Grammar that actually makes sense
Short explanations, real sentences, no jargon beyond what you need. Each topic reads in five minutes and leaves you with lines you can use today.
Ellipsis
Japanese leaves out whatever is already clear from context: the subject most of all, but also objects and whole phrases. A conversation is often verbs and particles with everything else understood.
Substitution with の
の can stand in for a noun you have already said, like "one" in English: the red one, the big one, mine. After a verb it names the action: running, the one I bought.
Conditionals
Japanese has four ways to say "if" (and "when"). They overlap a lot, but each has a home: と for what always follows, ば for general conditions, たら for one event at a time, なら for reacting to what someone said.
は versus が
は marks the topic: what the sentence is about. が marks the subject: who or what does it, as new information. The same sentence can carry either, and the meaning shifts.
Keigo
Keigo is the respectful register: polite forms (です・ます), respectful forms that raise the other person (尊敬語), and humble forms that lower yourself (謙譲語). You will hear it in shops and at work long before you need to produce it.
Finished, or ruined
て-form + しまう adds one of two feelings: the action is completely done, or it happened and you wish it had not. In speech it shrinks to ちゃう / じゃう.
Passive and causative
The passive (られる) says something was done to you. The causative (させる) says you made or let someone do something. Put together, させられる means you were made to do it.
Counters
You do not say "three" in Japanese; you say "three" plus what kind of thing. Flat things, long things, small animals, people and machines each have their own counter.
Onomatopoeia
Japanese is full of sound words, and not only for sounds: ドキドキ is a pounding heart, ペラペラ is speaking fluently, キラキラ is sparkling. They are everyday vocabulary, not childish.
Reported speech
って is the casual all-rounder for quoting: "he said", "they call it", "what is that?". It replaces と言った, という and とは in speech.
Polite and casual
Every Japanese sentence picks a register. です・ます (polite) with people you do not know well, older people and at work; plain form (casual) with friends, family, and inside most grammar. Both are correct Japanese; the question is who you are talking to.
Place particles
Three particles for place. に: where something is or where it ends up. で: where an action happens. へ: the direction you head in. The difference is what the verb does.
Ready to start?
A free account keeps your progress: hiragana today, your first kanji this week.