6.1 - Basic Ichidan Verb Conjugation

Like all languages, Japanese has its fair share of verbs to convey the concept of an action that is either being done, was done, is done, was being done, can be done, can't be done, could be done, could not be done and will be done. Pretty darn simple. Unlike English, Japanese has 3 different kinds of verbs:

1. U verbs (verbs that end in ...u) called 'Godan Verbs'

2. Ru verbs (verbs that end in ...ru) called 'Ichidan Verbs'

3. The exceptions (suru and kuru)

First, let's talk about ru/Ichidan verbs. These are verbs that end in either iru or eru. These are actually the Group 2 verbs but we'll learn them first because they are the easiest of the bunch. Some examples are:

taberu - to eat

miru - to see

ageru - to give ('ageru' can mean 'to raise' if written using a different kanji)

kotaeru - to answer (a question)

ikiru - to live

These are the plain-form or dictionary-form Ichidan/ru verbs. This means they are not conjugated/converted to a different verb form yet. They are in the form that you'd find them inside a dictionary.

You can, of course, make basic sentences only using the dictionary-form:

boku wa ringo o taberu. (I (will) eat apple(s).)

But they'll almost always seem a little bit off and straight-up unnatural if spoken just in this form all the time. For example, in English if you want to convey the message that you have already done eating, you don't just say 'I eat food'. It becomes: 'I ate food'. This is a conjugation in essence. Ate is the past-tense/conjugated form of the verb eat. There are many other conjugations both in English and in Japanese. We'll look at how to easily conjugate any ru verb (that ends in iru or eru).

First, let's learn the simple stuff: polite form and negative form of ru verbs.

If you replace the ru  in an Ichidan verb with 'masu', it turns into the polite dictionary-form verb. This is not really a conjugation, but important nonetheless. Examples:

taberu --- tabe masu  (to eat)

miru --- mi masu (to see)

kotaeru --- kotae masu (to answer)

ageru --- age masu (to give)


Pretty darn simple, right? Just drop the ru and put  masu in its place. Simple as that and you've got yourself the polite-form of every ru verb ever.

Now, let's talk about the negative-form of ru verbs. This is just as simple:
You drop the ru  and put 'nai' in it's place:


taberu --- tabe nai (to not eat)

miru --- mi nai (to not see)

kotaeru --- kotae nai (to not answer)

ageru --- age nai (to not give)


To convert these negated forms into politer ones, you add 'masen' instead of 'nai'.

e.g. tabe masu --- tabe masen (this means the same thing as tabenai but is politer.)

Now, there's this one verb that might trick you into believing that it's an Ichidan verb, whereas it's actually a Group 1 or Godan Verb. That deceptive verb is:

kaeru - to return (home)

It ends in 'eru' so most learners tend to think it's an Ichidan verb but it's NOT an Ichidan-verb and thus no rules mentioned above apply to kaeru. We'll learn about Godan verbs later as they are slightly more advanced than Ichidan verbs.

Now, on to the real conjugations for Ichidan/ru verbs.

Past-tense:

In all ru verbs, past-tense can be achieved simply by discarding the ru  and replacing it with 'ta'. This 'ta' conjugation is also called the 'Ta-form'.

For example:

taberu --- tabeta (ate) (informal)

Again, to make this past-tense form politer and more formal, we simply add mashita instead of ta.

So:

taberu --- tabe mashita (ate) (formal)

Let's say: I ate (an) apple. It now becomes:

Either:

"boku wa ringo o tabeta."

Or:

"boku wa ringo o tabemashita."

Past-Negative:

Although this may sound complicated, it's really simple. So now you know that the past-tense of miru (to see) is mita or mi mashita, but what about the past-negative form?

Just replace nai from the regular negative form with nakatta and you have your past-negative form:

miru --- minai (to not see)

minai --- mi nakatta (did not see)

This is about it for the informal past-negative form. The formal past-negative is quite easy too.

