to left.
Each katakana is shown with its pronunciation. Being exactly the same as hiragana except for their shapes, katakana have the
same pronunciations as hiragana, like English capital letters have the same pronunciation as small letters.
Katakana are mainly used for imported words, and sometimes used for emphasis, so they are similar to italic letters in
English.
n
wa
ra
ya
ma
ha
na
ta
sa
ka
a
a
n*3
wa
ra
ya
ma
ha*1
na
ta
sa
ka
a
i
i*2
ri
mi
hi
ni
ti
(chi)
si
(shi)
ki
i
u
ru
yu
mu
hu
(fu)
nu
tu
(tsu)
su
ku
u
e
e*2
re
me
he*1
ne
te
se
ke
e
o
o*1
ro
yo
mo
ho
no
to
so
ko
*1 There are special single-kana words with these kana.

*2 These two kana are not used in modern Japanese.
*3 This kana actually doesn't contain the vowel "a".
This is an additional table that contains katakana with voiced sound marks and semi-voiced sound marks:
pa
ba
da
za
ga
a
pa
ba
da
za
ga
i
pi
bi
zi
(ji)
zi
(ji)
gi
u
pu
bu
zu
zu
gu
e
pe
be
de
ze
ge
o
po
bo

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do
zo
go
4.5. Katakana shapes

4.5.1. Comparison between hiragana and katakana
Some katakana look like the corresponding hiragana, but many of them are different. Hiragana often have round curves, and
katakana often have straight lines.
Romanization
ka
ki
ku
ke
ko
kya
kyu
kyo
ga
gi
gu
ge
go
gya
gyu
gyo
sa
si
su
se
so
sya
syu
syo
za
zi
zu
ze
zo
zya
zyu
zyo
Hiragana
Katakana
Romanization
Hiragana
Katakana
Romanization
Hiragana
Katakana
Romanization
Hiragana
Katakana
Romanization
Hiragana
Katakana
Romanization
ta
ti
tu
te
to
tya
tyu
tyo
da
zi
zu
de
do
zya
zyu
zyo
na
ni
nu
ne
no
nya
nyu
nyo
ha
hi
hu
he
ho
hya
hyu
hyo
ba
bi
bu
be
bo
bya
byu
byo
pa
pi
pu
pe
po
pya
pyu
pyo
Hiragana
Katakana
Romanization
Hiragana
Katakana
Romanization
Hiragana
Katakana
Romanization
Hiragana
Katakana
Romanization
Hiragana
Katakana
Romanization
Hiragana
Katakana
Romanization
ma
mi
mu
me
mo
ya
yu
yo
ra
ri
ru
re
ro
wa
mya
myu
myo
rya
ryu
ryo
Hiragana
Katakana
Romanization
Hiragana
Katakana
Romanization
Hiragana
Katakana
Romanization
Hiragana
Katakana
Romanization
Hiragana
Katakana
4.5.2. Confusing katakana

The following katakana resemble one another.
Romanization
ma
Katakana
Romanization
ku
ke
te
hu
si
so
tu
ri
ra
wa
Katakana
Romanization
Katakana
These katakana are indeed confusing. Written from left to right, the lines of
have the beginning points at the left side of
the katakana. Written from top to bottom, those in
have the beginning points at the upper side.
The lines of
are similar to those in
The lines of
are parallel in the upper half of it.
Romanization
su
nu
ti
na
ni
mi
no
ru
Katakana
Romanization
me
Katakana
Romanization
Katakana
Romanization
Katakana
re
, and the lines of
are similar to
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4.6. Punctuation
The Japanese period and comma are different in shape from English equivalents. The Japanese period is a small circle, and
the Japanese comma is a short line written from upper left to lower right.
Kana:
Pitch:
L
H
H
H
Romanization: O
ha
y
Meaning:
Good morning, Akira.
H
A
L
ki
L
ra
Japanese periods and commas are placed near the base line in the horizontal way, while they are placed at the right side in
the vertical way. The sentence above is written vertically as follows. Notice that the positions of the period and the comma
are different.
Japanese has the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!) which are the same as English, but you don't have to use
question marks even for questions. If a sentence is clearly a question, which has a grammatical question marker, you can use
a period instead of a question mark. I will explain it in a later chapter.
Kana:
Pitch:
L
H
Romanization: Ho
n
Meaning:
Really?
H
t
Kana:
Pitch:
Romanization: Su
Meaning:
Great!
go

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5.1. Small numbers

5.1.1. Small integers
Being completely decimal, the way of counting numbers (
"kazu") in Japanese is much easier than in English,
considering English has illogical number words (not completely decimal) such as eleven, twelve, and twenty.
Number
Japanese
0
re
Description
The word
HL "zero" also means zero. The word
HL
"maru", which means a circle, is the same as oh in English and often
used for zeros in phone numbers etc.
-
ti
ni
sa
4
yo
Another word
H "shi" also means four, but you cannot combine
it with units. It is less colloquial and less useful.
go
ro
ku
7
na
na
ha
Another word
LH "shichi" also means seven, but you cannot
combine it with units. It is less colloquial and less useful.
ti
ky
Another word
H "ku" also means nine, but you cannot combine
it with units. It is less colloquial and less useful.
10
zy
10
11
zy
ti
10
12
zy
ni
...
...
...
2
20
ni
10
zy
2
21
ni
zy
...
10
...
3
30
n
ti
...
sa
10
zy
...
...
100
...
-
hya
ku
...
...
1000
...
-
se
To read numbers in Japanese, just read pairs of digits (2, 3, ...) and units (10, 100, ...). For example, the number 452 is
pronounced as
"yon"
"hyaku"
"go"
"zy"
"ni", which means 4 100 + 5 10 + 2.
If a digit is zero, omit both the digit and the unit. If a digit is one, just say only the unit.
Further readings:
Number System of the World
English words may hinder math skills development
Counting Ability in Bilingual Children
The Mathematical Brain
5.1.2. Euphonic change

There is some complicated rule to change sounds. The sounds of some combinations of a digit and a unit are modified for
ease of pronunciation. This rule is applied only for units which begin with voiceless phonemes (/k/, /s/, /t/, /h/, and /p/). Note
that units don't combine with the trailing digit. Pronouncing numbers without using this rule is still understandable.
The rule is listed below. I think using phonemes is easier to understand.
Ending
of number
Numbers
Beginning of unit
,
"roku",
"hyaku" *1
-ku
Combination
,
k,
"iti",
"hati",
"zy" *1
and
zy
"san",
"sen" *1,
"man" *2
except
-tt,
h-n
-ss-
t,
-kk-
s,
,
-pp-
k-ti
-kk-
h,
-pp-
h-
-nb-
sen
sanzen
yon
"san"
san
"yon"
yon
,
n-
yon-
*1 Even though they are not digits but units, they can combine with the trailing units when they are the last word in a group.
See the chapters of large numbers and counters.
*2 Explained in the chapter of large numbers.
Number examples:
Numbers
Digits and units

100
156
5 10
Description
6
Omit the digit of 100.
hya
ku
go
7 1000
zy
ro ku
7008
Omit the digits and units of 100 and 10.

na na se n
ha ti
3 100
9 10
+ 2
392
The euphonic rule changes "san" "hyaku" to "sanbyaku".

sa n
bya
2 100
ku
+
ky
10
zy
+
213
ni
hya
ku
zy
sa n
Further readings:
Re: palatalization and nasal sounds

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ni
The euphonic rule is applied to a pair of a digit and a unit,
not a unit and a digit. The number 10 + 3 is not "jussan".
5.2. Large numbers

The East Asian number system is based on ten thousand, which means multiplying ten thousand to a unit makes the next unit,
while the European number system is based on one thousand, which means multiplying one thousand to a unit makes the next
unit, for instance thousand times thousand is a million, and thousand times a million is a billion.
The Japanese units shown below are from Jinkki, 1634 A.D. edition. There are several less common large number names
other than them. The units larger than
"kei" ( 1016 ) are rarely used, like units larger than trillion are rarely used in
American English.
Unit
104
108
Japanese
ten thousand
ma
n
hundred million
ku
1012
1016
1020
one trillion
ty
ten quadrillion
ke
i
hundred quintilliton
ga
1024
i
one septillion
zyo
1028
ten octillion
zy
1032
1036
American English
hundred nonillion
k
one undecillion
ka
1040
ten duodecillion
se
1044
1048
hundred tredecillion
sa
1060
1064
1068
i
one quindecillion
go
1052
1056
ku
ten sexdecillion
g
ga
sya
hundred septendecillion
gi
one novemdecillion
na
yu
ta
ten vigintillion
hu
ka
si
gi
hundred unvigintillion
mu
ry
ta
Reading large numbers in Japanese may be awkward if your native language uses a system based on one thousand. To read
large numbers in Japanese, divide them into four-digit groups, and read the groups separately and add appropriate units. If a
four-digit group is zero, omit both the group and the unit. Don't omit a four-digit group even when it is one. For example,
number 10000 is pronounced as
"itiman" (1 10000), not just
"man".
Since digits should be divided into four-digit groups in Asian number system, commas for every three digits in English are not
useful at all. But Japanese people do use a comma (not Japanese comma but European comma) for every three digits, not
for every four digits.
The units of big numbers affect the phonemes of the last mora of the preceding four-digit group. See the euphonic change
rules of small numbers.
Here is a big number example. Blue letters indicate changed phonemes.
Number 9784510283700004037 is pronounced as follows:
Group
Digits and units
( 9 100
7 10
8 ) 1016
0978
ky
hya
ku
( 4 1000
na na
zy
10 ) 1012
5 100
ha k ke i
4510
yo n se n
go
( 2 1000 +
hya
ku
zyu
+
8 100
ty
+
3 10
7 ) 108
2837
ni se n
ha p
pya
ku
0000
sa n
zy
na na o ku
4 1000
3 10
4037
yo n se n
sa n
zy
na na
The result is
"kyhyaku nanazy hakkei yonsen
gohyaku zyutty nisen happyaku sanzy nanaoku yonsen sanzy nana".
These are Japanese translations of American English large numbers.

Unit
American English
103
one thousand
106
one million
109
one billion
1012
one trillion
1015
one quadrillion
1018
Japanese
se
hya
ku
ma
zy
ku
ty
se
ty
one quintillion
hya
ke
1021
one sextillion
1024
one septillion
1027
one octillion
1030
one nonillion
1033
one decillion
1036
one undecillion
1039
one duodecillion
1042
one tredecillion
zy
chi
zyo
se
zyo
one quindecillion
1051
one sexdecillion
1054
one septendecillion
1057
hya
ku
zyu
zy
ka
se
ka
hya
ku
se
zyu
sa
1045 one quattuordecillion

1048
ga
ti
go
ku
se
go
ku
hya
ku
ga
sya
one octodecillion
zy
gi
1060
one novemdecillion
1063
one vigintillion
1066
one unvigintillion
1069
one duovigintillion
ti
na
yu
ta
se
na
yu
ta
ku
hu
ka
hya
zy
Further readings:
Murytais no Kanata e (written in Japanese)
Re: ky

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mu
si
ry
gi
ta
5.3. Counters
5.3.1. Basic counters
To count things in Japanese, you cannot put nouns immediately after a number. Counters, which are added after numbers,
are necessary. Do you think it is strange? English also has some counters for nouns representing things that cannot be
counted as discrete objects. For instance, you would say two cups of coffee, ten pieces of paper, and fifty head of cattle.
Japanese nouns resemble English abstract nouns.
There are three basic counters in Japanese.
Category
Counter
human
Description
human beings
ni
animate
life that can move, such as animals and protists, excluding human beings
hi
inanimate
ki
life that cannot move, such as plants, fungi, and eggs, and non-life including abstract concepts
ko
Before counting things with counters, I'd like to introduce the genitive marker
"no", which is similar to the English suffix 's
and the English word of. The word
is a postposition, which is a suffix to add a grammatical function to a noun.
Postpositions are similar to prepositions, but the order of words are opposite as the name implies. The order of words for
is the same as that for 's, so A's B is the same as A
B, and A of B is the same as B
A.
It is important to know that phrases that add information to a main phrase are always placed before the main phrase in
Japanese. This is a consistent rule with no exception. Linguists call it head-last. English is a head-first language, where a
main phrase is placed before additional phrases, but it is not so consistent as Japanese. That-clauses and preposition phrases
are good examples of the head-first rule of English; both a dog that is white and a dog with white hair are dogs. But
adjectives break the rule because they are placed before a main phrase. A white dog is a kind of dog, not a kind of
whiteness.
Let's get back to
. Here is an example:
Kana:
Romanization: ne
Structure:
Meaning:
ko
no
noun
genitive
(cat)
marker
a cat's ears
mi
mi
noun
(ear)
Japanese doesn't care much about singular, plural, definite, or indefinite, so the example can mean any combination of either
a cat, the cat, cats, or the cats and either an ear, the ear, ears, or the ears. Anyway, the phrase means a kind of ear, because
of the head-last rule.
Now that you know , you can count things with counters.
Put
after counters like this:
Kana:
Romanization: sa
Structure:
Meaning:
noun
(three)
three cats
bi
ki
noun
(counter)
no
genitive
marker
ne
ko
noun
(cat)
Since cats are animals, the counter for cats is

"hiki". The Japanese word for three is
"san". The euphonic
change rules of small numbers are applied to counters, so the "san" changes "h" in the "hiki" into "b". The result is
"sanbiki".
The counter
"nin" is not used for counting a person or two. There are other words for one person and two people.
Kana:
Romanization:
Meaning:
hi
to
ri
one person
Kana:
Romanization: hu
ta
Meaning:
two people
ri
Kana:
Romanization: sa
n
ni
n
Meaning:
three people (three + counter)
Example:
Kana:
Romanization: hu
Structure:
ta
noun
ri
no
genitive
mu
su
noun
me
(two people)
Meaning:
marker
(daughter)
two daughters
Note: If a language has counters for general nouns, it doesn't have genders, and vice versa. Both counters and genders are
ways of categorizing nouns, and they don't coexist. East Asian languages and Native American languages often have
counters, and other languages often have genders. English is a rare language that has neither of them.
Further readings:
Re: grammar of "no"
5.3.2. Traditional numbers

Japanese has another set of number names from the ones I explained in the small numbers chapter. They are the original
number names of Japanese but were replaced by the new ones, most of which were imported from Chinese more than a
thousand years ago. Now they are used only for counting inanimates, and treated as combinations of a digit and the inanimate
counter
"ko". The traditional numbers are often used to count abstract things.
Number
Traditional Japanese
1
hi
to
tu
hu
ta
tu
mi
tu
yo
tu
tu
tu
mu
tu
na
na
tu
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
ya
tu
ko
ko
no
9
tu
10
t
The ancient Japanese numbers larger than ten were almost lost. Notice that the special human counter for one person
"hitori" and that for two people
"hutari" are similar to the traditional number for one
"hitotu" and that
for two
"hutatu". In fact
"ri" was a human counter in ancient Japanese. The last
"tu" in the traditional
number names was an inanimate counter, but modern native Japanese speakers don't feel a boundary between a digit name
and
because they are too old.
You may notice that two number names are similar when one is twice the other such as 1 and 2 (
"hitotu" and
"hutatu"), 3 and 6 (
"mittu" and
"muttu"), and 4 and 8 (
"yottu" and
"yattu").
If you find a language that has this kind of number name pairs, it will suggest a relationship to ancient Japanese. Linguists are
still looking for the origin of Japanese; some say it came from Korea, some say from west Pacific islands, and some say even
from south India.
A few ancient words for larger numbers survive in modern Japanese as shown below, but they are used only for a person's
age and Japanese people rarely know they were numbers.
Number Traditional Japanese
20
ha
ta
ti
Meaning in
modern Japanese
twenty years old
(= being an adult in Japan)
30
thirty years old

mi
so
zi
5.3.3. Additional counters

The three basic counters you have just learned are not all counters Japanese has. Here is a list of important additional
counters.
Category Subcategory
Counter
Description
large animals
animals larger than human beings.

