In short

To turn any polite sentence into a question, add か (ka) at the end and change nothing else - no inversion, no extra helper verb, no reordering. 学生です。 (Gakusei desu., You are a student.) becomes 学生ですか。 (Gakusei desu ka., Are you a student?). To ask what, who, where and so on, drop the question word into the exact slot where the answer would go, and still finish with か.

The rule

Step 1 - Add か and leave the rest alone

Japanese does not move words around to make a question. English swaps the subject and verb (You are -> Are you) or bolts on do (You eat -> Do you eat). Japanese does neither. The pattern is simply:

Statement + か

• 田中さんです。 (Tanaka-san desu.) It’s Mr Tanaka. -> 田中さんですか。 (Tanaka-san desu ka.) Is it Mr Tanaka?
• 食べます。 (Tabemasu.) I eat. -> 食べますか。 (Tabemasu ka.) Do you eat?

This works on every polite ending you already know: です, じゃないです, でした, ます, ません, ました, ませんでした. In speech the sentence ends on a rising intonation, but か is doing the grammatical work, not the pitch.

Step 2 - The question mark is optional (か already marks it)

Because か marks the question, standard written Japanese ends a question with the ordinary full stop 。, not ？. So お元気ですか。 (O-genki desu ka.) is correctly punctuated. You will still see ？ constantly in casual writing, messages and manga - especially when か is dropped and only intonation remains (元気？ Genki?). Keep か in polite speech; leaving it off sounds blunt or overly familiar.

Step 3 - Put the question word in the answer’s slot

An interrogative word is not fronted to the start of the sentence the way English fronts what and who. It sits exactly where the answer would sit:

• 駅はどこですか。 (Eki wa doko desu ka.) - Where is the station? Answer: 駅はあそこです。 (Eki wa asoko desu.)
• 何を食べますか。 (Nani o tabemasu ka.) - What will you eat? Answer: すしを食べます。 (Sushi o tabemasu.)

Swap the answer for the question word and you have the question. That one habit removes most beginner word-order errors.

Step 4 - 何 is read なに or なん depending on what follows

The kanji 何 has two readings. It is なん (nan) before です, の, で, と, and before every counter; it is なに (nani) elsewhere, notably before を and が. The mnemonic: なん before t-, d- and n-sounds, and before counters.

One word carries two meanings inside that rule: 何 + で is read なんで (nande) either way. Dictionaries give なんで both why and by what means, so the reading does not separate the two - 何で行きますか。 (Nan de ikimasu ka.) is how will you go? when the topic is travel and why will you go? when it is a reason. Context decides. To force by what means, use どうやって (dō yatte, how, in what way); some speakers also pronounce it なにで (nani de) to keep them apart, but that is a spoken habit, not a dictionary reading.

Step 5 - A question word as subject takes が, never は

This is a hard rule with no exceptions: 誰が, 何が, どれが, どちらが - never 誰は, 何は. は marks a topic, that is, information already shared; a question word is by definition unknown, so it cannot be the topic.

• 誰が来ますか。 (Dare ga kimasu ka.) - Who is coming?

The answer keeps が too: 山田さんが来ます。 (Yamada-san ga kimasu.) A question word can still appear after は elsewhere in the sentence, because there は belongs to a different, known element: あなたは何を飲みますか。 (Anata wa nani o nomimasu ka.) Here あなた is the topic and 何 is still the unknown. See Topic は and subject が.

Step 6 - Answering: はい／いいえ and そうです

For a yes/no question built on a noun + です, answer with はい、そうです。 (Hai, sō desu., Yes, that’s right.) or いいえ、そうじゃないです。 (Iie, sō ja nai desu., No, that’s not right.) The stiffer いいえ、違います。 (Iie, chigaimasu., No, that’s wrong.) also works.

Crucially, そうです answers only です-sentences. A question about an action is answered by repeating the verb: 飲みますか。 -> はい、飲みます。／いいえ、飲みません。

Step 7 - Echo questions and polite deflection

Repeating what you just heard, plus か, asks for confirmation - the equivalent of “Tomorrow, you say?”:

• A: 会議は明日です。 (Kaigi wa ashita desu.) B: 明日ですか。 (Ashita desu ka.)

And a question you would rather not answer with a flat no is deflected by trailing off with ちょっと… (chotto…, literally a little…). 明日はちょっと… (Ashita wa chotto…) is understood as a refusal, and is far more natural than いいえ.

Forms & patterns

Statement to question - the ending never changes shape:

Note that 行きませんか。 (Ikimasen ka.) is normally heard as an invitation (Won’t you come?) rather than a plain negative question - see Expressing desire, invitations and offers. In the same way 学生じゃないですか。 usually lands as a confirmation, He’s a student, isn’t he?, rather than a neutral Is he not a student? - じゃないですか is the everyday tag question.

The interrogative inventory:

何: なに or なん?

Examples

• あの人は先生ですか。 (Ano hito wa sensei desu ka.) - Is that person a teacher?
• はい、そうです。 (Hai, sō desu.) - Yes, that’s right.
• いいえ、そうじゃないです。学生です。 (Iie, sō ja nai desu. Gakusei desu.) - No, that’s not right. He is a student.
• これは何ですか。 (Kore wa nan desu ka.) - What is this?
• 誰が来ますか。 (Dare ga kimasu ka.) - Who is coming?
• 駅はどこですか。 (Eki wa doko desu ka.) - Where is the station?
• 会議はいつですか。 (Kaigi wa itsu desu ka.) - When is the meeting?
• この傘はいくらですか。 (Kono kasa wa ikura desu ka.) - How much is this umbrella?
• どうして昨日来ませんでしたか。 (Dōshite kinō kimasen deshita ka.) - Why didn’t you come yesterday?
• コーヒーと紅茶と、どちらがいいですか。 (Kōhī to kōcha to, dochira ga ii desu ka.) - Coffee or tea - which would you prefer?

Common mistakes

• 誰は来ますか。 (Dare wa kimasu ka.) -> 誰が来ますか。 (Dare ga kimasu ka.) - a question word as subject always takes が; は marks known information, and an unknown cannot be known.
• なにですか。 (Nani desu ka.) -> なんですか。 (Nan desu ka.) - 何 is read なん before です, の, で, と and all counters.
• 「飲みますか。」「いいえ、そうじゃないです。」 -> 「いいえ、飲みません。」 (Iie, nomimasen.) - そうです／そうじゃないです answer only noun + です questions; a verb question is answered by repeating the verb.
• この傘はいくつですか。 -> この傘はいくらですか。 (Kono kasa wa ikura desu ka.) - いくら asks a price or amount of money; いくつ counts objects or asks someone’s age.
• ですか学生。 -> 学生ですか。 (Gakusei desu ka.) - か is a sentence-final particle and can only stand at the very end; nothing is fronted the way English fronts are or do.

Tips

• There is no “do” and no inversion. Whatever the statement is, the question is that same statement plus か. If you catch yourself reordering words, you are still thinking in English.
• Question word goes where the answer goes. Say the answer to yourself, then swap in 何 / 誰 / どこ - the slot and the particle stay put.
• どうして vs なぜ: both mean why; どうして is the everyday spoken choice, なぜ is formal and written. Casual 何で (nande) also asks why, but sounds blunt - avoid it with strangers.
• どちら is the polite どこ. In service situations you will hear どちらですか rather than どこですか, and どちら様ですか for who are you? - a gentler register of the same question.

In short

Japanese demonstratives come in a tidy grid: the first syllable says how far (こ near me, そ near you, あ far from both, ど the question word), and the rest of the word says what kind of word it is (a thing, a place, a direction, a kind, a manner). Learn one row and you get four words for free. The one trap: これ (kore) stands alone as “this thing”, while この (kono) must be glued to a noun.

The rule

English splits the world in two, “this” and “that”. Japanese splits it in three, plus a question form. That set of four columns times six rows is called こそあど (ko-so-a-do), after the four first syllables.

Step 1 - choose the column (distance).

• こ - near the speaker: in my hand, on my desk, right here.
• そ - near the hearer: in your hand, next to you, on your side of the table.
• あ - far from both of us: over there, across the room, out the window.
• ど - the question: “which / where / what kind / how”.

The そ column is what English speakers usually get wrong. English “that” covers both そ and あ, so the habit is to reach for あれ (are) for anything not in your own hand. Ask instead: is it closer to the person I am talking to? If yes, it is そ.

Step 2 - choose the row (what kind of word you need).

• これ／それ／あれ／どれ (kore / sore / are / dore) - a pronoun, a whole noun phrase by itself: これは本です。 (Kore wa hon desu.) - “This is a book.” Never put a noun after it.
• この／その／あの／どの + Noun (kono / sono / ano / dono) - an attributive; it is a modifier and is never used alone. It always has a noun attached: この本 (kono hon) “this book”, どの人 (dono hito) “which person”.
• ここ／そこ／あそこ／どこ (koko / soko / asoko / doko) - places: ここは教室です。 (Koko wa kyōshitsu desu.) - “This place is a classroom.” Note the irregular あそこ (asoko), not あこ.
• こちら／そちら／あちら／どちら (kochira / sochira / achira / dochira) - literally directions (“this way”), but also the polite substitute for both the place words and the thing words, and the polite way to refer to a person: こちらは田中さんです。 (Kochira wa Tanaka-san desu.) - “This is Mr. Tanaka.”
• こんな／そんな／あんな／どんな + Noun (konna / sonna / anna / donna) - “this kind of”; like この, it needs a noun after it: どんな映画ですか。 (Donna eiga desu ka.) - “What kind of film is it?”
• こう／そう／ああ／どう (kō / sō / ā / dō) - manner, “in this way / like that / how”; these are adverbs and attach to a verb or to です: どうですか。 (Dō desu ka.) - “How is it?” Note the irregular ああ (ā), not あう.

Step 3 - use そ and あ for things that are not in the room at all. Distance also works on what has been said. When you refer back to something the other person just mentioned - a story, a plan, a name you have only heard from them - use そ: その話 (sono hanashi) “that story of yours”. When you refer to something both of you already know from shared experience, use あ: あの店 (ano mise) “that shop we both know”. This is the anaphoric use, and it is extremely common in conversation.

The canonical A1 exchange puts columns and rows together. You hold something up and ask what it is, and the other person answers about that same object - which, from where they are standing, is the thing in your hand:

• これは何ですか。 (Kore wa nan desu ka.) - asking about what is in my hand.
• それは本です。 (Sore wa hon desu.) - answering about what is in your hand.

The two swap from each speaker’s point of view. If you ask それは何ですか。, the natural answer is これは本です。 - the same object, a different speaker.

One thing this lesson deliberately does not cover: the pro-form の, which lets you say 赤いの (akai no) “the red one” without repeating the noun. It belongs with the other uses of の in the particles lesson.

Forms & patterns

The full grid. Read across for one word type, down for one distance:

How each row plugs into a sentence:

The こちら row has a casual spoken counterpart worth recognizing early:

Examples

• これは本です。 (Kore wa hon desu.) - This is a book.
• それは何ですか。 (Sore wa nan desu ka.) - What is that (there by you)?
• あれは学校です。 (Are wa gakkō desu.) - That over there is a school.
• この店は安いです。 (Kono mise wa yasui desu.) - This shop is cheap.
• その人は先生です。 (Sono hito wa sensei desu.) - That person (near you) is a teacher.
• 駅はどこですか。 (Eki wa doko desu ka.) - Where is the station?
• 受付はあちらです。 (Uketsuke wa achira desu.) - Reception is over that way.
• こちらは田中さんです。 (Kochira wa Tanaka-san desu.) - This is Mr. Tanaka.
• どんな映画ですか。 (Donna eiga desu ka.) - What kind of film is it?
• その本はどうですか。 (Sono hon wa dō desu ka.) - How is that book?

Common mistakes

• これ本は新しいです。 (Kore hon wa atarashii desu.) -> この本は新しいです。 (Kono hon wa atarashii desu.) - Before a noun you must use この, not これ. これ is already a complete noun phrase meaning “this thing”, so it cannot modify another noun.
• このは何ですか。 (Kono wa nan desu ka.) -> これは何ですか。 (Kore wa nan desu ka.) - The mirror image of the first error. この is a modifier and can never stand alone; with no noun after it, you need これ.
• あれは何ですか。 (Are wa nan desu ka.) said about the object in the listener’s hand -> それは何ですか。 (Sore wa nan desu ka.) - Anything close to the person you are speaking to is そ. Save あ for things far from both of you.
• どんなですか。 (Donna desu ka.) -> どうですか。 (Dō desu ka.) - どんな needs a noun after it (どんな映画), exactly like この. With no noun, the manner word どう is the one you want.
• あの話は本当ですか。 (Ano hanashi wa hontō desu ka.) about something you only just heard from the other person -> その話は本当ですか。 (Sono hanashi wa hontō desu ka.) - あ refers back only to what both speakers already know. Something that exists only in the other person’s words is そ.

Tips

• Memorise the columns first, the rows second. こ = close to me, そ = by you, あ = away from both, ど = the question. Once that sticks, a new row (こんな／そんな／あんな／どんな) costs you one word, not four.
• English has two, Japanese has three. English “that” is doing double duty for そ and あ, which is why learners overuse あれ. The test is not “is it far from me” but “is it near my listener”.
• そう is the workhorse of the whole family. そうです (Sō desu, “that’s right”), そうですか (Sō desu ka, “is that so”), and そうですね (Sō desu ne, “let me see / that’s true”) are among the most frequent phrases in spoken Japanese. Learning them now buys you a lot of conversation.
• こちら is the polite escape hatch. In a shop, an office, or an introduction, こちら／そちら／あちら／どちら replaces both the place words and the thing words, and どちら politely replaces どこ (“where”) and, when the choice is between two options, どれ (“which one”). For three or more options どれ stays. Reach for the ちら row whenever the situation feels formal.

In short

は (pronounced wa) marks the topic - “as for X, here is the comment”. が (ga) marks the grammatical subject, especially when it is new, unexpected, or the answer to who? / what?. They are not two words for “is”: は sets the frame, が picks out the participant.

The rule

This is the working A1 approximation - reliable for everything you will say for the next year. The full picture (contrastive は, scope of negation, は inside subordinate clauses) comes back at B1 in は and が revisited. Do not chase those cases now.

Step 1 - Read は as “as for…”

A Japanese sentence is normally Topic + は + comment. The topic is the thing already on the table; the comment is the news about it.

• 私は学生です。 (Watashi wa gakusei desu.) - As for me, [I] am a student.

Note that は is written with the character は but pronounced wa when it is the particle. This is a spelling relic; it never changes.

Crucially, は is not a subject marker. It can sit on top of a subject, an object, a time, a place - anything you want to raise as the frame:

• これは読みました。 (Kore wa yomimashita.) - This one, [I] have read. -> here the topic is the object.
• 今日はテストがあります。 (Kyō wa tesuto ga arimasu.) - Today there is a test. -> here the topic is the time.

Step 2 - Use が for the subject, especially when it is news

が marks the grammatical subject. Choose it when the subject itself is the new or unpredictable information:

• Existence and appearance: 公園に猫がいます。 (Kōen ni neko ga imasu.) - There is a cat in the park. The cat is new; it cannot be a topic yet.
• A question word in subject position always takes が, never は: 誰が来ますか。 (Dare ga kimasu ka.) - Who is coming? A question word is by definition unknown, and unknown things cannot be topics. (As an object it still takes its own particle: 何を食べますか。 (Nani o tabemasu ka.) - the point is that は is never allowed on a question word.)
• The answer to a が-question keeps が: 山田さんが来ます。 (Yamada-san ga kimasu.) - Yamada is coming. The question asked which person, so the answer must point at the person the same way.

Step 3 - Learn the が-predicates as a closed list

A small group of predicates describes ability, need and feeling. Their “object” looks like an English object but is grammatically a subject, so it takes が, not を:

好き (suki, like), 嫌い (kirai, dislike), 上手 (jōzu, good at), 下手 (heta, bad at), 分かる (wakaru, understand), できる (dekiru, can do), ある／いる (aru / iru, exist, have), ほしい (hoshii, want), 要る (iru, need).

• 私は日本語が分かります。 (Watashi wa Nihongo ga wakarimasu.) - I understand Japanese.

Memorise these as 〜が好きです, 〜が分かります, 〜がほしいです - particle included. That saves you the single most frequent A1 error.

Step 4 - Stack the two: 象は鼻が長い

Because は and が do different jobs, one sentence can carry both. This is the double-subject template - a topic, then a が-subject inside the comment:

Topic + は + [ Subject + が + Predicate ]

• 象は鼻が長いです。 (Zō wa hana ga nagai desu.) - Elephants have long trunks. Literally: as for elephants, the nose is long.

Japanese uses this where English would use have. 田中さんは背が高いです。 (Tanaka-san wa se ga takai desu.) - Tanaka is tall (as for Tanaka, the height is high).

Step 5 - Know what は replaces and what it stacks on

When you topicalise, は overrides and replaces が and を - you never write ×がは or ×をは. With every other particle (に, で, と, から, まで, へ), は stacks after it:

• 私が -> 私は | 本を -> 本は
• 部屋に -> 部屋には | 日本で -> 日本では | 母と -> 母とは

Step 6 - Say the topic once, then drop it

Once a topic is established it is simply not repeated. Japanese has no obligatory pronoun, so the following clauses have no visible subject at all - this is called zero anaphora, and it is the normal, native pattern:

• 山田さんは学生です。毎日大学へ行きます。 (Yamada-san wa gakusei desu. Mainichi daigaku e ikimasu.) - Yamada is a student. [He] goes to university every day.

Repeating 山田さんは in the second sentence would sound as if you had switched to a different Yamada. Likewise, drop 私は after you have said it once.

Forms & patterns

は or が - the decision table:

Replace or stack:

Examples

• 私は田中です。 (Watashi wa Tanaka desu.) - I am Tanaka.
• あの人は先生ですか。 (Ano hito wa sensei desu ka.) - Is that person a teacher?
• 誰が来ますか。 (Dare ga kimasu ka.) - Who is coming?
• 山田さんが来ます。 (Yamada-san ga kimasu.) - Yamada is coming.
• 公園に猫がいます。 (Kōen ni neko ga imasu.) - There is a cat in the park.
• 私は日本語が分かります。 (Watashi wa Nihongo ga wakarimasu.) - I understand Japanese.
• 田中さんはピアノが上手です。 (Tanaka-san wa piano ga jōzu desu.) - Tanaka is good at the piano.
• 象は鼻が長いです。 (Zō wa hana ga nagai desu.) - Elephants have long trunks.
• 私の部屋にはテレビがあります。 (Watashi no heya ni wa terebi ga arimasu.) - In my room there is a television.
• 教室では日本語を話します。 (Kyōshitsu de wa Nihongo o hanashimasu.) - In the classroom we speak Japanese.

