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711 matching lessons · Showing 30

• JLPTている or てある: which one says somebody meant toBoth mean the window is open. てある says someone opened it on purpose; ている just reports the state — and you commit to which one word early, at the verb.Available7 min read↗
• N5 grammarJapanese verb groups: dictionary forms and polite endingsA verb's dictionary form decides how it conjugates. The test that separates the two groups, the exceptions that break it, and how each becomes ます.Available6 min read↗
• N5 grammarの for possession: joining two nounsの links one noun to another, and possession is only its most famous job. How it attaches, the relationships it carries, and the one place it never goes.Available6 min read↗
• N5 vocabularyN5 everyday verbs: actions, readings and common objectsNineteen N5 verbs that carry one ordinary day: get up, wait, work, eat, sleep, each paired with the object or particle it actually takes, not a-i-u-e-o order.Available8 min read↗
• N5 vocabularyJapanese numbers at N5: two systems and their readingsJapanese counts with two sets of numbers, and you need both from week one. Every reading for 1 to 10,000, why 4, 7 and 9 have two, and how a price is read.Available9 min read↗
• N4 grammarと and たら: predictable results or a particular situationと names a result nobody had to choose; たら names what happened once something became true, including a plan. The test that tells them apart.Available7 min read↗
• N4 grammarば and なら: conditions and adviceなら takes up a condition someone already raised; ば supplies its own. The test that tells them apart, and why ば can't carry a request.Available8 min read↗
• N4 grammarRegret or finished? What 〜てしまう is really doing〜てしまう marks an action as finished and past undoing. The regret everyone teaches is a consequence of that, not a second meaning to learn.Available7 min read↗
• N4 vocabularyCompound verbs: the second verb is the one that conjugatesFive N4 words share one mechanism: fuse a verb stem to a second verb, and the second one carries every bit of the conjugating.Available8 min read↗
• N4 vocabularyAdverbs of degree, from ぜんぜん to かなりN4 degree adverbs hide a grammar rule: 全然 and ちっとも force the verb negative, ほとんど flips its meaning with it, and 最も means most, not extremely.Available8 min read↗
• N3 grammarわけだ, わけではない, わけがない: one conclusion, denied two waysわけ marks a conclusion implied by context: だ affirms it, ではない denies it partly, がない denies it could ever hold. Mixing up the last two changes what you claim.Available7 min read↗
• N3 grammar～はず and ～べき: expectation against obligationBoth ～はず and ～べき turn into "should" in English, but one is a prediction and the other a judgement. The one test that tells them apart, with N3 examples.Available6 min read↗
• N3 vocabularyAbstract nouns start here, and the kanji do the workN3 vocabulary turns abstract, and nearly every new noun is two kanji welded together: learn to read the pieces instead of memorizing eight new sounds.Available7 min read↗
• N2 grammar～にあたって, ～に際して: the formal on-the-occasion-of formsにあたって marks the run-up to a milestone; に際して marks the moment itself. Same dictionary translation, and a different sentence each time you pick wrong.Available7 min read↗
• N2 vocabularyNewspaper vocabulary: words and collocations in context取材, 発表, 発行 and 報道 look interchangeable in a dictionary. In an actual newsroom they name four different steps, and 世論 carries a spelling reform inside its two readings.Available10 min read↗
• N1 grammar～んがため, ～べく: classical purpose formsべく and んがため both mean 'in order to' in formal Japanese. Each hangs off a different verb stem, and that stem is how you tell them, and せん, apart.Available8 min read↗
• N1 vocabularyRare kanji readings in common wordsAt N1 the kanji look easy and the reading is the trap. 玄人, 仲人 and 土産 read nothing like they look. How to recognise them, and why the reading is the test.Available8 min read↗
• N5 grammarJapanese questions: か, question words and short answersPlanned
• N5 grammarThe て-form: how to build it, and why everything needs itPlanned
• N5 grammarです and だ: what the copula is actually doingPlanned
• N5 grammarを and the direct object, and when Japanese drops itPlanned
• N5 grammarある or いる: the two verbs for something being therePlanned
• N5 grammarい-adjectives and な-adjectives are two different wordsPlanned
• N5 grammarHow Japanese says no: ない, ません, and the past negativePlanned
• N5 grammarThe た-form is the て-form with one sound changedPlanned
• N5 grammar～たい: wanting to do something, and why it takes がPlanned
• N5 grammar～ましょう and ～ませんか: suggesting without decidingPlanned
• N5 grammar～てください is a request, not a pleasePlanned
• N5 grammarから or ので: two ways to say becausePlanned
• N5 grammarも, と, や: the particles that add things upPlanned