日本語


SOV constituent order

Word classes

動詞 (Verb)

Word denoting an action being done

名詞 (Noun)

Word denoting some 'object', (person, place, or thing as a kindergarten teacher would say)

形容詞 (I-adjective)

Word describing a noun ending with an い that can be inflected

形容動詞 (Adverbial noun)

副詞 (Adverb)

Word describing a verb

接続詞 (Conjunction)

Word that connects separate phrases

前置詞 (Preposition)

Word that indirectly links an object and verb

感動詞 (Interjection)

Word or expression that demonstrates a spontaneous interaction or feeling

連体詞 (Adnominal)

助詞 (Particle)

Word linking grammatical feature to a word or phrase as a suffix

Honorifics

外 (Soto)

内 (Uchi)

敬語 (Keigo)

Vocabulary relating to honorifics

丁寧語 (Polite speech)

General speech used when speaking to soto.

尊敬語 (Honorific speech)

Speech used to exhault listener

謙譲語 (Humble speech)

Speech used to humble speaker

動詞 (Verbs)

Japanese conjugates verbs based on

Verb classes

五段動詞 (Monograde verbs)

一段動詞 (Pentagrade verbs)

不規則動詞 (Irregular verbs)

Verbs that have their own unique conjugation method, there are only 2 verbs of this class

Verb bases

Japanese does not conjugate strictly according to mood, however moods are still somewhat related to conjugation (hence the imperative and conjunction bases). So instead of saying that Japanese conjugates on moods, we say Japanese conjugates using bases, a vague abstraction of mood, cases and all other factors Japanese considers when conjugating

終止形 (Terminal)

Verb base for inflections generally occuring at the end of a phrase.

連体形 (Attributive)

Verb base reserved for the imperfective form.

仮定形 (Hypothetical)

Verb base for inflections relating to hypothetical events.

可能形 (Potential)

Verb base reserved for the potential form.

命令形 (Imperative)

Verb base reserved for the imperative form.

未然形 (Irrealis)

Verb base

意志形 (Volitional)

Verb base reserved for volitional form.

連用形 (Conjunctive)

Verb base reserved for conjunctive form.

音便形 (Euphonic)

Verb base for miscellaneous inflections

Verb conjugations

辞書形

受身形

使役形

テ形

過去形

命令形 (Imperative)

可能形 (Potential)

意志形 (Volitional)

ナイ形

丁寧形

〜たい

〜ば

〜たら

未然形 (Imperfective)

過去形

テ形 (Te)

意向形 (Volitional)

可能形 (Potential)

受身形 (Passive)

Indirect object is marked by に or when the context is ablative, から.

が marks the subject of the passive verb, or when phrase's topic/subject is already defined, use を

使役形 (Causative)

命令形 (Imperative)

バラ形 (Bara conditional)

タラ形 (Tara conditional)

〜たい

〜たり

〜なさい

形容詞と形容動詞 (I-adjectives and adverbial nouns)

I-adjectives are inflected based on

(I-adjective syntax)

I-adjectives directly preceeds its modifying noun

I-adjectives may terminate a phrase

I-adjectives may be followed by です to terminate a sentence

(Adverbial noun syntax)

Let \(a\) be an adverbial noun

\( a \oplus 「な」\) directly preceeds its modifying noun

Adverbial nouns require the copula directly proceeding it to terminate a sentence

副詞活用 (adverb inflection)

形容詞

Let \( i = m \oplus 「い」\) be an I-adjective

\( \text{fukushi}(i) = m \oplus 「く」\)

形容動詞

Let \(a\) be an adverbial noun

\( \text{fukushi}(a) = a \oplus 「に」\)

名詞 (Nouns)

代名詞 (Pronouns)

Noun refering indirectly to a noun in context of the phrase. Japanese pronouns are considered nouns, however other languages such as English and Italian distinguish pronouns and nouns.

主観的な代名詞

Pronoun Meaning
これ
ここ
こちら
こいつ
この
こう
こんな
This
Here
This direction
This person
This [prenominal]
This way [adverb]
This type
それ
そこ
そちら
そいつ
その
そう
そんな
That
There
That direction
That person
That [prenominal]
That way [adverb]
That type
あれ
あそこ
あちら
あいつ
あの
ああ
あんな
That
There
That direction
That person
That [prenominal]
That way [adverb]
That type
どれ
どこ
どちら
どいつ
どの
どう
どんな
Which
Where
Which direction
Who
Which [prenominal]
How
Which type

Personal 代名詞

Pronoun Meaning
私,僕,俺,我 I
あなた,君,お前,手前 You
He
彼女 Her

Reflexive 代名詞

自分 is used to denote a reflexive object, regardless of person.

助詞 (Particles)

格助詞 (Case markers)

Particles relating a noun or phrase with a certain case for a verb

並立助詞 (Parallel markers)

終助詞 (Sentence ending particles)

助詞 (Interjectory particles)

助詞 (Adverbial particles)

助詞 (Binding particles)

Special grammatical constructions

ください

ば〜ほど

限り

まみれ

だらけ

ずくめ

はず

べき

みたい

よう

そう

らしい

しょうがない

とりあえず

まず

ずっと

ところ

さも

として

にして

ながら

つつ

あわよくば

ちなみに

なければならない

なくちゃ

なくじゃ

である

によって

について

あらかじめ

結局

所詮

絶対

まさか

つもり

わけ

あくまでも

あっての

例えば

場合は

が必要

きっと

一切

全然

突然

やっぱり

さすが

まくる

くせに

素直に

まま

から〜にかけて

の中に

さっき

それに

それでも

または

のに

あっての

ふと

気味

がましい

が早いか

頂戴

ほうがいい

ことがある

ほうがましだ

こそ

ずいぶん

とても

めっちゃ

なかなか

かなり

甚だ

〜びる

ため

いくら〜ても

一体

代わりに

なんで

どうして

から

決して〜ない

まるで

における

Phonetics

Pitch accent