Common mistakes

• 私が学生です。 (Watashi ga gakusei desu.) -> 私は学生です。 (Watashi wa gakusei desu.) - a plain self-introduction takes は; が would mean I am the one who is the student (as opposed to these other people).
• 私は日本語を分かります。 (Watashi wa Nihongo o wakarimasu.) -> 私は日本語が分かります。 (Watashi wa Nihongo ga wakarimasu.) - 分かる takes が, however much English understand looks transitive.
• 猫を好きです。 (Neko o suki desu.) -> 猫が好きです。 (Neko ga suki desu.) - 好き is not a verb but a na-adjective, so what you like is its subject: が.
• 誰は来ますか。 (Dare wa kimasu ka.) -> 誰が来ますか。 (Dare ga kimasu ka.) - a question word is unknown information and can never be a topic.
• 私の部屋はテレビがあります。 (Watashi no heya wa terebi ga arimasu.) -> 私の部屋にはテレビがあります。 (Watashi no heya ni wa terebi ga arimasu.) - は replaces が and を only; a location keeps its に and lets は stack on top.

Tips

• Translate は as “as for”, not as “is”. As for me, student. Clumsy English, but it stops you from treating は as a verb or a subject marker.
• The question test. Ask which word the sentence is answering. If the news is who or what, that word takes が. If the news is what happened about something already known, that something takes は.
• The が-list is short - learn it with the particle attached. 〜が好き, 〜が上手, 〜が分かる, 〜がある, 〜がほしい. Five chunks cover most of A1.
• Silence is grammatical. After the topic is set, a Japanese sentence with no visible subject is not incomplete - it is correct. Adding 私は to every line is the clearest mark of a beginner.

In short

Japanese marks a noun’s job with a particle placed after it, not with word order. を (romanized o) marks the thing the verb acts on, に marks a point you aim at - a goal, a place of existence, a moment on the clock, a recipient - and で marks the setting or the tool: where an action is performed and what you perform it with.

The rule

Every noun in a Japanese sentence carries a small tag that says what it is doing. Learn the tag together with the verb, because the verb decides which tag it wants.

Step 1 - を marks what the verb acts on. The basic pattern is Noun + を + Verb.

• パンを食べます (pan o tabemasu) - “eat bread”. The bread is what gets eaten.
• Two further jobs, both with intransitive motion verbs: the space a movement passes through or along (道を歩きます michi o arukimasu - walk along the road, 公園を散歩します kōen o sanpo shimasu - stroll through the park, 橋を渡ります hashi o watarimasu - cross the bridge), and the space a movement leaves (家を出ます ie o demasu - leave the house, 電車を降ります densha o orimasu - get off the train).
• を is only a particle. It never starts a word, and it is written o, never “wo”.

Step 2 - に marks a point. Think of a single dot on a map, on a clock, or on a list of people. Its main uses:

• destination / goal: 学校に行きます (gakkō ni ikimasu) - go to school.
• place of existence, with あります／います: 東京にいます (Tōkyō ni imasu) - be in Tokyo.
• point in time: 七時に起きます (shichi-ji ni okimasu) - get up at seven.
• recipient (indirect object): 友達に手紙を書きます (tomodachi ni tegami o kakimasu) - write a letter to a friend.
• purpose of going/coming, as ます-stem + に + 行きます／来ます／帰ります: 食べに行きます (tabe ni ikimasu) - go in order to eat. Drop the ます and add に: 食べます -> 食べに, 見ます -> 見に.
• rate: 週に三回 (shū ni san-kai) - three times a week.

Step 3 - で marks the setting or the means.

• place where an action happens: 図書館で勉強します (toshokan de benkyō shimasu) - study at the library.
• means / instrument / language: 電車で行きます (densha de ikimasu) - go by train; 日本語で話します (nihongo de hanashimasu) - speak in Japanese.
• material: 木で作ります (ki de tsukurimasu) - make it out of wood.
• cause: 病気で休みます (byōki de yasumimasu) - be off because of illness.
• scope of a comparison: 日本でいちばん高い山 (Nihon de ichiban takai yama) - the highest mountain in Japan.

Step 4 - for a place, ask “target or stage?” If the verb is 行きます・来ます・帰ります・います・あります (arrival or existence), the place is a point: に. If the verb is anything you do there, the place is a stage: で.

Step 5 - for a time, ask “clock or calendar?” A time you could point to on a clock or a calendar takes に. A time defined relative to now (今日, 明日, 来週), a regular interval (毎日, 毎朝) and the question word いつ take no particle at all.

Forms & patterns

を - what the verb acts on:

に - a point you aim at:

で - setting and means:

The contrasts that decide the particle:

Time words - which ones take に:

ごろ marks an approximate point in time (三時ごろ san-ji goro - around three), ぐらい an approximate quantity or duration (三時間ぐらい san-jikan gurai - about three hours); you cannot say 三時間ごろ. After ごろ the に is normally dropped, though keeping it is not wrong: 三時ごろ帰ります (san-ji goro kaerimasu) - I go home around three.

Examples

• 毎朝七時に起きます。 (Maiasa shichi-ji ni okimasu.) - I get up at seven every morning.
• 八時に家を出ます。 (Hachi-ji ni ie o demasu.) - I leave the house at eight.
• バスで会社に行きます。 (Basu de kaisha ni ikimasu.) - I go to the office by bus.
• 図書館で日本語を勉強します。 (Toshokan de nihongo o benkyō shimasu.) - I study Japanese at the library.
• 友達に手紙を書きました。 (Tomodachi ni tegami o kakimashita.) - I wrote a letter to my friend.
• 母は今台所にいます。 (Haha wa ima daidokoro ni imasu.) - My mother is in the kitchen now.
• 朝、公園を散歩します。 (Asa, kōen o sanpo shimasu.) - In the morning I take a walk through the park.
• 次の駅で電車を降ります。 (Tsugi no eki de densha o orimasu.) - I get off the train at the next station.
• 週に三回プールで泳ぎます。 (Shū ni san-kai pūru de oyogimasu.) - I swim in the pool three times a week.
• 富士山は日本でいちばん高い山です。 (Fujisan wa Nihon de ichiban takai yama desu.) - Mt. Fuji is the highest mountain in Japan.

Common mistakes

• レストランに食べます -> レストランで食べます (resutoran de tabemasu) - a place where an action is performed takes で; に with a place only marks a goal you move to or where something exists.
• 道に歩きます -> 道を歩きます (michi o arukimasu) - the road is the space you move through, not a point you arrive at, so it takes を.
• 友達を会います -> 友達に会います (tomodachi ni aimasu) - English “meet someone” looks transitive, but 会います takes に. Same trap with 電車に乗ります (densha ni norimasu - get on the train).
• 今日に行きます -> 今日行きます (kyō ikimasu) - time words defined relative to now (今日, 明日, 来週), regular intervals (毎日) and the question word いつ take no particle.
• 日本にいちばん高い山 -> 日本でいちばん高い山 (Nihon de ichiban takai yama) - the area inside which you compare is a scope, and scope is で.

Tips

• One question settles most place particles: is the noun a target or a stage? Target (go to, come to, be at) -> に. Stage (work, study, eat, play, buy) -> で. The に verbs are a short list worth memorising: 行きます, 来ます, 帰ります, います, あります, 住みます, 着きます, 通います.
• を is o in romaji and nothing else. 本を読みます = hon o yomimasu, never “hon wo yomimasu” - just as the topic particle は is wa and へ is e.
• Several verbs take に where English gives a plain object: 友達に会います (meet a friend), 電車に乗ります (get on a train), 先生に聞きます (ask the teacher). Memorise the particle as part of the verb, the way you memorise a preposition in English.
• で also covers “in what form”: 日本語で (in Japanese), えんぴつで (with a pencil), 一人で (hitori de - alone, by oneself). If you can rephrase the English as “by means of”, the particle is で.

In short

These six little words do most of the connecting work in a Japanese sentence: へ (e) points you toward a destination, と (to) means “and” or “with”, も (mo) means “too”, の (no) glues two nouns together, and から / まで (kara / made) mark a starting point and an end point in time or space. Each one follows the word it applies to, never precedes it.

The rule

へ - direction. Attach へ to a place noun to say “toward, to”: Place + へ + motion verb. It is written with the kana へ but pronounced e, exactly like え - one of only three particles with a spelling that does not match its sound (は = wa, へ = e, を = o).

へ vs に. With 行きます (ikimasu, go), 来ます (kimasu, come) and 帰ります (kaerimasu, return) both particles work and the difference is small: へ stresses the direction you head in, に stresses the destination you arrive at. Everywhere else に owns the job alone - arrival into something (部屋に入ります heya ni hairimasu, I enter the room), the landing point of an action (椅子に座ります isu ni suwarimasu, I sit on the chair), the recipient of giving. So へ is the narrower of the two: for destinations に does everything へ does and much more. The one job that belongs to へ alone is taking の to modify a noun - 母への手紙 (haha e no tegami) is fine, 母にの手紙 is impossible.

と - three jobs.

• Step 1 - “and” between nouns. Noun + と + Noun: パンと卵 (pan to tamago, bread and eggs). This と is exhaustive - it claims the list is complete. For an open, “for example” list Japanese uses や (ya), which arrives later.
• Step 2 - “with” (companion). Person + と + verb: 友達と行きます (tomodachi to ikimasu, I go with a friend).
• Step 3 - the partner of a reciprocal verb. Verbs that need two sides mark the other side with と, never を: 結婚します (kekkon shimasu, marry) and けんかします (kenka shimasu, quarrel) take と and nothing else. 会います (aimasu, meet), 話します (hanashimasu, talk) and 約束します (yakusoku shimasu, promise) take either particle: に is the plain one-way version you meet first (友達に会います tomodachi ni aimasu, I meet a friend), and と adds the sense of both sides doing it together.

Never use と to mean “and” between sentences or adjectives. In its “and” job と links nouns only. English “cheap and delicious” cannot be 安いとおいしい; Japanese joins predicates with verb and adjective forms taught later. (と does attach to whole clauses in its other jobs - quotation and the conditional - but those are separate particles that happen to share the kana, and they come much later.)

も - “too, also”. も is not a case particle but a replacing particle. It kicks out は, が and を and stands in their place, but it politely queues up after に, で, と, から and まで. So 私は -> 私も, 本を -> 本も, but 京都に -> 京都にも. Doubled up, 〜も〜も means “both … and …” in a positive sentence and “neither … nor …” with a negative verb.

の - the noun connector. Noun1 + の + Noun2 makes Noun1 describe Noun2: possession (私の本 watashi no hon, my book), affiliation, material, topic (日本語の先生 nihongo no sensei, a teacher of Japanese). Chains are normal and read left to right, each の narrowing the next: 東京の大学の学生 (Tōkyō no daigaku no gakusei, a student at a Tokyo university). の is also a pro-form standing for an omitted noun, like English “one”: 赤いの (akai no, the red one), 私の (watashi no, mine).

から / まで - from and to. から marks a starting point and まで an end point, in time (九時から kuji kara, from nine) and in space (駅から eki kara, from the station). They pair up freely: 東京から大阪まで (Tōkyō kara Ōsaka made, from Tokyo to Osaka). Watch the difference between まで (continuing up to a point) and までに (a deadline: be done by that point).

Compound particles. To hang a へ/から/と phrase on a noun, add の: への (to), からの (from), との (with): 母への手紙 (haha e no tegami, a letter to my mother), 友達からのメール (tomodachi kara no mēru, an email from a friend), 先生との話 (sensei to no hanashi, a talk with the teacher).

Forms & patterns

The six particles at a glance:

も: what it replaces and what it follows:

から / まで in time and space:

の joining nouns, and standing in for one:

Examples

• 来週、京都へ行きます。 (Raishū, Kyōto e ikimasu.) - Next week I am going to Kyoto.
• パンと卵を買います。 (Pan to tamago o kaimasu.) - I will buy bread and eggs.
• 友達と映画を見ました。 (Tomodachi to eiga o mimashita.) - I watched a film with a friend.
• 姉は田中さんと結婚しました。 (Ane wa Tanaka-san to kekkon shimashita.) - My older sister married Mr Tanaka.
• 私も学生です。 (Watashi mo gakusei desu.) - I am a student too.
• 肉も魚も食べます。 (Niku mo sakana mo tabemasu.) - I eat both meat and fish.
• 山田さんにも電話をしました。 (Yamada-san ni mo denwa o shimashita.) - I phoned Mr Yamada too.
• 私は東京の大学の学生です。 (Watashi wa Tōkyō no daigaku no gakusei desu.) - I am a student at a university in Tokyo.
• その赤いのをください。 (Sono akai no o kudasai.) - Please give me that red one.
• 銀行は九時から三時までです。 (Ginkō wa kuji kara sanji made desu.) - The bank is open from nine until three.

Common mistakes

• 京都え行きます。 -> 京都へ行きます。 (Kyōto e ikimasu.) - the direction particle is pronounced e, but it is always written with the kana へ, never え.
• 私はも学生です。 -> 私も学生です。 (Watashi mo gakusei desu.) - も replaces は, が and を; it never stands next to them.
• 山田さんもに電話をしました。 -> 山田さんにも電話をしました。 (Yamada-san ni mo denwa o shimashita.) - with に, で, と, から the order is fixed: case particle first, も second.
• 日本語先生です。 -> 日本語の先生です。 (Nihongo no sensei desu.) - two separate nouns cannot simply sit side by side; の has to join them. (Fixed compounds such as 日本語学校 nihongo gakkō are single words and are learned whole.)
• レポートは金曜日まで出します。 -> レポートは金曜日までに出します。 (Repōto wa kin’yōbi made ni dashimasu.) - a deadline takes までに; plain まで would mean the handing-in continues right up to Friday.

Tips

• Remember the three “misspelled” particles as a set: は = wa, へ = e, を = o. Inside ordinary words the same kana are read normally (はな hana, flower), so it is only the particle use that shifts.
• Think of も as a suitcase that swaps places with は/が/を but stacks on top of everything else - にも, でも, とも, からも. Saying it out loud in that order fixes it fast.
• English “and” is one word; Japanese splits it. Use と for nouns and only nouns, and expect や for “things like A and B”. Joining two sentences needs a verb form, not a particle.
• Do not translate の as “of” and stop there. The order is the mirror image of English: the modifier always comes first, so “a teacher of Japanese” is 日本語の先生, and reading a chain left to right (東京の大学の学生) tells you exactly which noun is the real head - the last one.

In short

Every Japanese verb belongs to one of three groups, and the group tells you how to cut the dictionary form down to its ます-stem. Onto that stem you snap one of exactly four polite endings: ます (non-past), ません (non-past negative), ました (past), ませんでした (past negative). The verb always comes last in the sentence.

The rule

Japanese verbs do not change for person or number - there is no “I go / he goes”. All the work happens at the end of the word, and the sentence is built Subject - Object - Verb (SOV): 私はパンを食べます (Watashi wa pan o tabemasu, “I eat bread”). Whatever else you add, the verb closes the sentence.

To build the polite form, work in three steps.

Step 1 - Identify the group. Dictionaries list verbs in the dictionary form (辞書形), which always ends in the vowel -u.

• Group I (五段動詞, “godan”, u-verbs) - everything that ends in something other than る: 書く kaku, 話す hanasu, 飲む nomu, 買う kau, 待つ matsu. Plus many verbs that do end in る.
• Group II (一段動詞, “ichidan”, ru-verbs) - the stem ends in the vowel -e or -i and then る: 食べる taberu, 見る miru, 起きる okiru, 寝る neru.
• Group III - two irregulars only: する suru (“do”) and 来る kuru (“come”).

The only genuinely tricky case is a verb ending in る. If the vowel before る is a, u or o (作る tsukuru, 乗る noru, 分かる wakaru), it is always Group I. If the vowel is e or i, it is usually Group II - but a small set of very common verbs are Group I traps and must be memorised:

帰る kaeru (go home), 入る hairu (enter), 走る hashiru (run), 知る shiru (know), 切る kiru (cut), 要る iru (need).

Step 2 - Make the ます-stem (ます形の語幹, also called 連用形).

• Group I: change the final -u to -i, staying inside the same kana column: 書く -> 書き kaki, 飲む -> 飲み nomi. Watch the two kana whose consonant changes in romaji: つ -> ち (tsu -> chi) and す -> し (su -> shi). A 〜う verb simply takes い: 買う -> 買い kai.
• Group II: just drop る: 食べる -> 食べ tabe, 見る -> 見 mi.
• Irregulars: する -> し shi, 来る -> 来 ki. Note that the kanji 来 is read ku in 来る but ki in 来ます - the kanji stays, the reading moves.

Step 3 - Attach one of the four endings. The pattern is ます-stem + ます / ません / ました / ませんでした. Nothing else changes, in any group.

Two tenses, four cells. Japanese has a non-past and a past, not a present and a future. 行きます covers both “I go (regularly)” and “I will go (tomorrow)”; context or a time word decides. Likewise ました covers “ate” and “have eaten”. The negative past is ませんでした - a frozen unit, never ×ませんだった.

The stem is a building block. The ます-stem is not only for ます. It is the attachment point for 〜たい (want to), 〜ながら (while), 〜すぎる (too much), 〜方 (way of doing) and compound verbs like 飲み始める (start drinking). Learning the stem now pays for itself for the next sixty lessons.

Forms & patterns

Group I: the final -u moves to the -i row.

The four-cell polite paradigm.

Core verbs to memorise with their group tag.

Examples

• 私は毎朝コーヒーを飲みます。 (Watashi wa maiasa kōhī o nomimasu.) - I drink coffee every morning.
• あした学校へ行きます。 (Ashita gakkō e ikimasu.) - I am going to school tomorrow.
• 田中さんは今日来ません。 (Tanaka-san wa kyō kimasen.) - Mr Tanaka is not coming today.
• きのう友達と映画を見ました。 (Kinō tomodachi to eiga o mimashita.) - Yesterday I watched a film with a friend.
• 先週は日本語を勉強しませんでした。 (Senshū wa Nihongo o benkyō shimasen deshita.) - I did not study Japanese last week.
• 父は六時に帰ります。 (Chichi wa roku-ji ni kaerimasu.) - My father comes home at six.
• 駅から家まで歩きます。 (Eki kara ie made arukimasu.) - I walk from the station to my house.
• 山田さんは毎日新聞を読みます。 (Yamada-san wa mainichi shinbun o yomimasu.) - Mr Yamada reads the newspaper every day.
• 今晩レストランで食べます。 (Konban resutoran de tabemasu.) - We are eating at a restaurant tonight.