Just add deshita after the formal negative form that uses masen. For example:

miru --- mi masen (to not see)
mi masen --- mi masen deshita (did not see)

Example:
'ano tori wo mi mashita ka?' - 'Did you see that bird?'
'iie, mi nakatta.' - 'No, I didn't see (it).'

Te-form:

This is an important verb form that has many uses. It can either act as a polite command when used on its own, or as the conjunction 'AND THEN' when joining two sentences/clauses together. For Ichidan verbs, it's straightforward: just replace 'ru' with 'te'.

For example:

taberu --- tabete (or tabe mashite)

miru --- mite (mi mashite)

Example sentence:

1. 'tabete kudasai' - 'Please eat.' (used as command)

2. 'terebi wo mite ringo wo tabeta.' - 'I watched TV and then ate an apple.' (used as 'AND THEN')

Present-tense:

The ru form or the masu form can both be used as the present-tense form for any verb. Luckily for us, there is no future tense in Japanese. You might be surprised to hear this but remember: the present tense and future tense are the same in Japanese. Therefore, context matters when interpreting the meaning of a sentence.

This means tabe masu [Ichidan] can mean "to eat (now)" or "will eat (later)" depending upon the context.

The phrase kachi masu (to win) [Godan] can very well mean "I win (now)." or "I will win (later)" depending upon the context similarly.

No more needs to be said about this. This is literally all there is to the present tense.

Present-Continuous Form:

This form is the equivalent to '-ing' in English and tells that the verb is being performed. To change any verb, Ichidan or Godan, to its present-continuous form, we simply take it's Te-form and add iru or imasu after it.

For example,

1. shaberu - 'to speak' becomes shabete iru/shabete imasu (I am speaking.)

2. taberu - 'to eat' becomes tabete iru/tabete imasu (I am eating.)



Past-Continuous Form:

This form tells us that a verb was being done. To convert an Ichidan verb to its past-continuous form, we simply take its present-continuous form and replace 'ru' with 'ta' or 'mashita' to turn it into past tense.

For example,

1. shaberu - 'to speak' becomes 'shabete ita' or 'shabete imashita' ((I) was speaking.)
2. kangaeru - 'to think' becomes 'kangaete ita' or 'kangaete imashita' ((I) was thinking.)

Rude-command/Imperative Form:

Like the 'Te-form' which is the polite command form, there's also the rude command form. For Ichidan verbs, just replace 'ru' with 'o'.

For example, the rude-command form of miru is miro, meaning 'See!' At beginner level, you must refrain from using the rude-command form in conversations as they are only fitting in certain moments. For now, just use the 'Te-form' described above if you want to command someone.

Conditional/If Form:

This form is exactly what you think it is. It turns a verb to its 'if-form'. For Ichidan verbs, we simply replace the 'ru' with 'reba'. For example, the verb kotaeru becomes 'kotaereba', meaning 'If I answer...' or 'If you answer...' depending upon the context. Similarly, tabereba means 'If I eat...'.

e.g. tabereba ii desu. - 'It's good if you eat.'

Potential/can-do Form:

This form tells us that you/someone is able to do an action. To convert any Ichidan verb to it's potential form, we simply replace the 'ru' with 'rareru'.
For example, for the Ichidan verb 'taberu', its potential form would be: 'taberareru', meaning '(I) can eat'.

Past-Potential/Can-NOT-do Form:

This form translates to 'can't do' in English. The procedure is straightforward. We simply take the potential form and replace the ending 'ru' with 'nai'.

Let's consider the Ichidan verb 'shinjiru' meaning 'to believe'. The potential form is shinjirareru (can believe) which becomes shinjirarenai ((I) can't believe).

Volitional/Let's Form:

This form is used when you want to do something alongside others. It's like "Let's..." in English. For Ichidan verbs, we simply replace 'ru' with 'you'. For example tabeyou means 'Let's eat!'. 

