Japanese Grammar Notes 1
Most of this is taken from https://guidetojapanese.org/learn/category/grammar-guide/basic-grammar/.
Note that the conjugations below are non-敬語, unlike most textbooks which uses 敬語 right from the start.
Conjugation
State of Being
“State of Being” refers to the usage of the verb “to be”, which Japanese does not have, so you just conjugate stuff to indicate it.
| Noun X | Positive | Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Non-Past | X(だ) | Xじゃない |
| Past | Xだった | Xじゃなかった |
The positive non-past state of being has the optional conjugation. It seems that usually males do use it and females don’t.
Verbs
There are 2 classes of adjectives, ru-verbs (一段動詞) and u-verbs (五段動詞), as well as some exceptions. The reason for these names is when conjugating ru-verbs, you just keep the dictionary form or drop the final る, whereas for u-verbs, the final kana can take on one of the 5 vowels.
ru-verbs are a subset of those verbs that end in eru or iru. Some exceptions are 帰る, 知る and 要る.
The conjugation table for ru-verbs are given below.
| ru-verbs Xる | Positive | Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Non-Past | Xる | Xない |
| Past | Xた | Xなかった |
The conjugation for u-verbs are a bit more complicated. Let the verb be denoted by XY where Y denotes the last character and Y’ denotes the-vowel form of the last vowel
| u-verbs XY | Negative Non-Past | Negative Past |
|---|---|---|
| Y ≠ う | XY’ない | XY’なかった |
| Y = う | Xわない | Xわなかった |
う negative past conjugation becomes わ becuse of sound shifts, see https://www.tofugu.com/japanese-grammar/verb-conjugation-groups/#sound-convenience-in-conjugations-.
| u-verbs XY | Positive Past |
|---|---|
| Y = す | Xした |
| Y = く | Xいた |
| Y = ぐ | Xいだ |
| Y = む, ぶ, ぬ | Xんだ |
| Y = る, う, つ | Xった |
Exceptions:
- negative non-past tense of ある is ない instead of あない
- positive past tense of 行く is 行った instead of 行いた
する, 来る are the notable exceptions of the previous rule. Their conjugations are given below
| Verb Exceptions | Positive | Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Non-Past | する, $\underset{\text{く}}{\text{来}}$る | しない, $\underset{\text{こ}}{\text{来}}$ない |
| Past | した, $\underset{\text{き}}{\text{来}}$た | しなかった, $\underset{\text{こ}}{\text{来}}$なかった |
Adjectives
There are 2 classes of adjectives, na-adjectives and i-adjectives.
i-adjectives are those that end with い. There are a few na-adjectives that end with い but that is because the い comes from kanji (綺麗) or they are derived from another word (嫌う(verb)→嫌い(adjective)).
We can treat adjectives as nouns such as in English where we say “[noun] is [adjective]”, we can say “[noun] は [adjective]” in Japanese.
The conjugation of state of being for na-adjectives and nouns are the exact same, for i-adjectives, the conjugation table is given below.
| i-adjective Xい | Positive | Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Non-Past | Xい | Xくない |
| Past | Xかった | Xくなかった |
Note that for postive non-past adjectives, you cannot attach だ.
An annoying exception is the adjective いい which was originally 良い (よい). So the conjugation table for いい is an exception.
| i-adjective いい (originally よい) | Positive | Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Non-Past | いい | よくない |
| Past | よかった | よくなかった |
Note that some adjectives are compounds with suffix いい like かっこいい, so their conjugation table is also affected.
Adverbs
Adjectives can be changed into adverbs using conjugation. Unlike adjectives, adverbs do not have any tenses.
- For na-adjectives, attach に to convert it into an adverb.
- For i-adjectives, drop the last い and attach く to convert it into an adverb.
Note that not all adverbs come from adjectives. Notably, terms to express frequency.
Particles
- は: the topic particle, introduces a topic.
- も: inclusive topic particle. Same as は but carries meaning of “also”.
- が: the subject particle, who/want performed the action.
は and が are easily confused since it is very common for the topic and the subject of the sentence to be the same thing, so you need to not think of them as the same thing, but they are very different particles. Check https://8020japanese.com/wa-vs-ga/ for more information on は vs が. Basically, when communicating with another person, there exists contextual information between both speakers. The goal of communicating is for one speaker to give the other new information, which is given in terms of the assumed contextual information between speaker. は denotes the subject as contextual information while が denotes that the subject is part of the new information and it emphasises the subject.
Verb Particles
- を: the object particle, to what object was the action done
- に: the destination of an action, note that this destination can be abstract concepts like a time or a goal. It can also be used to tell the location of something when used with ある and いる.
- へ: the direction of an action, the difference between に and へ is that に goes to a target as a final destination but へ only sets out towards the target but not necessarily as a final destination.
- で: where the action takes place.
Noun Particles
- と, connects two noun, similar to “and” in “noun1とnoun2”, or shows that a verb was done with someone else in “nounとverb”.
- や, similar to と but implies that the list is not exhaustive.
- とか, same as や but colloquial.
- の, Chinese 的 in Japanese.
We can treat adjectives and verbs like nouns by adding の to them. For generic objects and events respectively, we can add 物 or 事 instead.
Another usage of の not found in Chinese is the explanatory tone, where it is added at the end of a sentence. When expressing state of being in an explanatory tone, we need to differentiate it from the earlier case of using の. This is achieved by adding な in front of the の. Due to sound shifts, なのだ got shifted into なんだ.
Sentence Ending Particles
- ね, looking for agreement to what their saying, similar to adding “right?” at end of sentence.
- よ, informing the listener of new information, similar to adding “you know” at start of sentence.
- よね, combines both meanings above, you cannot reverse the order.