Common mistakes

• 飲むます (nomumasu) -> 飲みます (nomimasu) - ます never attaches to the dictionary form. Cut to the stem first: 飲む -> 飲み.
• 帰ます (kaemasu) -> 帰ります (kaerimasu) - 帰る ends in -eru but is a Group I trap, so the る becomes り, it is not dropped. Same for 入る, 走る, 知る.
• 見ります (mirimasu) -> 見ます (mimasu) - 見る is genuinely Group II; do not apply the Group I -u -> -i shift to it.
• 来ります (kirimasu) -> 来ます (kimasu) - 来る is irregular: the whole る goes and the reading changes to ki.
• 私は食べますパンを。 (Watashi wa tabemasu pan o.) -> 私はパンを食べます。 (Watashi wa pan o tabemasu.) - Japanese is verb-final. Objects and time words come before the verb, never after it.

Tips

• Learn every new verb as a pair: dictionary form + ます-form (飲む／飲みます). The pair alone tells you the group, so you never have to guess later. Japanese dictionaries also tag it directly: 五段 = Group I, 上一段／下一段 = Group II.
• Group II is the smaller of the two big classes - Group I has roughly twice as many verbs - and every one of its members ends in -iru or -eru. So the working default is: if it does not end in -iru/-eru, it is Group I; if it does, it is probably Group II - unless it is one of the Group I traps listed above.
• There is no future tense. Do not hunt for a word meaning “will”: 行きます already means “I will go”. A time word (あした ashita “tomorrow”, 毎日 mainichi “every day”) does the disambiguating.
• Many ます-stems are also nouns you already need: 休む yasumu (rest) -> 休み yasumi (a holiday), 話す hanasu (speak) -> 話 hanashi (a story). Free vocabulary from grammar you already know.

In short

Japanese has two classes of adjective, and every adjective you learn belongs to exactly one of them. い-adjectives (高い takai, “high, expensive”) carry the tense and the negative in their own ending - 高かったです, 高くないです - and attach straight to a noun: 高い山 (takai yama, “a high mountain”). な-adjectives (静か shizuka, “quiet”) do not inflect at all; they behave like nouns, borrow です／でした／じゃないです from lesson 1, and need a な to sit in front of a noun: 静かな部屋 (shizuka na heya, “a quiet room”). Learn each new adjective with its class tag, the way you learn verbs with their group.

The rule

Step 1 - Decide the class. Look at the last kana of the dictionary form.

• If it ends in an い that is not part of a preceding kanji’s reading - 高い takai, 新しい atarashii, 面白い omoshiroi, where 高／新／面白 carry the meaning and the い hangs off in hiragana as okurigana - it is an い-adjective. That い is a live inflectional ending: you will remove it and replace it.
• Everything else you meet as an adjective is a な-adjective: 静か shizuka, 便利 benri, 元気 genki, 親切 shinsetsu. These are really nouns wearing an adjective’s job.

The trap is that a few な-adjectives also end in the -i sound. The ones you will actually meet at A1 are きれい kirei (pretty, clean), 有名 yūmei (famous - written in kanji it shows no い, but its reading is ゆうめい) and 嫌い kirai (disliked). Memorise those three as な-adjectives and you have covered nearly all of the danger. One structural hint helps with the first two: a real い-adjective never ends in the sound えい (-ei), so anything ending in -ei - きれい, ゆうめい, 丁寧 teinei (polite) - is a な-adjective. 嫌い has no such tell; it simply has to be learned.

Step 2 - Put it in front of a noun (attributive use). An い-adjective attaches with nothing between it and the noun. A な-adjective needs な.

い-adj + Noun: 高い山 (takai yama) - a high mountain な-adj + な + Noun: 静かな部屋 (shizuka na heya) - a quiet room

That な is the whole reason the class is called “な-adjective”. No な, and the phrase does not parse.

Step 3 - Put it at the end of a sentence (predicative use). Both classes take です for politeness, but they use it very differently.

• い-adjective: この山は高いです。 (Kono yama wa takai desu.) - This mountain is high. Here です is only a politeness marker - it is not the copula, and it never carries tense. Strip it away and 高い is still a complete plain sentence.
• な-adjective: この部屋は静かです。 (Kono heya wa shizuka desu.) - This room is quiet. The な disappears at the end of a sentence, and です is the real copula from lesson 1, carrying the tense.

Step 4 - Inflect. This is where the two classes fully separate.

い-adjectives change their own ending. Drop the final い to get the stem (高い -> 高), then add:

• negative: stem + くないです -> 高くないです (takakunai desu). The stiffer variant is 高くありません (takaku arimasen).
• past: stem + かったです -> 高かったです (takakatta desu).
• past negative: stem + くなかったです -> 高くなかったです (takakunakatta desu).

Notice that the past lands inside the adjective and です stays unchanged. There is no ×高いでした.

な-adjectives change nothing. They simply take the noun-predicate endings you already know: 静かです／静かじゃないです／静かでした／静かじゃなかったです. If you can conjugate 学生です, you can conjugate every な-adjective in the language for free.

The one irregular: いい. いい ii (“good”) inflects from its older form よい yoi. The non-past is いい, everything else is built on よ:

いいです -> よくないです yokunai desu -> よかったです yokatta desu -> よくなかったです yokunakatta desu. Never ×いくないです, ×いかったです.

This spreads to compounds containing it: かっこいい kakkoii (cool) -> かっこよかった kakkoyokatta.

Step 5 - Link two adjectives. To say “cheap and tasty” you cannot just put two predicates side by side. Each class has its own linking form:

• い-adj: replace い with くて -> 安い -> 安くて. 安くて、おいしいです。 (Yasukute, oishii desu.) - It is cheap and tasty.
• な-adj (and nouns): add で -> 静か -> 静かで. 静かで、きれいです。 (Shizuka de, kirei desu.) - It is quiet and pretty.

Only the last adjective in the chain takes です and carries the tense; everything before it is in くて／で. いい links as よくて yokute, as expected.

好き, 嫌い, 上手, 下手 take が, not を. A small group of な-adjectives describes a feeling or an ability about something. Because they are adjectives and not verbs, the thing involved is marked with が, even where English uses a direct object:

X は Y が 好きです。 - 私は魚が好きです。 (Watashi wa sakana ga suki desu.) - I like fish.

Say ×魚を好きです and you have used the object particle with a word that is not a verb. Same for 嫌い (dislike), 上手 (be good at), 下手 (be bad at), and later 分かる and the potential forms.

あまり and 全然 demand a negative. Two very common degree adverbs are grammatically bound to a negative ending: あまり amari (“not very”) and 全然 zenzen (“not at all”). あまり高くないです。 (Amari takakunai desu.) - It is not very expensive. 全然おいしくなかったです。 (Zenzen oishikunakatta desu.) - It was not tasty at all. Pair both with a negative ending in your own sentences. (You will hear casual 全然大丈夫です, “totally fine”, with a positive - that is a colloquial modern extension of 全然, not the pattern taught here. あまり does appear before a positive, but then it is a different sense - あまり(に) + positive means “excessively”, never “not very”. For the “not very” meaning taught here the negative ending is obligatory.)

Adverbs, in one line (preview). The same stems make adverbs: い-adjectives take く (早い -> 早く hayaku, “early, quickly”), な-adjectives take に (静か -> 静かに shizuka ni, “quietly”). Full treatment in Adverbs of frequency and degree.

Forms & patterns

The master table - every slot, both classes.

The stiffer polite variants (same meaning, more formal - the ないです column above is the everyday one).

The irregular いい／よい.

Core adjectives, tagged by class. Learn the tag with the word.

Examples

• 富士山は高い山です。 (Fujisan wa takai yama desu.) - Mount Fuji is a high mountain.
• このかばんは高くないです。 (Kono kaban wa takakunai desu.) - This bag is not expensive.
• 昨日は暑かったです。 (Kinō wa atsukatta desu.) - Yesterday was hot.
• 先週はあまり忙しくなかったです。 (Senshū wa amari isogashikunakatta desu.) - I was not very busy last week.
• これは静かな部屋です。 (Kore wa shizuka na heya desu.) - This is a quiet room.
• この町は静かできれいです。 (Kono machi wa shizuka de kirei desu.) - This town is quiet and pretty.
• その店は安くておいしいです。 (Sono mise wa yasukute oishii desu.) - That restaurant is cheap and tasty.
• 昨日の天気はよかったです。 (Kinō no tenki wa yokatta desu.) - Yesterday’s weather was good.
• キムさんは日本語が上手です。 (Kimu-san wa Nihongo ga jōzu desu.) - Ms Kim is good at Japanese.
• その映画は全然面白くなかったです。 (Sono eiga wa zenzen omoshirokunakatta desu.) - That film was not interesting at all.

Common mistakes

• 静か部屋 (shizuka heya) -> 静かな部屋 (shizuka na heya) - a な-adjective must wear its な to modify a noun. The な vanishes only when the adjective ends the sentence: 部屋は静かです。
• 高いな山 (takai na yama) -> 高い山 (takai yama) - い-adjectives never take な. Their own い already does the attaching, so adding な doubles the job.
• この山は高いでした。 (Kono yama wa takai deshita.) -> この山は高かったです。 (Kono yama wa takakatta desu.) - です carries no tense after an い-adjective. Put the past inside the word: 高い -> 高かった.
• この部屋はきれいくないです。 (Kono heya wa kireikunai desu.) -> この部屋はきれいじゃないです。 (Kono heya wa kirei ja nai desu.) - きれい ends in the kana い but is a な-adjective, so it negates like a noun. Same for 嫌い and 有名.
• 私は日本語を上手です。 (Watashi wa Nihongo o jōzu desu.) -> 私は日本語が上手です。 (Watashi wa Nihongo ga jōzu desu.) - を marks the object of a verb. 上手, 好き, 嫌い and 下手 are adjectives, and what they are about is marked with が.

Tips

• Tag every new adjective the moment you meet it - write it as 静か(な) with the な in brackets, the way dictionaries do. The bracketed な is the entire class label, and it stops the きれい／有名 trap from ever catching you.
• な-adjectives are nouns in disguise. If you already know 学生です / 学生じゃないです / 学生でした / 学生じゃなかったです from Noun predicates with です, you know the whole な-adjective paradigm - just swap the noun. Only the い-class is genuinely new machinery here.
• Chant the い-class as one block: 高い - 高くない - 高かった - 高くなかった. Then swap the stem: 安い, 新しい, 面白い all run through the identical four cells. One drill covers hundreds of words.
• Two small oddities worth recognising. 同じ onaji (“same”) modifies a noun with no な: 同じ本 (onaji hon), not ×同じな本. And 大きい／小さい have alternative attributive forms 大きな／小さな (ōkina / chiisana) used only before a noun - 大きな声 (ōkina koe, “a loud voice”). Both are exceptions to recognise, not patterns to extend.

In short

Japanese has two verbs for “there is”: あります (arimasu) for things that cannot move themselves, and います (imasu) for people and animals. The frame is Place + に + Thing + が + あります／います, and if you need a more precise place you build it with a position noun: 机の上に (tsukue no ue ni) - on the desk.

The rule

Step 1 - choose the verb by animacy, not by English. English uses one verb (“there is”) for everything; Japanese splits it in two.

• います - anything that moves under its own power: people (学生がいます gakusei ga imasu - there are students), animals, insects.
• あります - everything else: objects, buildings, plants and trees (a tree is alive but rooted, so 木があります ki ga arimasu), and also events (会議があります kaigi ga arimasu - there is a meeting) and abstract things (時間があります jikan ga arimasu - there is time).

Step 2 - use the existence frame. The pattern is Place + に + Thing + が + あります／います.

• に marks the place of existence. Not で - で is for a place where an action is performed.
• The thing that exists is marked with が, because it is new information being introduced.
• The negatives are simply ありません / いません, and the past is ありました / いました.

Step 3 - flip the order when the thing is already known. The two framings carry different information structure, and picking the wrong one is the commonest fluency error at this level.

• 〜に〜があります (place first, thing marked が): the place is given, the thing is new. This answers “What is in the room?” - 部屋にテレビがあります (Heya ni terebi ga arimasu).
• 〜は〜にあります (thing first, marked は): the thing is given, the place is new. This answers “Where is the bank?” - 銀行は駅の前にあります (Ginkō wa eki no mae ni arimasu).

So the rule of thumb: whatever you are telling the listener goes late and takes が; whatever you are both already talking about goes first and takes は.

Step 4 - build the place with a position noun. A position noun is an ordinary noun meaning “top”, “inside”, “front”. You attach it to the reference object with の, and the whole phrase then takes に:

Noun + の + position noun + に

机 (desk) + の + 上 (top) + に = 机の上に (tsukue no ue ni) - “on the desk”, literally “at the desk’s top”. The の and the に are both obligatory.

Step 5 - には topicalizes or contrasts a location. Add は after に to make the place the topic, or to imply a contrast with somewhere else.

• 私の部屋にはテレビがありません (Watashi no heya ni wa terebi ga arimasen) - “In my room there is no TV” (implying: elsewhere there may well be one). Note the romaji: に + は is ni wa, never “ni ha”.

Step 6 - the same verbs express possession. Japanese does not need a verb “to have”. The possessor is the topic は, and the thing possessed simply exists:

• 私は車があります (Watashi wa kuruma ga arimasu) - I have a car.
• 私は兄弟がいます (Watashi wa kyōdai ga imasu) - I have siblings (animate, so います).

The alternative is 持っています (motte imasu, “hold/own”), which asserts actual ownership or physical holding - 鍵を持っています (kagi o motte imasu). It takes を, not が, and it is not used for the family you simply have: ×兄弟を持っています is wrong - say 兄弟がいます.

A preview. When you list several things that exist, you connect them with や (“and, among others”) and often close with など (“and so on”): 机の上に本やノートなどがあります (Tsukue no ue ni hon ya nōto nado ga arimasu). Full listing comes in step 30.

Forms & patterns

Which verb - the animacy test.

The polite paradigm.

The two framings.

Position nouns - all used as Noun + の + position noun + に.

Examples

• 机の上に本があります。 (Tsukue no ue ni hon ga arimasu.) - There is a book on the desk.
• 教室に学生がいます。 (Kyōshitsu ni gakusei ga imasu.) - There are students in the classroom.
• 銀行は駅の前にあります。 (Ginkō wa eki no mae ni arimasu.) - The bank is in front of the station.
• 田中さんは今事務所にいません。 (Tanaka-san wa ima jimusho ni imasen.) - Mr Tanaka is not in the office now.
• かばんの中に財布がありません。 (Kaban no naka ni saifu ga arimasen.) - There is no wallet in the bag.
• 私の部屋にはテレビがありません。 (Watashi no heya ni wa terebi ga arimasen.) - In my room, at least, there is no TV.
• 銀行と郵便局の間にコンビニがあります。 (Ginkō to yūbinkyoku no aida ni konbini ga arimasu.) - There is a convenience store between the bank and the post office.
• いすの下に猫がいました。 (Isu no shita ni neko ga imashita.) - There was a cat under the chair.
• 明日日本語の試験があります。 (Ashita nihongo no shiken ga arimasu.) - There is a Japanese exam tomorrow.
• 今日は時間がありません。 (Kyō wa jikan ga arimasen.) - I have no time today.

Common mistakes

• 部屋に猫があります -> 部屋に猫がいます (Heya ni neko ga imasu.) - a cat moves under its own power, so it is animate and takes います. The reverse trap is just as common: a tree does not move, so 木があります.
• 部屋でテレビがあります -> 部屋にテレビがあります (Heya ni terebi ga arimasu.) - existence is located with に; で is only for a place where an action is carried out.
• 机の上本があります -> 机の上に本があります (Tsukue no ue ni hon ga arimasu.) - the position noun does not replace the particle. You still need に after 上, and の before it.
• 銀行がどこにありますか -> 銀行はどこにありますか (Ginkō wa doko ni arimasu ka.) - the bank is the thing you already have in mind, so it is the topic は; が would wrongly put the new information on the bank itself.
• 私は車を持ちます -> 私は車を持っています (Watashi wa kuruma o motte imasu.) - possession is a state, so 持つ must be in the 〜ています form; the bare 持ちます is the one-off act of taking something in your hand or carrying it, not the state of owning it. For people, use いる instead: 兄弟がいます.

Tips

• The animacy mnemonic: can it decide to walk away? If yes, います. If no, あります. That single question resolves people, animals, plants, cars, buildings and appointments correctly. The famous grey zone is vehicles: a parked or merely available taxi is タクシーがあります, while タクシーがいます construes it as a mover, on the road or under way.
• English “have” splits into three Japanese patterns. Existence-possession of things: 車があります. Of people: 兄弟がいます. Physically holding or owning something: 鍵を持っています - and note the particle change from が to を.
• Position nouns are ordinary nouns, so they behave like any other place word. そば and 近く (chikaku) both mean “near” (そば is closer, 近く is “in the general vicinity”), and both take the same の frame: 学校の近くに (gakkō no chikaku ni). The final particle is not fixed to に either - swap in で when something happens there rather than exists there: 駅の前で待ちます (eki no mae de machimasu) - I will wait in front of the station.
• ある is irregular where you least expect it: its plain negative is ない (nai), never ×あらない. The polite ありません hides this, but the irregularity resurfaces the moment you meet plain forms in step 18.

In short

In Japanese you almost never say a bare number: you say number + counter, and the counter depends on the shape or type of the thing counted (人 for people, 枚 for flat things, 本 for long things). The number phrase floats after the noun and its particle, right before the verb: りんごを三つ買いました (Ringo o mittsu kaimashita, “I bought three apples”).

The rule

Step 1 - Learn the two number series. Japanese has a Chinese-derived (Sino) series used with almost every counter, and a small native series 一つ〜十 used on its own for objects up to ten.