This word literally means head, so it is the same as head in fifty head of cattle.
animate
t
birds
birds
wa
long things
things that have length - pens, ropes, trees, movies, programs, etc.
ho
thin things
pieces of paper, leaves, plates, tickets, etc.

ma
books
books, magazines, etc.

sa
tu
same as the English counter cup and glass
(cups of coffee, glasses of water, etc.)
inanimate cups of liquid

ha
lifelike
dead bodies, mannequins, human-shaped robots, etc.

ta
machines
cars, televisions, etc.

da
ships
ships
se
ki
Don't be afraid of many counters, because counters are not so strict as genders. Using the additional counters is better for
the subcategories listed above, but using the three basic counters is always understandable.
The subcategories for the additional counters are not strict. Are sheep large animals? In fact, both
"t" and
"hiki" work fine in this case. Penguines are counted with
"wa" because they are birds, but some people use
for them because they don't fly.
Examples:
Kana:
Romanization: go
ho
no
sa
ku
ra
"hiki"
Structure:
noun
(five)
noun
(counter)
Meaning:
five cherry trees
genitive
marker
noun
(cherry tree)
Kana:
Romanization:
Structure:
Meaning:
ni
ha
no
tya
noun
genitive
(counter,
marker
cup)
two cups of green tea
noun
(two)
noun
(green tea)
5.3.4. Continuum counters

A continuum, which cannot be measured by an integer only, always needs appropriate units in Japanese just as in English.
Length is a good example of continuum, because it cannot be measured without using a unit, and it can have a decimal value.
Japan uses the metric system for scientific values. Most metric units are written with katakana, because they are imported
words.
Category Subcategory
Counter
Description
meter
length
ki
mi
se
ki
mass
to
ro
ri
ti
ru
1 kilometer = 1000 meters
Abbreviation of
"kiromtoru".
1 millimeter = 1/1000 meter

Abbreviation of
"mirimtoru".
1 centimeter = 1/100 meter

Abbreviation of
1 kilogram = 1000 grams
Abbreviation of
ro
gram
gu
ra
mu
"sentimtoru".
"kiroguramu".
continuum
to
1 metric ton = 1000 kilograms
volume
1 liter = 1000 cubic centimeters

ri
to
ru
temperature
degree Celsius
do
Japanese yen (not "yen" but "en" !)
e
n
American dollar
do
money
ru
EU euro
y
ro
British pound
po
do
Example:
Kana:
Romanization: yo
Structure:
Meaning:
to
noun
(counter,
ton)
four metric tons of iron
noun
(four)
no
genitive
marker
te
tu
noun
(iron)
5.3.5. Euphonic change

I have explained the euphonic change rules of small numbers, and they are also used for counters. Even though counting
things without using the rules is understandable, memorizing the following charts will help you speak natural Japanese.
Number
People
Animates
Inanimates
hi
to
ri
pi
fu
ta
ri
ni
hi
ki
sa
ni
sa
bi
yo
ni
yo
hi
go
ni
go
hi
ki
ro
ku
ni
ro
pi
na
na
ni
na
na
ha
ti
ni
ha
ki
ko
ni
ko
ki
sa
ko
ki
yo
ko
go
ko
ki
ro
ko
hi
ki
na
na
ko
pi
ki
ha
ko
2
3
n
4
5
6
7
8
9
ky
ni
ky
zy
ni
zyu
ku
ni
hya
ni
hi
ki
ky
ko
pi
ki
zyu
ko
pi
ki
hya
ko
bi
ki
10
100
hya
1000
se
Number
Large animals
se
Birds
se
ko
Long things
ti
ni
wa
wa
po
ni
ho
2
ni
3
sa
sa
wa
sa
bo
yo
yo
wa
yo
ho
go
wa
go
ho
4
5
go
6
ro
ku
ro
ku
wa
ro
po
na
na
na
na
wa
na
na
ho
ha
ha
ti
wa
ha
po
7
8
9
ky
ky
wa
ky
zy
wa
zyu
wa
hya
ho
po
po
bo
10
zyu
hya
ku
100
hya
ku
1000
se
Number
Thin things
se
wa
Books
se
Cups of liquid
ti
ma
ni
ma
sa
ma
yo
ma
go
ma
ro
ku
ma
na
na
ha
ti
sa
ni
sa
tu
sa
sa
yo
sa
go
sa
tu
ro
ku
sa
ma
na
na
ma
ha
tu
pa
ni
ha
tu
sa
ba
tu
yo
ha
go
ha
tu
ro
pa
sa
tu
na
na
ha
sa
tu
ha
pa
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
ky
ma
ky
zy
ma
zyu
ku
ma
hya
ma
sa
tu
ky
sa
tu
zyu
ku
sa
tu
hya
sa
tu
ha
pa
pa
ba
10
100
hya
1000
se
Further readings:
Nihongo de Kazoeru (written in Japanese)
Re: counters
se
se
The counter prefix ka

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5.4. Decimals and fractions

5.4.1. Decimals
The Chinese invented decimals thousands of years ago, and decimals have been commoner than fractions in East Asia for
long time, while fractions had been more commonly used in the West since Mesopotamian Civilization.
The way to read decimals (
"sys") in Japanese is similar to English. The decimal delimeter in Japanese is a
period (not Japanese period but European period). To read decimals in Japanese, read the integer part first. Then say
"ten", which is the Japanese word for point, and say plain digit names after that. Omitting zero before a decimal point is not
allowed in Japanese.
The euphonic change rule is applied for the word
san".
, so number 1.3 should be pronounced as
"itten
There is a detailed rule to make pronunciation rhythmical. You can skip this part. The digit immediately before a decimal
point is paired with the decimal point, and the digits after the decimal point are paired every two digits. In those pairs, the
digit 2 is pronounced as not
"ni" but
"n", and the digit 5 is pronounced as not
"go" but
"g". These
different phonemes guarantee that all digits have two morae, which means the same length of time for each digit, so you have
a less chance to misunderstand.
For example, number 22.252 has two pronunciation pairs: '2.' and '25'. So its phoneme becomes
"nizy nten ng ni". The last digit 2 is not paired, so its phoneme is not affected.
Native Japanese speakers are not aware of the rule, even though they actually use it. The reason why they read decimals
with the rule is that the Japanese language has a strong preference for four-beat rhythm. Making pairs of digits and
pronouncing each of them in four morae satisfies the preference. Actually the rule is used not only for decimals but for all
number sequences as well, such as phone numbers. In addition, most colloquial abbreviations of complex words also have
four morae. Please remember each mora has the same length of time.
Eight-beat rhythm is preferred as well as four-beat rhythm. You may have heard of
"haiku", a Japanese traditional
poem style. A haiku contains three phrases, which have five, seven, and five syllables respectively, and one of which has a
word related to a season. The first phrase is pronounced with three rests, the second is with one rest, and the third is also
with three rests, so they make eight-beat rhythm.
Further readings:
Rizumu o Kanjiro (written in Japanese)
5.4.2. Decimal units

Before the introduction of the English way of writing decimals with a decimal point, the Japanese used decimal units for
numbers smaller than one, and some of the units still survive in modern Japanese. They are similar to percent in English.
These are advanced vocabulary and you don't have to memorize them now.
Unit
Japanese
10-1
one tenth
wa
10-2
10-3
English
ri
one hundredth
bu
one thousandth
ri/TD>
Units smaller than 10-3 are not in common use now. Digits before a decimal unit is always pronounced. Look at the examples
below:
Numbers
Digits and units
Description
1 10-1
0.1
Read 1 and the unit.

i
ti wa ri
3 10-1
+ 0 10-2 + 2 10-3
0.302
Even 0 is pronounced when a smaller part follows it.

sa n wa ri
re
i bu
ni ri n
The unit
"wari" is a native Japanese word and the rest are Chinese-origin words. The latter originally meant ten times
the current values; the unit
"bu" meant one tenth, and so on. Later the Chinese-origin units were shifted one tenth smaller
in order to avoid the conflict with
, but they sometimes keep the original meaning in idioms, which may be confusing.
For instance, the word
"gobugobu" means fifty-fifty, because the decimal unit
meant one tenth.
5.4.3. Fractions
Fractions (
"buns" in Japanese) are not so commonly used in East Asia as in the West, but it's good to learn
how to read them in Japanese here because it's easy. Read the denominator first, then add the suffix
"bunno", and
read the numerator. In short, y
x means x/y.
"bun" means divide, and
"no" is the genitive marker. For
instance, 2/3 is read
"sanbunno ni".
Further readings:
math in Japanese
Re: kanji of decimal units

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5.5. The months and the days

5.5.1. The months
Japanese lost the names of months hundreds of years ago, and now months are called with sequential numbers. After a
number, just say the word
"gatu", which means month.
Japanese
English
Word
January
The first month

i
ti
ga
tu
February
The second month

ni
ga
tu
March
The third month

sa
ga
tu
April
The fourth month

si
ga
tu
May
The fifth month

go
ga
tu
June
The sixth month

ro
ku
ga
tu
July
The seventh month

si
ti
ga
tu
August
The eighth month

ha
ti
ga
September
tu
The ninth month
ku
October
Meaning
ga
tu
The tenth month
zy
ga
tu
November
The eleventh month

zy
ti
ga
December
tu
The twelfth month
zy
ni
ga
tu
For the names of the months, the common digit names of 4, 7, and 9 are not used. (
"nanagatu", and
"kygatu" are not used.)
"yongatu",
5.5.2. The ancient names of the months

Here is a list of the ancient names of the months. Just skip this paragraph if you are not interested.
Japanese
English
Word
Meaning
January
The month of friendship

mu
tu
ki
February
The month of the rebirth of plants

ki
sa
ra
gi
March
The month of growing plants

ya
yo
April
The month of the rabbit, which is the fourth animal of the Chinese zodiac.
u
zu
ki
May
The month of rice sprouts

sa
tu
ki
June
The month of water

mi
na
zu
ki
July
The month of letters

hu
mi
zu
ki
August
The month of leaves

ha
zu
ki
September
The month of long nights

na
ga
tu
ki
October
The month of gods

ka
na
zu
ki
November
The month of frost

si
mo
tu
ki
December
The month of busy people

si
wa
su
5.5.3. The days of the week

The days of the week are named after the sun, the moon, and planets. They are translations of the days of the week in
European languages such as Latin. Sunday is the first day of the week in Japan.
Japanese
English
Word
Meaning
Sunday
The day of the sun (

ni
ti
bi
Monday
ge
tu
The day of the moon (
"tuki")
The day of Mars (
"kasei")
bi
Tuesday
ka
bi
Wednesday
The day of Mercury (

su
The day of Jupiter (

ku
"suisei")
bi
Thursday
mo
"taiy")
bi
"mokusei")
Friday
The day of Venus (

ki
n'
bi
Saturday
The day of Saturn (

do
"kinsei")
"dosei")
bi
The suffix
"ybi" in the days of the week means shine + day. The suffix
"sei" in the planets' names means
star. The prefixes
"nichi" and
"getu" of Sunday and Monday come from different words that mean the sun and
the moon respectively.
5.5.4. The seasons

The Japanese word for a season is
English
Japanese
Spring
"kisetu". There are four season names in Japan.

Months
March, April, May

ha
ru
Summer
June, July, August

na
tu
Autumn
September, October, November

a
ki
Winter
December, January, February

hu
yu
Actually Japan also has the following season from the mid of June to the mid of July, in which season there is much more rain
than any other season:
tu
yu
It is called the rainy season or just tsuyu in English.
5.5.5. The days of the month

To my regret, the names of the days of the month in Japanese are not as easy as the names of the months, because they
preserve ancient names.
The days 11th through 31st except the 14th, 20th, and 24th have straighforward names. Their names are the combination of
the number and word
"niti", which means a day. For example, the 15th day is called
"zygoniti".
The word
sometimes becomes
"nti" in colloquial Japanese.
For other days, please look at the table below. Notice that they are similar to the traditional number names. The suffix
"ka" (or possibly
"uka") was a counter for days in ancient Japanese. Using
for the days listed below is
understandable, so don't hesitate to use
when you can't remember their real names.
Japanese
English
Word
1
tu
ta
ti
Meaning
The beginning of the month.
It came from
"tuki" (month, moon) +
stand up)
The second day
hu
tu
ka
The third day

mi
ka
The fourth day

yo
ka
The fifth day

i
tu
ka
The sixth day

mu
ka
The seventh day

na
no
ka
The eighth day

y
ka
"tatu" (to
ko
ko
no
The ninth day
ka
10
The tenth day

t
ka
The fourteenth day
10
4th day
+
14
zy
yo
ka
20
The twentieth day

ha
tu
ka
24
ni
zy
yo
(others) A day number +
ka
The twenty-fourth day

20
4th day
+
This is a suffix added to a number.

ni
ti
5.5.6. How to read date and time

In Japanese, it is necessary to say the biggest part first, then go down to smaller parts. This is because of the head-last rule of
Japanese. This rule is applied not only for date but also for time and addresses.
Dates are read in the following order: a year, a month, a day of the month, a day of the week. To read a year, just add
"nen", which means a year, after the number.
Example: Monday, June 16th, 1997 is 1997
6
16
"sen kyhyaku kyzy nananen
rokugatu zyrokuniti getuybi". The Japanese style of abbreviation of the date is 1997/6/16 (year/month/day).
Please remember the American style and the European style are also different from each other.
American: day-of-week, month/day/year
European: day-of-week, day/month/year
Asian:
year/month/day, day-of-week
To read time, add

"zi" after hours,
"hun" after minutes, and
is 11
29
7
"zyitizi nizy kyhun nanaby".
"by" after seconds. For instance, 11:29:07
When you say both date and time, say date first. Please remember the biggest part comes first in Japanese.
Further readings:
Re: Afternoon?

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6. Greetings
English:
Hello. / Good afternoon.
Kana:
Romanization: Ko
ni
ti
wa*
* This is a single-kana postposition whose actual sound is
. We later learn it as the topic marker.
Note: It is uncommon to use this phrase for your family members.
English:
Good bye.
Kana:
Romanization: Sa
na
ra
Note: In colloquial Japanese, this phrase is often shortened to
English:
"sayonara".
Good morning.
Kana:
Romanization:
ha
go
za
ma
su
Note: The phrase shown here is polite. You can simply say
"ohay" if politeness is not required. It should be the first
greeting between you and a person you talk to in the morning. It is not so common to use it twice a day for the same person, while in
English some people use "Good morning" to mean "Good bye" in the morning.
English:
Good evening.
Kana:
Romanization: Ko
ba
wa*
* This is also the topic marker.

Note: It is uncommon to use this phrase for your family members.
English:
Good night.
Kana:
Romanization:
ya
su
mi
na
sa
Note: This phrase is used only when you are expected to go to bed in a few hours, perhaps past 9 p.m. or so. You can also say
"oyasumi", which is more casual. It should be the last greeting between you and a person you talk to in the night. It is not so
common to use it twice a day for the same person, while in English some people use "Good night" to mean "Good bye" in the evening.
English:
Thank you very much.
Kana:
Romanization:
ri
ga
go
za
You can add the word
gozaimasu" and
"thank you."
English:
ma
su
"arigat" if politeness is not required.
"dmo" before them, such as

"dmo arigat". The word
"dmo arigat
"dmo" itself can be used as a simple version of
You are welcome. (as a reply to thank you)
Kana:
Romanization:
English:
ta
si
ma
si
te
(none)
Kana:
Romanization:
ta
da
ki
ma
su
Note: It is good manners to say this phrase before you have meal. The literal translation is "I begin to eat," but it actually means "thank
you for the meal."
English:
(none)
Kana:
Romanization: Go
ti
sa
ma
de
si
ta
Note: It's good manners to say this phrase after you have meal. The literal translation is "it was a delicious meal," but it actually means
"thank you for the meal."
English:
I'm sorry.
Kana:
Romanization: Go
me
na
sa
Note: Saying this phrase does not necessarily mean admitting that you are to blame. In Japanese culture, it is important to say some
kind of apology before blaming someone.
English:
Excuse me.
Kana:
Romanization: Su
mi
ma
se
Note: This phrase is similar to the previous one, but lighter in meaning. It is often used to talk to someone you don't know. In colloquial
Japanese, it often becomes
"suimasen".
English:
A happy new year.
Kana:
Romanization:
ke
ma
si
te
me
de
go
za
ma
su
"akemasite omedet" if politeness is not
required. In Japan, the new year is much more important than Christmas because few Japanese people are Christian. People mail
"nengazy" (new year cards) in late December and the post office delivers them on the new year day, which is the
busiest day for the post office. Some people even write hundreds of new year cards for all of their acquaintances.
Further readings:
Japanese greetings

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7.1. Cases and postpositions

Cases are markers of the grammatical roles of nouns. In most European languages, inflection of articles, adjectives, and
nouns is used to show cases. English pronouns have three cases: the nominative case, the genitive case (possessive case),
and the accusative case (objective case). The nominative case is often used for the subject of sentences, and the accusative
case is often used for the object of sentences. For instance, the word they is nominative, the word their is genitive, and the
word them is accusative. Since common nouns don't have case markings at all to distinguish grammatical roles, English has
become full of prepositions. The grammatical role of a phrase is given by its preposition, so you can change the order of
phrases without a chance of misunderstanding. For example, you can say both "It rarely snows in Yokohama" and "In
Yokohama, it rarely snows," because the preposition in clearly stands for the place. But English has no prepositions to mark
the subject and the object, so it uses the word order to determine them. Generally speaking, the fewer case markers
(inflection and adpositions) a language has, the more sensitive the language is to the word order. Chinese is very sensitive to
the word order because it doesn't have inflection at all and it has few prepositions.
In Japanese, cases including nominative and accusative are always shown by postpositions. You can easily see grammatical
roles because all phrases are explicitely marked. Japanese has no noun inflections like English they, their, and them.
Memorizing postpositions is much easier than memorizing noun inflections, because neither nouns nor postpositions change
their spellings.
There is no marker for verbs in Japanese, but you can easily spot them because they are always at the end of sentences. That
comes from the head-last rule, because a verb is the most important part of a sentence and other phrases including the
subject are additional information to the verb.
Example 1:
Kana:
Romanization: Sa
Structure:
ku
ra
ga
nominoun
native
(cherry blossoms)
marker
sa
ta
verb
(bloomed)
This sentence means "Cherry blossoms bloomed." Please remember Japanese doesn't care much about the distinctions in
English shown by the use (or not use) of the definite article the. The postposition
"ga" is the nominative marker, so the
preceding noun
"sakura" is the subject of the sentence.
Example 2:
Kana:
Romanization: Ga
Structure:
ka
noun
(artist)
ga
e
o
nomiaccunoun
native
sative
(picture)
marker
marker
ka
i
verb
(drew)
ta
This sentence means "An artist drew a picture." The postposition

"o" is the accusative marker, so the preceding noun
"e" is the object of the sentence. Note that the hiragana
is ancient and used only for the accusative marker. Other than
that, "o" is always written with the hiragana .
Since cases are given by postpositions, you can change the word order like this:
Kana:
Romanization:
Structure:
accunoun
sative
(picture)
marker
ga
ka
noun
(artist)
ga
nominative
marker
ka
ta
verb
(drew)
All you have to do is add appropriate postpositions to nouns and put a verb at the end.

