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The Japanese language has a highly regular agglutinative verb morphology, with both productive and fixed elements. Typologically, its most prominent feature is topic creation: Japanese is neither topic-prominent, nor subject-prominent; indeed, it is common for sentences to have distinct topics and subjects. Grammatically, Japanese is an SOV language, with verbs rigidly constrained to the sentence-final position. The word order is fairly free as long as the order of dependent-head is maintained among all constituents: the adjective or relative clause precedes the modified noun, the adverb precedes the modified verb, the genitive nominal precedes the possessed nominal, and so forth. Thus, Japanese is a left-branching language; to contrast, English is right-branching.
For simplicity, this article presents examples in plain informal and non-literary style. The reader must keep the general grammatical principles of politeness and respect in mind.
Text (文章 bunshō) is composed of sentences (文 bun), which are in turn composed of phrases (文節 bunsetsu), which are its smallest coherent components. Like Chinese and classical Korean, Japanese does not typically demarcate words with spaces; its agglutinative nature further makes the concept of a word rather different from words in English. Word divisions are informed by semantic cues and a knowledge of phrase structure. Phrases have a single meaning-bearing word, followed by a string of suffixes, auxiliary verbs and particles to modify its meaning and designate its grammatical role. In the following example, bunsetsu are indicated by vertical bars:
Some scholars romanize Japanese sentences by inserting spaces only at phrase boundaries (i.e., "taiyouga higashino sorani noboru"), in effect treating an entire phrase as the equivalent of an English word. Traditionally, however, a more basic concept of word (単語 tango) forms the atoms of sentences. Words unlike phrases need not have intrinsic meaning, therefore admitting particles and auxiliary verbs. It must be noted that this classification of textual structure in modern Japanese is descriptive; some classical auxiliary verbs such as -te are grammaticalized as conjugations or verb endings in modern Japanese, not individual words.
The structure of this article will mirror the following classification of words. There are two broad categories — independent words (自立語 jiritsugo) having internal meaning, and ancillary words (付属語 fuzokugo) which are meaning modifiers. Independent words divide into a conjugable (活用語 katsuyōgo) class containing verbs (動詞 doushi), pure adjectives (形容詞 keiyōshi, also known as i-type adjective), and adjectival nouns (形容動詞 keiyōdōshi, also known as na-type adjective); and a non-conjugable (無活用語 mukatsuyōgo) class containing nouns (名詞 meishi), pronouns (代名詞 daimeishi), adverbs (副詞 fukushi), conjunctions (接続詞 setsuzokushi), and interjections (感動し kandōshi). Of ancillary words there are only two classes: grammatical particles (助詞 joshi) and auxiliary verbs (助動詞 jodōshi).
| meaning | plain | respectful |
|---|---|---|
| rice | 飯 meshi | ご飯 go-han |
| money | 金 kane | お金 o-kane |
| body | 体 karada | お体 o-karada 御体 onmi |
| word(s) | 言葉 kotoba | お言葉 o-kotoba 詔 mikotonori |
Japanese nouns are non-inflecting, have no gender, and take no articles. Thus 猫 (neko) could be translated into English as "cat", "a cat", "the cat", "cats", "some cats", or "the cats", depending on context. A small number of nouns have plurals formed by reduplication (possibly accompanied by rendaku): thus 人 hito "person" and 人々 hitobito "people", although these are typically collective rather than true plurals. Additionally, in respectful speech, the prefix o- is often used with native nouns, as is the prefix go- with Sino-Japanese nouns. Some common nouns have unpredictable respectful forms; a few examples are in the adjoining table.