Three Sino numbers have two readings, and which one you use is fixed by the counter, not by choice:

• 四 = よん yon by default, but し shi in 四月 shigatsu (April), and よ yo in 四時 yoji (4 o’clock) and 四人 yonin (4 people).
• 七 = なな nana by default, but しち shichi in 七時 shichiji (7 o’clock) and 七月 shichigatsu (July).
• 九 = きゅう kyū by default, but く ku in 九時 kuji (9 o’clock) and 九月 kugatsu (September).

Step 2 - Group large numbers by FOUR digits, not three. English breaks at thousand / million / billion; Japanese breaks at 万 man (10,000), 億 oku (100,000,000). So 10,000 is 一万 ichiman - literally “one man” - and there is no word for “ten thousand” as a unit of ten hundreds. Note that 百 hyaku and 千 sen stand alone (100 = 百, 1,000 = 千), but 万 always takes 一: 一万.

Step 3 - Pick the counter. The pattern is Number + Counter, written as one unit: 三本 sanbon, 五人 gonin, 二枚 nimai. If you truly do not know the counter for a small object, fall back on the native series 〜つ - it is the universal safety net up to ten.

Step 4 - Apply the sound changes. These are not optional; they are how the words are pronounced.

• Counters starting with h- (本, 匹, 分) become p- after 1, 6, 8, 10: 一本 ippon, 六本 roppon, 十本 juppon. After 3 and 何, 本 and 匹 go b- (三本 sanbon, 何本 nanbon, 三匹 sanbiki) - but 分 stays p-: 三分 sanpun, 何分 nanpun.
• Counters starting with k- or s- (回, 階, 冊, 歳) double the consonant after 1, 8, 10: 一回 ikkai, 八冊 hassatsu, 十歳 jussai. The k- ones double after 6 as well (六回 rokkai, 六階 rokkai); the s- ones do not (六冊 rokusatsu, 六歳 rokusai). 階 also voices to g- after 3 and 何: 三階 sangai, 何階 nangai.
• Counters starting with a voiced sound or a vowel (枚, 台, 円, 番, 人) trigger no sound change at all: 一枚 ichimai, 六台 rokudai, 十円 jūen. (人 still has the two lexical irregulars 一人 hitori and 二人 futari - see the table below.)

Step 5 - Ask with 何 + counter. 何 is read なん nan here: 何人 nannin (how many people), 何枚 nanmai, 何時 nanji (what time), 何曜日 nan’yōbi (what day of the week). For the 〜つ series the question word is いくつ ikutsu.

Step 6 - Place the quantity correctly. The number phrase is an adverb, so it takes no particle of its own and sits between the marked noun and the verb: Noun + を／が + Quantity + Verb. 水を二本買います (Mizu o nihon kaimasu, “I will buy two bottles of water”). Putting it before the noun with の (二本の水) is grammatical but marked and rare in speech.

Step 7 - ごろ marks a POINT, ぐらい marks an AMOUNT. 〜ごろ goro (“around”) attaches to a clock time or a date: 三時ごろ sanji goro. 〜ぐらい／くらい gurai / kurai (“about”) attaches to a quantity or a duration: 三時間ぐらい sanjikan gurai, 千円ぐらい sen’en gurai. The restriction runs one way: ごろ can never attach to a duration or an amount (×三時間ごろ), while a clock time or a date takes either - 三時ごろ and 三時ぐらい are both natural.

Duration takes 〜間 kan: 三時間 sanjikan (3 hours), 二週間 nishūkan (2 weeks), 二年間 ninenkan (2 years). Months are the exception - 〜か月 -kagetsu is already a duration counter, so 一か月 ikkagetsu (1 month) needs no 間 (一か月間 exists but is optional).

Forms & patterns

The two number series.

Building big numbers (note the sound changes in the hundreds and thousands).

Core counters and their irregular cells.

Age 20 has its own word: 二十歳 hatachi. The 4, 7 and 9 cells follow Step 1: 四人 yonin, 四本 yonhon, 七人 shichinin / nananin, 九本 kyūhon.

Telling the time: 〜時 and 〜分.

Add 半 han for the half hour (七時半 shichiji han, half past seven), and 午前 gozen (a.m.) / 午後 gogo (p.m.) before the hour: 午後三時 gogo sanji.

The calendar.

From the 11th on, the pattern is regular Sino + にち (十一日 jūichinichi), except 14th, 20th and 24th (二十四日 nijūyokka). Years use 年 nen: 二〇二六年 nisen-nijūroku-nen, 何年 nannen.

Examples

• 教室に学生が五人います。 (Kyōshitsu ni gakusei ga gonin imasu.) - There are five students in the classroom.
• りんごを三つ買いました。 (Ringo o mittsu kaimashita.) - I bought three apples.
• 毎朝七時に起きます。 (Maiasa shichiji ni okimasu.) - I get up at seven every morning.
• 会議は四時半から始まります。 (Kaigi wa yoji han kara hajimarimasu.) - The meeting starts at half past four.
• 切手を五枚ください。 (Kitte o gomai kudasai.) - Five stamps, please.
• この本は千五百円です。 (Kono hon wa sen-gohyaku-en desu.) - This book is 1,500 yen.
• 金曜日は九時ごろ帰ります。 (Kin’yōbi wa kuji goro kaerimasu.) - On Friday I go home around nine.
• 日本語を二年間勉強しました。 (Nihongo o ninenkan benkyō shimashita.) - I studied Japanese for two years.
• 駅まで十五分ぐらいかかります。 (Eki made jūgofun gurai kakarimasu.) - It takes about fifteen minutes to the station.
• 私の部屋は三階です。 (Watashi no heya wa sangai desu.) - My room is on the third floor.

Common mistakes

• 十千円 (jūsen-en) -> 一万円 (ichiman-en) - Japanese groups digits in fours, so 10,000 is “one 万”, never “ten 千”. Retrain the comma: 25,000 is 二万五千.
• よんじに会いましょう。 (Yonji ni aimashō.) -> 四時に会いましょう。 (Yoji ni aimashō.) - 4 o’clock is yoji. Likewise 9 o’clock is kuji, not kyūji, and 7 o’clock is shichiji.
• ペンが三つあります。 (Pen ga mittsu arimasu.) -> ペンが三本あります。 (Pen ga sanbon arimasu.) - Long thin objects take 本, and 3 triggers the b-sound: sanbon, not sanhon.
• りんごを三つを買いました。 (Ringo o mittsu o kaimashita.) -> りんごを三つ買いました。 (Ringo o mittsu kaimashita.) - The floating quantity is adverbial and takes no particle. One を per object, and it stays on the noun.
• 二時間ごろ勉強しました。 (Nijikan goro benkyō shimashita.) -> 二時間ぐらい勉強しました。 (Nijikan gurai benkyō shimashita.) - ごろ only attaches to a point in time (三時ごろ); a length of time needs ぐらい.

Tips

• 一人 hitori and 二人 futari are the only cells of the 人 counter that drop にん altogether - from three on it is Number + にん (四人 yonin, 七人 shichinin ／ nananin). They are also the everyday words for “alone” and “a couple of people”, so you will meet them constantly.
• Watch the 回／階 homophone pair: 二回 nikai is “twice”, 二階 nikai is “the second floor” - identical in sound, distinguished only by kanji and context. And Japanese counts the ground floor as 一階 ikkai, so the British “first floor” is 二階.
• 十分 is a spelling trap: read juppun it means “ten minutes”, read jūbun it means “enough, sufficient”. The kanji are the same.
• When you blank on a counter, buy time with 〜つ for objects and 〜人 for people. Native speakers will understand 三つ for almost any small item even when a more specific counter exists - but never use 〜つ for people.

In short

Japanese ends sentences with a small particle that says how your information relates to the listener’s. ね (ne) reaches for agreement about something you both perceive; よ (yo) delivers something the listener does not yet know; よね (yo ne) says “I think X - confirm it for me”. These are not decoration: leaving them all off makes you sound curt, and sprinkling よ everywhere makes you sound pushy.

The rule

Step 1 - Attach them after the finished polite sentence

A sentence-final particle is the last thing in the sentence. Build the normal polite sentence first, then add the particle - nothing else changes.

Polite sentence + ね／よ／よね

• 暑いです。 (Atsui desu.) It’s hot. -> 暑いですね。 (Atsui desu ne.) It’s hot, isn’t it?
• 会議は三時です。 (Kaigi wa sanji desu.) -> 会議は三時ですよ。 (Kaigi wa sanji desu yo.) The meeting is at three, you know.

They stack onto です, でした, ます, ません, ました and onto 〜てください alike: ですね, ましたね, ませんよ, ますよね.

Step 2 - ね = “you know this too”

ね claims that the listener shares the information, the feeling or the perception. It is the particle of common ground. Use it when you comment on the weather you are both standing in, when you agree with what was just said, and when you confirm something you are fairly sure of.

Because it hands part of the sentence to the listener, ね also softens. A bare request or statement can sound like an order or a verdict; ね turns it into something offered rather than imposed:

• ちょっと待ってくださいね。 (Chotto matte kudasai ne.) - Wait a moment, okay?

Rising vs falling ね. Falling ね means “we both feel this” - agreement, shared perception; you are not really asking. Rising ね (ね？) means “that’s right, isn’t it?” - you are genuinely checking. Same particle, different amount of doubt.

Step 3 - よ = “you don’t know this”

よ marks the sentence as new information the listener lacks: a correction, a warning, a fact they are missing, a reassurance. It points the information outward at the hearer.

• ハンカチが落ちましたよ。 (Hankachi ga ochimashita yo.) - You dropped your handkerchief.

The flip side is the single biggest pragmatic trap for learners. If you attach よ to something the listener obviously does know - their own abilities, their own plans, their own feelings - you are telling them about themselves, which reads as pushy, know-it-all or scolding. Unsolicited advice with よ (やめたほうがいいですよ) lands much harder than the same advice with ね. When in doubt with a superior or a stranger, prefer ね or no particle at all.

Step 4 - よね = assert, then ask for confirmation

よね is よ + ね in that fixed order, and it means exactly what the parts mean: “I hold this information (よ), and you can confirm it (ね)”. Use it when you believe something but want a check.

• 明日は休みですよね。 (Ashita wa yasumi desu yo ne.) - Tomorrow is a day off, right?

The order is never reversed: ですよね exists, ですねよ does not.

Step 5 - な and かな are casual, and attach to the plain form

な is the casual cousin of ね. Talking to yourself it is simply a musing “hm, nice”: いい天気だな。 (Ii tenki da na. - Nice weather.) Aimed at another person it is casual and reads as masculine or brusque, so it is not for polite conversation.

かな (kana) means I wonder - a question aimed at yourself rather than at the listener. Lengthened to かなあ (kanā) it sounds more musing and softer.

Both attach to the plain form, not to です／ます: 雨かな (ame kana), 行くかな (iku kana) - never 降りますかな. Watch the copula: な needs だ after a noun or na-adjective (いい天気だな), but かな drops it (雨かな, not 雨だかな) - かな is か + な, and だ drops before か, just as it does in the plain question 雨か. And with verbs, dictionary form + な is the negative imperative (行くな = Don’t go.), so the musing sense after a verb leans on the lengthened なあ and on intonation. The plain form is taught in Plain forms: dictionary, ない, た, なかった; until then, treat な and かな as fixed casual phrases and keep your own sentences on ですね／ですよ.

Step 6 - か is the polite question, intonation is the casual one

か is a sentence-final particle too, but a grammatical one: it makes a question, and in polite speech it is required (see Questions with か and interrogative words). Dropping か and just raising your pitch - 元気？ (Genki?) - is casual register, not a polite shortcut. か does not stack with ね／よ in beginner sentences: ask 暑いですか。 or comment 暑いですね。, not both at once.

The casual question ending 〜の？ (どこ行くの？ Doko iku no?) belongs to the same casual register and to the explanatory 〜んです family - it is deferred to Explanatory 〜んです／〜のだ.

Step 7 - Under-use is an error too

English speakers, trained to think particles are optional flavour, often drop all of them. A bare そうです。 where a Japanese speaker would say そうですね。 sounds flat, and answering a friendly 寒いですね。 with a plain 寒いです。 sounds like you are correcting the person rather than agreeing with them. Aim for ね on shared comments and small talk, よ only when you really are supplying missing information.

Forms & patterns

Who knows what - the whole system in one table:

What each one attaches to:

Casual endings - plain form only:

Examples

• 今日は暑いですね。 (Kyō wa atsui desu ne.) - It’s hot today, isn’t it?
• この店のコーヒーはおいしいですね。 (Kono mise no kōhī wa oishii desu ne.) - The coffee at this shop is delicious, isn’t it?
• ちょっと待ってくださいね。 (Chotto matte kudasai ne.) - Please wait a moment, okay?
• ハンカチが落ちましたよ。 (Hankachi ga ochimashita yo.) - You dropped your handkerchief.
• すみません、それは私のかばんですよ。 (Sumimasen, sore wa watashi no kaban desu yo.) - Excuse me, that one is my bag.
• 電車はもう出ましたよ。 (Densha wa mō demashita yo.) - The train has already left.
• 明日は休みですよね。 (Ashita wa yasumi desu yo ne.) - Tomorrow is a day off, right?
• 山田さんも来ますよね。 (Yamada-san mo kimasu yo ne.) - Mr Yamada is coming too, isn’t he?
• 明日は雨かな。 (Ashita wa ame kana.) - I wonder if it will rain tomorrow.

Common mistakes

• 「寒いですね。」「はい、寒いです。」 -> 「ええ、寒いですね。」 (Ee, samui desu ne.) - agreement is returned with ね; a bare statement sounds like you are correcting the other person, not sharing the feeling.
• 日本語が上手ですよ。 (Nihongo ga jōzu desu yo.) -> 日本語が上手ですね。 (Nihongo ga jōzu desu ne.) - よ announces news the listener lacks, so using it about their own ability sounds like a verdict handed down; compliments take ね.
• 暑いですねよ。 -> 暑いですよね。 (Atsui desu yo ne.) - the order is fixed: よ first, ね last. ねよ does not exist.
• 明日行きますかな。 -> 明日行くかな。 (Ashita iku kana.) - かな and な attach to the plain form, never to ます／です; かな is also casual, so a polite sentence would use 明日行きますか。 instead.
• 暑いですねか。 -> 暑いですか。 (Atsui desu ka.) or 暑いですね。 (Atsui desu ne.) - か asks the listener a question, ね assumes a shared answer; beginners pick one, not both.

Tips

• The one-line mnemonic: ね looks for a nod, よ delivers a package. ね says “we both know this”; よ says “here, you didn’t have this”. If the listener already has the information, よ is the wrong particle.
• よ is not an exclamation mark. English marks emphasis with punctuation and volume, so learners bolt よ onto anything they feel strongly about. In Japanese it marks an information gap, not emotion - overusing it with a teacher, a boss or a stranger reads as lecturing.
• Listen for the pitch on ね. Falling = “nice day, isn’t it” (no answer needed). Rising = “it’s at three, right?” (answer needed). Copying the fall is the fastest way to sound natural in small talk.
• な, かな and 〜の？ are register markers, not shortcuts. They signal you are speaking casually to friends or to yourself. Mixing them into a です／ます sentence is a bigger mistake than leaving them out entirely.

In short

Japanese adverbs never inflect and need no particle to hook them onto the verb - you simply drop them in before the word they modify. Learn the frequency scale from いつも itsumo (always) down to 全然 zenzen (not at all), and remember that a handful of them - あまり, 全然, ちっとも - are only half a sentence: they demand a negative verb at the end.

The rule

An adverb (副詞 fukushi) is the easiest word class in Japanese. It has no conjugation and no plural, and it needs no particle to attach it to the verb (focus particles can still be added for emphasis - 少しは sukoshi wa, いつもは itsumo wa - but that is a choice, never a requirement). The only question is where it sits, and the answer is always the same: an adverb comes before the thing it modifies, and the thing it modifies comes later in the sentence.

Step 1 - Put frequency adverbs before the verb. Because Japanese is verb-final, “before the verb” gives you a lot of freedom. All three of these are grammatical: 私はよく映画を見ます / 私は映画をよく見ます / よく私は映画を見ます (Watashi wa yoku eiga o mimasu, “I often watch films”) - the last one fronts the adverb for emphasis, so keep the adverb near its verb unless you want that. The neutral default is topic + time + frequency adverb + object + verb. What you may never do is put the adverb after the verb - ×映画を見ますよく is impossible.

Step 2 - Choose from the frequency scale. Japanese grades frequency with single words, not with “how often” phrases: いつも > たいてい > よく > 時々 > たまに > あまり〜ない > 全然〜ない > 一度も〜ない.

Step 3 - Put degree adverbs directly before the adjective. The pattern is Degree adverb + Adjective + です: とても高いです (totemo takai desu, “it is very expensive”), 少し寒いです (sukoshi samui desu, “it is a little cold”). Degree adverbs also modify verbs - 少し待ちます (sukoshi machimasu, “I will wait a bit”) - but the adjective slot is where you will use them most.

Step 4 - Derive your own adverbs from adjectives. Any adjective can become an adverb, and the rule splits by adjective class:

• い-adjective: drop the final い, add く. 早い hayai -> 早く hayaku (early, quickly); 大きい ōkii -> 大きく ōkiku (in a big way, on a large scale).
• な-adjective: add に. 静か shizuka -> 静かに shizuka ni (quietly); 上手 jōzu -> 上手に jōzu ni (skilfully).

The single irregular is いい／良い ii/yoi (good), whose adverb is よく yoku - never ×いく. This is the same よく that means “often”, which is why よく分かります means “I understand well” but よく行きます means “I go often”.

Negative-polarity adverbs. Three adverbs are grammatically incomplete on their own and force a negative predicate at the end of the sentence: あまり (not much), 全然 (not at all), ちっとも (not in the slightest). なかなか belongs here only in its “not readily” sense - with an affirmative predicate it is a perfectly good word meaning “quite, rather” (see Tips). Treat あまり as an opening bracket that only ません／ない can close: あまり食べません (amari tabemasen, “I don’t eat much”), not ×あまり食べます. This is your first taste of Japanese negative concord; the full system, with 誰も dare mo (nobody) and 何も nani mo (nothing), is handled at Indefinite and negative pronouns.

Quantity adverbs. 全部 zenbu (all of it) and みんな minna (all of them) sit directly before the verb with no particle: 全部食べました (zenbu tabemashita, “I ate all of it”).