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7.2. Topics and focuses

The topic and the focus are concepts commonly found in human languages. Topics are old information, which you have
already talked about in a conversation. Focuses are new information, which is often the key of an answer to a question.
Let's think about topics and focuses in English. Compare the following two conversations:
1. A: What did you see yesterday?
B: Yesterday I saw Akira.
2. A: When did you see the movie?
B: I saw the movie yesterday.
The underlined letters indicate topics, which are information backgrounds of the conversation. The italic letters indicate
focuses, which are either important new information or requests for it. You can sometimes say only a focus, so you can just
say "Akira." at 1-B, and "Yesterday." at 2-B.
The examples below show selecting topics.
3. A: I saw a movie a week ago, and I saw another one yesterday.
B: What did you see yesterday?
4. A: I saw a movie and went shopping yesterday.
B: What did you see?
Underlined letters indicate selected topics. At 3-B, the speaker chooses yesterday in 3-A, not a week ago, as information
background of the conversation. At 4-B, the speaker chooses saw a movie in 4-A, not went shopping.
Focuses always have a stress, and selected topics often have too. A topic should appear before a focus in plain sentences in
English if possible. So it is not good to say "Yesterday I saw the movie." at 2-B.
English has the following ways to display topics and focuses clearly:
He really likes curry and rice.
Cleft sentence:
It is curry and rice that he really likes. (Curry and rice is a focus)
Pseudo-cleft sentence: What he really likes is curry and rice. (Curry and rice is a focus)
Left dislocation:
Curry and rice, he really likes it.
(Curry and rice is a topic)
Topicalization:
Curry and rice he really likes.
(Curry and rice is a topic)
Now let's go on to Japanese. Japanese has a postposition to mark topics - the postposition
the exceptional word which has the hiragana
but has the same phonemes as .
"wa". Please note that it is
The subject of a sentence is accompanied by the topic marker

"wa" unless it is a focus. A phrase which is not the subject
is accompanied by the topic marker when it is a topic and is more important than the subject. So the subject commonly has
the topic marker.
The topic marker is added after other postpositions. You have already learned two postpositions; one is the nominative
marker
"ga", and the other is the accusative marker
"o". The topic marker overrides and removes the two
postpositions. No other postpositions are overridden.
This is a table of how the topic marker overrides the two postpositions. The postpositions for the dative, locative, and
ablative cases are used here just for examples, and they will be explained in later chapters.
Nominative Accusative
marker
marker
Dative
marker
Locative
marker
Ablative
marker
Non-topic
"ga"
"o"
"ni"
"de"
"kara"
"wa"
"wa"
"niwa"
"dewa"
"karawa"
Topic
Look at the examples of the topic marker below:

Kana:
Romanization: Sa
Structure:
ku
ra
noun
(cherry blossoms)
ga
sa
nominative
marker
ta
verb
(bloomed)
The subject
"sakura" is not accompanied by the topic marker
"wa", so it can be a focus. There are two
possibilities: cherry blossoms is new information, or the whole sentence is new information. The preceding question might be
"What bloomed?" for the former possibility, and "What happened?" for the latter. It doesn't matter whether such a question
is actually asked. You can introduce new information to conversation yourself.
Let's add the topic marker after the nominative marker. The nominative marker is overridden like this:
Kana:
Romanization: Sa
Structure:
ku
ra
wa
noun
topic
(cherry blossoms) marker
sa
i
ta
verb
(bloomed)
In this case, the subject

must have been already talked about. The preceding question might be "Did the cherry
blossoms bloom?" or "How are the cherry blossoms?". In the latter case, the verb
"saita" is a focus.
Let's look at topics of sentences which have an object. This is also a sentence used in the previous chapter:
Kana:
Romanization: Ga
Structure:
ka
ga
ka
nomiaccunoun
native
sative
(picture)
marker
marker
noun
(artist)
ta
verb
(drew)
Neither the subject nor the object is a topic, so they can be focuses. The preceding question might be "Who drew a
picture?", "Who drew what?", or "What happened?".
Kana:
Romanization: Ga
Structure:
ka
wa
ka
accutopic
noun
sative
marker (picture)
marker
noun
(artist)
ta
verb
(drew)
The subject is a topic, so the preceding question might be "What did the artist draw?" or "What did the artist do?".
Kana:
Romanization:
Structure:
wa
noun topic
(picture) marker
ga
ka
ga
ka
nominative
marker
noun
(artist)
ta
verb
(drew)
The topic marker overrides the accusative marker in this sentence. The preceding question might be "Who drew the
picture?".
As you see, a topic should appear before a focus in Japanese as well as in English. Since you can freely change the word
order of a Japanese sentence, it is easy to place the topic at the beginning of the sentence. If there is more than one piece of
background information, the subject, which is possibly a topic, is likely to appear first. If there are more than one piece of
new information, the strongest focus is likely to appear immediately before the verb.
In English, you cannot remove a subject, a verb, or an object from a sentence even when they are topics. In Japanese, only a
predicator (either a verb, a copula, or an adjective) is necessary to form a grammatically correct sentence. You don't have to
say a subject or an object when they are clear from context. As a reply to the question "What did the artist do?", you can
just say this:
Kana:
Romanization:
Structure:
o
accunoun
sative
(picture)
marker
ka
The hidden subject is clearly the artist, or
ta
verb
(drew)
"gaka".
If you don't want to say a whole sentence, you can say only the focus word as well as in English. To answer the question
"What did the artist draw?", you can just say
"E." or
"E o.", but they are not complete sentences.

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7.3. Verbs
7.3.1. Group I and Group II
Japanese verbs are divided into two groups with different inflection styles. One group is called the Group I verbs, the -u
verbs, the Godan verbs, the consonant verbs, and the strong verbs. The other is called the Group II verbs, the -ru verbs, the
Ichidan verbs, the vowel verbs, and the weak verbs. I use the terms Group I and Group II here. Other than the two groups,
Japanese has two irregular verbs.
Japanese has two tenses - the nonpast tense, which is used for both present and future, and the past tense. All the Japanese
verbs end with the vowel "u" when used in the nonpast tense. Group II verbs always end with either "-iru" or "-eru". The two
irregular verbs are
"suru" and
"kuru", which have different inflection from each other.
A verb consists of a stem and a suffix. The stem never changes, but suffixes can change. In English, a verb's stem is its
nonpast form, and you can make the past form with the suffix -ed, such as learn - learned. You can make the gerund with
the suffix -ing, such as learn - learning.
The final "-u" in the nonpast form of a Group I verb is the suffix, and the rest is the stem. The stem of a Group I verb always
ends with a consonant. The final "-ru" in the nonpast form of a Group II verb is the suffix, and the rest is the stem. The stem
of a Group II verb always ends with either "i" or "e".
The first "s" is the stem of the irregular verb
"suru", and the first "k" is the stem of the irregular verb
This is a table of nonpast form examples:

Group
Verb
ha
ki
ta
Group I
na
Stem Suffix Meaning

hanas
speak
kik
listen to
oyog
swim
tat
stand up
su
ku
yo
gu
tu
ur
ru
-u
sell
"kuru".
si
to
yo
mi
Group II
ne
ta
ra
sin
die
tob
fly
yom
read
mi
watch
oti
fall
bu
mu
ru
ti
ru
-ru
ne
sleep
tabe
eat
ru
be
ru
s
-uru
do
-uru
come
ru
kuru
ku
wash
nu
suru
su
araw *
ru
* The last "w" guarantees that all Group I verbs have a stem that ends with a consonant. Since Japanese doesn't have "wi",
"wu", "we", or "wo", these phonemes become "i", "u", "e", and "o" respectively. In this case, the stem "araw" and the suffix "u"
makes "arau", not "arawu". Whenever you use a Group I verb which ends with a vowel and "u", assume the hidden "w"
before the final "u". For example, the stem of the verb
"iu" (means say) is "iw", not "i".
When you Romanize a Japanese verb, do not use a circumflex for the suffix. For example, the Group I verb
Romanized as "kuu", not "k".
(eat) is
All the Group II verbs end with either "-iru" or "-eru", but verbs which end with these suffixes are not necessarily Group II
verbs. Some are Group I verbs, which end with "-u".

Here are examples of Group I verbs with the ending of "-iru" or "-eru":
Group
Verb
si
Meaning
sir
know
hasir
run
hair
enter
ru
ha
Group I
Stem Suffix
si
ha
ru
ka
ru
su
-u
kaer
go back, return
suber
slide, skate, ski
syaber
chat
ru
be
ru
sya
be
ru
The verb
"suru" can combine with a noun to make a verb which is related to the noun.
Here is an example:
Kana:
Romanization: be
n
Meaning:
study (noun)
ky
Kana:
Romanization: be
Meaning:
study (verb)
7.3.2. Polite forms
ky
su
ru
Japanese has a plain mode and a polite mode. To make a sentence polite, add the suffix
"masu" to the verb at the end
of the sentence. It is good to write it as "-(i)masu" to show how it is connected to a verb. If the stem of a verb ends with a
vowel, add "-masu". If the stem ends with a consonant, add "-imasu" because Japanese doesn't allow a consonant that is not
followed by a vowel. In other words, add "-masu" to Group II verbs, and add "-imasu" to Group I verbs,
"suru", and
"kuru".
The suffix
"masu" also works like a verb. For example, it has a past form. Its stem is "mas", and "-u" is the suffix for
the nonpast form. It has irregular inflection. It cannot be an independent verb, and it must be added to a verb.
Here are examples of polite forms:
Group Plain nonpast form
ha
na
ki
ku
yo
ta
su
Polite nonpast form
ha
na
si
ma
ki
ki
ma
su
yo
gi
ma
tu
ta
ti
ma
su
ru
ri
ma
su
ra
ra
ma
si
nu
si
ni
ma
su
to
bu
to
bi
ma
su
yo
mu
yo
mi
ma
su
gu
su
su
Group I
su
Group II
mi
ru
mi
ma
su
ti
ti
ma
ne
ru
ne
ma
su
ta
be
ta
be
ma
su
ru
si
ma
su
ku
ru
ki
ma
su
ru
ru
su
su
suru
kuru
Please remember actual sounds are sometimes different from what you might expect from the spellings. The verb
has
a pronunciation of "tatsu", and its polite form
has a pronunciation of "tachimasu". You can easily derive
"tatimasu" from "tatu" and "-(i)masu", but it would be difficult to derive "tachimasu" from "tatsu" and "masu". This is why I
use Kunrei Romanization in my site.
Polite mode is recommended when you talk or write to a person who is not so close or who has a higher position than you.
Plain mode is better when you talk to people such as your family and close friends, and it is also better when you write text
written for a general readership such as novels, articles, theses, etc. You cannot use both of the modes at the same time in a
document. Once you begin writing, go on with the mode you use for the first sentence. Native Japanese speakers think in
plain mode.
Please note that the polite form of a verb doesn't mean doing politely what the verb means. The polite form stands for the
speaker's politeness to the addressee. (The speaker and the addressee are grammatical terms. The speaker is a person who
sends a sentence, i.e. a person who speaks or writes. The addressee is a person who receives the sentence, such as a
person the speaker is talking to. I will often use the terms in later chapters.)
You will learn relative clauses, but it is not allowed to use
of sentences. I will explain it again later.
for verbs in relative clauses. It is only used for the last verb
If at first you find polite mode too difficult, use only plain mode until you are more advanced. But keep in mind using plain
mode for people who are not so close is rude. To avoid this problem, form a sentence in plain form, then add the magic
word
"desu" at the end of the sentence. It often produces grammatically incorrect sentences, but they will be
understandable and still polite. I will explain how to use the word
properly in a later chapter.
7.3.3. Past forms

Adding the suffix
"ta" to a verb makes the past form. It is good to write it as "-(i)ta" to show how it connects to verbs.
The meaning of the "(i)" is the same as that in "-(i)masu". So use "ta" for Group II verbs, and use "ita" for Group I verbs,
"suru",
"kuru", and the polite suffix
"masu".
For ease of pronunciation, Group I verbs change the phonemes when they are combined with
stem determines how it changes the phonemes.
Nonpast form Past form
ending
ending
-su
-ku
-gu
-sita
-ita
-ida
-tta
s + (i)ta = sita
(no change)
k + (i)ta = kita,
then it is changed to ita
g + (i)ta = gita,
then it is changed to ida
r + (i)ta = rita,
then it is changed to tta
w + (i)ta = wita,
-wu*
n + (i)ta = nita,
then it is changed to nda
-nu
-bu
Description
t + (i)ta = tita,
-tu
-ru
. The last phoneme of the
-nda
-mu
b + (i)ta = bita,
m + (i)ta = mita,
* Remember the hidden "w".

There is no other kana that can be the last one of Group I verbs. Note that only Group I verbs change the phonemes.
There is an exception to this table. The verb
"iku" (means go) has a stem which ends with "k", so you may expect it
to have
"iita" as the past form, but actually its past form is
"itta".
Here are examples of past forms:

Nonpast form
Group
Verb
Past form
Meaning
Verb
Meaning
speak
ha
na
su
spoke
ha
na
si
ta
listen to
ki
ku
listened to
ki
ta
swim
o
yo
gu
swam
o
yo
da
stand up
ta
tu
stood up
ta
Group I
ta
sell
u
ru
sold
u
ta
wash
a
ra
washed
a
ra
die
si
nu
died
si
da
fly
to
bu
flew
to
da
read
yo
mu
read
yo
da
watch
mi
ru
watched
mi
ta
fall
o
Group II
ti
ru
ta
fell
o
ti
ta
sleep
ne
ru
slept
ne
ta
eat
ta
be
suru
ru
ate
ta
be
ta
do
su
ru
kuru
did
si
ta
come
ku
ru
-masu
came
ki
ta
*
ma
su
*
ma
si
ta
* This is not a verb but a verbal suffix for polite mode.

When you want to make a polite past form, make a verb polite first, then change it to the past form. For instance, if you want
the polite past form of the verb
"tobu", change it to the polite form
"tobimasu", then change it to the past
form
"tobimasita". This is because the politeness suffix
"masu" has a past form but the past suffix
"ta" doesn't have a polite form.
Further readings:
Re: modal auxiliary verbs and tense
Re: future tense

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7.4. Copula
A copula is a special word that combines the subject of a sentence and its description. Copulas are often irregular in many
languages. The English word be is a copula. It is the verb whose inflection is most irregular in English. It combines the subject
and its description, such as "Apples are fruits" and "The sky is blue". However, the word is in "The book is on the desk" is
not a copula but an existential verb similar to the verb exist.
The plain copula in Japanese is
"da". It is not a verb but a suffix added to nouns.
Here is an example of the copula:
Kana:
Romanization:
Structure:
Meaning:
ky
wa
topic
marker
noun
(Tky)
Tky is capital.
syu
to
noun
(capital)
da
copula
(is)
Since the copula

"da" is not a verb but a suffix, the combination of the noun
"syuto" and the copula works as if
it were a verb. It is important to treat them as a single predicator. You cannot make a pause between the noun and the
copula, and you cannot move the noun from the position immediately before the copula. In other words, the copula
"da"
makes a noun work like a verb.
The copula has inflection like verbs, but it is highly irregular. The past form of
"da" is
"datta".
Here is an example of the past form of the copula:

Kana:
Romanization:
Structure:
Meaning:
Ky
noun
(Kyto)
Kyto was capital.
to
wa
topic
marker
syu
to
noun
(capital)
da
t
copula
(was)
ta
Kyto, a city 400 kilometers west to Tky, was capital of Japan from 794 to 1192.
The polite form of

"da" is
"desu". Its stem is "des" and the last "-u" is the suffix for the nonpast form. Its inflection
is almost the same as the polite suffix
"masu", and its past form is
"deshita".
Kana:
Romanization:
Structure:
ky
noun
(Tky)
wa
topic
marker
syu
to
noun
(capital)
de
su
copula
(is + polite)
Kana:
Romanization:
Ky
to
noun
(Kyto)
Structure:
wa
syu
topic
marker
to
de
noun
(capital)
si
ta
copula
(was + polite)
The original form of the copula helps us to understand its irregular inflection. The modern copula
"da" comes from the old
style copula
"de aru", which is a combination of the word
"de" and the existential verb
"aru". The word
"de" came from the ancient postposition
"nite", but now it is considered a form of the copula which uses the
existential verb as an auxiliary verb just to give tense to a sentence.
Since
"aru" is a regular Group I verb, its inflection is easy to understand like these:
Kana:
Romanization:
ky
wa
noun
(Tky)
Structure:
syu
topic
marker
to
de
noun
(capital)
copula
(be)
ru
auxiliary
verb
(nonpast)
Kana:
Romanization:
Ky
to
noun
(Kyto)
Structure:
wa
syu
topic
marker
to
de
noun
(capital)
copula
(be)
ta
auxiliary verb
(past)
The old style copula

"de aru" is scarcely used in spoken Japanese, but it is still often used in written Japanese. Its
polite forms are not commonly used even in written Japanese.
To summarize, the modern copula and its polite form are derived as follows:
Form
The original copula
The contracted copula
Nonpast
de
ru
da
de
ta
de
ri
ma
Past
da
de
su
Polite nonpast
su
ta
Polite past
de
ri
ma
si

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ta
de
si
ta
7.5. Adjectives
7.5.1. Nonpast forms
English adjectives are more similar to nouns than to verbs, and they require the copula be to become predicators. On the
other hand, Japanese adjectives are more similar to verbs, and they don't need a copula. They have inflection like verbs.
All Japanese adjectives end with the hiragana
"i" if they are in the nonpast form. An adjective consists of a stem and a
suffix as verbs do, and the stem never changes while suffixes can change. The final /i/ in the nonpast form of an adjective is
the suffix, and the rest is the stem. Please note that the suffix for the nonpast form of verbs is /u/, and that of adjectives is /i/.
Here are some adjectives:
Adjective
yo
Stem Suffix Meaning

yo
is good
atu
is hot
tu
re
si
si
-i
uresi
is glad
oisi
is tasty
Since adjectives always end with the hiragana , the stem of an adjective always ends with a vowel. Japanese adjectives
are similar to verbs, so you can consider them to be a combination of the copula be and an adjective in English.
These are examples of adjectives:
Kana:
Romanization: Su
si
wa
noun
topic
Structure:
(sushi)
marker
Meaning:
Sushi is tasty.
Kana:
i
si
adjective
(is tasty)
Romanization: Ki
mo
no
wa
Structure:
noun
(kimono)
Meaning:
Kimonos are beautiful.
tu
topic
marker
ku
si
adjective
(is beautiful)
7.5.2. Past forms

Add the suffix
"-katta" to the stem of an adjective to create its past form.
Nonpast form
Adjective
Past form
Meaning
Adjective
Meaning
is good
yo
was good
yo
ka
ta
is hot
a
tu
was hot
tu
ka
ta
is glad
u
re
si
was glad
re
si
ka
ta
is tasty
o
si
was tasty
si
ka
ta
This is an example of the past form of adjectives:

Kana:
Romanization: Su
si
wa
noun
topic
Structure:
(sushi)
marker
Meaning:
The sushi was tasty.
si
ka
adjective
(was tasty)
ta
7.5.3. Polite forms

Adjectives don't have a politeness suffix like verbs' politeness suffix
"masu", so you have to add the polite copula
"desu" to the end of an adjective in order to make it polite. Make the past form of an adjective first, then add
"desu" to it to make its polite past form.
Examples:
Kana:
Romanization: Su
Structure:
si
noun
(sushi)
wa
topic
marker
si
adjective
(is tasty)
de
su
suffix
(polite mode)
Kana:
Romanization: Su
si
noun
Structure:
(sushi)
wa
topic
marker
si
ka
t
adjective
(was tasty)
ta
de
su
.
suffix
(polite mode)
The polite past-form adjectives don't end with

"ta" because of the politeness suffix. Making the polite form before making
the past form is not allowed for adjectives, which would produce
"oisiidesita" in the case of the
second example shown above.