The use of pronouns in Japanese is rare, limited to when the referrent cannot be deduced from the context. For example, 日本に行きました (nihon ni ikimashita) says just "went to Japan". The subject is inferred from context: if the topic is the first person, then it means "I went to Japan", for a third person, "he/she went to Japan", etc. Speakers of Japanese tend to use names instead of pronouns in speech. For example:
Japanese has many nouns that can be used as personal pronouns; see for a long list. Some common ones are given in the following table.
| person | plain, informal | polite | respectful |
|---|---|---|---|
| first | 僕 (boku, male), 俺 (ore, male) あたし (atashi, female) | 私 (watashi) | 私 (watakushi) |
| second | 君 (kimi, usu. used by males) | 貴方 (anata), そちら (sochira) | お宅 (o-taku) |
| third | 彼 (kare, male) 彼女 (kanojo, female) | あの人 (ano hito) | |
Although Japanese nouns do not inflect for number, there are "plural" forms to indicate semantic number: 私達 (watashi-tachi) for "we", あなたたち (anata-tachi) for "you (plural)", 僕等 (bokura) for "we (inform. male)". Interestingly, one uncommon pseudopronoun, 我 (ware, "I") has a much more common reduplicative plural 我々 (wareware, "we"). However, 達 (-tachi) and 等 (-ra) are by far the most common pluralizing suffixes -- although 達 (-tachi) is not strictly a pluralizing suffix: for example, 太郎達 (Tarō-tachi) does not mean "some number of people named Tarō" but instead means "Tarō and his friends," or "Tarō and those people who are with him". The suffixes ス (-su) and ズ (-zu), derived from the English plural suffix -[e]s, are also occasionally used to indicate the plural, although this is not even remotely standard Japanese.
Whereas in English there are many reflexive pronouns (himself, herself, itself, themselves, etc.), in Japanese there is a single reflexive pronoun 自分 (jibun). The uses of the reflexive pronoun in the two languages are very different. The following incorrect literal translations demonstrate the differences (*=impossible, ??=ambiguous):
| English | Japanese | reason |
|---|---|---|
| History repeats itself. | *歴史は自分を繰り返す。 *Rekishi wa jibun wo kurikaesu. | the target of jibun must be animate |
| ??John talked to Bill about himself. | ジョンはビルに自分のことを話した。 Jon ga Biru ni jibun no koto wo hanashita. John talked to Bill about himself (=John) | jibun refers unambiguously to the subject. |
| *John expects that Mary will take good care of himself. | ??ジョンはメリーが自分を大事にすることを期待している。 ??Jon wa Merī ga jibun wo daiji ni suru koto wo kitaishite iru. either "John expects that Mary will take good care of him", or "John expects that Mary will take good care of herself." | jibun can be in a different sentence or dependent clause, but its target is ambiguous |
If the sentence has more than one grammatical or semantic subject, then the target is the subject of the main action; thus in the following sentence 自分 (jibun) refers unambiguously to Mary (even though John is the grammatical subject) because the main action is "Mary's reading".
In practice the main action is not always discernible, in which case such sentences are ambiguous. The use of jibun in complex sentences follows non-trivial rules.
| ko- | so- | a- | do- |
|---|---|---|---|
| kore this one | sore that one | are that one over there | dore which one? |
| kono (of) this | sono (of) that | ano (of) that over there | dono (of) what? |
| konna like this | sonna like that | anna like that over there | donna how? what sort of? |
| koko here | soko there | asoko * over there | doko where? |
| kochira this way | sochira that way | achira that way over there | dochira which way? |
| kō in this manner | sō in that manner | ā * in that (other) manner | dō in what manner? |
| koitsu this fellow | soitsu that fellow | aitsu that other fellow | doitsu which fellow? |
Demonstratives occur in the ko-, so-, and a- series. The ko- series refers to things closer to the speaker than the hearer, the so- series for things closer to the hearer, and the a-series for things distant to both the speaker and the hearer. With do-, demonstratives turn into the corresponding question form. Demonstratives of are also used for people, for example
Demonstratives limit, and therefore precede, nouns; thus この本 (kono hon) for "this/my book", and その本 (sono hon) for "that/your book".
When demonstratives are used to refer to things not visible to the speaker or the hearer, or to (abstract) concepts, they fulfill a related but different anaphoric role. The anaphoric so- series is used to refer to experience that is not shared between the speaker and the listener, generally because one party has no information about it. For shared information the anaphoric a- series is used.