もう and まだ. These two split by polarity rather than by meaning:

• もう + affirmative = “already”: もう食べました (mō tabemashita, “I have already eaten”).
• まだ + negative = “not yet”: まだ食べていません (mada tabete imasen, “I haven’t eaten yet”). Note the negative is 〜ていません, not ×まだ食べませんでした - the 〜ている form arrives properly three lessons on.
• まだ + affirmative = “still”: まだ会社にいます (mada kaisha ni imasu, “I am still at the office”).
• もう + negative = “not any more”: もう飲みません (mō nomimasen, “I don’t drink any more”).

Forms & patterns

The frequency scale. The percentages are rough teaching values, not rules.

Degree adverbs.

Deriving adverbs from adjectives.

Examples

• 私はいつも七時に起きます。 (Watashi wa itsumo shichi-ji ni okimasu.) - I always get up at seven.
• 朝はたいていパンを食べます。 (Asa wa taitei pan o tabemasu.) - In the morning I usually eat bread.
• 母はよく電話をします。 (Haha wa yoku denwa o shimasu.) - My mother phones often.
• 父は時々日本の映画を見ます。 (Chichi wa tokidoki Nihon no eiga o mimasu.) - My father sometimes watches Japanese films.
• この店のパンはとてもおいしいです。 (Kono mise no pan wa totemo oishii desu.) - The bread at this shop is very good.
• この部屋は少し寒いです。 (Kono heya wa sukoshi samui desu.) - This room is a little cold.
• 私はあまりお酒を飲みません。 (Watashi wa amari osake o nomimasen.) - I do not drink much alcohol.
• 去年は日本語が全然分かりませんでした。 (Kyonen wa Nihongo ga zenzen wakarimasen deshita.) - Last year I did not understand Japanese at all.
• 学生は静かに本を読みます。 (Gakusei wa shizuka ni hon o yomimasu.) - The students read books quietly.
• もう昼ご飯を食べました。 (Mō hirugohan o tabemashita.) - I have already eaten lunch.

Common mistakes

• あまり高いです。 (Amari takai desu.) -> あまり高くないです。 (Amari takakunai desu.) - あまり cannot end in an affirmative. If you mean “it is quite expensive”, the adverb you want is かなり, not あまり.
• 全然おいしいです。 (Zenzen oishii desu.) -> 全然おいしくないです。 (Zenzen oishikunai desu.) - Same trap, stronger. In standard written and polite Japanese 全然 requires a negative; the affirmative 全然大丈夫 you may hear from friends is casual slang, not something to write.
• 字を大きい書きます。 (Ji o ōkii kakimasu.) -> 字を大きく書きます。 (Ji o ōkiku kakimasu.) - To modify a verb, an い-adjective must switch its final い to く. The bare dictionary form modifies nouns only.
• 静か勉強します。 (Shizuka benkyō shimasu.) -> 静かに勉強します。 (Shizuka ni benkyō shimasu.) - A な-adjective needs に to reach a verb. Dropping it leaves a bare noun stranded in front of the verb.
• 日本語がいく分かりません。 (Nihongo ga iku wakarimasen.) -> 日本語がよく分かりません。 (Nihongo ga yoku wakarimasen.) - いい is the one irregular adjective: its adverb is よく, formed from the older stem 良い yoi.

Tips

• よく is two words in one. With a verb of understanding or ability it means “well” (よく分かります); with an action verb it means “often” (よく行きます). The verb, not the adverb, decides. If you need “often” unambiguously, 時々 and たいてい are safe.
• Hear あまり, reserve a ません. The most efficient habit at this level is to treat あまり／全然／ちっとも as the front half of a frame - the moment one leaves your mouth, the sentence is committed to ending in a negative. English has nothing equivalent, so it has to become muscle memory.
• なかなか flips meaning with polarity. Affirmative なかなかおいしいです (nakanaka oishii desu) is a compliment, “it’s really quite good”. Negative なかなか来ません (nakanaka kimasen) means “it just won’t come”. Same word, opposite feel.
• ちょっと is a social tool, not just a quantity. ちょっと待ってください is “wait a moment”, but a trailing ちょっと…… (chotto……) with no verb at all is a polite refusal - “that’s a bit…”. Japanese declines by leaving the sentence unfinished.

In short

The て-form is the universal connector of Japanese: it glues clauses together (“do this, and then that”), and with ください it makes the everyday polite request 〜てください. It has no tense and no politeness of its own - the last verb of the sentence carries both. Learn its sound changes now; half the grammar in this path is built on top of it.

The rule

The て-form is not a tense. On its own it means nothing more than “and then / and so”, so it can never end a polite sentence by itself. Its job is to leave the sentence open so that something else can attach: another clause, ください, or one of a dozen auxiliaries you will meet later.

Step 1 - Find the verb group (from lesson 7): Group I (五段), Group II (一段), or the two irregulars.

Step 2 - Apply the change.

• Group II is trivial: drop る, add て. 食べる taberu -> 食べて tabete, 見る miru -> 見て mite.
• Irregulars: する suru -> して shite, 来る kuru -> 来て kite (the kanji stays, the reading moves ku -> ki).
• Group I is where the work is. The final kana decides, and there are only five outcomes:
  • う・つ・る -> って: 買う kau -> 買って katte, 待つ matsu -> 待って matte, 作る tsukuru -> 作って tsukutte
  • ぬ・ぶ・む -> んで: 死ぬ shinu -> 死んで shinde, 遊ぶ asobu -> 遊んで asonde, 飲む nomu -> 飲んで nonde
  • く -> いて: 書く kaku -> 書いて kaite
  • ぐ -> いで: 急ぐ isogu -> 急いで isoide
  • す -> して: 話す hanasu -> 話して hanashite

Note the voicing: after ん and after the い of ぐ, the て becomes で. This is pure sound, not meaning.

The one exception: 行く iku (“go”). By the く rule it should be ×行いて; the real form is 行って itte. It is the only common irregular て-form in Group I, and it collides in sound with 言って itte (“say”, from 言う) - context separates them.

Adjectives and nouns link too. An い-adjective drops い and takes くて: 安い yasui -> 安くて yasukute. いい ii (“good”) is irregular: よくて yokute. A な-adjective or a noun takes で: 静か shizuka -> 静かで shizuka de, 学生 gakusei -> 学生で gakusei de.

Step 3 - Use it. Four jobs at this level:

1. Sequence in time. V-て、V-て、V-ます: the clauses come in real chronological order, and only the final verb shows tense and politeness. 起きて、顔を洗って、出かけます (okite, kao o aratte, dekakemasu) - “I get up, wash my face, and go out.”
2. Link states or descriptions. Adj-くて／N-で + Adj/N: 大きくて、静かです (ōkikute, shizuka desu) - “big and quiet.” Both halves must point the same way - do not use て to say “cheap but bad”; contrast has its own grammar later.
3. Cause, mainly with adjectives. Adj-くて／N-で + result: 寒くて、風邪をひきました (samukute, kaze o hikimashita) - “It was cold, so I caught a cold.” The result must be an involuntary outcome - a state, a feeling, a potential, something that simply happened to you - never a deliberate act, an order or an invitation. So ×寒くて、コートを着ました is wrong: putting on a coat is a choice, and a chosen action needs から (寒いですから、コートを着ました).
4. Manner or means. V-て + main verb: バスに乗って行きます (basu ni notte ikimasu) - “I go by bus” (literally “riding a bus, I go”).

Requests: 〜てください. Attach ください kudasai straight to the て-form: 待って + ください -> 待ってください matte kudasai (“please wait”). This is the standard polite request and also the standard instruction - a teacher, a doctor and a form all use it. Because it can sound directive, there is a politeness ladder above it, ending in 〜てくださいませんか 〜te kudasaimasen ka (“would you kindly …?”). Treat that as recognition only for now.

This is a hub, not a detail. The te-form is the base for 〜ている (progressive), 〜てから (after doing), 〜てもいい (permission), 〜てしまう (completion/regret), 〜ておく, 〜てみる, 〜てあげる／てくれる／てもらう and more. Every hour spent drilling it now is repaid many times.

Negative requests (“please don’t …”) are not built from the affirmative て-form above; they are built on the ない-form, as 〜ないでください, and are covered with permission and prohibition.

Forms & patterns

Group I: the final kana decides.

Group II, the irregulars, and the Group I traps.

Adjectives and nouns.

The request ladder.

Examples

• 朝起きて、顔を洗って、出かけます。 (Asa okite, kao o aratte, dekakemasu.) - In the morning I get up, wash my face and go out.
• 昨日は映画を見て、うちへ帰りました。 (Kinō wa eiga o mite, uchi e kaerimashita.) - Yesterday I watched a film and went home.
• ちょっと待ってください。 (Chotto matte kudasai.) - Please wait a moment.
• すみません、もう一度言ってください。 (Sumimasen, mō ichido itte kudasai.) - Excuse me, please say that once more.
• ここに名前を書いてください。 (Koko ni namae o kaite kudasai.) - Please write your name here.
• この町は静かで、きれいです。 (Kono machi wa shizuka de, kirei desu.) - This town is quiet and pretty.
• 田中さんは背が高くて、親切です。 (Tanaka-san wa se ga takakute, shinsetsu desu.) - Mr Tanaka is tall and kind.
• 昨日は忙しくて、宿題ができませんでした。 (Kinō wa isogashikute, shukudai ga dekimasen deshita.) - I was busy yesterday, so I couldn’t do my homework.
• バスに乗って、駅まで行きます。 (Basu ni notte, eki made ikimasu.) - I take the bus and go as far as the station.
• 少し手伝ってくださいませんか。 (Sukoshi tetsudatte kudasaimasen ka.) - Would you kindly help me a little?

Common mistakes

• 読んて (yonte) -> 読んで (yonde) - after ん the て is voiced to で. The whole ぬ・ぶ・む group behaves this way, and so does ぐ (急いで, not ×急いて).
• 行いて (iite) -> 行って (itte) - 行く is the one く-verb that breaks the いて rule. Every other 〜く verb is regular: 書いて, 聞いて, 歩いて.
• 食べますて、寝ます。 (Tabemasute, nemasu.) -> 食べて、寝ます。 (Tabete, nemasu.) - the て-form is built on the plain verb, never on ます. Politeness lives only on the final verb of the sentence.
• 静かくて、きれいです。 (Shizukakute, kirei desu.) -> 静かで、きれいです。 (Shizuka de, kirei desu.) - くて belongs to い-adjectives only. な-adjectives and nouns link with で.
• 暑くて、窓を開けてください。 (Atsukute, mado o akete kudasai.) -> 暑いですから、窓を開けてください。 (Atsui desu kara, mado o akete kudasai.) - a くて cause clause cannot be followed by anything you choose to do - not a request, not a command, not even a plain statement of a deliberate action (×忙しくて、タクシーに乗ります). Use から instead.

Tips

• Chant the Group I changes as three blocks: う・つ・る -> って, ぬ・ぶ・む -> んで, く -> いて／ぐ -> いで／す -> して. Say them out loud until they are reflex - you will need them at speaking speed, not at thinking speed.
• The plain past form た uses exactly the same sound changes with た／だ instead of て／で: 飲んで／飲んだ, 書いて／書いた, 行って／行った. Master the て-form now and the past plain form arrives free.
• 〜てください is not the magic word “please”. It is closer to “go ahead and do it” - fine from a shop assistant or a teacher, but pushy when you are asking a favour of a superior. For favours, softer patterns are coming.
• A て-clause is tenseless: 食べて、寝ました is all past, 食べて、寝ます is all non-past. Do not try to mark tense twice - ×食べました、寝ました reads as two separate sentences, not one flow.

In short

To say you want to do something, hang たい on the ます-stem (飲む -> 飲みたいです nomitai desu, “I want to drink”); to say you want a thing, use Nがほしいです N ga hoshii desu. Both behave like い-adjectives, so the negative is たくないです / ほしくないです, never ×たいじゃないです. Both are for your own desires only - for other people you switch to 〜たがっています / ほしがっています. To invite, use the negative question 〜ませんか, and to propose, 〜ましょう.

The rule

Wanting to do something: ます-stem + たい

Step 1 - Make the ます-stem exactly as you did for ます: 飲む -> 飲み, 食べる -> 食べ, する -> し, 来る -> 来 (ki).

Step 2 - Attach たい instead of ます. The pattern is ます-stem + たい: 飲みたい nomitai, 食べたい tabetai, したい shitai, 来たい kitai.

Step 3 - Inflect it as an い-adjective. This is the point learners miss. 〜たい is no longer a verb; it is an い-adjective ending in 〜い, so it takes the same four cells as 高い: たいです / たくないです / たかったです / たくなかったです. To stay polite you simply add です - the adjective itself carries the tense.

Object marking: が or を. With 〜たい the object of the original verb may keep を or switch to が. 水が飲みたいです Mizu ga nomitai desu and 水を飲みたいです Mizu o nomitai desu are both correct, and both have been standard for centuries. The が version pushes the thing into focus - it is the classic “it’s water I want to drink”, the stronger, more emotional reading. を keeps the sentence feeling like an ordinary action, and it is the safer choice whenever other words come between the object and 〜たい.

Wanting a thing: Nがほしい

ほしい hoshii (“wanted, desirable”) is a plain い-adjective, not a verb, and the thing wanted is its subject, marked が: 新しい車がほしいです Atarashii kuruma ga hoshii desu (“I want a new car”). Because it is an adjective, ×ほしいます does not exist, and the negative is ほしくないです hoshikunai desu. Note the split of labour: ほしい for a noun, 〜たい for an action.

The third-person restriction

Japanese treats another person’s inner feelings as something you cannot assert directly. So 〜たいです and ほしいです work for I (statement) and for you (question), but a flat statement about a third party needs a repair. There are three:

• 〜たがっている / ほしがっている - “shows signs of wanting”. The suffix がる turns the adjective into a verb, so it takes the 〜ている form, and - importantly - the object goes back to を: 田中さんは車をほしがっています。(〜ている itself is the next lesson’s topic; here just learn the shape.)
• 〜たいそうです / ほしいそうです - hearsay: you were told.
• 〜たいようです / ほしいようです - inference: it looks that way to you.

Question forms escape the restriction entirely: 何が食べたいですか Nani ga tabetai desu ka is perfectly normal, because you are asking, not asserting.

Invitations, proposals and offers

All three are built on the ます-stem, and they differ only in the ending.

• ます-stem + ませんか - the invitation. Counter-intuitively the negative question is the polite one: asking negatively leaves the listener room to say no, exactly like English “Won’t you join us?”. 一緒に行きませんか Issho ni ikimasen ka.
• ます-stem + ましょう - “let’s”. This assumes the other person is already on board, so it fits after agreement, or between people who have a shared plan. 行きましょう ikimashō.
• ます-stem + ましょうか - adding か makes it a genuine question, and it reads two ways. If only you act and the listener benefits, it is “shall I?” - an offer of help: 手伝いましょうか Tetsudaimashō ka (“Shall I help?”). If the action is joint, it is “shall we?”: 何を食べましょうか Nani o tabemashō ka (“What shall we eat?”).

一緒に issho ni (“together”) is the standard companion adverb for invitations and proposals.

Answering. Accept with いいですね Ii desu ne (“sounds good”) or the enthusiastic ぜひ zehi (“by all means”). Declining is done by trailing off, not by saying no: ちょっと…… chotto… (“it’s a bit…”) is a complete, understood refusal, and また今度 mata kondo (“another time”) softens it further. A blunt いいえ to an invitation lands as rude.

Forms & patterns

Building 〜たい from each verb group.

Both words inflect as い-adjectives.

Who is doing the wanting.

Inviting, proposing, offering.

Answering an invitation.

Examples

• 今日は魚が食べたいです。 (Kyō wa sakana ga tabetai desu.) - Today I want to eat fish.
• 去年、新しいパソコンがほしかったです。 (Kyonen, atarashii pasokon ga hoshikatta desu.) - Last year I wanted a new computer.
• 今日はお酒を飲みたくないです。 (Kyō wa osake o nomitakunai desu.) - I do not want to drink alcohol today.
• 妹は新しい自転車をほしがっています。 (Imōto wa atarashii jitensha o hoshigatte imasu.) - My younger sister wants a new bicycle.
• 山田さんは早く帰りたがっています。 (Yamada-san wa hayaku kaeritagatte imasu.) - Mr Yamada wants to go home early.
• 一緒にお昼を食べませんか。 (Issho ni ohiru o tabemasen ka.) - Won’t you have lunch with me?
• じゃあ、三時に駅で会いましょう。 (Jā, san-ji ni eki de aimashō.) - Well then, let’s meet at the station at three.
• 荷物を持ちましょうか。 (Nimotsu o mochimashō ka.) - Shall I carry your luggage?
• いいですね。ぜひ行きたいです。 (Ii desu ne. Zehi ikitai desu.) - Sounds good. I would really like to go.
• すみません、今日はちょっと……。また今度お願いします。 (Sumimasen, kyō wa chotto… Mata kondo onegai shimasu.) - Sorry, today is a bit… Another time, please.

Common mistakes

• 私はパンをほしいです。 (Watashi wa pan o hoshii desu.) -> 私はパンがほしいです。 (Watashi wa pan ga hoshii desu.) - ほしい is an adjective, not a verb, so the thing wanted is its subject and takes が.
• 飲みたいじゃないです。 (Nomitai ja nai desu.) -> 飲みたくないです。 (Nomitakunai desu.) - 〜たい inflects as an い-adjective: the い becomes くない. じゃないです belongs to nouns and な-adjectives.
• 妹は自転車がほしがっています。 (Imōto wa jitensha ga hoshigatte imasu.) -> 妹は自転車をほしがっています。 (Imōto wa jitensha o hoshigatte imasu.) - がる turns the adjective into a verb, and a verb takes を. The が only survives while the word is still an adjective.
• 田中さんはビールが飲みたいです。 (Tanaka-san wa bīru ga nomitai desu.) -> 田中さんはビールを飲みたがっています。 (Tanaka-san wa bīru o nomitagatte imasu.) - you cannot assert a third person’s inner desire with bare 〜たい; use 〜たがっている, or report it with 〜たいそうです.
• 一緒に行きますか。 (Issho ni ikimasu ka.) -> 一緒に行きませんか。 (Issho ni ikimasen ka.) - the affirmative question only asks about a fact (“are you going?”). The invitation is the negative one.