'issho ni' means something along the lines of 'together' and signifies closeness and familiarity. You can use issho ni before the let's form when inviting someone to do something alongside you.

e.g. issho ni tabeyou! - 'Let's eat together.'

Extra:

To be formal, we say 'masen ka' instead of 'you' when inviting someone.

e.g. issho ni tabe masen ka? - This literally means 'Won't you eat with me?' but that's how the Japanese make requests.

5.1 - Basic Vocabulary (100 Nouns)

Most common nouns:

People:

Hiragana, Kanji                                English + romaji

にんげん、人間                                – human (ningen)

じんるい、人類                                – humanity (jinrui)

ひと、人                                            – person (hito)

おとこ、男                                        – male (otoko)

おとこのひと、男の人                    – man (otokonohito)

おとこのこ、男の子                        – boy (otokonoko)

おんな、女                                        – female (onna)

おんなのひと、女の人                    – woman (onnanohito)

おんなのこ、女の子                        – girl (onnanoko)

あかちゃん、赤ちゃん                    – baby (akachan)

わかもの、若者                                – youth, young person (wakamono)

わたし、私                                        – I, myself (watashi)

わたくし、私                                    – I, myself (watakushi [most formal])

ぼく、僕                                            – I, myself (boku, mainly used by males)

おれ、俺                                            – I, myself (ore, mainly used by males [informal])

あたし、私                                        – I, myself (atashi, mainly used by females [softer sounding])

しょうじょ、少女                            – young girl (shoujo)

しょうねん、少年                            – young boy (shounen)

Body:

Hiragana, Kanji                                English + romaji

あし、足、脚                                     – foot, leg (ashi)

かかと、踵                                         – heel (kakato)

すね、脛                                             – shin (sune)

ひざ、膝                                             – knee (hiza)

もも、腿                                             – thigh (momo)

あたま、頭                                         – head (atama)

かお、顔                                             – face (kao)

くち、口                                             – mouth (kuchi)

くちびる、唇                                     – lips (kuchibiru)

は、歯                                                 – tooth (ha)

はな、鼻                                             – nose (hana)

め、目                                                 – eye (me)

ひげ、髭、鬚、髯                             – moustache, beard                                                                                  (hige)

かみ、髪                                             – hair (kami)

みみ、耳                                             – ear (mimi)

おなか、御腹                                     – stomach (onaka)

うで、腕                                             – arm (ude)

ひじ、肘                                             – elbow (hiji)

かた、肩                                             – shoulder (kata)

つめ、爪                                             – nail (tsume)

て、手                                                 – hand (te)

てくび、手首                                     – wrist (tekubi)

てのひら、掌、手の平                     – palm of hand (te-no-                                                                                hira)

ゆび、指                                             – finger, toe (yubi)

しり、尻                                             – buttocks (shiri)

おなか、お腹 （はら、腹）            – abdomen (o-naka)

かんぞう、肝臓                                 – liver (kanzō)

きも、肝                                             – liver (kimo)

きんにく、筋肉                                 – muscle (kin'niku)

くび、首                                             – neck (kubi)

こころ、心                                         – heart [as in feelings]                                                                             (kokoro)

こし、腰                                             – waist, hip (koshi)

しんぞう、心臓                                 – heart (shinzō)

せなか、背中                                     – back (senaka)

ち、血                                                 – blood (chi)

にく、肉                                             – meat (niku)

はだ、肌、膚                                     – skin (hada)

ひふ、皮膚                                         – skin (hifu)

ほね、骨                                             – bone (hone)

むね、胸                                             – chest (mune)

かぜ、風邪                                         – cold [illness] (kaze)

げり、下痢                                         – diarrhea (geri)

びょうき、病気                                 – illness (byōki)

Family:

Hiragana, Kanji                            English + romaji

かぞく、家族                                 – family (kazoku)

りょうしん、両親                          – parents (ryoushin)

こども、子供                                 – children, child (kodomo)