Soko instead of asoko would imply that B has no knowledge of Sapporo, which is inconsistent with the rest of the sentence.
Again, ano is inappropriate here because Sato doesn't (didn't) know Tanaka personally.
The ko- series demonstratives don't have clear anaphoric uses. They can be used in situations where the a- series sound too disconnected:
Prior to discussing the conjugable words, a brief note about stem forms. Conjugative suffixes and auxiliary verbs are attached to the stem forms of the affixee. In modern Japanese there are the following six stem forms.
The application of conjugative suffixes to stem forms follow certain euphonic principles (音便 onbin), which is discussed below.
Verbs in Japanese are rigidly constrained to the ends of clauses in what is known as the predicate position.
| neko | wa | sakana | o | taberu |
| cat | TOPIC | fish | OBJECT | eats |
The subject and objects of the verb are indicated by means of particles (see the section on it below), and the grammatical functions of the verb—primarily tense and voice—are indicated by means of conjugation. When the subject and the dissertative topic coincide, the subject is often omitted; if the verb happens to be intransitive, then it might have no objects either, in which case the entire sentence consists of a single verb. For this reason, it is often claimed that verbs (or more accurately, predicates) are the most important parts of speech in Japanese. Verbs have two tenses indicated by conjugation — past and nonpast. The semantic difference between present and future tenses is not indicated by means of conjugation. Usually there is no ambiguity because few verbs can operate in both uses. Voice and aspect are also indicated by means of conjugation, and possibly agglutinating auxiliary verbs. For example, the continuative aspect is formed by means of the continuative conjugation known as the gerundive or -te form, and the auxiliary verb iru; to illustrate, 見る (miru, to see) → 見ている (mite-iru, is seeing).
Verbs can be semantically classified based on certain conjugations.
There are other possible classes, and a large amount of overlap between the classes. Lexically, however, nearly every verb in Japanese is a member of exactly one of the following three regular conjugation groups.
Historical note: classical Japanese had upper and lower first and second groups and a fourth group (上／下一段 kami/shimo ichidan, 上／下二段 kami/shimo nidan, and 四段 yodan), and nothing like the modern godan group. Since verbs have migrated across groups in the history of the language, conjugation of classical verbs is not predictable from a knowledge of modern Japanese alone.
Of the irregular classes, there are two:
Classical japanese had one further irregular class, the na-group, which contained 死ぬ (shinu, to die) and a handful of other now rare verbs, but these verbs are regular group 1 verbs in modern Japanese.
The following table illustrates the stem forms of the above conjugation groups, with the root indicated with dots. For example, to find the hypothetical form of the group 1 verb 書く (kaku), look in the second row to find its root, ka, then in the hypothetical row to get the ending ke, giving the stem form kake. When there are multiple possibilities, they are listed in the order of increasing rarity.
| group/ example | 1 | 2a | 2b | sa | ka | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 使・ (tsuka.) | 書・ (ka.) | 見・ (mi.) | 食べ・ (tabe.) | ||||
| Attributive form (連体形 rentaikei) | 使う (.u) | 書く (.ku) | 見る (.ru) | 食べる (.ru) | する (suru) | 来る (kuru) | |
| Terminal form (終止形 shuushikei) | same as attributive form | ||||||
| Continuative form (連用形 ren'youkei) | 使い (.i) | 書き (.ki) | 見 (.) | 食べ (.) | し (shi) | 来 (ki) | |
| Imperfective form (未然形 mizenkei) | 使わ (.wa)1 | 書か (.ka) | 見 (.) | 食べ (.) | し (shi) せ (se) さ (sa) | 来 (ko) | |
| Hypothetical form (仮定形 kateikei) | 使え (.e) | 書け (.ke) | 見れ (.re) | 食べれ (.re) | すれ (sure) | 来れ (kure) | |
| Imperative form (命令形 meireikei) | 使え (.e) | 書け (.ke) | 見ろ (.ro) 見よ (.yo) | 食べろ (.ro) 食べよ (.yo) | しろ (shiro) せよ (seyo) せい (sei) | 来い (koi) | |
The above are only the stem forms of the verbs; to these one must add various verb endings in order to get the fully conjugated verb. The following table lists the most common conjugations. In cases where the form is different based on the conjugation group of the verb, arrows point to the correct formation rule.
