Grammar– category –
Japanese grammar for English speakers. Particles, verb conjugation, sentence patterns, conditionals, and nuanced expressions organized by JLPT level N5 to N1. Browse by level: N4/N5, N2/N3, N1/N2. By topic: Particles, Verb Conjugation, Conditionals, Sentence Patterns. Full overview at the Japanese Grammar Hub.
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Japanese Business Meeting Phrases: Propose, Discuss, and Close Effectively
Business meetings in Japan have their own vocabulary — from opening remarks to facilitating discussion to closing with next steps. This guide covers the key phrases, the different stages of a meeting, and how politeness level shifts depe... -
Japanese Business Email: Templates, Structure, and Politeness Explained
Japanese business emails follow a strict structure — opening, body, close — and each section uses specific formal phrases. This guide gives you copy-paste templates for the most common business email scenarios, with explanations of the p... -
Japanese Mora and Rhythm: Why Japanese Timing Is Different From English
Japanese is a mora-timed language — every mora takes the same amount of time. English is stress-timed, where stressed syllables are longer and unstressed ones are shorter. This difference is why Japanese sounds choppy or sing-song to Eng... -
Japanese Consonants: ら行, つ, し, ふ — How to Say the Hard Sounds Correctly
Japanese has several consonant sounds that don't exist in English — and some English sounds that Japanese doesn't use. This guide focuses on the 5 sounds that trip up English speakers the most: ら-row, つ, し, ふ, and the voiced/unvoiced... -
っ and ん: How to Pronounce Japanese Double Consonants and the N-Mora
Two of the most mispronounced elements in Japanese are っ (small tsu) and ん (n). They each take a full mora — a unit of time — but produce no vowel sound. This guide explains exactly how to pronounce them correctly. CharacterNameDuratio... -
Japanese Pitch Accent: A Beginner’s Guide to High and Low Tones
Japanese uses pitch accent — not stress accent like English. The same sounds can mean completely different things depending on which syllable is high or low. This guide covers the basics English speakers need to understand pitch accent. ... -
Japanese Vowels: How to Pronounce あいうえお Correctly
Japanese has just 5 vowels — but English speakers almost always mispronounce them. Unlike English vowels, Japanese vowels are pure and consistent: they never change sound. Once you nail the 5 vowels, your entire Japanese pronunciation im... -
て-Form Mistakes: The Exact Errors English Speakers Make in Japanese
The て-form is one of the most-used forms in Japanese — and one of the most error-prone. This guide targets the specific conjugation and usage mistakes English speakers make most often. Mistake CategoryExample ErrorWrong て-form conjugat... -
に vs で: The Exact Mistakes Learners Make and How to Fix Them
に and で are both location particles — but they mark completely different things. Mixing them up is one of the top particle mistakes learners make. Here's exactly where learners go wrong. ParticleCore UseExampleにLocation of existence /... -
は vs が: The Most Common Mistakes English Speakers Make
は and が are the two particles that confuse English speakers the most. This guide focuses on the mistakes — the exact wrong moves learners make — and how to fix each one. MistakeWrongCorrectWhyUsing は for new info猫はいます。(introduci...