ちち、父                                       – father (chichi)("otou-san")

はは、母                                     – mother (haha)("okaa-san")

つま、妻                                        – wife (tsuma)

おっと、夫                                    – husband (otto)

あに、兄                                   – older brother (ani) (onii-san)

あね、姉                                  – older sister (ane) (onee-san)

おとうと、弟                            – younger brother (otouto)

いもうと、妹                            – younger sister (imouto)

きょうだい、兄弟                     – brothers, siblings (kyōdai)

しまい、姉妹                             – sisters (shimai)

そふ、祖父                                 – grandfather (sofu) (ojii-san)

そぼ、祖母                          – grandmother (sobo) (obaa-san)

まご、孫                                      – grandchild (mago)

おじ、伯父、叔父                       – uncle (oji) (oji-san)

おば、伯母、叔母                       – aunt (oba) (oba-san)

いとこ、従兄弟                          – cousin (itoko)

めい、姪                                     – niece (mei)

おい、甥                                     – nephew (oi)

4.1 - Numbers and Counting

Like all languages, Japanese has its very own set of numbers that follow the denary (0 - 9) number system. Today, we're going to learn how to say any number, no matter how large, in Japanese.

The numbers 1 to 10 are pretty straightforward:

0 - rei / zero
1 - ichi
2 - ni
3 - san
4 - shi (yon after 10)
5 - go
6 - roku
7 - shichi (nana after 10)
8 - hachi
9 - kyuu
10 - jyuu

These numbers are pretty darn straightforward. Like English numerals (0 - 10) the Japanese numbers have different sounds for each digit from zero to ten.

But what about writing greater numbers - numbers greater than 10, maybe 100 or even as high as 50 million? Unlike English numerals where each number after 10 is spelt different and doesn't borrow anything from 0 - 9, Japanese numbers greater than 10 all make use of the numbers 1 (ichi) to 10 (jyuu).

For example:

11 in English is "eleven" which is completely different from one - ten.

11 in Japanese, however, is "jyuu ichi", (meaning 10 1), which DOES make use of the previous learned 1 - 10.

Similarly, 19 is "jyuu kyuu" in Japanese. What what about 20?

20 becomes "ni jyuu".

Here's a formula for two-digit numbers: (Easier method at the end)

e.g: san jyuu yon (34) = 3(san) x 10(jyuu) + 4(yon)

Following this trend, the number 99 would be "kyuu jyuu kyuu"= 9 x 10 + 9 = 99. You can also think of "kyuu jyuu kyuu" as (9 10 9) and do the calculation directly in your head. It's primary school level stuff so you should be able to do this mentally.

Pretty darn easy right? Now this is just for two-digit numbers (11 - 99). But what about 100 and above?

Hundred is "hyaku" (百) in Japanese. "ni hyaku" is 200, "san hyaku" is 300, "yon hyaku" is 400 and "kyuu hyaku kyuu jyuu kyuu" is 999. Do you understand this?

Just "kyuu hyaku" alone would mean 900 (as 9 x 100). Now to add 99 to the obtained 900, we simply add the number for 99 IN FRONT of kyuu hyaku. 99 is "kyuu jyuu kyuu".
Hence, 999 is "kyuu hyaku kyuu jyuu kyuu." (900 + 99) Kanji: 九百九十九


Now try:

i.  560
ii.  32
iii.  998
iv.  750
v.  640

Moving on, let's do the numbers greater then 1000. The kanji for 1000 is 千 (sen). Therefore, the number 1000 is simply sen. 2000 is ni sen, 5000 is go sen, and 9000 is kyuu sen, but 10000 is NOT jyuu sen. That is simply incorrect. 10000 has a special name in Japanese unlike other languages. Ten-thousand (10000) is 万 (man).