| formation rule | group 1 書く (kaku) | group 2a 見る (miru) | group 2b 食べる (taberu) | sa-group する (suru) | ka-group 来る (kuru) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain polite nonpast | cont. + なす (masu) | 書き・ます kaki.masu | 見・ます mi.masu | 食べ・ます tabe.masu | し・ます shi.masu | 来・ます ki.masu |
| informal past | cont. + た (ta) | 書い・た kai.ta* | 見・た mi.ta | 食べ・た tabe.ta | し・た shi.ta | 来・た ki.ta |
| informal negative nonpast | imperf. + ない (nai) | 書か・ない kaka.nai | 見・ない mi.nai | 食べ・ない tabe.nai | し・ない shi.nai | 来・ない ko.nai |
| informal negative past | imperf. + なかった (nakatta) | 書か・なかった kaka.nakatta | 見・なかった mi.nakatta | 食べ・なかった tabe.nakatta | し・なかった shi.nakatta | 来・なかった ko.nakatta |
| -te form (gerundive) | cont. + て (-te) | 書いて kai.te* | 見て mi.te | 食べて tabe.te | して si.te | 来て ki.te |
| conditional1 | hyp. + ば (ba) | 書け・ば kake.ba | 見れ・ば mire.ba | 食べれ・ば tabere.ba | すれ・ば sure.ba | 来れ・ば kure.ba |
| provisional1 | cont. + たら (tara) | 書いたら kai.tara* | 見たら mi.tara | 食べたら tabe.tara | したら si.tara | 来たら ki.tara |
| volitional | imperf. + う(u) | 書こ・う kak.ō* | ↓ | |||
| imperf. + よう (-yō) | ↑ | 見・よう mi.yō | 食べ・よう tabe.yō | し・よう shi.yō | 来・よう ko.yō | |
| passive | imperf. + れる (reru) | 書か・れる kaka.reru | ↓ | さ・れる sa.reru | ↓ | |
| imperf. + られる (-rareru) | ↑ | 見・られる mi.rareru | 食べ・られる tabe.rareru | ↑ | 来・られる ko.rareru | |
| causative | imperf. + せる (seru) | 書か・せる kaka.seru | ↓ | さ・せる sa.seru | ↓ | |
| imperf. + させる (-saseru) | ↑ | 見・させる mi.saseru | 食べ・させる tabe.saseru | ↑ | 来・させる ko.saseru | |
| potential | hyp. + る (ru) | 書け・る kake.ru | ↓ | 出来る dekiru2 | ↓ | |
| imperf. + られる (-rareru) | ↑ | 見・られる mi.rareru | 食べ・られる tabe.rareru | ↑ | 来・られる ko.rareru | |
The polite ending -masu conjugates as a group 1 verb. The passive and potential endings -reru and -rareru, and the causative endings -seru and -saseru all conjugate as group 2b verbs. Multiple verbal endings can therefore agglutinate. For example, a common formation is the causative-passive ending, -sase-rareru.
As should be expected, the vast majority of lexically legal combinations of conjugative endings are not semantically meaningful.
Japanese has two main classes of adjectives.
All pure adjectives except for いい (ii, good) have regular conjugations, and ii is irregular only in the fact that it is a corruption of the regular adjective 良い (yoi) which manifests itself in the conjugations. All adjectival nouns conjugate regularly.