Tips

• Sort by part of speech, not by meaning: ほしい and 〜たい look like verbs in English (“want”) but are adjectives in Japanese. Once that clicks, every negative, past and question form follows from lesson 8 with nothing new to learn.
• Do not ask a customer, a client or your boss 〜たいですか. Probing someone’s desires directly is intrusive in Japanese; offer instead with 〜ませんか or いかがですか ikaga desu ka (“how about it?”).
• Mnemonic for the invitation: the more negative, the more polite. 飲みますか is a bare question, 飲みませんか is an invitation, and the same logic reappears later in requests. Negation buys the listener an exit.
• ちょっと…… is not vagueness, it is the refusal. Trail off, drop your tone, and stop - the listener has already understood, and finishing the sentence with a reason often sounds less polite, not more.

In short

Attach います to the て-form and you get 〜ています - but it is not simply the English “-ing”. Depending on the verb it means an action in progress (食べています tabete imasu, “is eating”), a state left behind by a completed change (結婚しています kekkon shite imasu, “is married”), or a habit repeated over a period (毎日走っています mainichi hashitte imasu, “runs every day”). The verb decides which one - not you.

The rule

Step 1 - Build it. Take the て-form from lesson 13 and add いる／います. The pattern is V-て + います. The て-form never changes; all the tense and politeness sits on the いる at the end.

食べる taberu -> 食べて tabete -> 食べています tabete imasu 読む yomu -> 読んで yonde -> 読んでいます yonde imasu する suru -> して shite -> しています shite imasu

If the て-form ended in で (the ぬ・ぶ・む・ぐ verbs), it stays で: 死んで + います -> 死んでいます shinde imasu.

Step 2 - Decide which meaning you are getting. This is the real lesson. English lumps “is eating” and “is married” into different grammar; Japanese uses one form for both, and the type of verb picks the reading.

(1) Progressive - with durative verbs, verbs that name an action taking up a stretch of time (食べる, 読む, 待つ, 書く, 降る, 話す). Here 〜ています matches English “-ing” exactly. 今、昼ご飯を食べています (Ima, hirugohan o tabete imasu) - “I am eating lunch now.”

(2) Resultant state - with punctual / change-of-state verbs, verbs that name an instantaneous switch from one state to another (結婚する, 知る, 来る, 行く, 死ぬ, 始まる, 覚える, 持つ). The change itself takes no time, so there is no “in progress” to point at. 〜ています therefore points at the state that remains afterwards:

• 結婚しています = “is married” (the wedding is over), not “is getting married”
• 来ています = “is here”, not “is coming”
• 死んでいます = “is dead”, not “is dying”
• 知っています = “knows” (has come to know)
• 住んでいます = “lives (somewhere)”
• 持っています = “has, owns” (has taken hold of)

住む sits in this group for a slightly different reason: living somewhere is not instantaneous, but it has no “in progress” reading either, so 住んでいます is simply the ordinary way to say where somebody lives.

This is the single biggest trap in the lesson. Reading 死んでいます as “is dying” is not a small slip - it inverts the meaning.

(3) Habit or repetition - with any verb, when the sentence covers a period rather than a moment. Adverbs like 毎日 mainichi (every day), いつも itsumo (always) and 最近 saikin (recently), or a job or a role, force this reading. 兄は銀行で働いています (Ani wa ginkō de hataraite imasu) - “My older brother works at a bank.” He is not at his desk this second; this is what he does. Jobs, studies and where you live are stated in 〜ています in Japanese, where English uses a plain present.

Step 3 - Conjugate the tail, not the て-form. Only います moves: past ていました, negative ていません, past negative ていませんでした. Note that the negative of a state is a state: 知っていません is odd, but 分かっていません, 覚えていません and 食べていません are all normal.

まだ + ていません is how Japanese says “not yet”. まだ宿題をしていません (Mada shukudai o shite imasen) - “I haven’t done my homework yet.” Do not use ませんでした here: that would mean “I didn’t do it” - a closed past event, not an outstanding one.

The 知る asymmetry. 知る shiru (“come to know”) is worth memorising as a fixed pair, because it is lopsided:

• Affirmative: 知っています shitte imasu - “I know.” The bare 知ります means “I will find out”, so it is almost never what you want.
• Negative: 知りません shirimasen - “I don’t know.” Here the ている form is not used; ×知っていません is wrong.

So the question 知っていますか is answered either はい、知っています or いいえ、知りません. Compare 覚える oboeru (“memorise”), which is regular on both sides: 覚えています／覚えていません.

Experience-like use. With a count, the resultant-state reading shades into a record of experience: 日本に三回行っています (Nihon ni sankai itte imasu) - “I have been to Japan three times.” This is the “on my record so far” flavour; the dedicated experience pattern is 〜たことがある.

Two things deliberately left out. The contraction 〜てる (食べてる tabeteru) drops the い and is very common in speech, but it is casual - keep the い in anything formal or written; it belongs with casual style. And 〜てある, which also describes a state but implies somebody arranged it on purpose, is inseparable from transitivity and is handled in the next lesson.

Forms & patterns

Formation across the verb groups.

The tail conjugates; the て-form never does.

Which reading does the verb give you? Verbs in the bottom block have no progressive reading at all.

Examples

• 今、昼ご飯を食べています。 (Ima, hirugohan o tabete imasu.) - I am eating lunch right now.
• 外は雨が降っています。 (Soto wa ame ga futte imasu.) - It is raining outside.
• 姉は結婚しています。 (Ane wa kekkon shite imasu.) - My older sister is married.
• 私は東京に住んでいます。 (Watashi wa Tōkyō ni sunde imasu.) - I live in Tōkyō.
• 山田さんはもう来ています。 (Yamada-san wa mō kite imasu.) - Mr Yamada is already here.
• 田中さんの電話番号を知っていますか。 (Tanaka-san no denwa bangō o shitte imasu ka.) - Do you know Mr Tanaka’s phone number?
• いいえ、知りません。 (Iie, shirimasen.) - No, I don’t know it.
• 兄は銀行で働いています。 (Ani wa ginkō de hataraite imasu.) - My older brother works at a bank.
• 毎日六時に走っています。 (Mainichi roku-ji ni hashitte imasu.) - I run at six every day.
• 去年は大阪に住んでいました。 (Kyonen wa Ōsaka ni sunde imashita.) - Last year I was living in Ōsaka.

Common mistakes

• 田中さんを知りますか。 (Tanaka-san o shirimasu ka.) -> 田中さんを知っていますか。 (Tanaka-san o shitte imasu ka.) - 知る names the instant of learning something. To say you already know, you need the resulting state: 知っています. The bare 知ります reads as “will I find out?”.
• いいえ、知っていません。 (Iie, shitte imasen.) -> いいえ、知りません。 (Iie, shirimasen.) - The one verb that breaks the pattern. Affirmative takes ています, while the negative attaches ません straight to the verb. Learn the pair as a unit.
• 私は大阪に住みます。 (Watashi wa Ōsaka ni sumimasu.) -> 私は大阪に住んでいます。 (Watashi wa Ōsaka ni sunde imasu.) - 住む describes an ongoing state, so the bare ます-form is a future move (“I will go and live in Ōsaka”). Ongoing residence is always 住んでいます.
• まだ食べませんでした。 (Mada tabemasen deshita.) -> まだ食べていません。 (Mada tabete imasen.) - “Not yet” describes a state that has not arrived yet, so it needs ていません. ませんでした reports a closed past event - “I did not eat” - instead of the state of still not having eaten.
• ご飯を食べてます。 (Gohan o tabetemasu.) -> ご飯を食べています。 (Gohan o tabete imasu.) - Dropping the い is a casual spoken contraction. It is common in relaxed conversation, even with ます attached, but out of place in formal speech, exams and anything written.

Tips

• Ask yourself: instant or stretch? If the verb names something that takes time (eat, read, wait, rain), 〜ています = “-ing”. If it names a switch that happens in an instant (marry, die, arrive, start, come to know), there is nothing to be in the middle of, so 〜ています = the state afterwards. This one test resolves almost every case.
• English “is + -ing” is a false friend. 死んでいます is “is dead”, not “is dying”; 来ています is “is here”, not “is on the way”; 始まっています is “has already started”, not “is starting”. Translate the situation, never the English tense.
• Say your job and your address in 〜ています. English uses a plain present for “I work at a bank” and “I live in Tōkyō”, but Japanese puts both in 〜ています - 働いています as a standing role or habit, 住んでいます as a state - so those are the normal, natural forms. Using 働きます／住みます here is the giveaway of a beginner.
• Only the last word carries tense. Everything before います is frozen. To move a sentence into the past you touch nothing but the tail: 食べています -> 食べていました. This same “conjugate only the auxiliary” habit will serve you for 〜ておく, 〜てしまう and 〜てみる later on.

In short

Japanese has hundreds of verbs in pairs: an intransitive one for “it happens” (ドアが閉まります doa ga shimarimasu, “the door closes”) and a transitive one for “someone does it” (ドアを閉めます doa o shimemasu, “I close the door”). The intransitive takes が, the transitive takes を - and picking the wrong half of the pair is the single most audible A2 error. Once you have the pairs, 〜てある lets you describe a state and imply that a person put it there on purpose.

The rule

English reuses one verb for both jobs: “the door closes” and “I close the door”. Japanese uses two different verbs, and the ending tells you which is which.

Step 1 - Decide whether you are describing an event or naming a doer.

• No doer in view, the thing just does it -> intransitive (自動詞 jidōshi), particle が.
• Someone acts on the thing -> transitive (他動詞 tadōshi), particle を.

Step 2 - Match particle to verb, not to meaning. The pattern is fixed:

• Noun + が + intransitive verb: 電気がつきました (denki ga tsukimashita) - “the light came on.”
• Noun + を + transitive verb: 電気をつけました (denki o tsukemashita) - “I turned the light on.”

You cannot mix them. ×電気をつきました is ungrammatical, not merely odd.

Step 3 - Learn the endings, not fifteen isolated words. The pairs are built from a small number of recurring shapes. A verb ending in 〜su is almost always the doer-verb (消す, 出す, 落とす, 直す), and one ending in 〜aru is almost always the happens-verb (閉まる, 始まる, 決まる). Do not trust 〜eru the same way: 消える kieru and 割れる wareru end in 〜eru and are intransitive. See the family table below.

Japanese prefers the intransitive. Where English says “they cancelled the meeting” or “I broke a glass”, ordinary Japanese says 会議が中止になりました or コップが割れました (koppu ga waremashita, “the glass broke”). Naming an agent is treated as extra information: if it does not matter, leave it out and let the intransitive carry the sentence. This is why train doors say ドアが閉まります and not “we are closing the doors.”

〜てある: a state that somebody made. Take the transitive verb, put it in the て-form, and attach ある:

Noun + が + V(transitive)-て + あります

窓を開ける -> 窓が開けてあります (mado ga akete arimasu) - “the window is open (someone opened it, on purpose, and left it that way).” The auxiliary is always ある, never いる, whatever the noun is - it is the situation that exists, not the object. It conjugates like ある: あります／ありません／ありました。

The three-way contrast - learn it as one system.

The first two describe the same physical scene; only the implication differs. 〜てある answers “who set this up?” without naming anybody. 〜ておく is the action that produces a 〜てある state - it belongs to the te-form auxiliaries, so treat it here only as the other end of the same story.

The を variant. You will also meet Noun + を + V-てあります: ホテルを予約してあります (hoteru o yoyaku shite arimasu) - “I’ve booked the hotel (it’s taken care of).” With が the focus is on the object and its state; with を the focus is on the task being already done, which is why it feels close to 〜ておく.

One hard limit: 〜てある attaches to transitive verbs only. ×窓が開いてあります is impossible, because 開く is intransitive. If you want the state of an intransitive verb, use 〜ている.

Forms & patterns

The core pairs. Left column takes が, right column takes を.

(I) = Group I 五段, (II) = Group II 一段 - you need this for the て-form.

The recurring shapes. Four families cover almost everything above.

Building 〜てある.

Examples

• 窓が開いています。 (Mado ga aite imasu.) - The window is open.
• 窓が開けてあります。 (Mado ga akete arimasu.) - The window has been opened - someone opened it on purpose.
• すみません、ドアを閉めてください。 (Sumimasen, doa o shimete kudasai.) - Excuse me, please close the door.
• 電気がついていますよ。 (Denki ga tsuite imasu yo.) - The light is on, you know.
• 紙に名前が書いてあります。 (Kami ni namae ga kaite arimasu.) - A name is written on the paper.
• 会議は三時に始まります。 (Kaigi wa sanji ni hajimarimasu.) - The meeting starts at three.
• 先生が授業を始めました。 (Sensei ga jugyō o hajimemashita.) - The teacher started the class.
• コップが割れています。 (Koppu ga warete imasu.) - The glass is broken.
• 電車が駅に止まりました。 (Densha ga eki ni tomarimashita.) - The train stopped at the station.
• 鍵が見つかりました。 (Kagi ga mitsukarimashita.) - The key has turned up.

Common mistakes

• ドアを開きました。 (Doa o akimashita.) -> ドアを開けました。 (Doa o akemashita.) - 開く read aku is the intransitive half and can never take を. To name yourself as the doer you need the transitive 開ける. (The same kanji read hiraku is a different verb that does take を - 本を開く hon o hiraku, “open a book” - but for doors and windows the everyday pair is 開く aku ／ 開ける akeru.)
• 電気が消えてあります。 (Denki ga kiete arimasu.) -> 電気が消してあります。 (Denki ga keshite arimasu.) - 〜てある is built on the transitive verb only. 消える is intransitive; its partner 消す is what you need.
• 窓が開けています。 (Mado ga akete imasu.) -> 窓が開いています。 (Mado ga aite imasu.) - a transitive verb plus ている describes somebody in the act of doing it, so it needs a person and を (先生が窓を開けています). For the plain state of the window, use the intransitive.
• 会議が始めます。 (Kaigi ga hajimemasu.) -> 会議が始まります。 (Kaigi ga hajimarimasu.) - an event that simply starts takes the intransitive. Use 始める only when a person starts something: 会議を始めます。
• 財布が見つけました。 (Saifu ga mitsukemashita.) -> 財布が見つかりました。 (Saifu ga mitsukarimashita.) - “it turned up” is 見つかる with が; “I found it” is 財布を見つけました with を. The particle and the verb must agree.

Tips

• Trace the vowel before る. Across most pairs, the transitive verb has an e in the syllable before the ending (閉めmeる, 始めmeる, 決めmeる, 開けkeる), while the intransitive has a or i (閉まmaる, 始まmaる, 落ちchiる). It is not a law - the 〜eru／〜u family runs the other way, so 割れる wareru is the intransitive and 割る waru the transitive - but everywhere else it is a reliable first guess.
• Learn each pair as one flashcard, with its particle glued on: 「ドアが閉まる／ドアを閉める」. Learning 閉まる and 閉める on separate days is how learners end up guessing for years.
• Signage and notices live on these forms. Public wording is overwhelmingly intransitive or 〜てある: ドアが閉まります (doa ga shimarimasu) on trains, ここに書いてあります (koko ni kaite arimasu, “it’s written here”) when someone points at a notice. If a sign confuses you, ask first which half of the pair it uses.
• Do not hear an English passive. 窓が開けてあります is not “the window was opened by someone” as a passive sentence - Japanese has a real passive for that, and it carries a different flavour, often of nuisance. 〜てある is calm and practical: the thing is ready.

In short

Every verb, adjective and noun predicate has a plain form (普通形) with the same four cells you already know from ます: non-past, non-past negative, past, past negative. The plain form is how words are listed in a dictionary, how friends talk to each other - and, most importantly, the form a subordinate clause is built on, even when the sentence ends politely. Learn these four cells now; the next fifteen lessons all attach to them.

The rule

The polite ます-forms from lesson 7 belong at the very end of a sentence. Everything that happens inside a sentence - a time clause, a noun being modified, a thought being quoted - is built on the plain form instead. So this lesson is not “the casual register”: it is the structural gear of the whole language.

Step 1 - The dictionary form (辞書形) is the non-past affirmative and needs no work: 書く kaku, 食べる taberu, する suru, 来る kuru. This is the citation form - what you type into a dictionary, and what a textbook glosses.

Step 2 - The ない-form (ない形) is the non-past negative.

• Group II: drop る, add ない. 食べる -> 食べない tabenai, 見る -> 見ない minai.
• Group I: move the final -u kana to its -a row partner, then add ない. 書く kaku -> 書か + ない -> 書かない kakanai; 飲む nomu -> 飲まない nomanai.
• The う trap: a verb ending in う goes to わ, not あ. 買う kau -> 買わない kawanai, 会う au -> 会わない awanai. There is no ×買あない - the w is a leftover of older Japanese, and it is regular across every 〜う verb.
• Irregulars: する -> しない shinai, 来る -> 来ない konai (the kanji stays, the reading moves ku -> ko).
• ある is suppletive: its negative is simply ない nai. There is no ×あらない. But its animate partner いる is regular: いない inai.

Step 3 - The た-form (た形) is the past affirmative, and you already know it. It uses exactly the same sound changes as the て-form from lesson 13, with て -> た and で -> だ. Do not memorise a second table: 書いて -> 書いた, 飲んで -> 飲んだ, 行って -> 行った, 食べて -> 食べた, して -> した, 来て -> 来た.

Step 4 - The なかった-form (なかった形) is the past negative. Take the ない-form and treat that ない as if it were the い-adjective 高い: drop い, add かった. 書かない -> 書かなかった kakanakatta, 来ない -> 来なかった konakatta, ない -> なかった nakatta.

い-adjectives already work this way. 高い takai -> 高くない takakunai -> 高かった takakatta -> 高くなかった takakunakatta. The polite versions you learned in lesson 8 were just these plus です; strip the です and you have the plain form. いい is irregular as always: よくない, よかった, よくなかった.

Nouns and な-adjectives use the copula だ - the plain counterpart of です: 学生だ gakusei da -> 学生じゃない gakusei ja nai -> 学生だった gakusei datta -> 学生じゃなかった gakusei ja nakatta. (じゃない is the everyday form; ではない de wa nai is its written, formal twin.) な-adjectives are identical: 静かだ, 静かじゃない, 静かだった, 静かじゃなかった.

Step 5 - Negative requests: 〜ないでください. Take the ない-form, add でください: 撮る -> 撮らない -> 撮らないでください toranaide kudasai (“please don’t take (photos)”). It is the exact mirror of 〜てください.

Without ください, 〜ないで is a linker meaning “without doing X”: 朝ごはんを食べないで、出かけました (Asagohan o tabenaide, dekakemashita) - “I went out without eating breakfast.” Keep this apart from 〜なくて, which states a cause: 分からなくて、困りました (Wakaranakute, komarimashita) - “I didn’t understand, so I was stuck.”