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7.6. Relative clauses

7.6.1. Relative clauses and verbs
A relative clause has a main noun and an explanatory phrase that are combined in a grammatical way, and it has a base
structure. For instance, "a picture that the artist drew" is a relative clause, where "picture" is a main noun and "the artist drew"
is an explanation. Its base structure is the sentence "The artist drew a picture." In English, relative pronouns such as that and
who are used.
The way to make relative clauses in Japanese is quite easy.
Kana:
Romanization: Ga
Structure:
ka
noun
(artist)
ga
ka
nomiaccunoun
native
sative
(picture)
marker
marker
ta
verb
(drew)
This sentence means "an artist drew a picture." Now let's create the phrase "the artist who drew the picture" in Japanese.
You don't have to care about articles (a / the) here. As you have already learned, Japanese has a head-last rule, so it is clear
that the noun
"gaka" comes last in the relative clause. Just remove the noun and its postposition from the sentence and
put the remainder before it, and you will get:
Kana:
Romanization:
Structure:
o
accunoun
sative
(picture)
marker
ka
ta
ga
verb
(drew)
ka
noun
(artist)
It means "the artist who drew the picture." Since verbs appear at the end of sentences, a verb appearing in the middle of a
sentence is always in a relative clause.
There are two important rules for relative clauses. First, you cannot use the topic marker
"wa" in relative clauses,
because topics and focuses are defined in a sentence, not a clause. Do not use the topic marker in a relative clause even
when there is a topic word in it. Secondly, you cannot use polite mode in a relative clause, because polite mode affects only
the predicator (a verb, a copula, or an adjective) at the end of a sentence. For example, the politeness suffix
"masu"
appears only at the end of sentences.
The following sentence means "the picture that the artist drew":
Kana:
Romanization: ga
ka
ga
ka
ta
Structure:
nominative
marker
noun
(artist)
verb
(drew)
As you see, all you have to do is just remove

it.
noun
(picture)
"e" and its accompanying accusative marker and put the remainder before
The following sentence means "cherry blossoms bloomed.":

Kana:
Romanization: Sa
Structure:
ku
ra
noun
(cherry blossoms)
ga
sa
nominative
marker
ta
verb
(bloomed)
From this sentence, you can easily make "the cherry blossoms that bloomed" like this:
Kana:
Romanization:
sa
ta
verb
(bloomed)
Structure:
sa
ku
ra
noun
(cherry blossoms)
You can also create a relative clause without removing a word. Here is the Japanese phrase for "the fact that the cherry
blossoms bloomed":
Kana:
Romanization:
Structure:
sa
ku
ra
ga
nominoun
native
(cherry blossoms)
marker
sa
ta
ko
verb
(bloomed)
to
noun
(fact)
And here is the phrase for "the time when the cherry blossoms bloomed":
Kana:
Romanization:
Structure:
sa
ku
ra
ga
nominoun
native
(cherry blossoms)
marker
sa
7.6.2. Relative clauses and adjectives
i
verb
(bloomed)
ta
to
ki
noun
(time)
This sentence means "kimonos are beautiful.":

Kana:
Romanization: Ki
mo
no
noun
(kimono)
Structure:
wa
tu
topic
marker
ku
si
adjective
(is beautiful)
Since Japanese adjectives are similar to verbs, you can create relative clauses in the same way as you do for verbs.
The following sentence means "a kimono that is beautiful":
Kana:
Romanization:
tu
Structure:
ku
si
adjective
(is beautiful)
ki
mo
no
noun
(kimono)
As you see, the word order of it is the same as that of the English phrase "a beautiful kimono". In fact, there is no difference
between relative clauses and nouns with adjectives in Japanese. In English, the grammatical structures of "a beautiful kimono"
and "a kimono that is beautiful" are quite different, even though they have the same meaning.
You can easily create the phrase "a kimono that was beautiful" by using the past form of the adjective like this:
Kana:
Romanization:
Structure:
tu
ku
si
ka
adjective
(was beautiful)
ta
ki
mo
no
noun
(kimono)
7.6.3. Relative clauses and copulas

Moving a predicator that is the combination of a noun and a copula to create a relative clause is not as easy as verbs and
adjectives. First, you have to distinguish two kinds of nouns: common nouns and adjectival nouns. The latter is also called
na-adjectives, qualitative nouns, and copular nouns. As the name implies, a adjectival noun works like an adjective rather
than like a noun.
Here is an example of a adjectival noun:
Kana:
Romanization: ki
re
i
Meaning:
beautiful (adjectival noun)
This noun is not a common noun but a adjectival noun, which works like an adjective, so its translation is not beauty but
beautiful. A adjectival noun cannot be a subject or an object; it must be in a predicator, accompanied by a copula.
This is a sentence that means "kimonos are beautiful," the same meaning as the example shown in the previous section:
Kana:
Romanization: Ki
Structure:
mo
no
noun
(kimono)
wa
topic
marker
ki
re
i
adjectival noun
(beautiful)
da
copula
(is)
Its grammatical structure is similar to examples in the copula chapter, but its meaning is similar to the example in the
adjectives chapter.
When you create a relative clause from the sentence above, you need to change the copula
"na" like this:
"da" to its special form
Kana:
Romanization:
Structure:
ki
re
i
adjectival noun
(beautiful)
na
copula
(is)
ki
mo
no
noun
(kimono)
This means "a kimono that is beautiful", or "a beautiful kimono". You need to change the copula only when it is
it is a nonpast form of the contracted copula.
Other forms of the copula will not chage, like this:
, i.e. when
Kana:
Romanization:
Structure:
ki
re
da
adjectival noun
(beautiful)
ta
ki
copula
(was)
mo
no
noun
(kimono)
This means "a kimono that was beautiful."

Like copulas after adjectival nouns, you also need to change a nonpast-form copula accompanying a common noun when
you create a relative clause from them, but you need to change it not to
"na" but to
"no", which is the same as the
genitive marker you have already learned.
For example, the following sentence means "Leaves are green":
Kana:
Romanization: Ha
p
noun
pa
wa
topic
mi
do
noun
ri
da
copula
Structure:
Since
(leaf)
marker
(green)
(is)
"midori" is a common noun, the relative clause "a leaf that is green" becomes like this:
Kana:
Romanization: mi
Structure:
You may think the
do
noun
(green)
ri
no
copula
(is)
ha
p
noun
(leaf)
pa
"no" is the genitive marker instead of a form of the copula
"da".
Past-form copulas remain unchanged for common nouns like adjectival nouns. Only the nonpast-form contracted copula
matters.

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7.7. Negative forms

7.7.1. Negative forms of verbs
First of all, I would like to explain the difference between verbs and adjectives in Japanese. You have learned that Japanese
adjectives have inflection like verbs, but their ways of inflection are quite different; nonpast-form verbs end with "-u", while
nonpast-form adjectives end with "-i". The reason why their inflections are different is that their purposes are different. Verbs
basically represent action, and adjectives represent condition. When you say "he runs," you mean his action, and when you
say "he is ill," you mean his condition.
Doing something is action, so you use verbs for action in Japanese. Not doing something is a condition rather than action,
because it is not what you do. For example, "he doesn't run" means his condition, not his action. As a result, the negative
forms of Japanese verbs become adjectives, which are used for condition.
Add the negative suffix
"nai" to the stem of a verb to create its negative form. For Group I verbs, insert "a" between
the stem and the suffix. So you can memorize it as "-(a)nai". The irregular verbs require different padding vowels; use "-inai"
for
"suru" and "-onai" for
"kuru".
The inflection of the suffix
"nai" is the same as that of adjectives.
Here is a table of negative forms:

Group
Plain form
ha
na
ki
ku
yo
ta
Negative form
su
ha
na
sa
na
ki
ka
na
yo
ga
na
tu
ta
ta
na
ru
ra
na
ra
ra
wa
na
gu
Group I
Group II
si
nu
si
na
na
to
bu
to
ba
na
yo
mu
yo
ma
na
mi
ru
mi
na
ti
H'
ti
na
ne
ru
ne
na
ta
be
ta
be
na
su
ru
si
na
ku
ru
ko
na
ru
ru
suru
kuru
You have two ways to create a polite negative form of a verb. One way is easy to understand; since negative forms are
adjectives, just create the polite form the same way as polite adjectives.
I don't think the other way is very easy to understand, because it uses another negative suffix, but it is more formal and you
must get used to it. First, create the polite form of a verb using the politeness suffix
"masu", then add the negative
suffix
"n" with the padding vowel of "e" to its stem. It means "-en" is actually added to "mas", which is the stem of
"masu". So what you have to do is add
"masen" to the verb's stem in the same way as
"masu".
Since the negative suffix
after .
doesn't have a past form, it uses the polite copula for the past tense. Add
"deshita"
The first way (the negation-first way) is simpler, and works well in informal situations. For formal situations, the second way
(the politeness-first way) is better. The suffix
is a rare word that came to Standard Japanese from the Kansai (Western
Japan) dialect, while most of the vocabulary came from the Tky (the center of Eastern Japan) dialect. Probably that is why
the grammar of
is not simple.
This table shows a summary of forms of the verb
Step
"hanasu" (speak):
Form
Description
Stem + nonpast.
Past form: Go to 1.
Polite form: Go to 2.
Negative form: Go to 4.
0
ha
na
su
Stem + past.
ha
na
si
ta
Stem + politeness + nonpast.
Past form: Go to 3.
2
ha
na
si
ma
su
Stem + politeness + past.

ha
na
si
ma
si
ta
Stem + negation + nonpast.
Past form: Go to 5.
4
ha
na
sa
na
Stem + negation + past.

5
ha
na
sa
na
ka
ta
Stem + politeness + negation + nonpast.

Past form: Go to 7.
6
ha
na
si
ma
se
Stem + politeness + negation + past.

ha
na
si
ma
se
de
si
ta
Stem + negation + nonpast + politeness.

ha
na
sa
na
de
su
Stem + negation + past + politeness.

ha
na
sa
na
ka
ta
de
su
Steps 6 and 8 have the same meaning, and steps 7 and 9 have the same meaning. Steps 6 and 7 are created by the formal
way of polite negative form (the politeness-first way), and steps 8 and 9 are created by the colloquial way (the negation-first
way). The word colloquial doesn't mean it is the only way to be used in colloquial Japanese; in fact the formal way is used
as well even in colloquial Japanese. I recommend the colloquial way simply because I think it is easier. However, the
colloquial way is rarely used in written Japanese, which is often formal.
7.7.2. Negative forms of the existential verbs

The existential verb is a verb to mean something exists. In English, the verb be is an existential verb, such as "There is a pen
on the desk" and "The pen is on the desk".
Japanese has two existential verbs; one for animates (including human beings in this case) and one for inanimates. Animates
and inanimates are explained in the counter chapter.
The existential verb for animates is
"iru", which is a Group II verb. So its negative form is
"inai".
The existential verb for inanimates is

"aru". It is a Group I verb, so you may expect its negative form to be
"aranai", but actually its negative form is never used. Instead, you have to use the nonexistential adjective
which has the same origin as the negative suffix.
Look at samples below:
Kana:
Romanization:
Structure:
Meaning:
nu
ga
noun
nominative
(dog)
marker
There is a dog.
ru
verb
(exist)
Kana:
Romanization:
Structure:
Meaning:
nu
ga
noun
nominative
(dog)
marker
There is no dog.
na
verb + negation
(not exist)
Kana:
Romanization: Ya
Structure:
Meaning:
ma
ga
noun
nominative
(mountain)
marker
There is a mountain.
ru
verb
(exist)
Kana:
Romanization: Ya
ma
ga
na
"nai",
Structure:
Meaning:
noun
nominative
(mountain)
marker
adjective
(not exist)
There is no mountain.
Keep in mind that animates and inanimates use different existential verbs, and the nonexistential adjective
instead of the negative form of
"aru".
"nai" is used
The polite negative form of

is
"arimasen", and there is no problem in using it, unlike the plain
negative form. Being the opposite of the existential verb
, the nonexistential adjective
has two polite forms. One
is the colloquial
"naidesu", and the other is the formal
"arimasen".
This table shows a summary of forms of the existential verb
Step
"aru":
Form
Description
Stem (existential verb) + nonpast.
Past form: Go to 1.
0
a
ru
Stem (existential verb) + past.

a
ta
Stem (existential verb) + politeness + nonpast.
Past form: Go to 3.
2
a
ri
ma
su
Stem (existential verb) + politeness + past.

a
ri
ma
si
ta
Stem (nonexistential adjective) + nonpast.
Past form: Go to 5.
4
na
Stem (nonexistential adjective) + past.

5
na
ka
ta
Stem (existential verb) + politeness + negation +

nonpast.
Past form: Go to 7.
6
a
ri
ma
se
Stem (existential verb) + politeness + negation + past.

a
ri
ma
se
de
si
ta
Stem (nonexistential adjective) + nonpast + politeness.
na
de
su
Stem (nonexistential adjective) + past + politeness.

na
ka
ta
de
su
7.7.3. Negative forms of the copula

You have learned the plain copula
"da" and the polite copula
"desu". Please remeber they are contracted words
which came from the old style copula
"de aru". The negative forms of the modern copula need the old copula.
Being a combination of the postposition
and the existential verb
, the old copula has a negative form of a
combination of the word
and the nonexistential adjective
, i.e.
"de nai". Consequently it has two polite
negative forms, the colloquial
"de naidesu" and the formal
"de arimasen".
Look at the table for the forms of the existential verb
and add the word
before them. Please remember that there
are more popular form for the combinations of
and steps 0 through 3 in the table. There is no contracted form for the
negative forms of the copula.
Here is an example:
Kana:
Romanization: Yo
ha
ma
noun
(Yokohama)
Structure:
Meaning:
ko
wa
topic
marker
syu
noun
(capital)
to
de
copula
(is)
na
i
auxiliary
adjective
(not)
Yokohama is not capital.
The negative form of the copula consists of two words, while that of a verb is one word which consists of its stem and the
negative suffix. That makes a slight difference. It is explained later.
7.7.4. Negative forms of adjectives

Adjectives use the nonexistential adjective for their negative forms, as the copula does. They don't use the negative suffix for
verbs. First, add
"ku" to an adjective's stem, which is a suffix to accept auxiliary verbs and adjectives, then add the
nonexistential adjective
after it.
These are examples:
Plain form
Negative form
yo
tu
re
si
si
yo
ku
na
tu
ku
re
si
ku
na
si
ku
na
na
Since these negative forms contain the nonexistential adjective, there are two polite negative forms. For example, the polite
forms of
"yoku nai" are
"yoku naidesu" and
"yoku arimasen".
Look at step 4 through 9 in the table for the forms of the existential verb
and add the stem of an adjective with the
suffix
before them. Look at the adjective chapter for the affirmative forms of adjectives.
This is a sentence example:
Kana:
Romanization: Se
Structure:
noun
(war)
Meaning:
War is not good.
wa
topic
marker
yo
ku
adjective
(is good)
na
i
auxiliary
adjective
(not)
7.7.5. Negated topics

Let's compare these three conversations:
1. A: What did you say you'd forgotten to try in Kanazawa?
B: I didn't try sushi. That's a big mistake.
2. A: I've heard you tried sushi yesterday. Was it nice?
B: I didn't try sushi. It's John who went to a sushi bar yesterday.
3. A: You went to a Japanese restaurant, didn't you? Did you try sushi?
B: No, I didn't try sushi. I had sukiyaki.
The underlined letters mean topics that are negated. The sentence 1-B is just new information, and there is not a particular
word to be negated. In the 2-B, the speaker talks about himself, and he says he didn't try sushi. In the 3-B, the speaker talks
about sushi, and he says he didn't try sushi.

