Lessons for English speakers

Learn to read Japanese

A short, active path into reading Japanese: decode seven real words from eleven kana, learn why the verb comes last and how nine particles carry the grammar, meet the plain past stories are told in, and read a short fable before opening your first book.

13 core sections · ≈ 34 min + 4 optional lookups · ≈ 55 min with everything

X is Y, whose it is, and where it is

≈ 3 min

What you'll learn

Japanese has no verb “to be”; a single character, だda, closes the sentence instead.
Pointing splits three ways: ko near me, so near you, a away from us both.
There are no words for “my” or “her”: hang のno off any person or name.
Where something is: いるiru for anything that moves itself, あるaru for everything else.
To deny something, change the tail: a sentence ending in nai is denying something.

English leans hard on the verb “to be”. Japanese has no verb like it. A single character closes the sentence and means “that is how it is”: これは犬だ。kore wa inu da.“This is a dog.” The topic, what it is, and だda. No word for “a” or “the”, and no gender: 犬inu is “dog”, “a dog”, “the dog” and “dogs” at once, and the sentence decides which.

Pointing, in three

	near me	near you	away from us both
the thing itself	これkore“this”	それsore“that”	あれare“that over there”
the place	ここkoko“here”	そこsoko“there”	あそこasoko“over there”

One pattern, six words.

Hang の off anything and it owns the next word

わたしwatashi“I”

わたしのwatashi no“my”

one character does the work of English “’s” and “of” at once

ミナMina

ミナのMina no“Mina’s”

names work the same way — there is no separate set of possessive words

わたしのなまえはwatashi no namae wa“my name” ミナだMina da“is Mina”.

わたしのなまえはミナだ。

watashi no namae wa Mina da.

Literally “as for my name, Mina”. なまえnamae“name” is a new noun, and the topic label はwa goes on the end of the whole phrase, not on the first word.

The two “exists” verbs

Verb	Used for	Example
いるiru	people and animals — anything that moves itself	猫がいるneko ga iru“there is a cat”
あるaru	objects, plants, places, ideas	水があるmizu ga aru“there is water”

Trees take あるaru despite being alive — the line is really “moves on its own”. The little がga marks the doer; the next section covers it.

Denying: change the tail

だda“is”

じゃないja nai“is not”

the “X is Y” frame, denied: わたしのいえじゃないwatashi no ie ja nai“it is not my house” — いえie“house” is a noun to pocket

みるmiru“see”

みないminai“do not see”

a verb changes its own end — there is no word for “do” anywhere

あるaru“exists”

ないnai“there is none”

the odd one — it loses its front instead. Spotting a final ないnai is the reading skill; building it comes later

Three frames, one at a time

これは猫だ。
this · cat · that is how it is
Show answer +Hide answer −
kore wa neko da — “This is a cat.”
ミナのなまえ
Owner first.
Show answer +Hide answer −
Mina no namae — “Mina’s name.”
そこに水はない。
One of these words is the odd denial.
Show answer +Hide answer −
soko ni mizu wa nai — “There is no water there.” あるaru denied is simply ないnai.