Step 6 - Where the plain form is obligatory. The working rule is that politeness is marked once, on the final predicate, and what stands before it is plain however formal the sentence is. That is why ×食べますとき is wrong and 食べるとき is right. The structures that genuinely demand a plain form are coming next: とき (when), と思う (I think), こと／の (nominalizers), 名詞修飾 (noun-modifying clauses), でしょう (probably). One group behaves differently and is worth knowing early: the clause-linkers から／ので (reason), たら (if) and が／けれど (but) take the plain form as their default but also accept a polite one, which lifts the register of the whole sentence - 日曜日ですから, 今から行きますので, 終わりましたら, 失礼ですが. Verbs and い-adjectives simply plug their plain form straight in. Only だ misbehaves, and the table below is the map.

Forms & patterns

The four-cell plain paradigm.

Group I: the final kana drops to its -a row, then + ない.

た-form: reuse the て-form table, swap て -> た and で -> だ.

Adjectives, nouns and な-adjectives.

What だ does in front of each dependent (verbs and い-adjectives just attach unchanged).

Examples

• 毎朝コーヒーを飲む。 (Maiasa kōhī o nomu.) - I drink coffee every morning.
• 昨日は宿題をしなかった。 (Kinō wa shukudai o shinakatta.) - I did not do my homework yesterday.
• この本は高くなかった。 (Kono hon wa takakunakatta.) - This book was not expensive.
• 時間がないので、タクシーで行きます。 (Jikan ga nai node, takushī de ikimasu.) - I have no time, so I will go by taxi.
• 日本へ行くとき、パスポートがいります。 (Nihon e iku toki, pasupōto ga irimasu.) - When you go to Japan, you need a passport.
• 田中さんは来ないと思います。 (Tanaka-san wa konai to omoimasu.) - I do not think Mr Tanaka is coming.
• 日曜日だから、銀行は休みです。 (Nichiyōbi da kara, ginkō wa yasumi desu.) - Because it is Sunday, the bank is closed.
• ここで写真を撮らないでください。 (Koko de shashin o toranaide kudasai.) - Please do not take photographs here.
• 朝ごはんを食べないで、出かけました。 (Asagohan o tabenaide, dekakemashita.) - I went out without eating breakfast.
• 明日は雨が降るでしょう。 (Ashita wa ame ga furu deshō.) - It will probably rain tomorrow.

Common mistakes

• 食べますとき (tabemasu toki) -> 食べるとき (taberu toki) - politeness is marked once, at the end of the sentence. とき always attaches to a plain form, however formal the sentence is.
• 買あない (kaanai) -> 買わない (kawanai) - verbs ending in う take わ, not あ. Regular for all of them: 会う -> 会わない, 使う -> 使わない.
• お金があらない。 (Okane ga aranai.) -> お金がない。 (Okane ga nai.) - ある has no regular negative; the negative is ない. Only the animate いる is regular (いない).
• 学生だので、安いです。 (Gakusei da node, yasui desu.) -> 学生なので、安いです。 (Gakusei na node, yasui desu.) - before ので, のに and んです the copula だ turns into な. Before から it stays だ.
• この本は高いかった。 (Kono hon wa takaikatta.) -> この本は高かった。 (Kono hon wa takakatta.) - an い-adjective drops its い before かった. There is no ×高いでした either.

Tips

• The た-form costs you nothing new. If you can say 飲んで, you can say 飲んだ; if you can say 書いて, you can say 書いた. One table, two jobs - which is why the て-form was worth drilling.
• Every ない-form is itself an い-adjective. That single fact gives you the past (食べなかった), the linking form (食べなくて) and later the adverbial - all by the 高い rules you already know.
• ないで vs なくて: ないで = “without doing / don’t do it” (食べないで出かけた, 食べないでください); なくて = “because … not” (分からなくて、困りました). English collapses both into “not”, so check which meaning you want before choosing.
• Plain does not mean rude - it means unmarked. Use it in dictionaries, notes, diaries, and inside every subordinate clause of the most formal sentence you will ever write. Whether the whole conversation runs in plain style is a separate choice, covered later.

In short

To say “the book that I read”, Japanese puts a whole clause in the plain form directly in front of the noun: 私が読んだ本 (watashi ga yonda hon). There is no word for “who”, “which” or “that”, nothing marks the head noun, and nothing agrees with anything. One rule - plain clause + noun - covers every English relative clause you will ever need.

The rule

English builds a relative clause with machinery: a relative pronoun (who / which / that), a fixed position after the noun, and sometimes a stranded preposition (“the town I live in”). Japanese throws all of that away.

The single rule: a plain-form clause slots in front of the noun, exactly where an adjective would go.

[ Clause in plain form ] + Noun

Compare, in order:

• 高い + 本 -> 高い本 (takai hon) - an expensive book
• 私が読んだ + 本 -> 私が読んだ本 (watashi ga yonda hon) - a book I read

Grammatically these are the same shape. A modifying clause is just a bigger adjective.

Step 1 - Put the clause in the plain form. This is the whole reason lesson 17 came first. Even when the sentence ends politely in です／ます, the verb inside the modifier is plain: 読む, 読まない, 読んだ, 読まなかった. Writing ×読みました本 is one of the most visible learner errors in Japanese.

Step 2 - Mark the subject inside the clause with が, never は. は is a sentence-level topic marker, and a modifier has no topic of its own to mark. 私が読んだ本 is correct, ×私は読んだ本 is not. This is the cleanest, most reliable は／が rule in the language - inside a noun-modifying clause the subject is が (or の), never a topic は. (は does survive in some other kinds of subordinate clause, such as から and ので clauses, where it is contrastive - contrast is the only thing that ever pulls a は into a modifier either, so at this stage treat the modifier as が-only. Why is deferred to は and が revisited.)

Step 3 - Leave a gap. Do not repeat the head noun. The head noun plays a role inside the clause, but that role is simply left empty - no pronoun, no particle. English “the town which I live in” becomes 私が住んでいる町, with nothing at all standing in for 町. Say ×私が町に住んでいる町 and you have said the noun twice.

The head noun’s own particle belongs to the outer sentence. Whatever case the head noun needs, it takes after the modifier, as if the modifier were not there: 私が読んだ本を買いました (I bought the book I read), 私が住んでいる町は静かです (the town I live in is quiet). The modifier never changes shape to suit the head.

が -> の inside the clause. In a short modifying clause the subject が may be replaced by の with no change in meaning:

• 私が読んだ本 = 私の読んだ本 (watashi no yonda hon)
• 父が撮った写真 = 父の撮った写真 (chichi no totta shashin)

The の version is compact and slightly bookish. It only works inside a modifier: in a main clause の can never mark the subject, so 私が本を読みました simply has no の version (私の本を読みました is a different sentence - I read my book, with 私の modifying 本). It also gets less natural as the clause grows: 私が昨日図書館で借りた本 is neutral, while ?私の昨日図書館で借りた本 already feels strained. Rule of thumb: short clause, use either; long clause, use が.

Not only verbs. い-adjectives, な-adjectives and nouns modify a noun in their attributive form, and this is where な-adjectives and nouns differ from the plain form you learned in lesson 17. A な-adjective ends its non-past in な, not だ; a noun links with の, not だ:

• 静かな所 (shizuka na tokoro) - a quiet place
• 日本語が上手な人 (Nihongo ga jōzu na hito) - a person who is good at Japanese
• 病気の人 (byōki no hito) - a person who is ill

Tense inside the clause is relative, not absolute. The plain past た inside a modifier means “before the event of the main clause”, and the non-past means “at or after it” - not “past/present relative to now”. 明日会う人 (ashita au hito) is the person I will meet tomorrow even though 会う is non-past; 去年住んでいた町 is the town I was living in last year. Choose the form by comparing it to the main verb, not to the moment of speaking.

Time and reason heads work the same way. 日本に来たとき (Nihon ni kita toki) - when I came to Japan - is nothing more than a modifying clause in front of the noun とき. The same for 理由 (riyū, “reason”), 場合 (baai, “case”). Because the tense choice before とき carries extra meaning, it gets its own treatment in Temporal clauses.

Stacking and embedding. One modifier can be long: 父が去年京都で撮った写真 packs a subject, a time and a place into a single clause. Two modifiers can also stack on one noun: 母が作ったおいしい料理 (the tasty food my mother made). A modifier inside another modifier is also legal - 私が読んだ本を書いた人 (the person who wrote the book I read) - but each level forces the listener to hold an unfinished clause in memory, and speech rarely goes past one embedding. When a sentence gets that heavy, native writers split it in two.

Forms & patterns

What sits in front of the head noun, by word class. Note the な-adjective and noun rows - their non-past attributive form is not だ.

The head noun can play any role inside the clause. English needs a different pronoun (or a stranded preposition) for each row; Japanese does not change at all.

Word order against English. Read a Japanese noun phrase from the head noun backwards.

が and の inside the clause.

Examples

• これは私が昨日読んだ本です。 (Kore wa watashi ga kinō yonda hon desu.) - This is the book I read yesterday.
• あそこで新聞を読んでいる人は父です。 (Asoko de shinbun o yonde iru hito wa chichi desu.) - The person reading a newspaper over there is my father.
• 日本語を教えている先生は山田さんです。 (Nihongo o oshiete iru sensei wa Yamada-san desu.) - The teacher who teaches Japanese is Ms Yamada.
• 私が住んでいる町にはコンビニがありません。 (Watashi ga sunde iru machi ni wa konbini ga arimasen.) - There is no convenience store in the town where I live.
• 母が作る料理はとてもおいしいです。 (Haha ga tsukuru ryōri wa totemo oishii desu.) - The food my mother makes is very tasty.
• 明日会う人は日本語の先生です。 (Ashita au hito wa Nihongo no sensei desu.) - The person I am meeting tomorrow is a Japanese teacher.
• 静かな所で本を読みたいです。 (Shizuka na tokoro de hon o yomitai desu.) - I want to read a book in a quiet place.
• 病気の人は早く帰ってください。 (Byōki no hito wa hayaku kaette kudasai.) - Anyone who is ill, please go home early.
• 父が去年京都で撮った写真を見せます。 (Chichi ga kyonen Kyōto de totta shashin o misemasu.) - I will show you the photos my father took in Kyoto last year.
• 日本に来たとき、漢字が全然分かりませんでした。 (Nihon ni kita toki, kanji ga zenzen wakarimasen deshita.) - When I came to Japan, I did not understand kanji at all.

Common mistakes

• 昨日買いましたかばんです。 (Kinō kaimashita kaban desu.) -> 昨日買ったかばんです。 (Kinō katta kaban desu.) - the verb inside a modifier is always plain, even though the sentence itself ends politely. Politeness lives on the final predicate only.
• これは私は昨日読んだ本です。 (Kore wa watashi wa kinō yonda hon desu.) -> これは私が昨日読んだ本です。 (Kore wa watashi ga kinō yonda hon desu.) - は marks the topic of the whole sentence, and a modifying clause has no topic of its own. Subordinate subject = が.
• 私が町に住んでいる町は静かです。 (Watashi ga machi ni sunde iru machi wa shizuka desu.) -> 私が住んでいる町は静かです。 (Watashi ga sunde iru machi wa shizuka desu.) - do not repeat the head noun inside the clause. Japanese leaves the slot empty; there is no resumptive pronoun.
• 日本語を教えているの先生 (Nihongo o oshiete iru no sensei) -> 日本語を教えている先生 (Nihongo o oshiete iru sensei) - a verb clause attaches to the noun bare. The の of 私の本 joins two nouns and has no business after a verb.
• 病気な人 (byōki na hito) -> 病気の人 (byōki no hito) - 病気 is a plain noun, so it links with の. Only true な-adjectives take な: 静かな所, 上手な人.

Tips

• Build and read these backwards. Take the head noun first (本), then pile the description in front of it: 読んだ本 -> 私が読んだ本 -> 私が昨日読んだ本. English grows to the right, Japanese grows to the left, and the noun you are actually talking about is always the last word of the phrase.
• Ask “what particle is missing?” Nearly every modifier has one empty slot. In 私が読んだ本 the gap is を (私が本を読んだ); in 私が住んでいる町 it is に (私が町に住んでいる). Locating that gap tells you instantly what the phrase means - and stops you from filling it in. (Heads like とき, 理由 and 場合 are the exception: they name the situation the clause describes instead of filling a slot inside it.)
• た inside a modifier is not “past”. It means “already finished, relative to the main verb”. 買った本 in a future sentence is the book I will have bought. Judge the form against the main clause, never against now.
• One embedding is the practical ceiling. 私が読んだ本を書いた人 parses, but a second layer will lose your listener. Native speakers break long descriptions into two sentences - so should you.

In short

Japanese does not have separate words for something, nothing and anything. It builds all three from the interrogative words you already know, by adding one of three endings: か = some-, も (plus a negative verb) = no-, でも = any-. So 何 nani (what) gives 何か nani ka (something), 何も〜ません nani mo …-masen (nothing) and 何でも nan demo (anything at all).

The rule

The whole system is one interrogative word plus one of three suffixes. Learn the three suffixes and you get roughly fifteen pronouns for free.

Step 1 - 疑問詞 + か = indefinite (“some-”)

Attach か to an interrogative and you get the vague, existential member of the set: 何か nani ka (something), 誰か dare ka (someone), どこか doko ka (somewhere), いつか itsu ka (sometime, one day), どれか dore ka (one of them).

These behave like ordinary noun phrases and the predicate stays affirmative: 何か食べます。 (Nani ka tabemasu., “I’ll eat something.”)

In a question, か-indefinites turn a what-question into a yes/no-question. Compare:

• 何を食べましたか。 (Nani o tabemashita ka.) - “What did you eat?” - expects a dish as the answer.
• 何か食べましたか。 (Nani ka tabemashita ka.) - “Did you eat anything?” - expects はい or いいえ.

This is the single most useful contrast in the lesson. Two different か are in play: the sentence-final question particle from Questions with か and interrogative words, and the indefinite か glued to 何. Note that 何か食べましたか。 carries both at once.

Step 2 - 疑問詞 + も + negative predicate = negative concord (“no-”)

Attach も and the sentence must end in a negative: 誰も来ません (dare mo kimasen, “nobody comes”), 何もありません (nani mo arimasen, “there is nothing”), どこにも行きません (doko ni mo ikimasen, “I don’t go anywhere”).

Note what is happening structurally. 誰も is not a negative word - it means something like “even one person”. The negation lives, as always in Japanese, in the verb ending at the end of the sentence. The two halves work as a frame, exactly like あまり〜ない from Adverbs of frequency and degree: once you say 誰も, you are committed to finishing with ません or ない.

The same frame takes counters and quantities: 一つも hitotsu mo (not a single one), 一度も ichido mo (not even once), 一人も hitori mo (not a single person).

Step 3 - 疑問詞 + でも = free choice (“any-”)

Attach でも and you get the opposite of a restriction: 何でも nan demo (anything you like), 誰でも dare demo (anyone at all), どこでも doko demo (anywhere), いつでも itsu demo (any time), どれでも dore demo (whichever one). The predicate is affirmative and the tone is permissive: 何でもいいです。 (Nan demo ii desu., “Anything is fine.”)

Beware the English word any, which covers both Step 2 and Step 3. “I didn’t go anywhere” is the も pattern (どこにも行きませんでした); “I’ll go anywhere” is the でも pattern (どこでも行きます). English uses one word, Japanese uses two different constructions.

Step 4 - Decide what happens to the case particle

This is where learners lose marks, and the rule splits by suffix:

• With も, が and を genuinely disappear. 何も買いません, 誰も来ません - never ×何もを買いません or ×誰もが来ません. In the “no-” sense the も-forms are set adverbial phrases, not a noun plus a case particle, so there is no slot for が or を. (誰もが does exist, but it is the affirmative “everyone” - 誰もが知っています, “everybody knows” - and never the negative “nobody”.)
• With か, が and を are normally dropped, but they are permitted. 何か食べます and 誰か来ました are the neutral forms; 何かを食べます and 誰かが来ました are also correct Japanese - the particle just adds a little focus.
• に, へ, で, と survive, but they sit in different positions depending on the suffix. With か the particle goes after: どこかに行きます. With も and でも the particle goes before: どこにも行きません, どこにでも行きます.

So the pair to memorise is どこかに doko ka ni versus どこにも doko ni mo. Neither ×どこにか nor ×どこもに is used.

Step 5 - ある and いる still split by animacy

Negation does not merge them. Things use ある: 何もありません (nani mo arimasen, “there’s nothing”). People and animals use いる: 誰もいません (dare mo imasen, “there’s nobody”). See Existence with あります／います and position nouns.

Not this lesson

〜か meaning “whether” inside a reported clause - 何を食べるか分かりません (nani o taberu ka wakarimasen, “I don’t know what I’ll eat”) - looks similar but is a different construction: there か closes an embedded question rather than forming a pronoun. It is taught in Quotation と／という／って and embedded questions.

Forms & patterns

The three-way system. Read each row across: same interrogative, three meanings.

Careful with いつも: with an affirmative verb it is the everyday adverb “always” (いつも七時に起きます), and only with a negative does it mean “never”. For an unambiguous “never” most speakers reach for 一度も〜ません instead.

Particle placement - the position flips.

Negative-polarity adverbs in the same frame. These are adverbs, not pronouns, but they obey the identical “front half demands a negative back half” logic.

Examples

• 何か飲みますか。 (Nani ka nomimasu ka.) - Would you like something to drink?
• 昨日誰か来ましたか。 (Kinō dare ka kimashita ka.) - Did anyone come yesterday?
• 週末はどこかに行きます。 (Shūmatsu wa doko ka ni ikimasu.) - I’m going somewhere at the weekend.
• 教室には誰もいません。 (Kyōshitsu ni wa dare mo imasen.) - There is nobody in the classroom.
• 冷蔵庫に何もありません。 (Reizōko ni nani mo arimasen.) - There is nothing in the fridge.
• 日曜日はどこにも行きませんでした。 (Nichiyōbi wa doko ni mo ikimasen deshita.) - I didn’t go anywhere on Sunday.
• 去年は一度も休みませんでした。 (Kyonen wa ichido mo yasumimasen deshita.) - Last year I didn’t take a single day off.
• 飲み物は何でもいいです。 (Nomimono wa nan demo ii desu.) - Anything is fine to drink.
• この説明は誰でも分かります。 (Kono setsumei wa dare demo wakarimasu.) - Anyone can understand this explanation.
• いつでも連絡してください。 (Itsu demo renraku shite kudasai.) - Please contact me any time.