| pure adjectives | adjectival nouns | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 安・い (yasu.) | い・い (i.) | 静か- (shizuka-) | |
| Attributive form1 (連体形 rentaikei) | 安い (.i) | いい (.i) | 静かな (-na) |
| Terminal form1 (終止形 shuushikei) | 安い (.i) | いい (.i) | 静かだ (-da) |
| Continuative form (連用形 ren'youkei) | 安く (.ku) | 良く (yo.ku)* | 静かで (-de) |
| Imperfective form (未然形 mizenkei) | 安かろ (.karo) | 良かろ (yo.karo)* | 静かだろ (-daro) |
| Hypothetical form (仮定形 kateikei) | 安けれ (.kere) | 良けれ (yo.kere)* | 静かなら (-nara) |
| Imperative form2 (命令形 meireikei) | 安かれ (.kare) | 良かれ (yo.kare) | 静かなれ (-nare) |
Like verbs, we can enumerate some common conjugations of adjectives. Also, ii isn't special-cased, because all conjugations are identical to yoi.
| pure adjectives 安い (yasui) | adjectival nouns 静か (shizuka) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain polite nonpast | term. + copula です (desu) | 安いです yasui desu | root + copula です (desu) | 静かです shizuka desu |
| informal past | cont. + あった (atta) (u + a collapse) | 安かった yasuk.atta | cont. + あった (atta) (e + a collapse) | 静かだった shizuka d.atta |
| informal negative nonpast | cont. + (は)ない ((wa) nai)1 | 安く(は)ない yasuku(wa)nai | cont. + (は)ない ((wa) nai) | 静かで(は)ない shizuka de (wa) nai |
| informal negative past | cont. + (は)なかった ((wa) nakatta)1 | 安く(は)なかった yasuku(wa)nakatta | cont. + (は)なかった ((wa) nakatta) | 静かで(は)なかった shizuka de (wa) nakatta |
| polite negative non past | inf. neg. non-past + copula です (desu)1 | 安くないです yasukunai desu | inf. cont + (は)ありません ((wa) arimasen) | 静かではありません shizuka de wa arimasen |
| polite negative past | inf. neg. past + copula です (desu)1 | 安くなかったです yasukunakatta desu | inf. cont + (は)ありませんでした ((wa) arimasen deshita) | 静かではありませんでした shizuka de wa arimasen deshita |
| inf. neg. past + なかったです (nakatta desu)1 | 静かではなかったです shizuka de wa nakatta desu | |||
| -te form | cont. + て (te) | 安くて yasuku.te | cont. | 静かで shizuka de |
| conditional2 | hyp. + ば (ba) | 安ければ yasukere.ba | hyp. (+ ば (ba)) | 静かなら(ば) shizuka nara(ba) |
| provisional2 | inf. past + ら (ra) | 安かったら yasukatta.ra | inf. past + ら (ra) | 静かだったら shizuka datta.ra |
| volitional3 | imperf. + う (u) | 安かろう (yasukarō) | imperf. + う (u) = root + だろう (darō) | 静かだろう (shizuka darō) |
| adverbial | cont. | 安く yasuku. | root + に (ni) | 静かに shizuka ni |
| degree (-ness) | root + さ (sa) | 安さ yasu-sa | root + sa | 静かさ shizuka-sa |
Adjectives too are governed by euphonic rules in certain cases, as noted in the section on it below. For the polite negatives of adjectival nouns, see also the section below on the copula だ (da).
The copula da behaves very much like a verb or an adjective in terms of conjugation.
| Attributive form (連体形 rentaikei) | である (de aru) |
|---|---|
| Terminal form (終止形 shuushikei) | だ (da, informal) です (desu, polite) でございます (de gozaimasu, respectful) |
| Continuative form (連用形 ren'youkei) | で (de) |
| Imperfective form (未然形 mizenkei) | では (de wa) |
| Hypothetical form (仮定形 kateikei) | なら (nara) |
| Imperative form (命令形 meireikei) | impossible |
Note that there are no potential, causative, or passive forms of the copula, just as with adjectives. The following are some examples.