Therefore, 10000 itself is ichi man (1 x 10000). Similarly, ni man is 20000, san man is 30000, yon man is 40000, go man is 50000, hachi man is 80000, 90000 is kyuu man. You can convert any number from Japanese to English and vice-versa at this website (don't cheat just yet!):
https://www.sljfaq.org/afaq/large-numbers.html

Now let's try two numbers:

i. 1586:

1586 = (1000 + 500 + 80 + 6) = sen go hyaku hachi jyuu roku

ii. 18637:

18637 = (10000 + 8000 + 600 + 30 + 7) = ichi man hachi sen roku hyaku san jyuu nana  [一万八千六百三十七]

Phew! That was lengthy but you get the idea.

Now please try 99999 and check your answer on the website I mentioned. First, express 99999 as:

(90000 + 9000 + 900 + 90 + 9; this is called 'decreasing significance form') and then fill in everything with the Japanese equivalent:

kyuu man kyuu sen kyuu hyaku kyuu jyuu kyuu. [九万九千九百九十九]

It was your homework, but I did it anyway! Hope you did understand everything, though. I tried my best to make this lesson as informative as possible while maintaining an easy-to-follow structure.

Below is a list of some large numbers (powers of 10):

You translate each of them, even oku (100 million) in the same way as we did 1000 (sen) and 10000 (man). You break the number down into its "decreasing signifance form" and convert it to Japanese afterwards.

Hope you learned something new and informative. Mata ashita!

3.1 - Hiragana

Hiragana really is just the ABCs of Japanese. The only difference is that each hiragana character has a sound made up of 2 alphabets unlike English which has 1 character for each alphabet:

Z - zee (one syllable in English alphabets)
za - (two syllables in Hiragana character-set)

The five vowels of Japanese (written in hiragana) are:

a - あ
i - い
u - う
e - え
o - お

Albeit similar to English, these vowels are pronounced a little differently which is beyond the scope of this lesson to explain due to the need of actual sounds to understand it.

The rest of the characters, that are not the vowels, i.e. the consonants, are based on these five vowels as all of them borrow the sounds from these vowels. For example:

a - あ   -->  ka - か
i - い    -->  ki - き
u - う   -->  ku - く
e - え   -->  ke - け
o - お   -->  ko - こ

Do you see how the ka-series of characters use the same vowels after the "k" sound? This can be applied to all other consonants as well. Now, you are prepared to learn the Hiragana chart - a chart containing all the Hiragana alphabets. The chart is given below:

The chart is to be read from left to right, and each column is each alphabet's series of characters. The first five are the vowels a, i, u, e, o. The next line is the ka-series: ka, ki, ku, ke, ko, and so on.

You might be confused as to what are those double-dashes and the little circles in the top-right corners of the characters on the right:

You can see that the ga-series is merely just the ka-series characters with two double-dashes added on their top-right. These double-dashes are known as "dakuten" and change the sounds of some characters. For instance: [ka + dakuten = ga] [sa + dakuten = za] [ta + dakuten = da] [ ha + dakuten = ba]

Now what are those little circles in the "pa"-series of characters? They are pretty similar to dakuten and are known as "handakuten". Like dakuten, handakuten also changes the pronunciation of characters. The only series of characters where a handakuten is used is the "pa pi pu pe po" series. [ha + handakuten = pa]


Lastly, ya, yu and yo can be combined with certain characters for complex sounds:
like [ki + ya = kya] [ri + yo = ryo]

This is all of Hiragana, quite literally. Now the only thing left is practice on your side. Hope you learnt something new from this lesson! Mata ashita!

2.1 - Further Sentences and Particles

As you saw in Lesson 1.2,  sentences in Japanese aren't all that difficult to make. Up until now we've only scratched the surface but now it's time to go a little bit deeper.

What if you wanted to say a longer sentence that is not just A is B? Maybe you want to tell someone: "I have to go to school tomorrow despite there being a holiday.", or "I will go to the supermarket with my mother, tomorrow, at 8 PM." Seems difficult, right? This might seem hard but by the end of this lesson, you'll easily be able to make sentences of such complexity on your own. Let's begin, shall we.