In Japanese, the sentence for 1-B and 2-B is different from that for 3-B, because Japanese has a topic marker. Put the topic
marker
"wa" after the phrase that is negated. Since the subject of a sentence is likely to have a topic marker, negating the
subject often has the same structure as a sentence with no negated topic.
This is a sentence for "I didn't eat sushi" for 1-B and "Me? No, I didn't eat sushi" for 2-B:
Kana:
Romanization: Wa
Structure:
ta
noun
(I)
si
wa
topic
marker
su
si
noun
(sushi)
o
accusative
marker
ta
be
na
ka
verb + negation
(didn't eat)
ta
And this is a sentece for "Sushi? No, I didn't eat sushi" for 3-B:
Kana:
Romanization: Wa
Structure:
ta
noun
(I)
si
wa
topic
marker
su
si
noun
(sushi)
wa
topic
marker
ta
be
na
ka
verb + negation
(didn't eat)
ta
In the first sentence, the subject may or may not be negated. You cannot tell which is right without knowing context, because
a subject often has a topic marker even if it is not negated.
On the other hand, the object
"susi" is clearly negated in the second sentence, because it is the second phrase in the
sentence while an ordinary topic almost always comes first in a sentence. As you see, both the subject and the object have
the same postposition, so it might be confusing if you don't know the meaning of the words. If two words have the same
postposition, a subject is likely to appear before an object.
When you use a copula, the word that combines with the copula is a negated word. As I explained, the negative forms of the
copula are actually combinations of the word
and the nonexistential adjective
, so you can and should insert a
topic marker between them.
Let's look at these examples:
Kana:
Romanization:
Structure:
Meaning:
Kana:
Ri
go
noun
(apple)
Apples are fruits.
wa
topic
marker
ku
da
mo
noun
(fruit)
no
da
copula
(is)
Romanization:
Ri
go
noun
(apple)
Structure:
Meaning:
wa
ya
topic
marker
sa
noun
(vegetable)
de
wa
copula topic
(is) marker
na
auxiliary
adjective
(not)
Apples are not vegetables.
You can say the second sentence without using the topic marker for negation, such as
inserting a topic marker is much more common.
In colloquial Japanese, the combination of
shown above would be like this:
"de" and
"yasaide nai", but
"wa" is often contracted to
"zya". The second sentence
Kana:
Romanization:
Ri
Structure:
go
noun
(apple)
wa
ya
topic
marker
sa
noun
(vegetable)
zya
copula +
topic
marker
(is)
na
auxiliary
adjective
(not)
The insertion of the topic marker can also occur for the negative forms of adjectives, but it is not so often as for the copula.
The following sentences have the same meaning, but the second one has an inserted topic marker for negation:
Kana:
Romanization: Mi
Structure:
ka
noun
(orange)
wa
ku
topic
marker
ro
ku
adjective
(is black)
na
i
auxiliary
adjective
(not)
Kana:
Romanization: Mi
Structure:
ka
noun
(orange)
wa
topic
marker
ku
ro
adjective
(is black)
ku
wa
topic
marker
na
i
auxiliary
adjective
(not)
Both of the sentences mean "oranges are not black," but the second one is used to negate the word black, such as "Black?
No, oranges are not black." The first one simply denies the idea that oranges are black.
Since the negative form of a verb is not a combination of two words but a combination of the stem and the negative suffix,
you cannot insert a topic marker between them. Japanese has a way to insert it between them, but you have to learn
infinitives to do it.
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7.9. Emotion markers

7.9.1. Sentence-final particles
Japanese has several communication-oriented particles to clarify a speaker's intention. Let's call them emotion markers here.
You have learned two other kinds of particles: case markers (postpositions), such as the nominative marker
"ga", and
information markers, such as the topic marker
"wa". There are several other categories, but we focus on these three
categories now.
Their priority of combining nouns is clearly different. If a noun is followed by each one of the three categories of particles, a
case marker is placed immediately after the noun, and an information marker follows it, then emotion markers follow them.
Actually emotion markers should appear only at the end of a sentence, so they are called sentence-final particles. They will
never appear in relative clauses.
Look at the sample below:
Kana:
Romanization:
Structure:
Meaning:
Ky
noun
(today)
It is cold today.
wa
topic
marker
sa
mu
i
adjective
(is cold)
Notice that Japanese doesn't use expletives like English "it" for weather. A noun for time or a place should be the subject of a
sentence when you say about weather in Japanese. When you want to say just it is cold, omit the subject.
Even though this sentence is grammatically correct and its meaning is clear, saying it to someone seems to be off the current
topic, because it simply tells about today's weather without any intension. A typical reaction of a native Japanese speaker
might be "So what?"
Imagine a friend of yours is about to go outside without a coat, and you know it is cold outside so you want to say to him
that he should wear his coat. In that case, use the opinion marker
"yo", one of emotion markers, like this:
Kana:
Romanization:
Structure:
Meaning:
Ky
wa
sa
mu
i
yo
noun
topic
adjective
opinion
(today)
marker
(is cold)
marker
I think it is cold today. (Why don't you wear your coat?)
You use the opinion marker to tell your opinions and judgment, and to share new information. It must have a person who
directly receives what you say, so it is rarely used in written Japanese except for mail. The opinion marker is often used when
a speaker thinks he knows better than a person who receives his opinion.
Most emotion markers are simply added after sentences without changing a word. The polite form of the sentence above
should be as follows:
Kana:
Romanization:
Structure:
Ky
wa
noun
(today)
topic
marker
sa
mu
de
su
yo
adjective + politeness
(is cold)
opinion
marker
If you think it is cold today and you want to talk about it with a friend, you can use the tag question marker
"ne" like this:
Kana:
Romanization:
Structure:
Meaning:
Ky
wa
noun
(today)
topic
marker
sa
mu
ne
tag
question
marker
adjective
(is cold)
It is cold today, isn't it?
Like the opinion marker
"yo", the tag question marker
"ne" is rarely used in written Japanese except for mail.
You can use both of them like this:

Kana:
Romanization:
Structure:
Meaning:
Ky
wa
noun
(today)
topic
marker
sa
mu
adjective
(is cold)
yo
ne
tag
opinion
question
marker
marker
I think it is cold today. Don't you think so?
You can simply say your impression using the impression marker
"na", without expecting an answer. It is often used when
you talk to yourself. The sentence-final particle
"na" sometimes becomes
"n" if impression is strong. Since the
impression marker doesn't expect an answer, it isn't used with the tag question marker
"ne".
Kana:
Romanization:
Structure:
Meaning:
Ky
wa
noun
topic
(today)
marker
Oh, I feel it is cold today.
sa
mu
i
adjective
(is cold)
n
impression
marker
In this case, you might be strongly aware of the freezing atmosphere of a winter morning. The impression marker is not
commonly used for something unusual and surprising, for instance freezing atmosphere of a summer day.
7.9.2. The affirmation suffix

The affirmation suffix
"noda" is different from sentence-final particles grammatically, but I explain it here because it is
similar to them in meaning.
It is a combination of the genitive postposition
"no" and the copula
"da", so it has the same inflection as the copula. It
is a suffix added after a predicator, i.e. a verb, a copula, and an adjective. Unlike sentence-final particles, it can appear in
relative clauses. It almost always becomes
"nda" in colloquial Japanese. Its polite form is of course
"nodesu", and it becomes
"ndesu" in colloquial Japanese.
Since the polite mode affects only the last predicator of sentences, the predicator before an affirmation suffix will never be a
polite form. Make the affirmation suffix polite instead of making the preceding predicator polite.
The affirmation suffix means you say a fact that is not known or not believed by listeners. You use it when you explain a
reason and when you affirm a fact that is not believed by other people. There are many situations where you can use it, and
in fact it is quite often used both in spoken Japanese and in written Japanese.
You might think it is similar to the opinion marker , but they are different. You use the opinion marker to share your idea,
and you use the affirmation suffix just to affirm a fact. The affirmation suffix is less communication-oriented, which is why it
can be used in written Japanese.
Let's compare the following sentences. Subjects are omitted since they are clearly "I" in all the sentences:
Kana:
Romanization: Ni
Structure:
Meaning:
ku
wa
ta
noun
topic
(meat)
marker
I don't eat meat.
be
na
yo
verb + negation
(don't eat)
Kana:
Romanization: Ni
Structure:
Meaning:
ku
wa
ta
be
na
noun
topic
verb + negation
(meat)
marker
(don't eat)
I don't eat meat. (That's my opinion.)
opinion
marker
Kana:
Romanization: Ni
Structure:
Meaning:
ku
wa
ta
be
na
da
noun
topic
verb + negation
affirmation
(meat)
marker
(don't eat)
suffix
To tell you the truth, I don't eat meat. (I'm a vegetarian.)
Notice that accusative markers are overridden by topic markers. The first sentence is a plain one, and it is not often used in
conversation. The second one means it is the speaker's opinion. It can be a reply to the question "How about going to a
steak restaurant tonight?"
The third one can be a reply to the question "Why do you leave that bacon in your salad?", because the affirmation suffix can
be used for explaining a reason. It is not your opinion but just a fact that you don't eat meat.
Here is another example:
Kana:
Romanization:
Structure:
Meaning:
Ti
ky
noun
(the earth)
The earth moves.
wa
topic
marker
wa
go
ku
verb
(move)
Kana:
Romanization:
Structure:
Meaning:
Ti
ky
noun
topic
(the earth)
marker
No matter what you say, the earth moves.
go
ku
verb
(move)
no
da
affirmation
suffix
In this case, the affirmation suffix is used to affirm the fact which is not believed by other people. Of course it can mean "To
tell you the truth, the earth moves". That depends on context.
If the affirmation suffix is added after the nonpast form of the copula
"da", the copula becomes
"na". Note that only
the nonpast form of the contracted copula is changed. It is similar to the copula in relative clauses, but there is no difference
between common nouns and adjectival nouns in this case. Use
"na" for both of them.
Kana:
Romanization: Ni
Structure:
Meaning:
ge
wa
noun
topic
(human being)
marker
Human beings are monkeys.
sa
ru
da
noun
(monkey)
copula
(is)
sa
na
n
da
copula affirmation
(is)
suffix
Kana:
Romanization: Ni
Structure:
Meaning:
ge
noun
(human being)
wa
topic
marker
ru
noun
(monkey)
The fact is that human beings are monkeys.
Since the affirmation suffix means that you affirm a thing now, its past form is not often used. When you affirm a thing which
happened in the past, add the affirmation suffix after a past sentence.
Here is an example:
Kana:
Romanization: Ni
Structure:
Meaning:
ge
n
wa
sa
ru
noun
topic
noun
(human being)
marker
(monkey)
The fact is that human beings were monkeys.
da
t
copula
(was)
ta
n
da
affirmation
suffix
The affirmation suffix should be a nonpast form, like in the English translation "The fact is that human beings were monkeys."
You can make the affirmation suffix more communication-oriented by adding the opinion marker
opinion marker means that you tell new information.
. In that case, the
Kana:
Romanization: Ni
Structure:
Meaning:
ge
wa
sa
ru
na
da
yo
noun
topic
noun
copula affirmation opinion
(human being)
marker
(monkey)
(is)
suffix
marker
In fact, human beings are monkeys. I think you didn't know that.

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7.10. Questions
7.10.1. Colloquial questions
It is quite easy to ask a question in colloquial Japanese. Simply say a sentence with a raising pitch at the end.
Kana:
Romanization:
Ky
noun
(today)
Structure:
Meaning:
wa
topic
marker
sa
Ky
wa
sa
noun
(today)
topic
marker
mu
i
adjective
(is cold)
It is cold today.
Kana:
Romanization:
Structure:
Meaning:
mu
i*1
adjective
(is cold)
Is it cold today?
*1 It begins with a low pitch and ends with a high pitch, because of raising.
You can say "It is cold today?" in English by simply raising tone at the end of the sentence, so I think this way of making questions is easy to
understand. There is an exception, though. If the final word of a sentence is a nonpast form of a copula, which is either the plain
or the
polite
, you need to remove it. You might be fed up with the irregularity of a copula. Note that past-form copulas are not removed.
Kana:
Romanization: To
Structure:
Meaning:
ma
to
wa
noun
topic
(tomato)
marker
Tomatoes are vegetables.
ya
sa
i
noun
(vegetable)
da
copula
(is)
Kana:
Romanization: To
Structure:
Meaning:
ma
to
wa
ya
noun
topic
(tomato)
marker
Are tomatoes vegetables?
sa
i*2
noun
(vegetable)
*2 It begins with a high pitch and ends with a higher pitch, because of raising.
In questions, the affirmation suffix is quite commonly used like this:
Kana:
Romanization: To
ma
to
wa
ya
sa
na
no
da
Structure:
Meaning:
noun
(tomato)
topic
marker
noun
(vegetable)
copula affirmation
(is)
suffix
The fact is that tomatoes are vegetables.
Kana:
Romanization: To
Structure:
Meaning:
ma
to
wa
ya
sa
i
noun
topic
noun
(tomato)
marker
(vegetable)
Is it true that tomatoes are vegetables?
na
no
copula affirmation
(is)
suffix
Note that the copula in the affirmation suffix is removed because it is a nonpast-form copula at the end of a sentence. You have learned that
the affirmation suffix
"noda" often becomes
"nda", but the change never occurs when the copula in the affirmation suffix is
removed.
The nuance of having the affirmation suffix in a question is that you doubt what another person said or wrote. In this case, you might be told
that tomatoes are vegetables and skeptical about that.
7.10.2. Formal questions

The grammatically stricter way to make a question sentence is just to add the sentence-final postposition
"ka", which is a question
marker. The plain nonpast copula
"da" is also removed when followed by the question marker
"ka", but the polite copula
"desu" is not removed when the question marker is used. That is a difference from the colloquial way.
Kana:
Romanization:
Structure:
Meaning:
Ky
noun
(today)
It is cold today.
wa
topic
marker
sa
mu
i
de
(is cold)
su
Ky
noun
(today)
Is it cold today?
wa
topic
marker
sa
mu
i
de
(is cold)
su
Kana:
Romanization:
Structure:
Meaning:
ka
question
marker
As you see, the question mark "?" is not often used with the question marker
"ka", because having a question marker at the end of a
sentence clearly means the sentence is a question. You can use both of them, though. Having both of them sounds like you are more eager
to know or you are more surprised.
The formal way of making questions is not limited to the polite mode. You can use the question marker with plain sentences, but that is not
very common in spoken Japanese, because you can be considered impolite. When you speak in friendly way, you use the colloquial way of
making questions more often, and when you speak formally, you often use the polite mode. It is no problem to use it in written Japanese,
where the polite mode is not necessary.
Kana:
Romanization:
Structure:
Meaning:
ky
wa
topic
marker
syu
to
noun
(capital)
da
copula
(is)
ky
wa
topic
marker
syu
to
noun
(capital)
ka
question
marker
noun
(Tky)
tky is capital.
Kana:
Romanization:
Structure:
Meaning:
T
noun
(Tky)
Is Tky capital?
Remember that the plain nonpast copula is removed in questions.
7.10.3. Yes / no and negative questions

Japanese has several words which mean yes or no. Here are the formal ones:
Kana:
Romanization: ha
Meaning:
yes
Kana:
Romanization:
Meaning:
no
The word
"hai" and other Japanese yes words are much weaker than the English yes. They often mean "I understand what you say",
so you may think they are more similar to the English uh-huh.
Other Japanese yes words include
"",
"", and
"un", all of which have an accent fall at the first mora (high pitch + low
pitch). These words are so colloquial that they are not used in written Japanese.
There are also other Japanese no words, such as
"ie",
"iya", and
"uun". The last one might be difficult to pronounce
because it has nasal sounds like English uh-huh and it also has a raising tone at the end. Anyway it is too colloquial to be used in written
Japanese. The other two are also colloquial.
These Japanese yes-no words may be confusing for English speakers when they are used to answer negative questions. Negative questions
have a negation word, such as "Don't you know that?"
Here is a colloquial negative sentence and its question form in Japanese:
Kana:
Romanization:
Structure:
Ky
wa
noun
(today)
topic
marker
sa
mu
adjective
(is cold)
ku
na
auxiliary
adjective
(not)
Meaning:
It isn't cold today.
Kana:
Romanization:
Structure:
Meaning:
Ky
wa
noun
(today)
topic
marker
sa
mu
ku
na
auxiliary
adjective
(not)
adjective
(is cold)
ka
question
marker
Isn't it cold today?
Actually the question above has two translations, which makes answering to it confusing. The one is "Isn't it cold today", and the other is "It
isn't cold today, is that right?", and answers for them are totally opposite. If the speaker means the former, you use
, which means
yes, to mean "Yes, it is cold today." If he/she means the latter, you use
to mean "Yes, that's right. It isn't cold today." How to
answer negative questions using yes-no words depends on context, in particular among younger generation, because negative questions are
not always questions but sometimes invitation and suggestion like the English phrase "Why don't you ...", so the best way to answer negative
questions is to use predicators instead of yes-no words.
You can say one of the following answers:
Kana:
Romanization:
Structure:
Meaning:
sa
mu
i
adjective
(is cold)
(It) is cold (today).
yo
opinion
marker
Kana:
Romanization:
sa
mu
ku
na
i
auxiliary
adjective
(not)
Structure:
adjective
(is cold)
Meaning:
(It) is not cold (today).
yo
opinion
marker
The opinion marker is used to share new information here. The person who is asked the question is considered to know better about the
weather.
Please remember that only a predicator is necessary to make a sentence grammatically correct in Japanese. The answers shown above are
correct sentences.
When you use the affirmation suffix, answers are easier to understand.
Here are examples:
Kana:
Romanization:
Structure:
Meaning:
Ky
wa
noun
(today)
topic
marker
The fact is that it isn't cold today.
sa
mu
adjective
(is cold)
ku
na
i
auxiliary
adjective
(not)
no
da
affirmation
suffix
Kana:
Romanization:
Structure:
Meaning:
Ky
wa
noun
(today)
topic
marker
sa
mu
ku
na
i
auxiliary
adjective
(not)
adjective
(is cold)
no
ka
affirmation question
suffix marker
Is it true that it isn't cold today?
The first sentence above is not a negative one at all. Using the affirmation suffix makes it an affirmative sentence, as its English translation
indicates. So its question form, the second sentence, is not negative either. You can easily see
(yes) means "Yes, it is true. It isn't
cold today." The use of the affirmation suffix thus makes Japanese negative questions easier to answer.
7.10.4. Interrogatives
Interrogatives are words used for questions to request new information. In English, wh-words are interrogatives, such as who, what, and
when.
I explain three interrogatives here.
Kana:
Romanization: da
Meaning:
re
who (noun)
Kana:
Romanization: na
Meaning:
ni
what (noun)
Kana:
Romanization: i
tu
Meaning:
when (adverb)
Here is a base sentence for explanation:
Kana:
Romanization: Ka
Structure:
Meaning:
noun
(he)
re
wa
ki
topic
marker
n
adverb
(yesterday)
He sold a picture yesterday.
Let's ask when he sold a picture. Use
"itu" like this:
accunoun
sative
(picture)
marker
ri
ma
si
verb + politeness
(sold)
ta
Kana:
Romanization: Ka
Structure:
Meaning:
re
noun
(he)
wa
topic
marker
tu
o
accunoun
sative
(picture)
marker
adverb
(when)
ri
ma
si
ta
verb + politeness
(sold)
ka
question
marker
When did he sell a picture?
All you have to do is just replace the word for time, and add the question marker if you use the formal way of making questions. You don't
have to change the word order at all, so it is very easy to use Japanese interrogatives. You should raise tone at the end of the sentence
exactly like plain questions even when you use interrogatives.
Now you can ask what he sold yesterday:
Kana:
Romanization: Ka
Structure:
Meaning:
re
noun
(he)
wa
ki
topic
marker
na
adverb
(yesterday)
ni
noun
(what)
ri
accusative
marker
ma
si
ta
verb + politeness
(sold)
ka
question
marker
What did he sell yesterday?
You can ask who sold a picture yesterday:

Kana:
Romanization: Da
Structure:
Meaning:
re
noun
(who)
ga
ki
nominative
marker
ri
accunoun
sative
(picture)
marker
adverb
(yesterday)
ma
si
verb + politeness
(sold)
ta
ka
question
marker
Who sold a picture yesterday?
You cannot use the topic marker for interrogatives, because they will never be a topic. You use interrogatives to request information, while
topics must have been already talked about. That is why you have to use the nominative marker here to mark the subject of the sentence.
Using interrogatives for a copula is also the same. Just change words as follows:
Kana:
Romanization: Ka
Structure:
Meaning:
re
noun
(he)
wa
topic
marker
Su
zu
ki
noun
(Suzuki,
a family name)
sa
suffix
(Mr./Ms.)
de
su
copula
(is + polite)
He is Mr. Suzuki.
Kana:
Romanization: Ka
Structure:
noun
(he)
re
wa
topic
marker
da
re
noun
(who)
de
su
ka
copula
question
(is + polite) marker
Meaning:
Who is he?
When the interrogative
"nani", which means what, is combined with a copula, it becomes
"nan" for ease of pronunciation.
Kana:
Romanization: Ko
noun
(this)
Structure:
Meaning:
re
wa
ri
topic
marker
go
noun
(apple)
de
su
copula
(is + polite)
This is an apple.
Kana:
Romanization: Ko
Structure:
Meaning:
re
wa
noun
topic
(this)
marker
What is this?
na
noun
(what)
de
su
ka
copula
question
Its pronunciation is not changed in colloquial questions, because the nonpast-form copula is removed in colloquial questions as I have
explained.
Kana:
Romanization: Ko
re
noun
Structure:
(this)
wa
topic
marker
ri
wa
na
n
go
noun
(apple)
da
copula
(is)
Kana:
Romanization: Ko
re
noun
(this)
Structure:
The interrogative
topic
marker
ni
noun
(what)
"nani" can be used to ask a number. It works as a prefix and becomes
"nan".
Look at the sample below:

Kana:
Romanization: Ka
Structure:
Meaning:
re
noun
(he)
wa
go
da
me
no
topic number counter

suffix genitive
marker (five) (generation) (-th) marker
de
noun
(king)
su
copula
(is + polite)
He is the fifth king.
Kana:
Romanization: Ka
Structure:
Meaning:
re
wa
na
noun
topic
prefix
(he)
marker
(x)
What is x, where he is the x-th king?
da
me
no
counter
suffix genitive
(generation) (-th) marker
noun
(king)
de
su
ka
copula
question
I use a very strange translation here because translating it literally to English is impossible.
You can even ask the following question:
Kana:
Romanization: Ka
Structure:
Meaning:
re
noun
(he)
wa
ni
topic number
marker (two)
zy
number
(ten)
go
sa
da
number counter copula

(five) (years old) (is)
He is twenty-five years old.
Kana:
Romanization: Ka
Structure:
Meaning:
noun
(he)
re
wa
ni
topic number
marker (two)
zy
number
(ten)
na
prefix
(x)
sa
counter
(years old)
What is x, where he is twenty-x years old?
For both of the questions, you must answer not only x but whole phrases which contain x, which are "the fifth king" for the first question and
"twenty-five years old" for the second.

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8.1. Pronouns
You might think learning pronouns after learning verbs and adjectives is strange, because many language courses begin with
the pronouns. But as far as Japanese is concerned, you don't have to learn pronouns first, because there is no grammatical
difference between pronouns and common nouns in Japanese. There is more than one word to mean yourself, like you often
have more than one word to mean other things.
Here is a list of pronouns commonly used in Japanese textbooks. Remember cases are shown by postpositions, so there is
no inflection of nouns and pronouns in Japanese.
Kana:
Romanization: wa
ta
si
Meaning:
I (the speaker)
Kana:
Romanization:
a
na
ta
Meaning:
singular you (the addressee)
Now that you know the words for I and singular you , you can make typical sentences in textbooks like this:
Kana:
Romanization: Wa
Structure:
Meaning:
ta
si
noun
(I)
I am a Japanese.
wa
Ni
topic
marker
ho
noun
(Japan)
zi
suffix
(person)
de
su
copula
(is + polite)
Kana:
Romanization:
na
ta
wa
Structure:
noun
(singular you)
topic
marker
Meaning:
You are an American.
me
ri
noun
(America*1)
ka
zi
suffix
(person)
de
su
copula
(is + polite)
*1: Being an imported word, the Japanese word for America is written with katakana, not hiragana.
The pronoun
"watashi" is commonly used in formal situations. But the pronoun
"anata" is not commonly
used, because using the name of the addressee is much better than using pronouns both in colloquial Japanese and in formal
Japanese.
There are some other pronouns available. The list below is the tip of the iceberg; Japanese has dozens of pronouns.
Kana:
Romanization: bo
Meaning:
ku
This is a boyish polite pronoun for the speaker. Many school boys and some young adults use it in formal situations.
Kana:
Romanization: o
Meaning:
I
re
This is an impolite colloquial pronoun for the speaker. Many men prefer it in informal situations.
Kana:
Romanization: a
Meaning:
I
ta
si
This is a girlish colloquial pronoun for the speaker. It is not so commonly used.
Kana:
Romanization: ki
mi
Meaning:
you (singular)
This is a colloquial pronoun for the addressee. Using it seems to me snobbish. It is not good to use it for people who have
higher position than you. It is often used with
"boku".
Kana:
Romanization: o
ma
Meaning:
you (singular)
This is an impolite colloquial pronoun for the addressee. Some men prefer it in informal situations. It is used with
"ore".
As you see, some Japanese pronouns clearly indicate the speaker's position and sex. (Using gender for male and female is
misleading in linguistics.) But this does not necessarily mean Japanese is male-centric. The language simply provides choice,
and which word you use is totally up to you.
You also have several choices for we and plural you. I have told that Japanese doesn't care about singular and plural, but
pronouns are exceptional. Using singular pronouns for plural people is strange and vice versa.
The suffixes
pronouns.
"tati" and
"ra" are used for plural pronouns. These are common suffixes for people, not only for
Kana:
Romanization: wa
Meaning:
ta
si
ta
ku
ta
ti
ti
we
Kana:
Romanization: bo
Meaning:
we
You can use
instead of
, but the latter is more common.
It is no problem to use
commonly used like this:
"anatatati" for the addressees, but the polite plural suffix
"gata" is more
Kana:
Romanization:
Meaning:
na
ta
ga
ta
you (plural)
The polite plural suffix has a feeling of respect, so you cannot use it for yourselves.
Other than these, there is another word for a group of the speakers:
Kana:
Romanization: wa
Meaning:
we
re
wa
This pronoun consists of the word
re
"ware", which is an ancient pronoun for the speaker.
Pronouns for the third person are scarcely used in Japanese, because using a person's name is always preferred.
Kana:
Romanization: ka
Meaning:
he
re
Kana:
Romanization: ka
Meaning:
no
zyo
she
I don't think these words are often used. In fact

was invented only 100 years ago. Before that
was used
for both men and women. Japanese is grammatically far less sensitive to the difference between male and female than
European languages in the sense that it has no gender based on sex, but Japanese people invented the word for she to make
translating European books easier when they started the modernization of Japan.
Meanwhile, the following phrases are also used:
Kana:
Romanization:
Structure:
Meaning:
a
no
demonstrative
adjective
(that)
hi
to
noun
(person)
that person (adult)
Kana:
Romanization:
Structure:
Meaning:
a
no
demonstrative
adjective
(that)
ko
noun
(child)
that child
You can use a politer word
LH' "kata", which is the same as the polite plural suffix
"gata".
Kana:
Romanization:
Structure:
Meaning:
a
no
ka
ta
demonstrative
noun
adjective
(person, polite)
(that)
that person (adult, polite)
I will explain demonstratives later.

The way to make plurals is the same as that of the speaker and the addressee. Use
Kana:
and
like the following:
Romanization: ka
Meaning:
re
ra
they (men)
Kana:
Romanization: ka
no
Meaning:
they (women)
For some unknown reason,
problem. You can also use
better.
zyo
ra
"karetati" is not used at all, while using

"kanozyotati" is no
"ano hitotati", which is nonsexist. Of course using a person's name is always
The word
"san" is a well-known suffix to call a person politely. It can be used for given names, and it is used not only
for individuals but also for groups of people such as companies when politeness is required. It is not as formal as English Mr.
and Ms., so you usually use it for co-workers. Japanese people call close friends by family names, nicknames, and given
names, without using
.
I don't use the words first name and last name, because the given name is placed after the family name in Japanese, which
comes from the head-last rule. Remember the word order of the genitive marker
"no". My name
"Takasugi Sinzi" means
"Takasugi no Sinzi". In English, the given name is placed before the
family name because of its head-first rule. John Smith means John of Smith. Japanese people know the English name order,
so they don't change the order of English names. Hungarians may have a problem because they place their family name first
but Japanese people expect all European people to have the English name order.
The Japanese word for name is
"namae", but it also means the given name. The family name is
"myzi". Since the word
means either a name or a given name, you can use the phrase
"sita
no namae", which means the lower name, to clearly mean the given name. You can use the phrase
"ue
no namae", which means the upper name, for the family name. Japanese is written vertically from top to bottom, so the upper
name means the family name and the lower name means the given name. It is similar to calling the given name first name in
English.

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8.2. Demonstratives
8.2.1. Three locations
Demonstratives are words to point something based on its location. "This" and "that" are English demonstratives. They can
also be used to point something talked about in a conversation, such as "That's a nice idea."
English demonstratives and similar words form pairs, one for things near to the speaker and the other for things far from the
speaker, such as "this" and "that", "these" and "those", and "here" and "there". But this system is different from Japanese. If
you know Spanish, it will help you learn the Japanese demonstratives. Spanish has three locations for demonstratives, instead
of two. For example, a masculine singular object is addressed by these three words: ste, se, and aqul, each representing
near to the speaker, near to the addressee, and far from both. This is the same as Japanese. In this system, not only the
speaker's position but also the addressee's position is important. You might think this is complicated, but remember most
languages have three kinds of personal pronouns: first person (the speaker), second person (the addressee), and third person
(other people). Having three locations for demonstratives is basically the same as having three kinds of personal pronouns.
Some Japanese demonstratives are shown below:
Kana:
Romanization: ko
re
Meaning:
this one
Kana:
Romanization: so
re
Meaning:
that one
Kana:
Romanization: a
re
Meaning:
that one
These are equivalents of this and that, but I added the word one after this and that because they don't combine with a
following noun.
The first one and the second one are the same in English, but they are different in Japanese (and in Spanish, as I have
written). The first one,
, is used for a thing near to the speaker. The second one,
, is used for a thing near to the
addressee. And the third one,
, is used for a thing far from both. For instance, imagine both you and a friend have an
apple. You call your apple
and your friend's apple
. If you and your friend see an apple on a table, both of you
call it
.
Demonstratives used in conversation depends on the location of the speaker, the addressee, and the thing that is referred to.
The table below shows which demonstratives to be used when A and B are talking:
The location
Demonstratives Demonstratives
of the referred object
used by A
used by B
near to both A and B
ko
re
ko
this
nearer to A
ko
this
re
so
this
nearer to B
so
re
ko
and
re
this
re
that
Note that
re
that
that
far from both A and B
re
re
that
are not used together.
8.2.2. The ko-so-a-do words

You might have noticed that the Japanese words for this and that I explained above,
,
, and
, are similar
in pronunciation. The Japanese word for which is also similar; it is
"dore". Not only these demonstrative pronouns but
also other demonstratives and interrogatives have systematic phonemes.
The demonstratives and interrogatives with the systematic phonemes are called
"kosoadokotoba",
the ko-so-a-do words.
"ko" is the prefix for things near to the speaker and not nearer to the addressee,
"so" is for
things nearer to the addressee,
"a" is for things far from both, and
"do" is for interrogatives.
The table below shows most of the ko-so-a-do words:
Demonstratives
Location
Pronoun
(thing)
Near to the
speaker
ko
re
this one
Near to the
addressee
so
re
that one
Interrogatives
Far from both
a
re
that one
do
re
which one
Pronoun
(place)
ko
ko
so
this place,
here
Pronoun
(direction)
ko
ko
ti
ko
no
so
na
this kind of ...

Adverb
(manner)
so
ti
no
so
ko
do
ti
do
na
no
that kind of ...
ti
which direction
do
that ...
ko
which place,
where
that direction
that ...
so
that place,
there
that direction
this ...
Attributive
(type)
that place,
there
this direction
Attributive
(thing)
ko
no
which ...
na
do
that kind of ...
na
what kind of ...
thus, in this manner
in that manner
in that manner
how
Note that pronouns and attributives are different. Pronouns cannot combine with a noun, while attributives need a following
noun. The English word this is used for both "this is a pen" (pronoun) and "this pen is blue" (attributive), but they are
different in Japanese. The former is
"kore", and the latter is
"kono". Compare the English words we and our.
We categorize the former as a pronoun and the latter as an attributive here.
Note that the demonstrative pronoun for a place far from both the speaker and the addressee is
"ako".
Here is an example of ko-so-a-do words:
Kana:
Romanization:
Structure:
noun
(station)
Meaning:
ki
wa
topic
marker
do
ko
pronoun
(where)
de
su
ka
copula
question
Where is the station?
Kana:
Romanization:
ki
wa
ti
de
su
"asoko", not
Structure:
Meaning:
noun
(station)
topic
marker
pronoun
(that direction)
copula
(is + polite)
The station is in that direction. (with pointing at some direction)

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8.3. Body parts

8.3.1. Head
Kana:
Romanization: a
Meaning:
head
ta
ma
Kana:
Romanization: ka
Meaning:
face
Kana:
Romanization: me
Meaning:
eye
For your interest: In Japanese culture, the eyes are the most important part of the face. Japanese has many proverbs about
eyes, and one of them says "the eye talks as much as the mouth does", which means you can express and read emotions
through eyes. This is one reason why eyes of Japanese manga and animation characters are exaggerated.
Kana:
Romanization: ha
Meaning:
nose
na
For your interest: The nose is the least important part of the face in Japanese culture.
Kana:
Romanization: ku
Meaning:
mouth
ti
Kana:
Romanization: ku
Meaning:
lips
Kana:
ti
bi
ru
Romanization: ha
Meaning:
tooth
Kana:
Romanization:
Meaning:
si
ta
tongue
Note: In colloquial Japanese, the word
"bero" is more commonly used for tongue.
Kana:
Romanization: mi
Meaning:
mi
ear
Kana:
Romanization:
h
Meaning:
cheek
Kana:
Romanization:
Meaning:
hi
ta
forehead
Note: In colloquial Japanese, the word
"odeko" is more commonly used for forehead.
Kana:
Romanization: ku
Meaning:
neck
bi
For your interest: This word also means firing a person. It comes from decapitation as a metaphor of dismissal.
Kana:
Romanization: no
Meaning:
throat
do
Kana:
Romanization: a
Meaning:
tin
go
Kana:
Romanization: ka
Meaning:
mi
no
ke
hair (on the head)
Note: The word

"kami" means hair on the head, but the word above is more clear because
also means paper.
They just happen to share the same pronunciation.
"no" is the genitive marker and
"ke" means hair (not necessarily on
the head).
Kana:
Romanization: ma
Meaning:
yu
ge
eyebrow
Note: The word
"mayu" also means eyebrow.
"ge" is a suffix form of
"ke", which means hair.
Kana:
Romanization: ma
Meaning:
tu
ge
eyelash
Kana:
Romanization: hi
ge
Meaning:
mustache, beard
8.3.2. Hand
Kana:
Romanization: te
Meaning:
hand
Kana:
Romanization:
Meaning:
te
no
hi
ra
palm
Note: This word consists of three parts:

Kana:
(hand), the genitive marker
, and
"hira" (flat surface).
Romanization: te
no
k
Meaning:
the back of a hand
Note: This word consists of three parts:
(hand), the genitive marker
, and
"k" (tortoise shell).
Kana:
Romanization: yu
bi
Meaning:
digit (finger, toe)
Note: This word includes twenty digits - ten fingers and ten toes.
Kana:
Romanization:
Meaning:
ya
yu
bi
thumb, big toe
Note: The word
"oya" means parent, so it literally means parent finger.
Kana:
Romanization: hi
to
sa
si
Meaning:
index finger, second toe
yu
bi
Note: This word comes from

"hito" (person),
"sasi" (the noun form of the verb
point), and
(finger), so its literal meaning is person-pointing finger.
"sasu", which means
Kana:
Romanization: na
ka
Meaning:
middle finger
Note: Since the word
yu
bi
"naka" means middle, this word is exactly the same as middle finger.
Kana:
Romanization: ku
Meaning:
su
ri
yu
bi
ring finger
Note: The word

"kusuri" means medicine, and this word literally means medicine finger. The ring finger often has
a strange name in many languages, such as ring finger in English and "wmngzh" in Mandarin, which literally means
nameless finger. Those names are probably related; ancient people thought the ring finger was a magic finger.
Kana:
Romanization: ko
yu
Meaning:
little finger
Note: The prefix
bi
"ko" means little, so it is the same as little finger.
Kana:
Romanization: tu
Meaning:
nail
me
8.3.3. Other body parts
Kana:
Romanization: ka
Meaning:
ta
shoulder
Kana:
Romanization: u
Meaning:
arm
de
Kana:
Romanization: hi
Meaning:
elbow
zi
Kana:
Romanization:
Meaning:
te
ku
bi
wrist
Note: This word is a combination of

