Welcome to our first lesson on Japanese grammar. Studying a language isn’t always fun, but you have to know your basic Japanese grammar. In the next three post we shall look at the importance of particles. When I studied for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test I spent quite a lot of time learning particles and how to correctly use them. Particles in Japanese are called じょし . An easy way to remember them is てにをは – after the て form verb and the three quintessential particles に, を and は. In short particles give grammatical meaning to words or phrases that precede them.
You will find learning and using Japanese particles quite challenging. As the Japanese language divides the perception of processes and states in a drastically different way to western languages, particles are very different. Some particles do correspond to western prepositions and postpositions. However, there are particles which don’t just have one translation, but translate to many different things in western language. Learning these particles and all their applications can chew up your study time. One of the main reasons why many students avoid making a strong comittment to learn Japanese grammar.
However, you must learn the basics. Without knowing a certain number of prepositions it is reasonably safe to say that you cannot use Japanese to any real extent. Simply put you have got to know how to use particles correctly. If you don’t you won’t be able to hold anything that comes even close to a consistent short and simple conversation. We are going to take a look at 10 all important particles. Almost all Japanese particles have several meanings. You must know at least the first meaning of each of these particles.
The Japanese Particle が
This particle denotes the subject of an operative word (regardless of whether the operative is actually explicitly used in the sentence). Simple sentences that illustrate this use are:
だれが来ましたか。 － Who came [here]?
コーヒーが好きです。－ [I] like coffee.
In these sentences が links the subjects, respectively [who] and [coffee], to their operatives [come] and [like]. An important general rule to remember is whenever something not-yet-talked-about is being mentioned in a conversation, が is used. Also, when asking questions in relation to something unknown, が is used because this too is something new.
A second use of が is as a weak “but”:
すみませんが、今何時ですか。Excuse me but, what time is?
In contrast, but acts more like a gentle in-sentence conjugation particle, gluing the two pieces together with only a moderate level of contrast at best.
Here is our second Japanese grammar lesson on particles. In this post we are going to look at the particle は. Note that the particle is not pronounced as it is reads. It is pronounced wa and not ha. Although we are covering basic Japanese grammar in ths lesson, you may struggle with this for quite some time as I did. It took many Japanese grammar lessons for me to master this one particle. I hope my lesson will help you gain some understanding.
This particle has three main functions in Japanese. The first of these is to act as topic marker for conversations or texts. The main difference between a topic and a subject is that you can leave off a topic from a sentence, and it will still make perfect sense. This in contrast to a subject, which if removed creates a sentence with a gap in it:
Lets have a look at an example
きょうは だれが きましたか Who came [here] today?
The same sentence on its own without the topic works just fine:
だれが きましたか。Who came [here]?
However, the same sentence on its own without the subject won’t make sense.
きょう はきましたか。 …came [here] today?
The second function of は is as contrast marker, as in an “[A]は something, [B]はsomething else” pattern.
Here is an example:
ちがいますよ。 これは すしで、それはさしみ – [That's] not [quite] right. This is Sushi, and that’s Sashimi
Here a contrast is given between “this” and “that”, regardless of whether they were already topics.
The third function that は is the negative imperative when it follows a て form.
Here is an example;
きょう こなくて は いけません － You have to come today.
In this use, it creates a negative imperative。The は could also be followed by だめ.
きょう は だめ － Today is no good.
In our next post we will look at more particles.
We are going to continue our study on Japanese grammar in this post with our third lesson on particles. We are going to take a look at the particle も.
The particle も can be used to indicate similarity as in the words ‘too’ or ‘also’. This particle replaces が or は, when used:
A: 私がえいがすきです。
B: 私もえいががすきです。
A: I like movies
B: I also like movies
This is a reasonably simple use of も, which can also be used in a double patternsuch as in the following sentence:
A: えいががすきですか、おんがくがすきですか。
B: えいがもおんがくもすきです。
A: Do [you] like movies, or do [you] like music?
B: [I] like both movies and music.
Remember that because も marks a similarity to something previously mentioned, you cannot use も out of the blue. It requires a prompt either by someone else, or by something you yourself just said.
A second use of も is after the て form of verbs and verbal adjectives. In this use, も acts as an emphatic contrasting particle, meaning something like the English “even [by/if] …”. The phrase below
“Even [by] leaving now, [you] probably won’t make it.” translates to いま いっても まにあわない でしょう。
There are two special things that concern this particle. One, a special case of this use of も is in combination with the copula です, which becomes でも. We will look at this in a later post.
The second is this particle can be used with question pronouns. Have a look at the examples below:
なに means “what”, なにも means “anything” when followed by positive verb or “nothing”, when followed by a negative verb.
どこ means “where”, どこも means “anywhere” when followed by a postive verb or “nowhere”, when followed by a negative verb.
だれ means “who”, だれも means “anyone” when followed by a postive verb or “no one”, when followed by a negative verb.
This rule continues for words like どんな (what kind of?), どっち (which way?), いつ (when?), どうして (why?) and so forth and so forth.
As you can see the simple use of particles can greatly change the context and meaning of the Japanese language. If you have ever taken the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) before you will know one whole section of the grammar test is devoted to particles. Particles are important. So we will continue our study of them. Look forward to the next post on the particle の.