In continuative conjugations, では (de wa) is often contracted in speech to じゃ (ja); for some kinds of informal speech ja is preferrable to de wa, or is the only possibility.
| nonpast | informal | だ (da) |
|---|---|---|
| polite | です (desu) | |
| respectful | でございます (de gozaimasu) | |
| past | informal | cont. + あった (atta) だった (datta) |
| polite | でした (desita) | |
| respectful | でございました (de gozaimashita) | |
| negative nonpast | informal | cont. + はない (wa nai) |
| polite | cont. + はありません (wa arimasen) | |
| polite | cont. + はございません (wa gozaimasen) | |
| negative past | informal | cont. + はなかった (nakatta) |
| polite | cont. + はありませんでした (wa arimasen deshita) | |
| polite | cont. + はございませんでした (wa gozaimasen deshita) | |
| conditional | informal | hyp. + ば (ba) |
| polite | cont. + あれば (areba) | |
| respectful | ||
| provisional | informal | なら (nara) |
| polite | same as conditional | |
| respectful | ||
| volitional | informal | だろう (darō) |
| polite | でしょう (deshō) | |
| respectful | でございましょう (de gozaimashō) | |
| adverbial and -te forms | informal | cont. |
| polite | cont. + ありまして (arimashite) | |
| respectful | cont. + ございまして (gozaimashite) | |
| archaic | modern |
|---|---|
| あ＋う (a + u) あ＋ふ (a + fu) | おう (ō) |
| い＋う (i + u) い＋ふ (i + fu) | ゆう (yū)* |
| う＋ふ (u + fu) | うう (ū) |
| え＋う (e + u) え＋ふ (e + fu) | よう (yō) |
| お＋ふ (o + fu) お＋を (o + wo) | おう (ō) |
| medial or final は (ha) | わ (wa) |
| medial or final ひ (hi), へ (he), ほ (ho) | い (i), え (e), お (o) (via wi, we, wo, see below) |
| any ゐ (wi), ゑ (we), を (wo) | い (i), え (e), お (o) |
Modern pronunciation is a result of a long history of phonemic drift that can be traced back to written records of the thirteenth century, and possibly earlier. However, it was only in 1946 that the Japanese ministry of education modified existing kana usage to conform to the standard dialect (共通語 kyōtsūgo). All earlier texts used the archaic orthography, now referred to as historical kana usage. The adjoining table is a nearly exhaustive list of these spelling changes. As mentioned above, conjugations of some verbs and adjectives differ from the prescribed formation rules because of euphonic changes. Nearly all of these euphonic changes are themselves regular. For verbs the exceptions are all in the ending of the continuative form of group 1when the following auxiliary has a ta-sound, i.e., た (ta), て (te), たり (tari), etc.
| continuative ending | changes to | example |
|---|---|---|
| い, ち or り | っ | *買いて *kaite → 買って katte *打ちて *uchite → 打って utte *知りて *shirite → 知って shitte |
| び, み or に | ん, with the following タ sound voiced | *遊びて *asobite → 遊んで asonde *住みて *sumite → 住んで sunde *死にて *shinite → 死んで shinde |
| き | い | *書きて *kakite → 書いて kaite |
| ぎ | い, with the following タ sound voiced | *泳ぎて *oyogite → 泳いで oyoide |
There is one other irregular change: 行く iku (to go), for which there is an exceptional continuative form: 行き iki + て te → 行って itte, 行き iki + た ta → 行った itta, etc.
The continuative form of proper adjectives, when followed by polite forms such as ございます (gozaimasu, to be) or 存じます (zonjimasu, to know), undergo a transformation.
| continuative ending | description | examples |
|---|---|---|
| [not し] + く | う, possibly also combining with the previous syllable according to the spelling reform chart | *寒くございます *samuku gozaimasu → 寒うございます samū gozaimasu *おはやくございます ohayaku gozaimasu → おはようございます ohayō gozaimasu |
| しく | しゅう | *涼しくございます *suzushiku gozaimasu → 涼しゅうございます suzushuu gozaimasu |
Respectful verbs such as くださる (kudasaru, to get), なさる (nasaru, to do), ござる (gozaru, to be), いらっしゃる (irassharu, to be/come/go), おっしゃる (ossharu, to say), etc. behave like group 1 verbs, except in the continuative and imperative forms.