Kana:
Romanization: a
si
Meaning:
leg, foot
Kana:
Romanization:
hi
za
(hand) and
(neck).
Meaning:
knee
Kana:
Romanization: a
Meaning:
ankle
si
ku
bi
Note: This word is a combination of
(foot) and
(neck).
Kana:
Romanization: mu
ne
Meaning:
chest, breast
Kana:
Romanization: o
na
Meaning:
abdomen
ka
Kana:
Romanization: ko
Meaning:
si
waist
Kana:
Romanization: o
si
Meaning:
buttocks
ri
8.3.4. Internal organs

The Japanese word for internal organs is
Kana:
Romanization:
n
Meaning:
brain
Kana:
Romanization:
si
"naiz". The suffix
"z" is commonly used for organs.
Meaning:
heart
Kana:
Romanization: ha
Meaning:
lung
Kana:
Romanization:
i
Meaning:
stomach
Kana:
Romanization:
ch
Meaning:
intestines
Kana:
Romanization: ka
Meaning:
liver
Kana:
Romanization: zi
Meaning:
kidney
Kana:
Romanization:
Meaning:
the bladder
Kana:
Romanization: ti
Meaning:
blood
Note: The word
"ketueki" also means blood. It is a scientific term.
Kana:
Romanization: ho
Meaning:
bone
ne
Kana:
Romanization: ki
Meaning:
muscle
ni
ku

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8.4. Kinship
8.4.1. Kinship reference terms
Japanese kinship terms have two categories: reference terms and address terms. The latter is used to call your family without
using their name, like the English words dad and mom. Kinship reference terms are never used to call them directly.
Kana:
Romanization: o
Meaning:
parent
ya
Note: Another word
"hubo", which means father and mother, is also commonly used in formal situations.
Kana:
Romanization: ti
Meaning:
father
ti
Note: The word
"titioya" is also commonly used.
Kana:
Romanization: ha
ha
Meaning:
mother
Note: The word
"hahaoya" is also commonly used.
Kana:
Romanization: a
ni
Meaning:
elder brother
Note: Japanese distinguishes elder brothers and younger brothers. The word
"kydai" means brothers and
sisters and it is sometimes useful, but using it for a specific brother/sister is as strange as using the English word sibling for
him/her. It depends on language what information you have to give when you talk about a sibling. You have to clarify his/her
sex and age compared to you in Japanese, while in English you don't have to tell his/her age. You might be interested to
know that in Indonesian you have to clarify only his/her age because it has a word for elder sibling and another word for
younger sibling.
Kana:
Romanization:
ne
Meaning:
elder sister
Kana:
Romanization:
Meaning:
to
younger brother
Kana:
Romanization:
Meaning:
to
younger sister
Kana:
Romanization: so
Meaning:
hu
grandfather
Kana:
Romanization: so
bo
Meaning:
grandmother
Note: The word
"sohubo" means grandfather and grandmother.
Kana:
Accent:
L
Romanization: ko
Meaning:
child
Note: Another word
and daughters.
"kodomo" is also commonly used for child, but it often means all minors, not only your sons
Kana:
Romanization: mu
Meaning:
son
su
ko
Romanization: mu
su
Meaning:
daughter
me
Kana:
Kana:
Romanization: ma
Meaning:
go
grandchild
Note: If you want to distinguish grandsons and granddaughters, you can use
and
"magomusume" (granddaughter), but simply saying
"magomusuko" (grandson)
is commoner.
Kana:
Romanization:
Meaning:
zi
uncle
Kana:
Romanization:
Meaning:
ba
aunt
Kana:
Romanization: i
Meaning:
cousin
to
ko
Kana:
Romanization:
Meaning:
nephew
Kana:
Romanization: me
Meaning:
niece
8.4.2. Kinship address terms

The following words are used to call elder members of your family, like dad and mom. It is also good to use them to refer to
other people's families, but using them to talk about your own family in formal situations sounds childish. Use given names to
call younger members of your family.
Kana:
Romanization:
sa
Meaning:
dad
Note: The first

"o" is a common politeness prefix for nouns, and removing it sounds you are matured. The last
"san" is the same as the Japanese equivalent of Mr. and Ms., but it's a part of the word and you can't remove it.
Kana:
Romanization:
Meaning:
sa
mom
Kana:
Romanization: o
n
sa
Meaning:
elder brother (address term)
Note: Children prefer the word

.
"ontyan". The last
"tyan" is a childlike version of
Kana:
Romanization:
Meaning:
sa
elder sister (address term)
Note: Children prefer the word
"ontyan".
Kana:
Romanization: o
Meaning:
grandpa
tya
Note: The word
"ozsan" is often used for old men in general, not necessarily your grandfather.
Kana:
Romanization: o
Meaning:
grandma
tya
Note: The word

grandmother.
"obsan" is often used for old women in general, not necessarily your
Kana:
Romanization:
Meaning:
zi
sa
uncle (address term)
Note: This word is also used for general middle-age men.

Kana:
Romanization: o
ba
sa
Meaning:
aunt (address term)
Note: This word is also used for general middle-age women.
The interesting point of the kinship address terms is that the viewpoint is usually fixed on the youngest member
of the family. For example, it is not uncommon at all for a man with a kid to call his wife
"oksan" and for his wife to call her husband
"otsan", because their word usage is based on
their kid's viewpoint. If they live with his or her parents, they would call their father
"oztyan"
and their mother
"obtyan".
Further readings:
Comparison of kinship terms (written in Japanese)

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8.5. Colors
First of all, please note that the colors you see on your computer screen are highly dependent on your particular system.
Different systems often display different colors. The color files used here are adjusted for my system.
8.5.1. Basic color names

All Japanese color names are nouns, but the six basic color names shown below have corresponding adjectives. The
Japanese basic colors are a system based on color warmth/coolness and lightness/darkness. The adjective of a basic color is
a combination of the color noun and the adjective suffix
"i". In this chart, the upper words are nouns and the lower words
are adjectives.
Warm colors
Cool colors
Yellow
Light
colors
White
Red
Blue
ki
ro
ki
ro
si
ro
si
ro
Brown
Dark
colors
ka
ka
Black
tya
ro
tya
ro
ku
ro
ku
ro
It is interesting that brown seems more important than green in Japanese. Since green is not a basic color, the word
often used for it in old compound words, such as
"aoyasai" (green vegitables).
Remember Japanese adjectives contain tense.
means the color red, while
is
means something is red. Its past
form is
"akakatta" (something was red).
8.5.2. Important color names

Colors other than the basic colors only have nouns. Use a copula to make a color noun predicator. Most color names have
the suffix
"iro", which means color. You can add it after a color name if it is not there.
Color
Word
Description
Green.
mi
do
ri
Purple.
mu
ra
sa
ki
Gray.
ha
ro
The word
"hai" means ash. The imported word
which came from gray, is also common.
"gur",
Pink.
mo
da
mi
mo
zu
ro
da
ro
The word
"momo" means peach. The imported word
"pinku", which came from pink, is common too.
Orange.
It is the name of a kind of orange, but it is not well known. The common name
for Japanese oranges is
"mikan". Western oranges are called
"orenji", and it's also used for the color orange.
Light blue.
The word
"mizu" means water.
8.5.3. Additional color names

Color names shown here are not so common, but they should be understood by any native Japanese speaker. Japanese has
hundreds of color names, but to my regret many of them are being lost, as Japanese traditions are being lost.
Color
Word
Description
Pale pink.
sa
ku
ka
ra
ne
ro
Crimson.
The word
"akane" is a plant whose root is used to
dye cloth deep red.
ro
Vermilion.
syu
ya
ma
gu
bu
ro
ki
su
ro
ro
Orange yellow.
The word
flower.
"yamabuki" means a kind of yellow
Olive green.
The word
"uguisu" means a kind of bird.
Yellow green.
ki
mi
hu
ka
do
mi
ri
do
ri
Deep green.
The prefix
comes from the adjective
which means deep.
Dark blue.
The word
ro
"ai" means Japanese indigo.
Dark purplish blue.

ko
n'
ro
Lavender.
hu
zi
ro
Yellow ochre.
do
ro
"hukai",
Dark brown.
ko
ge
tya
Further readings:
colors (was Re: adjective help!)
Re: colors
Re: aoi
Iro Mihon no Yakata (written in Japanese)
Nippon no Dent-shoku (written in Japanese)

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8.6. Space-time
8.6.1. Directions
All of the direction words in Japanese are nouns, while the English words up and down are not nouns.
u
e
up, upper
hi
da
left
ri
mi
gi
right
si
ta
down, lower
ma
e
forward
si
ro
backward
ki
ta
north
ni
si
hi
west
mi
na
south
mi
ga
east
si
8.6.2. Temporal nouns

I have written that every noun in a Japanese sentence is marked by a postposition, but temporal nouns, which stand for time
relative to now, are the exceptions. You don't have to add a postposition when you use them as an adverb. It is the same as
in English, because you don't use any preposition for the temporal nouns such as yesterday and today.
Offset
-2
Day
to
Year
to
the day before yesterday
-1
ki
kyo
+2
+3
ky
-2
ne
to
si
ne
tomorrow
next year
a
sa
t
te
the day after tomorrow
sa
ra
i
the year after next
ne
ko
this year
si
ta
si
a
sa
three days later
Note: The noun
Offset
si
last year
today
+1
to
the year before last
yesterday
to
ra
te
"tosi" means year. The prefix
"rai" means coming.
Month
se
n
se
the month before last
Week
ge
tu
se
n
se
the week before last
sy
-1
se
ge
tu
se
last month
ko
ra
ge
tu
ko
sa
sy
sy
this week
ge
tu
ra
next month
+2
sy
last week
this month
+1
next week
ra
ge
tu
sa
the month after next

Note: The suffix
previous. The prefix
ra
sy
the week after next
"getu" means month, and the noun

"kon" means current.
"sy" means week. The prefix
"sen" means
Example:
Kana:
Romanization:
Structure:
Meaning:
to
to
adverb
(the day before
yesterday)
te
pu
ra
noun
(tempura)
ta
accusative
marker
verb
(ate)
I ate tempura the day before yesterday.
Kana:
Romanization: Ki
Structure:
Meaning:
n
adverb
(yesterday)
i
ga
noun
(movie)
I saw a movie yesterday.
In both of the sentences, temporal nouns work as adverbs.

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o
accusative
marker
mi
ta
verb
(saw)
be
ta
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8.7. Vertebrates
8.7.1. The Chinese zodiac
You might have heard of the Chinese zodiac. Each year is associated to one of the twelve animals in Chinese custom, and it
is used mainly for fortune-telling. Japanese people also know the twelve animals, whether they believe fortune-telling or not.
You can calculate the animal of the year when you were born. The year 1996 is associated to the first animal rat, 1997 is to
the ox, 1998 is to the tiger, and so on. I was born in 1970, the year of the dog. This order doesn't mean order of importance
at all.
Order
Animal
Description
Rat, mouse.
ne
zu
mi
Ox, cow.
u
si
Tiger.
to
ra
Rabbit, hare.
u
sa
gi
Dragon. This is an imaginary animal, of course. The word
"tatu" also means
the dragon and is more commonly used for the year of the dragon.
5
ry
Snake.
he
bi
Horse.
u
ma
8
hi
tu
zi
Sheep. In China, the year of the goat (

the sheep.
Monkey.
sa
ru
"yagi" in Japanese) is used instead of
Chicken. The word

LH "niwa" means yard, and
"tori" means bird. The
latter is more commonly used for the year of the chicken than
.
10
ni
wa
to
ri
11
Dog.
i
nu
12
i
no
si
si
Wild boar. In China, the year of the pig (

of the wild boar.
"buta" in Japanese) is used instead
Further readings:
Re: The Chinese Zodiac
the origin of the dragon
Re: saru
8.7.2. Mammals
ta
nu
ki
raccoon dog
Note: Raccoon dogs are animals of the dog family native to Japan that look like raccoons. They often appear in fairy tales as
mischievous animals with magic power. They are often described to be stupid.
ki
fox
tu
ne
Note: Foxes often appear in fairy tales as sly animals with magic power.
ka
mi
wolf
Note: Coming from the adjective
"kii" (big) and the noun
"kami" (god), this word literally means great
god. Wolves were not considered evil in Japanese culture. Wolves went extinct a few hundred years ago in Japan.
ra
lion
Note: Since this is an imported word, katakana are used. Japanese doesn't have the sound of English "l", so it is changed to
Japanese "r".
hy
panther
ku
ma
bear
si
ka
deer
z
elephant
ki
ri
giraffe
sa
i
rhinoceros
ka
ba
hippopotamus
ra
camel
ku
da
ku
whale
zi
ra
ru
ka
a
si
sea lion
ka
a
seal
ra
dolphin
za
8.7.3. Birds
ka
ra
su
crow, raven
ha
to
pigeon, dove
su
sparrow
zu
me
si
tu
ba
swallow
gu
me
su
Japanese nightingale
Note: Japanese nightingales are diurnal birds found in the spring.
ki
zi
pheasant
For your interest: The pheasant is the symbol bird of Japan. They are so rare now that people scarcely see a wild pheasant.
ka
mo
wild duck
hi
ru
domestic duck
ga
goose
ch
ko
macaw, parrakeet
parrot
mu
ka
mo
sea gull
me
8.7.4. Reptiles and amphibians
ka
me
tortoise
wa
ni
crocodile
to
ka
ge
ru
lizard
ka
frog
8.7.5. Fish
Japan is famous for sea food, and probably Japanese has more words for
LHH "sakana" (fish) than any other
language. The translation of the words listed here is not precise because English doesn't have many words for fish.
You can eat all of these fish. (I can't. I'm an unlucky Japanese allergic to fish and I get stomachache after eating fish!)
ma
tuna
gu
ro
na
gi
eel
sa
n
ma
mackerel pike
a
zi
horse mackerel
bu
ri
yellowtail
hu
gu
fugu (balloonfish)
For your interest: The fugu is delicious white-meat fish, but eating it can be dangerous because it has deadly poison. You
need a license to cook fugu in Japan.
sa
ke
salmon
sa
shark
me
For your interest: Few Japanese people eat shark, except for Chinese shark fin soup, which is one of the three finest Chinese
cuisines. (The other two are bird's nest soup and sea cucumber.) The word
"huka" also means shark, and it is more
often used for shark fins for the soup.

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8.8. Invertebrates
8.8.1. Molluscans
All of the molluscans listed here except snails are edible. (Escargots are not so popular in Japan.)
ta
ko
octopus
i
squid
ka
ha
clam
ma
gu
ri
a
sa
ri
short-necked clam
For your interest: This is the most popular shellfish in Japan.
si
zi
corbicula
mi
For your interest: Corbiculas are small shellfish often used for miso soup.
ho
scallop
ta
te
ka
ki
oyster
Note: This word has a different accent from persimmon.
The five words above are all
ka
ta
tu
mu
/ka' i/ "kai" (shellfish).
ri
snail
8.8.2. Crustaceans
ka
ni
crab
bi
shrimp, lobster
8.8.3. Insects
Japanese has many words for
always good English translations.
ka
bu
to
mu
beetle (found in forests)
"musi" (insect) because insect's sound is as evaluated as bird's song. There are not
si
Note: This word is used only for beetles with a big horn found in forests. It is the combination of
(warrior's helm) and
"musi" (insect). The English word beetle has much wider meaning.
ku
wa
ga
ta
"kabuto"
stag beetle
For your interest:
beetle can cost 50,000 yen.
ro
gi
gi
ri
"kabutomusi" and
"kuwagata" are so evaluated as pets in Japan that one
cricket
ki
ri
su
a kind of grasshopper
se
mi
cicada
For your interest: Cicadas are very common in the summer in Japan. There are many kinds of cicada such as
"aburazemi",
"minminzemi",
"higurasi", and
"tukutukubsi".
Most Japanese people can distinguish them by hearing their sound.
ty
butterfly
Note: The word
for intestines.
"tytyo" also means butterfly. It is better when you want to avoid confusion with the word
ga
moth
to
dragonfly
bo
ri
ant
ha
fly
ka
mosquito

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8.9. Plants
8.9.1. Flowers
I have already explained chrysanthemum and cherry blossom.
tu
tu
zi
Japanese azalea
hi
ma
sunflower
yu
lily
ri
ra
orchid
ta
n
dandelion
ba
rose
wa
ri
po
po
sa
ra
a
zi
hydrangea
ha
su
lotus
8.9.2. Trees
ma
tu
pine
su
gi
cedar
i
ginkgo
ch
mo
mi
zi
a kind of maple
ka
maple
de
hi
no
ki
Japanese cypress
8.9.3. Foods
I have already introduced apples, oranges, peaches, plums, and tomatos.
bu
grape
ka
ki
persimmon
Note: This word has different tones from oyster.
na
si
Japanese pear
Note: Japanese pears are quite different from Western pears. They look like apples, and they are much more juicier than
Western pears. You should peel it before you eat because the peel is not tasty.
sa
ku
ra
su
i
watermelon
ka
bo
cherry
me
ro
melon
Note: Watermelons and melons are different in Japanese, and watermelons are never called
i
ti
strawberry
go
ba
na
banana
ku
na
ri
chestnut
ky
cucumber
ri
da
i
ko
n
Japanese long raddish
ni
zi
carrot
go
b
Japanese burdock
kya
be
tu
re
cabbage
h
spinach
ka
bo
tya
squash, pumpkin
zya
ga
mo
potato
The word
"imo" generally means potatoes including sweet potatoes and yams.
sa
tu
sweet potato
ma
ta
ke
mo
a kind of mushroom
si
me
zi
a kind of mushroom
ma
tu
ta
a kind of mushroom
ke
Note: All of these three are kinds of
ko
bu
a kind of sea vegetable
wa
ka
me
no
ri
H'LL "kinoko" (mushroom).

