Japanese Grammar: Hiragana, Kanji and Particles

Three scripts, three jobs

あいう Hiragana · 46 basic signs Japanese word endings, particles and words without kanji. Each sign is one syllable.

アイウ Katakana · 46 basic signs Words borrowed from other languages, such as コーヒー kōhī, “coffee”, and for emphasis.

山川人 Kanji · about 2,100 in daily use Characters from Chinese that carry meaning: 山 yama, “mountain”. Most have two or more readings.

Particles: the labels after each word

A particle is a short word placed after a noun to show its role, like a label. Choose one to see it in a sentence.

wa · Topic

私watashiIはwa(topic)学生ですgakusei desustudent am

“I am a student.” は marks what the sentence is about. Written with the hiragana for “ha”, it is said “wa”.

Three levels of politeness

Japanese changes the verb itself depending on who you are talking to. Keigo (敬語, “respectful language”) is the formal system used at work and with strangers.

Level	“I eat” / “Do you eat?”	Used with
Plain (casual)	食べる / 食べる？taberu / taberu?	Friends, family, people younger than you
Polite (teineigo)	食べます / 食べますかtabemasu / tabemasu ka	Colleagues, strangers, most everyday situations; the form learners start with
Respectful (sonkeigo)	召し上がります / 召し上がりますかmeshiagarimasu / meshiagarimasu ka	Customers, senior people, formal speech about someone else’s actions

Word order: the verb comes last

Japanese puts the verb at the end of the sentence, after the object. Linguists call this SOV: subject, object, verb. Because particles mark each word’s job, the words before the verb can move around, but the verb stays last.

私はwatashi waI (topic)寿司をsushi osushi (object)食べますtabemasueat (polite)

“I eat sushi.” The verb 食べます comes after the thing being eaten. は wa marks the topic, を o marks the object.

明日ashitatomorrow東京にTōkyō nito Tokyo行きますikimasugo (polite)

“I’m going to Tokyo tomorrow.” “I” is left out because it is obvious. ます forms cover both present and future: the time word does the work.

Verb groups and the te-form

Every Japanese verb belongs to one of three groups, and the group decides how it changes. Learn the group with each new verb. The te-form, shown in the last column, joins actions together and builds many other forms, so it is the first one most learners practise. Full tables are in the u-verb and ru-verb reference.

Group	Dictionary form	Polite (masu)	Te-form
Ru-verbs	食べる taberu, eat	食べます tabemasu	食べて tabete
U-verbs	書く kaku, write	書きます kakimasu	書いて kaite
U-verbs	飲む nomu, drink	飲みます nomimasu	飲んで nonde
Irregular	する suru, do	します shimasu	して shite
Irregular	来る kuru, come	来ます kimasu	来て kite

Asking questions with か

To turn a polite statement into a yes/no question, add か ka at the end. The word order does not change, and in writing Japanese often uses no question mark.

コーヒーをkōhī ocoffee (object)飲みますnomimasudrinkかka(question)

“Do you drink coffee?” か at the end does the same job as rising intonation in English.

駅はeki wathe station (topic)どこdokowhereですかdesu kais? (polite)

“Where is the station?” The question word どこ doko, “where”, sits where the answer will go: 駅はあそこです, “the station is over there”.

Counting things: counters

Like Chinese measure words, Japanese counters sit between a number and a noun, and the counter depends on the shape or type of thing. The number sound often changes before a counter. See the counters reference for the full list.

Counter	Example	Used for
枚 mai	三枚 sanmai, three sheets	Flat things: paper, tickets, shirts
本 hon	二本 nihon, two bottles	Long, thin things: pens, bottles, trains
人 nin	三人 sannin, three people	People (but one person is 一人 hitori)
匹 hiki	一匹 ippiki, one cat	Small animals
つ tsu	三つ mittsu, three things	General counter for objects, up to ten

How to start learning Japanese

1Learn hiragana firstAll 46 signs in one to two weeks. Every other script and word builds on it.
2Then katakanaThe same sounds in a second script, used for borrowed words such as テレビ terebi, “TV”.
3Learn polite verb formsStart with ます forms: they are safe with everyone and simple to build.
4Add kanji slowlyTen a week, always inside words you already know, not as single characters.
5Follow the JLPT levelsThe Japanese-Language Proficiency Test has five levels, N5 to N1, which give a clear path to full fluency.