You might remember the particles "wa" (written 'ha') and "wo", (spelt 'o'), from the previous lesson on basic sentence-structure. As a refresher, "wa" is the topic-marking particle, whereas "wo" is the direct object-marking particle: "watashi wa hon wo yomimasu." (I read book/books.) Here "watashi", meaning "I", is the subject as the particle "wa" is marking it as the topic (and subject). Similarly, here "hon", meaning "book", is the direct object as it's being marked as the object by the particle "wo". This might seem repetitive but this is necessary to properly understand the advanced stuff.

Now, there are a plethora of other particles used in Japanese, be for time, place, location, destination, indirect object, reason, means (of transportation), etc. We'll discuss the most used ones in this lesson.

Firstly, I should make clear the distinction between "subject" and "topic" in a sentence. To my best knowledge, the subject and the topic of a sentence are the same thing in English. In Japanese, however, the topic can be different from the subject and thus needs to be marked by the topic-marking particle: "wa". The subject is marked with the subject marker "ga". Now you might be wondering, "Wasn't wa the subject particle? What the heck is this ga?"

In all our previous examples, the subject WAS the topic, hence we just went with the topic-marker "wa", instead. This lesson onward, "wa" is the topic-marker whereas "ga" is the actual subject-marker. "wa" and "ga" often cause confusion among learners so it's best to get them out of the way as soon as possible.

Notes about topic:

1. The topic is often the same as the subject, but not always.

2. The topic can be anything that a speaker wants to talk about (It can be an object, location or any other grammatical element).

3. It is sometimes compared to the English expressions “As for ~” or “Speaking of ~”

e.g, Anata wa - "As for you / Speaking of you, ... "

4. It can be omitted from the sentence in many cases. In this example, you can remove the words in the parentheses and it means the same thing:

(watashi wa) sensei desu. = sensei desu. (I'm (a/the) teacher.)

Notes about subject:

1. The subject can be the topic, but not always.

2. The subject can start a sentence in some cases.

3. The subject particle "ga" can be used in place of "wa" in cases where you want to specify/emphasize or distinguish the subject/topic from others.

e.g,  You're telling a friend: "(watashi wa) booru wo ketta." - I kicked the ball.

But if somebody asks you "Who kicked the ball?" You make "watashi" the subject, and hence use "ga" to signify that YOU were the one who kicked the ball:

"watashi ga booru wo ketta." - I (was the one who) kicked the ball.

This way ga can be used to emphasize that the subject "is the one" who acted out the verb.

ga has some other uses as well:

1. As an object-marker (like wo):
A friends asks you: "Do you like cats?" You should say: "neko ga suki desu" instead of neko 'wo' suki desu. 'wo' would be understandable but ga better signifies the meaning of the sentence. Here, ga works like an object-particle, similar to wo, but with more emphasis, like "Cats are the things I like."

2. As "but":
ga has the ability to be used like the conjunction "but":

Consider this example:

"I want to go, but I don't have money."
"ikitai no desu ga, okane ga nai no desu." - [ikitai - want to go] [okane - money]

Here, "ikitai desu" means "I want to go". This is a grammatically correct sentence on it's own, i.e, a clause. The other clause "okane ga nai desu" means "I don't have money." Now, to join these two clauses with the conjunction "but", we simply add ga between the two clauses as seen above. The second clause "okane ga nai" also makes use of ga, but as an object-marker like we discussed before.

This pretty much wraps up the subject particle "ga". Hope you learnt something informative and that how subject can be different from the topic. In the above example, "watashi wa", while not mentioned, is the implied topic.