Note: Dryed mashed nori is used for sushi to roll rice.

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Return to the index
9.1. Dialogue 1
I will explain Japanese grammar using dialogues from now on.
In the first dialogue, a kid named
"Sy" comes home and he has a tea break with his mother
"Hiroko".
:
Romanization: Ta
Structure:
da
i
interjection
(I'm back)
ma
It's good manners to say this greeting when you are back. Its literal meaning is "just now", which came from "I came back
just now", but its original meaning is not important.
:
Romanization:
ka
ri
interjection
(welcome back)
Structure:
It's good manners to say

say
ya
tu
ga
nominative
marker
noun
(tea time snack)
ru
yo
verb
(exist)
"okaeri" as a reply to the greeting

"okaerinasai".
opinion
marker
"tadaima". To make it polite, you can
Hiroko's second sentence literally means "A tea time snack exists." The verb have is often used to mean something exists in
English, such as "We have a tea time snack." in this case. In Japanese, the existential verbs are commonly used.
Also note that the topic marker is not used for the subject, because the whole sentence is new information. Using the topic
marker here means the supposed preceding question is whether there is a tea time snack, which seems strange because the
boy talks nothing about snack.
:
Romanization: Na
ni
interrogative
Structure:
noun
(what)
Sh asks what snack his mother has. In English, "What?" often means "What did you say?", but in Japanese it often means
"What is it?" The original sentence of it is shown below:
Kana:
Romanization:
Ky
no
ya
tu
wa
na
ni
genitive
marker
(of)
noun
(today)
Structure:
Meaning:
noun
(tea time snack)
topic
marker
interrogative
noun
(what)
What is today's tea time snack?

:
Romanization: Ni
ku
ma
noun
(a Chinese bun
with pork)
Structure:
Na
ni
ka
noun
(something)
no
mu
verb
(drink)
Answering only with a noun without any other word is no problem in colloquial Japanese. In her second sentence, the
accusative marker
"o" is omitted after the object
"nanika". Even though Japanese requires case markers after
all nouns in a sentence, the topic marker
"wa" and the accusative marker are sometimes omitted in colloquial Japanese.
The word
obviously came from the interrogative
"nani".
The chart below shows the relationship between the interrogatives and the words for indefinite things:
Interrogatives
Thing
Person
Indefinite nouns
na
ni
what
na
ni
ka
something
da
da
re
ka
somebody
tu
ka
some day
do
ko
where
do
ko
ka
somewhere
na
na
ze
ka
for some reason
re
who
Time
Place
Reason
tu
when
ze
why
The accusative marker after these indefinite nouns is almost always omitted in colloquial Japanese, and they are often omitted
in written Japanese too.

:
Romanization: Mu
gi
tya
wa
noun
(barley tea)
Structure:
topic
marker
ru
verb
(exist)
Be sure to use the topic marker for barley tea here. They have talked about something to drink, and the son chooses barley
tea as topic.
:
Romanization: Mu
gi
tya
wa
noun
(barley tea)
Structure:
re
topic
marker
z
noun
(refrigerator)
ko
ni
dative
marker
(to)
(continued)
Romanization:
Structure:
ru
verb
(exist)
yo
opinion
marker
When you say the location of a thing, use the dative case marker
"ni". The function of the dative marker will be explained
in detail later. Since you can change word order quite freely in Japanese, the following two sentences are semantically the
same.
Kana:
Romanization: Ki
Structure:
ga
nominoun
native
(tree)
marker
ni
wa
ni
dative
marker
(to)
ga
nominoun
native
(tree)
marker
noun
(yard)
ru
verb
(exist)
Kana:
Romanization: Ni
Structure:
wa
noun
(yard)
ni
dative
marker
(to)
ki
ru
verb
(exist)
Both of them means that there is a tree in a yard. If you use the topic marker for them, the difference becomes clear.
Kana:
Romanization: Ki
wa
ni
Structure:
noun topic
(tree) marker
Meaning:
The tree is in a yard.
wa
noun
(yard)
ni
dative
marker
(to)
ru
verb
(exist)
Kana:
Romanization: Ni
wa
noun
(yard)
Structure:
Meaning:
ni
wa
dative
topic
marker
marker
(to)
ki
ga
nominoun
native
(tree)
marker
ru
verb
(exist)
The yard has a tree.
Remember the topic marker overrides the nominative marker.

As I have explained, the existential verb
"aru" (
"iru" for animates) is commonly used for existence in Japanese,
while both be and have are used in English. The following sentence is helpful to understand more clearly:
Kana:
Romanization: Ka
re
noun
(he)
Structure:
Meaning:
ni
wa
dative
topic
marker
marker
(to)
ne
ga
nominoun
native
(elder sister)
marker
ru
verb
(exist)
He has an elder sister.
Now, let's get back to the conversation.

:
Romanization: Wa
Structure:
ka
verb
(understood)
ta
sa
noun
(mom)
mo
addition
marker
(also)
no
mu
verb
(drink)
The first sentence is the same as "I see." and "I understand." in English.
The addition marker
"mo" is the second information marker we learn. (The first one is the topic marker
"wa".) It is
equivalent to too and also in English. A sentence with the addition marker is parallel to something that has been already
talked about. The Japanese addition marker is more precise than the English one, and you have to distinguish the following
sentences.
Kana:
Romanization: Wa
ta
si
noun
(I)
Structure:
mo
addition
marker
(also)
tya
noun
(green tea)
o
accusative
marker
no
mo
no
mu
verb
(drink)
Kana:
Romanization: Wa
ta
si
noun
(I)
Structure:
wa
topic
marker
tya
noun
(green tea)
addition
marker
(also)
mu
verb
(drink)
The addition marker overrides the nominative marker and the accusative marker, like the topic marker does. The topic
marker is not used when the addition marker is used. Both of the sentences mean "I drink green tea too", but what is added
is different. The upper sentence means "(You drink grean tea and) I drink it too", in short "Me too", while the lower means "
(I drink coffee and) I drink green tea too", in short "Green tea too".
In the dialogue, Sh is about to drink barley tea, and he asks whether his mother also drinks the tea. So you need the
addition marker after the word for mom.
Also remember that pronouns for the addressee are not commonly used in Japanese, and using names or calling words such
as mom are often used.
:
Romanization:
Structure:
U
n
interjection
(yeah)
Then he comes back with two cups of barley tea and says the following greeting:
:
Romanization:
Structure:
ta
da
ki
ma
interjection
(I begin to eat)
su
The greetings chapter explains this phrase.

Now we have finished the first dialogue. All the sentences are shown below again.
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:

Go to the next page
Return to the index
9.2. Dialogue 2
In this dialogue, Sh meets two students from overseas. One is a boy from the U.S., and the other is a girl from China.
:
Romanization: Ha
zi
Structure:
me
ma
si
interjection
(nice to meet you)
te
(continued)
Romanization: Bo
Structure:
ku
wa
noun
(I)
Su
topic
marker
gi
ya
noun
(Sugiyama,
a surname)
ma
Sh
noun
(Sh,
a given name)
de
su
copula
(is + polite)
His surname is one of the hundreds of thousands of surnames in Japan. The most popular ones are
"Takahasi",
"Sat", and
"Tanaka".
"Suzuki",
:
Romanization: Ha
zi
me
ma
si
te
interjection
(nice to meet you)
Structure:
(continued)
Romanization: Wa
Structure:
ta
noun
(I)
si
wa
topic
marker
Bi
ru
noun
(Bill,
a given name)
Gu
r
noun
(Green,
a surname)
de
su
copula
(is + polite)
Since Japanese morae have a simple structure, writing pronunciations of foreign languages is sometimes difficult. In this case,
Bill becomes
"Biru". The sound of English "l" is changed to Japanese "r", and "u" is added to satisfy the rule that all
consonants except
"n" must be followed by a vowel.
Foreign proper nouns such as names are written with katakana because they are imported words. You don't have to flip
your name order when you speak Japanese.
(continued)
Romanization: Sa
d'i
noun
go
ka
ra
ablative
ki
ma
verb
si
ta
Structure:
(San Diego)
marker
(from)
(came + polite)
Japanese didn't have the pronunciation of the English "di", because the Japanese "di" is pronounced as "ji". Later the
combination of
"de" and
(small
"i") was invented to describe the sound. See the chapter of double kana for
imported words.
The ablative case marker
"kara" is the postposition for the starting point of a movement. It is the same as the English
preposition from, and the sentence above means "I came from San Diego."
On the other hand, the postposition for the ending point of a movement is the dative case marker
the English preposition to. I show you two examples (the word for I is omitted) :
"ni". It is the same as
Kana:
Romanization:
me
ri
ka
ka
ra
ablative
marker
(from)
noun
(America)
Structure:
Meaning:
Ni
ho
noun
(Japan)
ni
dative
marker
(to)
ki
ta
verb
(came)
I came to Japan from America.
Kana:
Romanization: Ka
re
noun
(he)
Structure:
Meaning:
ni
te
dative
marker
(to)
ga
mi
ku
accusative
marker
noun
(letter)
ta
verb
(sent)
I sent a letter to him.
In both of the sentences above, the English preposition to is used for the Japanese postposition
that the dative marker is also used for existence.
"ni". You have learned
:
Romanization:
mo
Structure:
interjection
(hello)
You have already learned

a very useful phrase.
Wa
n
noun
(Wng,
a surname)
ho
wa
noun
(Lhu,
a given name)
ho
su
copula
(is + polite)
as "Thank you", but in fact you can also use it as "Hello" and "Nice to meet you", so it is
(continued)
Romanization: Ni
de
go
no
genitive
ha
tu
wa
Structure:
noun
(the Japanese language)
marker
(of)
noun
(pronunciation)
topic
marker
(continued)
Romanization:
Re
noun
(,
a surname)
Structure:
ka
de
noun
(Reika,
a given name)
su
copula
(is + polite)
This sentence means "The Japanese pronunciation (of my name) is Reika." Chinese and Japanese share kanji, but
pronunciations are quite different. But kanji carry meanings, so they often allow themselves to be called in different
pronunciation, using the same kanji. In this case, the character of her family name, which means king, is pronounced "wng"
in Mandarin and "" in Japanese. The first character of her given name, which means elegant, is "l" in Mandarin and "rei" in
Japanese. The second one, which means flower, is "hu" in Mandarin and "ka" in Japanese. My name "Takasugi Shinji" is
pronounced "Goshn Qnzh" in Mandarin.
Also notice that katakana are used for the Chinese pronunciation of her name and hiragana are used for the Japanese
pronunciation.
The suffix
"go" means language, and it's easy to derive the language name from its spoken area. The only exception is
English, which is called
"eigo". Its origin is explained later.
Country
Ni
Japan
ho
Language
A
me
ri
the United States
ka
I
gi
ri
the United Kingdom
su
Ka
na
Canada
da
Ka
n
South Korea
ko
ku
Ni
ho
Japanese
E
English
go
Ka
Korean
ko
go
ku
go
Ta
i
Thailand
Ta
Thai
Ty
go
ku
China
go
Ty
go
ku
go
Chinese
Do
i
Germany
tu
Hu
France
ra
Ro
Russia
si
su
Do
German
tu
go
Hu
French
ra
su
Ro
si
Russian
go
go
Note: Not all country names are from their original pronunciations. For example, the Japanese word for the United Kingdom
came from Dutch.
You have already learned the suffix
"zin" for people of a country. Since it is simply added after a place name, such as
"Igirisuzin" (a British person), it is much easier to derive a people's name than in English.
(continued)
Romanization:
Structure:
Syu
s
si
n
noun
(hometown, native place)
wa
topic
marker
Sya
n
ha
noun
(Shnghi)
de
su
copula
(is + polite)
You don't have to say words that are clear from context in Japanese. In this sentence, the phrase
"watashi no"
(I + genitive marker = my) before the noun
"syussin" (hometown) is omitted, because it is clear she talks
about her hometown.
:
Romanization: Ni
Structure:
ho
noun
(Japan)
ni
dative
marker
(to)
ki
ta
verb
(came)
mo
ku
te
noun
(purpose)
ki
wa
topic
marker
(continued)
Romanization: na
n
noun
Structure:
(what)
de
su
ka
copula
question
The subject,
, is a relative clause that means "the purpose you came to Japan for".
:
Romanization: Wa
ta
si
noun
(I)
Structure:
wa
topic
marker
sa
d
de
su
noun
(sad,
copula
Japanese
(is + polite)
traditional art of tea)
Do not translate this sentence to "I am sad." Actually it means "I came to Japan for sad." Information clear from context is
scarcely repeated in Japanese, and in this case "came to Japan for" is clear, and you don't have to say it again. But as I have
explained, a predicator (either a verb, a copula, or an adjective) is necessary to form a gramatically correct sentence in
Japanese, which is why the copula is just added to make the sentence grammatically correct. In addition, it is polite because
the polite copula is used. You cannot use the polite mode unless you use a predicator. This structure is very common in
Japanese, and you have to understand what predicator is omitted.
The topic,
, cannot be omitted here because it is a selected topic. Sh asked their purpose to come to Japan, and
Bill answers only his purpose. If the topic was omitted, he would mean their purpose.
:
Romanization: Wa
ta
si
wa
noun
(I)
topic
marker
n
ga
noun
(manga,
Japanese comic)
o
accusative
marker
Structure:
ni
ho
ry
ri
to
group
marker
(and)
noun
(Japan + cuisine)
(continued)
Romanization: ma
Structure:
ma
na
verb
(learn)
bu
tu
mo
ri
noun
(to have a plan
to do ...)
de
su
copula
(is + polite)
This sentence means "I have a plan to learn Japanese cuisines and manga". The phrase
"tumoridesu" is
commonly used to mean you have a plan to do something. Its structure is not important because it is simply added after a
sentence.
The group marker
"to" is the same as the English word and. Even if there are more than two things in a group, all nouns
are often followed by the marker like this:

Kana:
Romanization:
Structure:
Meaning:
ni
wa
to
ri
to
group
noun
marker
(chicken)
(and)
Chickens, small birds, and crocodiles
ko
to
ri
noun
(small bird)
to
group
marker
(and)
wa
ni
noun
(crocodile)
Just for your interest: The phrase above is a palindrome. Japanese palindromes are based on kana, not on alphabets. It's
much easier to make palindromes in Japanese than in English.
:
Romanization: Ni
ho
ni
wa
dative
topic
marker
marker
(to)
noun
(Japan)
Structure:
ge
da
bu
ka
to
group
marker
(and)
de
su
noun
(modern + culture)
(continued)
Romanization: de
Structure:
noun
(tradition)
no
ry
genitive
marker
(of)
ga
nominative
marker
noun
(both)
(continued)
Romanization:
ri
ma
verb
(exist + polite)
Structure:
su
ne
tag
question
marker
Meaning: Japan has both modern culture and tradition, doesn't it?
:
Romanization:
Structure:
noun
(yes)
so
re
demonstrative
(that)
ga
nominative
marker
mo
si
ro
adjective
(interesting + polite)
The subject is not followed by the topic marker, so it is a focus. The translation is "That is the interesting point of Japan," not
just "That is interesting."
:
Romanization: Wa
ta
si
mo
addition
marker
(also)
noun
(I)
Structure:
ro
ro
ma
na
adverb
(variously)
bu
verb
(learn)
(continued)
Romanization:
Structure:
tu
mo
ri
noun
(to have a plan
to do ...)
de
su
copula
(is + polite)
Meaning: (Not only Reika but also) I am planning to learn various things.
:
Romanization: Bo
Structure:
ku
mo
de
addition
marker
(also)
noun
(I)
ki
ru
da
ke
adverb
(as much as possible)
(continued)
Romanization:
ky
ryo
ku
si
verb
(cooperate, help + polite)
Structure:
ma
su
Meaning: (You make effort and) I also help you as much as possible.
The verb
"kyryoku suru" (cooperate) is the combination of the noun
"kyryoku" (cooperation) and the verb
"suru" (do).
Remember the Japanese nonpast tense means either present or future.
:
Romanization:
Structure:
ri
ga
go
za
interjection
(thank you very much)
The second dialogue is now over. All the sentences are shown below again.
ma
su
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:

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Teach Yourself

Teach Yourself Japanese

1.1. Introduction to Japanese

1.1.2. What is the Japanese language?

Language Family Population

332,000,000 Latin America, Spain

322,000,000 North America, U.K., Australia

189,000,000 Bangladesh, India

170,000,000 Brazil, Portugal

67,662,000 Viet Nam

K=uni ta wakka ku=ku.

1.1.3. Japanese characters

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1.2. Romanization, phonemes, and morae

The International Phonetic Association

1.2.3. Morae and kana

1.2.5. Accent falls and pitches

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1.3. Grammatical terms

A phone is actual pronunciation of a phoneme. A phone is represented between brackets.

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2.1. Hiragana for vowels

Similar to the [i:] in eat [i:t].

Note: This word has three morae, not two.

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2.2. Hiragana for k/g + vowels

English "k" + Japanese "a".

English "k" + Japanese "u".

English "k" + Japanese "e".

English "k" + Japanese "o".

English "g" + Japanese "a".

English "g" + Japanese "u".

English "g" + Japanese "e".

English "g" + Japanese "o".

painting artist (noun)

high school (noun)

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2.3. Hiragana for s/z + vowels

English "s" + Japanese "a".

English "s" + Japanese "u".

English "s" + Japanese "e".

English "s" + Japanese "o".

English "dz" + Japanese "a".

English "dz" + Japanese "u".

English "dz" + Japanese "e".

English "dz" + Japanese "o".

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2.4. Hiragana for t/d + vowels

English "t" + Japanese "a".

English "ts" + Japanese "u".

English "t" + Japanese "e".

English "t" + Japanese "o".

English "d" + Japanese "a".

English "d" + Japanese "e".

English "d" + Japanese "o".

right, correct (adjective)

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2.5. Hiragana for n + vowels

English "n" + Japanese "a".

English "n" + Japanese "u".

English "n" + Japanese "e".

English "n" + Japanese "o".

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