Common mistakes

• 誰も来ました。 (Dare mo kimashita.) -> 誰か来ました。 (Dare ka kimashita.) - 誰も cannot stand with an affirmative verb. If you mean “someone came”, the indefinite is 誰か; if you mean “nobody came”, the verb must go negative: 誰も来ませんでした。
• どこも行きませんでした。 (Doko mo ikimasen deshita.) -> どこにも行きませんでした。 (Doko ni mo ikimasen deshita.) - the destination particle に does not vanish; it slots in front of も. Only が and を are dropped.
• 何もを買いませんでした。 (Nani mo o kaimasen deshita.) -> 何も買いませんでした。 (Nani mo kaimasen deshita.) - the も-forms take no case particle at all: ×何もを and ×誰もが (in the “nobody” sense) do not exist. With か the particle is merely optional, not forbidden - 何か買いました and 何かを買いました are both correct.
• 部屋に誰もありません。 (Heya ni dare mo arimasen.) -> 部屋に誰もいません。 (Heya ni dare mo imasen.) - negation does not erase the animacy split: people take いる／います, objects take ある／あります.
• 誰でも来ませんでした。 (Dare demo kimasen deshita.) -> 誰も来ませんでした。 (Dare mo kimasen deshita.) - でも is free choice and belongs with an affirmative. English “anyone” maps to も under negation and to でも otherwise.

Tips

• か = some, も = zero, でも = any. Three syllables, three meanings, and they apply to every interrogative word you have learned. Drilling 何か／何も／何でも and 誰か／誰も／誰でも as vertical trios is far more efficient than memorising fifteen separate pronouns.
• Japanese negative concord is not a double negative. 誰も何も言いませんでした (Dare mo nani mo iimasen deshita.) has two “negative” pronouns and one negative verb, and means “nobody said anything” - not “everybody said something”. The negation is counted once, at the verb, no matter how many も-words precede it.
• Particle side: か right, も／でも left. どこかに行く but どこにも行かない. If you can produce that one minimal pair on demand, you have the hardest part of the lesson.
• いつも is the false friend. It is the odd one out of the も-series: on its own it is a perfectly ordinary affirmative adverb meaning “always”. Only the negative predicate turns it into “never”, so for clarity prefer 一度も〜ません.

In short

〜んです (n desu) does not change what a sentence says - it changes why you are saying it. It frames the sentence as an explanation of the situation you and the listener are both in: “the thing is…”, “that’s because…”, “so that’s why…”. Attach it to the plain form, and remember that nouns and な-adjectives need a な in between (学生なんです gakusei na n desu).

The rule

Step 1 - Build the plain form, then attach ん + です.

The base is always the plain form from lesson 17 - dictionary, ない, た or なかった. です stays on the outside and carries the politeness, so the sentence is still polite even though the verb inside it is plain.

• 行く iku -> 行くんです iku n desu
• 行かない ikanai -> 行かないんです ikanai n desu
• 行った itta -> 行ったんです itta n desu
• 高い takai -> 高いんです takai n desu

Step 2 - Insert な after a noun or a な-adjective.

Verbs and い-adjectives attach directly. Nouns and な-adjectives cannot sit in front of ん on their own: the plain copula だ turns into な here.

• 学生だ -> 学生なんです gakusei na n desu (it’s that I’m a student)
• 静かだ -> 静かなんです shizuka na n desu (the thing is, it’s quiet)

This な is the same な that appears before ので and のに (学生なので, 静かなのに) - it is the noun-modifying shape of だ, because ん is really a noun (の). That is also why the written form is 〜のだ.

Step 3 - Know the four jobs it does.

1. Asking for an explanation. You see something and want the story behind it: どうしたんですか。 (Dōshita n desu ka.) What’s the matter? A plain どうしましたか asks for a report; 〜んですか asks the listener to make sense of what you can see.
2. Giving an explanation. Answering that question, or accounting for your own behaviour: お腹が痛いんです。 (Onaka ga itai n desu.) The thing is, my stomach hurts. Without ん it is a bare medical fact; with ん it explains why you look unwell or why you are leaving.
3. Setting up background before a request or an invitation. This is the highest-frequency use in daily life, and it usually ends in 〜んですが with the sentence left hanging (see Step 4).
4. Expressing realization. You have just fitted a new fact into the picture: なるほど、それで遅れたんですね。 (Naruhodo, sore de okureta n desu ne.) I see, so that’s why you were late.

Step 4 - 〜んですが: the softening preface.

〜んですが states your situation, then stops. The が is the “but/and” of a sentence you deliberately do not finish - the listener supplies the rest. It is the standard polite way into a request, a complaint or an invitation, because it lets the other person offer before you have to ask:

• すみません、道が分からないんですが…… (Sumimasen, michi ga wakaranai n desu ga) Excuse me, the thing is I can’t find my way…
• 実は、来週日本へ行くんですが…… (Jitsu wa, raishū Nihon e iku n desu ga) Actually, I’m going to Japan next week, and…

実は (jitsu wa, actually / the truth is) is its natural partner: 実は opens the background, 〜んですが closes it and hands over the turn.

Step 5 - どうして〜んですか is answered with 〜からです.

A why-question normally takes ん, because you are asking for an explanation by definition. The natural short answer is a reason clause plus です:

• どうして昨日来なかったんですか。 (Dōshite kinō konakatta n desu ka.) - 熱があったからです。 (Netsu ga atta kara desu.)

Note the shape: plain form + からです, not ×〜ましたからです. The から and ので clauses themselves are the subject of lesson 21.

Step 6 - Do not sprinkle it everywhere. Leave ん out when the sentence is a neutral fact, a self-introduction, or the first mention of something with no shared situation to explain. 私は田中です。会社員です。 is correct; ×私は田中なんです sounds as if you are correcting a misunderstanding.

Register. Casual speech uses 〜んだ (n da) for statements and 〜の for both: 〜の with rising pitch is a casual question (どこへ行くの？), with falling pitch a casual statement (お腹がすいたの。), though the falling 〜の statement has a feminine ring - men normally use 〜んだ for it. Writing and formal speech use 〜のだ／〜のである, which belongs to Written and formal register.

Forms & patterns

Attachment by word class - the な is the whole trick:

Only the non-past affirmative of nouns and な-adjectives takes な. Once you are in the past (だった) or the negative (じゃない), the form already ends like a plain predicate and ん attaches directly: 学生じゃないんです gakusei ja nai n desu.

Register ladder - same grammar, four coats of paint:

With ん or without - what changes:

Examples

• どうしたんですか。 (Dōshita n desu ka.) - What’s the matter?
• お腹が痛いんです。 (Onaka ga itai n desu.) - The thing is, my stomach hurts.
• すみません、道が分からないんですが。 (Sumimasen, michi ga wakaranai n desu ga.) - Excuse me, I can’t find my way…
• 実は、来週日本へ行くんです。 (Jitsu wa, raishū Nihon e iku n desu.) - Actually, I’m going to Japan next week.
• 今日は休みなんです。 (Kyō wa yasumi na n desu.) - The thing is, today is a day off.
• どうして昨日来なかったんですか。 (Dōshite kinō konakatta n desu ka.) - Why didn’t you come yesterday?
• 熱があったからです。 (Netsu ga atta kara desu.) - Because I had a fever.
• なるほど、それで電車が遅れたんですね。 (Naruhodo, sore de densha ga okureta n desu ne.) - I see, so that’s why the train was late.
• ちょっと聞きたいことがあるんですが。 (Chotto kikitai koto ga aru n desu ga.) - There’s something I’d like to ask you…
• 明日試験があるんだ。 (Ashita shiken ga aru n da.) - I’ve got an exam tomorrow (casual).

Common mistakes

• 学生んです。 (Gakusei n desu.) -> 学生なんです。 (Gakusei na n desu.) - a noun cannot touch ん directly; the plain copula だ appears as な in front of it.
• 静かだんです。 (Shizuka da n desu.) -> 静かなんです。 (Shizuka na n desu.) - な-adjectives behave like nouns here: だ becomes な, it does not survive as だ.
• 高いなんです。 (Takai na n desu.) -> 高いんです。 (Takai n desu.) - い-adjectives and verbs attach directly. The な belongs only to nouns and な-adjectives.
• 行きますんです。 (Ikimasu n desu.) -> 行くんです。 (Iku n desu.) - ん follows the plain form. Politeness is carried once, by the です on the outside; ます inside is a double marking.
• はじめまして。田中なんです。 (Hajimemashite. Tanaka na n desu.) -> はじめまして。田中です。 (Hajimemashite. Tanaka desu.) - a first mention explains nothing, so ん is wrong; it would imply you are clearing up a mistaken belief about who you are.

Tips

• Translate it as “the thing is…” or “so that’s why…”, never as “it is”. If neither English phrase fits your sentence, you probably do not want ん. That single test prevents most over-use.
• 〜んですか can sound nosy or accusatory. Because it demands an account of what the listener is doing, どこへ行くんですか can land as “and where do you think you’re going?” With strangers and superiors the bare question - どこへ行きますか - is the safer choice; keep 〜んですか for situations that genuinely call for an explanation.
• The hanging 〜んですが is a politeness strategy, not an unfinished sentence. Stopping after が is exactly the point: it invites the listener to offer help rather than forcing you to demand it. Say the が, then pause.
• ん is a contraction of の, so the grammar it takes is noun grammar. That is why な appears before it, and why the written form is 〜のだ. Remembering “ん = の = noun” makes the whole paradigm fall out instead of needing memorization.

In short

Both から (kara) and ので (node) mean “because”, and both put the reason first: reason + から／ので + result. から presents the reason as your own judgement - assertive, the natural choice when you push or invite, and the only option when you answer “why?”; ので presents it as circumstance beyond dispute - softer, and the safe default in requests, apologies and excuses. The one form to memorise is な before ので after a noun or な-adjective: 雨なので ame na node, never 雨だので.

The rule

Step 1 - Reason first, result last

Japanese puts the subordinate clause before the main clause, so the reason clause comes first and the sentence still ends with the main verb:

[reason] + から／ので、[result]。

• 時間がありませんから、タクシーで行きます。 (Jikan ga arimasen kara, takushī de ikimasu.) - “There’s no time, so I’ll go by taxi.”

English can start with the result (“I’ll go by taxi because…”); the neutral Japanese order is the reverse. A comma (、) after から／ので is normal but not compulsory.

Step 2 - What から attaches to

から attaches to a complete predicate, either plain or polite - it is one of the very few connectives that tolerates です／ます in mid-sentence:

• 高いから takai kara / 高いですから takai desu kara
• 行くから iku kara / 行きますから ikimasu kara

After a noun or a な-adjective you need a copula: plain だ or polite です. 学生だから gakusei da kara, 学生ですから gakusei desu kara - never a bare 学生から (that would be the particle から “from”, lesson 6).

Step 3 - What ので attaches to, and the な trap

ので attaches to the plain form - strictly, the attributive (連体形) shape, the one that stands in front of a noun (see Relative (noun-modifying) clauses) - because ので is historically the nominalising の + で:

• 高いので takai node, 行くので iku node, 遅れたので okureta node, 分からないので wakaranai node

And exactly because that slot wants the attributive shape, a noun or な-adjective takes な - な is the attributive form of だ, the form that appears before の, ので and のに - and not だ itself:

• 雨なので ame na node, 静かなので shizuka na node, 日曜日なので nichiyōbi na node

Past tense is a plain past, with no な: 雨だったので ame datta node.

The one exception to “plain form only” is the stiff formal 〜ですので／〜ますので of Step 4 (雨ですので, 閉まりますので): です and ます have a restricted attributive form that surfaces in exactly this position, before ので／のに, and the pattern is firmly established in announcements and business speech.

Step 4 - から is subjective, ので is objective

This is the whole difference, and it is pragmatic, not grammatical.

から announces “this is my reason - I stand behind it.” It is fine for insisting, arguing, pushing, warning and ordering. That same assertiveness is why から can sound defensive when you are apologising: it reads as “look, it wasn’t my fault.”

ので presents the reason as a fact of the world that you are merely reporting, so no one has to accept your judgement. It is therefore the standard clause in requests, apologies and excuses, and in anything addressed to a customer, a teacher or a boss:

• すみません、電車が遅れたので、遅くなりました。 (Sumimasen, densha ga okureta node, osoku narimashita.)

Politeness stacks on top of this: 高いから (casual) < 高いので (everyday polite) < 高いですから (polite and emphatic) < 雨ですので／閉まりますので (formal announcements and business). Note the direction - 〜ますので is more formal than 〜ますから, not less.

Step 5 - Where から works and ので does not

Because ので disclaims subjectivity, it clashes with a main clause that is pure speaker will:

• Invitations 〜ましょう and volitional forms: から is the natural choice - 時間がありませんから、急ぎましょう。 ○ ので is not ungrammatical here (public notices really do say 危ないので、気をつけましょう), but in conversation 寒いので、窓を閉めましょう sounds oddly detached, as if you were reading out an announcement.
• Plain commands and prohibitions (lesson 30): 危ないから、触るな。 ○ - ので here is wrong.
• Answering どうして／なぜ: only から can be made into a predicate with 〜からです. 〜のでです does not exist.

Polite requests are the exception you will hear everywhere: 〜ので、〜てください is completely natural, and is in fact the house style of station and shop notices, precisely because it blames the circumstances rather than the speaker.

Step 6 - から as an afterthought, and ので trailing off

Reversing the order is possible with から: state the result, then add the reason as a separate sentence, as a justification tacked on.

• 早く帰りましょう。明日は朝が早いですから。 (Hayaku kaerimashō. Ashita wa asa ga hayai desu kara.)

ので does the opposite: it trails off with the main clause left unsaid, which is a very polite way to decline or excuse yourself - ちょっと用事があるので…… (Chotto yōji ga aru node……) “I’m afraid I have something on, so…”.

Step 7 - With んです, and the formal alternative ため

The explanatory 〜んです (lesson 20) supplies background rather than a cause, and the usual polite opener for a request is 〜んですが、…… - “the situation is X, and…” - leaving the request to follow: 道が分からないんですが、教えてください。 Use it when you want to set a scene; use ので when you want to state a cause.

だから and ですから (“so, therefore”) are the same から standing at the head of a new sentence; they belong with the connectives in lesson 22. In writing, notices and news, the formal reason marker is 〜ため（に）: 大雨のため、電車が止まりました。 (Ōame no tame, densha ga tomarimashita.) Recognise it now; the same word marks purpose in lesson 43.

Forms & patterns

Attachment - the だ／な split is the thing to memorise:

What the main clause allows:

Register ladder - same reason, four levels:

Examples

• 頭が痛いですから、今日は早く帰ります。 (Atama ga itai desu kara, kyō wa hayaku kaerimasu.) - I have a headache, so I’m going home early today.
• 明日は日曜日ですから、銀行は休みですよ。 (Ashita wa nichiyōbi desu kara, ginkō wa yasumi desu yo.) - Tomorrow is Sunday, so the bank is closed.
• 時間がありませんから、急ぎましょう。 (Jikan ga arimasen kara, isogimashō.) - We haven’t got time, so let’s hurry.
• 早く帰りましょう。明日は朝が早いですから。 (Hayaku kaerimashō. Ashita wa asa ga hayai desu kara.) - Let’s go home early. Tomorrow starts early, after all.
• すみません、電車が遅れたので、遅くなりました。 (Sumimasen, densha ga okureta node, osoku narimashita.) - I’m sorry, the train was delayed, so I’m late.
• 少し寒いので、窓を閉めてください。 (Sukoshi samui node, mado o shimete kudasai.) - It’s a little cold, so please close the window.
• 危ないので、こちらに下がってください。 (Abunai node, kochira ni sagatte kudasai.) - It’s dangerous, so please step back this way.
• 今日は日曜日なので、店は閉まっています。 (Kyō wa nichiyōbi na node, mise wa shimatte imasu.) - Today is Sunday, so the shop is closed.
• 「どうして日本語を勉強しているんですか。」「日本で働きたいからです。」 (Dōshite Nihongo o benkyō shite iru n desu ka. Nihon de hatarakitai kara desu.) - “Why are you studying Japanese?” “Because I want to work in Japan.”
• すみません、道が分からないんですが、教えてください。 (Sumimasen, michi ga wakaranai n desu ga, oshiete kudasai.) - Excuse me, I don’t know the way - could you tell me?

Common mistakes

• 雨だので、行きません。 (Ame da node, ikimasen.) -> 雨なので、行きません。 (Ame na node, ikimasen.) - after a noun or a な-adjective, ので takes な. Only から takes だ: 雨だから.
• 高いなので、買いません。 (Takai na node, kaimasen.) -> 高いので、買いません。 (Takai node, kaimasen.) - that な belongs to nouns and な-adjectives only; an い-adjective attaches to ので directly.
• 寒いので、窓を閉めましょう。 (Samui node, mado o shimemashō.) -> 寒いから、窓を閉めましょう。 (Samui kara, mado o shimemashō.) - not ungrammatical, but an invitation is the speaker’s own decision, so conversational Japanese reaches for the subjective から; ので makes it sound like a public announcement.
• 熱があったのでです。 (Netsu ga atta node desu.) -> 熱があったからです。 (Netsu ga atta kara desu.) - only から can be turned into a predicate to answer どうして; のでです does not exist.
• 道が混んでいましたから、遅れました。 (Michi ga konde imashita kara, okuremashita.) -> 道が混んでいたので、遅れました。 (Michi ga konde ita node, okuremashita.) - grammatical, but in an apology から sounds like you are insisting it was not your fault; ので just states the circumstance.

Tips

• The one-line mnemonic: から = “because I say so” (my judgement, my push); ので = “because that’s how things are” (circumstance, no argument). Facing a stranger, a customer or a boss - especially when apologising - reach for ので.
• から is a rare licence to be polite mid-sentence. 高いですから is correct, and softer than 高いから. Do not generalise it: most subordinate clauses demand the plain form (×食べますとき -> ○食べるとき), and ので is one of them in ordinary speech.
• In casual speech ので contracts to んで: 高いんで takai n de, 遅れたんで okureta n de. It is everyday among friends, but it strips out exactly the deference that made you choose ので - never use it with a superior.
• Don’t confuse the two から. Particle から after a noun means “from” (九時から kuji kara, “from nine o’clock”); conjunction から after a predicate means “because”. The word before it tells you which.