The "ni" and "e" particles:

The ni and  e particles are destination particles. They can also be used to mark time. Their usage is really simple. Just plug either ni or e in front of a destination. Place/Time usually comes after the topic. ni can also be used as an indirect object-marker.

e.g, I am going to school.
As the topic, I, can be omitted, it becomes: "gakkou ni ikimasu." [Gakkou - school] [Ikimasu - to go/going] Here, ni becomes an object-marker and a destination-marker as well.

For more vague places/destinations, it is better to use e (written 'he', pronounced 'e').

e.g, I will go beyond the sea.
"umi no koete e ikimasu". [umi - sea] [koete - beyond]

The "no" particle:

This is another really easy one. In fact, we just used it in the last example. "no" is the possession-marker/particle. It shows that the word before it, owns the thing right after it. Like A no B means "B belongs to A". no may be thought of as 's for quick remembrance. In the above example:

"umi no koete" means: "Beyond the sea" or literally: "The sea's beyond area".
"watashi no hon" means "My book".
"anata no namae" means "Your name".

The "kara" particle:

The kara particle is used to mark a reason. It can also be used to mark the origin of something like "from". Again, this is really simple:

"I couldn't go to school because I have a cold."

Don't worry about the verb-forms. I'll teach it in some future lesson. For now, let's translate the above sentence:

"kaze ga hiku nan da kara gakkou ni ikenakatta no desu." [kaze ga hiku - to catch a cold] [ikenakatta - couldn't go] [gakkou - school]

Here kara is sort of like a "because". The difference is that the reason is told before using kara, and the effect of that reason comes after it. This can be seen in our example.

kara can be used to tell the origin of something too:

"I am from England."
"Ingurando kara desu".

However, the other origin/from-paricle "yori" is a bit more appropriate:

"Ingurando yori desu".


The "to" particle:

The to particle is used to define a co-participant in a sentence (like "with"). For example:

"I ate food with my friend."
"tomodachi to tabemono wo tabemashita." [tomodachi - friend] [tabemono - food][tabemashita - ate]

Here to tells us that "tomodachi", meaning friend, is the co-participant in the sentence. It's kind of like the English "with", but as it's a particle, it marks the word before it, unlike 'with'. You can put "issho ni" in front of to, to signify closeness and familiarity:

"tomodachi to issho ni tabemono wo tabemashita."


The "de" particle:

The de particle marks the means/mode of transportation:

"jitensha" means bicycle. "jitensha de" means "by bicycle".
"kuruma" means car. "kuruma de" means "by car".
"hitori" means alone. "hitori de" means "alone" (means of transport).
"ressha" means train. "ressha de" means "by railway".

The de particle can also be used as a location-marker. It can indicate the place at which an action or event takes place. It can be used like “at” or “in” is used in English.

"(watashi wa) toshokan de benkyō shimashita" [toshokan - library] [benkyou shimashita - studied]

Here de tells us that "I studied AT the library."


Alright! We've done all of the basic particles! Now, for the grand finale, I'll show you a sentence structure cheat-sheet that'll help you make longer sentences without straining your mind:

Topic [wa] Year [ni] Month [ni] Day [ni] Time [ni] Origin [kara] Place [ni] Co-participant [to] Means [de] object [wo] verb.

Although not perfect, this can be morphed into almost any long sentence while still maintaining a sense of structure. Of course, you can slightly bend the rules but remember! The topic comes at the start and the verb at the end. Now let's try one of the two sentences I told you about in the beginning.

Let's take: "I will go to the supermarket with my mother, tomorrow, at 8 PM."

This now becomes:

"(watashi wa) Ashita gogo hachi ji ni okaa-san to issho ni supaa ni ikimasu.

Ashita - tomorrow
gogo - PM
hachi - eight
jikan - time
hachi jikan - eight o' clock
okaa-san - mother
supaa - supermarket
ikimasu - go/will go

NOW YOU KNOW... mata ashita!

1.2 - Basic Sentence Structure

Most learners are thrown off due to the fact that the Japanese sentence structure is very different from English, but don't be afraid! It really is easy.