| change | examples | |
|---|---|---|
| continuative | ーり changed to ーい | *ござります *gozarimasu → ございます gozaimasu *いらっしゃりませ *irassharimase → いらっしゃいませ irasshaimase |
| imperative | ーれ changed to ーい | *くだされ *kudasare → ください kudasai *なされ *nasare → なさい nasai |
In speech, common combinations of conjugation and auxiliary verbs are contracted in a fairly regular manner.
| full form | colloquial | example |
|---|---|---|
| -てしまう -te shimau | -ちゃう/-じゃう -chau/-jau group 1 | 負けてしまう (makete shimau, lose) → 負けちゃう (makechau) 死んでしまう (shinde shimau, die) → 死んじゃう (shinjau) |
| -ては -te wa | -ちゃ/-じゃ -cha/-ja | 食べてはいけない (tabete wa ikenai, must not eat) → 食べちゃいけない (tabecha ikenai) |
| -ている -te iru | -てる -teru group 2b | 寝ている (nete iru, is sleeping) → 寝てる (neteru) |
| -ておく -te oku | -とく -toku group 1 | しておく (shite oku, will do it so) → しとく (shitoku) |
| -て行く -te iku | -てく -teku group 1 | 出て行け (dete ike, get out!) → 出てけ (deteke) |
| -るの -ru no | -んの -nno | 何しているの (nani shite iru no, what are you doing?) → 何してんの (nani shitenno) |
Adverbs in Japanese are not as tightly integrated into the morphology as in many other languages. Indeed, adverbs are not an independent class of words, but rather a role played by other words. For example, every adjective in the continuative form can be used as an adverb; thus, 弱い (yowai, weak, adj) → 弱く (yowaku, weakly, adv). The primary distinguishing characteristic of adverbs is that they cannot occur in a predicate position, just as it is in English. The following classification of adverbs is not intended to be authoritative or exhaustive.
Often, especially for sound symbolism, the particle to ("as if") is used. See the article on Japanese sound symbolism.
These parts of speech are much as in English.
Examples of conjunctions: そうして (sōshite, and then), また (mata, and then/again), etc.
Examples of interjections: はい (hai, yes/OK/uh), へえ (hē, wow!), いいえ (īe, no/no way), おい (oi, hey!), etc.
Particles in Japanese are postpositional—they immediately follow the modified component. A full listing of particles would be beyond the scope of this article, so only a few prominent particles are listed here.
The distinction between the so-called topic (は ha) and subject (が ga) particles is not straightforward, and in fact has been the theme of many doctoral dissertations and scholarly disputes. The reader is warned to take the material in this section, more than any other part of this article, as a poor and approximate guide. Interested readers are referred to two major scholarly surveys of Japanese linguistics in English, (Shibatani 1990) and (Kuno 1973). To simplify matters, the referrents of wa and ga will be called the topic and subject respectively, with the understanding that if one or the other is absent, then the grammatical topic and subject may coincide depending on context.
As a first approximation, the difference between wa and ga is a matter of focus: wa gives focus to the action of the sentence, i.e., the verb or adjective, whereas ga gives focus to the subject of the action. However, this description is too abstract; a more useful description must proceed by ennumerating uses of these particles.
The use of wa to introduce a new theme of discourse is directly linked to the notion of grammatical theme. Opinions differ on the structure of discourse theme, though it seems fairly uncontroversial to imagine a first-in-first-out hierarchy of themes that is threaded through the discourse. Of course, human limitations restrict the scope and depth of themes, and later themes may cause earlier themes to expire. In these sorts of sentences, the steadfast translation into English uses constructs like "speaking of X" or "on the topic of X", though such translations tend to be bulky as they fail to use the thematic mechanisms of English. For lack of a best strategy, many teachers of Japanese drill the "speaking of X" pattern into their students without sufficient warning.
