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.
The doing word waits at the end
- The verb — the doing word — goes at the very end, and nothing is allowed past it.
- English shows who did what by position; Japanese sticks a small character on the back of each piece.
- wa marks what the sentence is about; o marks the one being acted on. Swap them and the story reverses.
- Japanese has pronouns and leaves most of them out; a sentence with no subject is ordinary, not sloppy.
The verb is the doing word — see, go, eat. English puts it in the middle: “I see the dog”. Japanese puts it at the very end, and nothing is allowed past it. English marks the doer and the done-to by position; Japanese marks them with labels stuck to the back of each piece, so the labels stay put and the verb stays last.
English order → Japanese order
The person words, and what happens to them
| Japanese | In real Japanese |
|---|---|
| わたしwatashi“I” | usually left out; keeping it in draws a contrast |
| あなたanata“you” | rarely used, and can sound cold — people say your name instead |
| かれkare“he” · かのじょkanojo“she” | used, but a name is more common |
| わたしたちwatashitachi“we” | たちtachi is the “more than one” ending |
Who is doing what is left to the situation. A sentence with no subject is ordinary Japanese, and the closing stories are full of them.
Find the doer, then the action
- 猫は とりを みる。
The last word is the action.
Show answer +Hide answer −
neko wa tori o miru — “The cat sees the bird.” - Which animal is doing the seeing in 犬を とりは みる。?
Look for which word carries はwa.
Show answer +Hide answer −
The bird. はwa is stuck to the bird and をo to the dog, so the bird is watching the dog.