As you already know, English sentences are SVO (Subject-Verb-Object). This means the verb comes in the middle of a sentence, the subject comes first and object at the very end.

e.g: I drink juice.
      (S) (V)   (O)

Japanese, however, is a tad bit different. Unlike English, in Japanese there's a grammatical rule that the verb (in theory) MUST come at the end of a sentence. Adhering to this rule, Japanese becomes a SOV language (Subject-Object-Verb). So "I drink juice" becomes "I juice drink". Convert that to Japanese words:

"私はジュースを飲みます。" - "watashi wa jyuusu wo nomimasu." - I drink juice.

There's no need to feel over-whelmed by the Japanese characters. Right now, we'll just represent Japanese sentences in Roman letters, i.e, romaji.

In the above example, "watashi", meaning "I", is the subject. "Jyuusu" (juice) is the object and "nomu" is the verb "to drink". "nomu" has been conjugated/converted to its politer form "nomimasu". Now you might be thinking, "But what about those two extra words 'wa' and 'wo'?"

"wa" and "wo" are just two of the things we call "particles" in Japanese. Particles are used to mark/specify the word right before them. The "wa" particle is the subject-marker, meaning it tells us that the word right before it (watashi) is the subject of our sentence. The "wo" particle, (spelt "o"), marks the direct object of our sentence. In this case it "wo" comes in front of "jyuusu". This tells us that juice is the object of our sentence. In English, we don't need to specify the subject and the object with particles, but in Japanese we MUST do.

Now, let's say you want to say: A is B.

In Japanese it would be: A wa B desu.

This sentence has a subject, A, marked with the particle "wa", but this sentence has no direct object. "Desu" is basically a sentence-ending particle but it's safe to assume it as a verb.

Now you can replace A and B with anything you desire and you have a basic sentence.

For instance, This is a book, becomes:

"kore wa hon desu." - kore means this and hon means book. You know the rest and why "wa" and "desu" are used.

Similarly we could just as easily turn this sentence into a question: Is this a book?, by simply adding a "ka?" in front of desu. "ka" is really just the question-marker in Japanese.

So Is this a book? would be:

"kore wa hon desu ka?"

Great! You've just learnt the basic sentence structure used in Japanese!

1.1 - Introduction To Japanese

Japanese, like English and German, is a language. Hence it cannot all be learned by an individual, simply due to the fact that a language is endless. However that shouldn't stop you from learning and eventually mastering Japanese. Not even native Japanese people know any more than 2000 kanji characters on average. No one is perfect so you can always catch up to people.

The Japanese language was derived from Ancient Chinese as Japan was once part of China. Then, it slowly began to change and over a couple centuries, morphed into the language we all know and love: Japanese. One can see that Japanese is based off Chinese due to the existence of "kanji". Kanji are Chinese characters used in the Japanese language but (mostly) have a different pronunciation and (sometimes different meaning) compared to their Chinese counterparts. For instance the kanji: 水 (mizu) means water in Japanese. It also means water in Chinese, although it's pronounced "shui" instead. Other kanji may or may not be in line with their Chinese counterparts in terms of meaning. 

That said, let's move on to the 3 different Japanese syllabaries (ways of writing) - Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. Hiragana alphabets are merely over-simplified Chinese characters and have fixed sounds and hence, they're very easy to learn. The average learner can master Hiragana in under a week. Your mileage may vary but remember, it's really easy. Once you get past the Hiragana character-set, you can somewhat read Japanese and know all the possible sounds used in the language. Hiragana is used for writing Japanese words. Every Japanese word can be written in Hiragana. This is why one can get away without learning too much kanji. Not even the Japanese themselves know that much kanji.

Katakana has the same amount of alphabets and same pronunciation as Hiragana. The only difference is that the characters now look different and need to be learned alongside Hiragana. While Hiragana is used to denote native words, Katakana is used to write foreign words (like English words).

This might have become a really long read, but believe me, this stuff will really help you out.