Japanese Grammar Guide
This guide was created as a resource for those who want to learn Japanese grammar in a rational, intuitive way that makes sense in Japanese. The explanations are focused on how to make sense of the grammar not from English but from a Japanese point of view.
It is released under the Creative Commons License and is free to copy and distribute for non-commercial uses.
Before you begin
If your computer is not setup to display Japanese, you'll want to enable Japanese support to read the Japanese text.
Other formats
- PDF Version - Philipp Kerling wrote an awesome script to convert the site to PDF.
- iPhone app - The guide is also available as an iPhone app written by Ronald Timoshenko.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- The Writing System
- Basic Grammar
- Expressing State-of-Being
- Introduction to Particles （は、も、が）
- Adjectives
- Verb Basics
- Negative Verbs
- Past Tense
- Particles used with verbs （を、に、へ、で）
- Transitive and Intransitive Verbs
- Descriptive Subordinate Clauses and Sentence Order
- Noun-related Particles （と、や、とか、の）
- Adverbs and Sentence-ending particles
- Essential Grammar
- Polite Form and Verb Stems （～です、～ます）
- Addressing People
- The Question Marker （か）
- Compound Sentences （て-form、から、ので、のに、が、けど、し、～たりする）
- Other uses of the te-form （～ている、～てある、～ておく、～ていく、～てくる）
- Potential Form
- Using する and なる with the に particle （～[よう]になる／する）
- Conditionals （と、なら、ば、たら）
- Expressing "must" or "have to" （～だめ、～いけない、～ならない、～ても）
- Desire and Suggestions （たい、欲しい、volitional、～たらどう）
- Performing an action on a subordinate clause （と、って）
- Defining and Describing （という）
- Trying something out or attempting to do something （～てみる、volitional+とする）
- Giving and Receiving （あげる、やる、くれる、もらう）
- Making requests （～ください、～ちょうだい、～なさい、command form）
- Numbers and Counting
- Casual Patterns and Slang
- Review and more sentence-ending particles
- Special Expressions
- Causative and Passive Verbs
- Honorific and Humble Forms
- Things that happen unintentionally （～てしまう、～ちゃう／～じゃう）
- Special expressions with generic nouns （こと、ところ、もの）
- Expressing various levels of certainty （かもしれない、でしょう、だろう）
- Expressing amounts （だけ、のみ、しか、ばかり、すぎる、Amount+も、ほど、さ）
- Various ways to express similarity and hearsay （よう、～みたい、～そう、～そうだ、～らしい、～っぽい）
- Using 方 and よる for comparisons and other functions （より、の方、stem＋方、によって、によると）
- Saying something is easy or difficult to do （～やすい、～にくい）
- More negative verbs （ないで、ず、～ん、ぬ）
- Hypothesizing and Concluding （わけ、～とする）
- Expressing time-specific actions （ばかり、とたんに、ながら、まくる）
- Leaving something the way it is （まま、っぱなし）
- Advanced Topics
- Formal Expressions （である、ではない）
- Things that should be a certain way （はず、べき、べく、べからず）
- Expressing the minimum expectation （でさえ、ですら、おろか）
- Showing signs of something （～がる、ばかり、～めく）
- Formal expressions of non-feasibility （～ざるを得ない、やむを得ない、～かねる）
- Tendencies （～がち、～つつ、きらいがある）
- Advanced Volitional （まい、であろう、かろう）
- Covered by something （だらけ、まみれ、ずくめ）
- Advanced proximity of actions （が早いか、や否や、そばから）
- Others （思いきや、がてら、あげく）
This work is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike License.
Ignore the outline below, it is automatically generated and there's no way to turn it off.
このサイトやっぱり最高だ！とても便利で役に立ちすぎだったん
このサイトやっぱり最高だ！とても便利で役に立ちすぎだったんだよ：Ｄ
ごくろうさま＾＾
I am a self-studying
I am a self-studying Japanese-learner. This website has helped me SO MUCH! I got the app, too! >U<
このサイトはとても便利なので、 わたしは毎週たくさん使います！
I think you should make this
I think you should make this in to a textbook.
YOU ARE MY HERO I haven't
YOU
ARE
MY
HERO
I haven't found a better source for learning japanese. It makes sense, it's well done, and you aren't being a money-hungry cow but a selfless helper. This guide has helped me, and your thinking has inspired me. It just made me want to say thank you, really.
Is there a way to put the
Is there a way to put the exercises into the pdf? This would be very useful if I could put it onto my ebook reader.
This is a really great resource :)
I AM CURRENTLY STUDYING
I AM CURRENTLY STUDYING JAPANESE IN COLLEGE AND THIS SITE HAS REALLY HELPED ALOT!! THANKS SO MUCH FOR SUCH DETAILED EXPLANATIONS. THERE IS ONE THING THOUGH, I HAVENT SEEN WHERE YOU EXPLAINED THE "TOKI" FORM. I AM HAVING SOME TROUBLE UNDERSTANDING IT, AS IN "WHEN" SOMETHING HAPPENS, SOMETHING ELSE DOES. CHOTTO MUSUKASHII DESUYO!!!!
Do you have the
Do you have the sareru/saseru/saserareru form here?
"Causative and Passive Verbs"
"Causative and Passive Verbs" is about that.
本当にありがとうございます！とても便利な情報がありますね。
本当にありがとうございます！とても便利な情報がありますね。
これから、勉強するのときに、私はこのブログを見てします。
どうもありごがとうございました。 thank a lot!
どうもありごがとうございました。
thank a lot! You've done such a great work. i've learn japanese for few months, and the thing i lack is summary and comparison between similar structures. this site help me a lot :)
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