The warning against rote translation cannot be overemphasized. A common linguistic joke is the sentence 僕は鰻だ (boku wa unagi da), which according to the pattern should be translated as "(Speaking of me), I am an eel." Yet, in a restaurant this sentence can reasonably be used to say "I'd like an order of eel", with no intended humor. This is because the sentence should be literally read, "As for me, it is an eel," with "it" referring to the speaker's order. We can clearly see that the topic of the sentence is not its subject! (As a side note, the separation of grammatical topic and subject is sometimes transported by native Japanese speakers to other languages; for example, a Japanese with a shaky grasp of English might say "I am an eel" in a restaurant in an attempt to order eel.)
Related to the role of wa in introducing themes is its use in contrasting the current topic and its aspects from other possible topics and their aspects. The suggestive pattern is "X, but ..." or "as for X, ...".
Because of its contrastive nature, the topic cannot be undefined.
In this situation ga is forced.
In practice, the distinction between thematic and contrastive wa is not that useful. Suffice it to say that there can be at most one thematic wa in a sentence, and it has to be the first wa if one exists, and the remaining was are contrastive. For completeness, the following sentence (due to Kuno) illustrates the difference.
The first interpretation is the thematic wa, treating "the people I know" (boku ga shitte iru hito) as the theme of the predicate "none came" (dare mo konakatta). That is, if I know A, B, ..., Z, then none of the people who came were A, B, ..., Z. The second interpretation is the contrastive wa. If the likely attendees were A, B, ..., Z, and of them I know P, Q and R, then the sentence says that P, Q and R did not come. The sentence says nothing about A', B', ..., Z', all of whom I know, but none of whom were likely to come. The sentence is ambiguous up to this difference. (In practice the first interpretation is the likely one.)
Unlike wa, the subject particle ga nominates its referrent as the sole satisfier of the predicate. This distinction is famously illustrated by the following pair of sentences.
For stative transitive verbs, ga instead of o is used to mark the object.
The direct object of non-stative transitive verbs is indicated by the object particle を (o).
This particle can also have a instrumental use for motion verbs.
English allows a similar concept ("walk the road"), though it is usually literary. The general instrumental particle is で (de), which can be translated as "using".
This particle also has other uses: "at" (temporary location):
"In":
"With" or "in (the span of)":
The general locative particle is に (ni).
In this function it is interchangable with へ (e). However, ni has additional uses: "at (prolonged)":
"On":
"In (some year)", "at (some point in time)":
To conjoin nouns, と (to) is used.
The additive particle も (mo) can be used to conjoin larger nominals and clauses.
For an incomplete list of conjuncts, や (ya) is used.
When only one of the conjuncts is necessary, the disjunctive particle か (ka) is used.
Quantities are listed between から (kara, from) and まで (made, to).
This pair can also be used to indicate time or space.
Because kara indicates starting point or origin, it has a related use as "because":
The particle kara and a related particle yori are used to indicate lowest extents: prices, business hours, etc.
Yori is also used in the sense of "than".
The particle と (to) is used to set off quotations.
It is also used to indicate a manner of similarity, "as if" or "like".
In a related conditional use, it functions like "after", or "upon".
Finally it is used with verbs like to meet (with) (会う au) or to speak (with) (話す hanasu).
This last use is also a function of the particle に (ni), but to indicates reciprocation which ni does not.
Finally, the particle よ (yo) is used in a hortative or vocative sense.
The sentence-final particle か (ka) turns a declarative sentence into a question.
The particle ね (ne) softens a declarative sentence, similar to English "you know?", "eh?" or "I tell you!".
A final よ (yo) is used for emphasis.
The particles ぜ (ze) and ぞ (zo) are sometimes used similarly, particularly by boys in movie dialogue.
Compound particles are formed with at least one particle together with other words including, other particles. The commonly seen forms are:
Other structures are rarer, though of course possible. A few examples:
All auxiliary verbs attach to a verbal or adjectival stem form and conjugate as verbs, but they differ from normal verbs in having no independent meaning. In modern Japanese there are two distinct classes of auxiliary verbs:
In classical Japanese which was more purely agglutinating than modern Japanese, the category of auxiliary verb included every possible verb ending after the stem form, and most of these endings were themselves active participants in composition. In modern Japanese, however, some auxiliaries have stopped being productive. The most classic example is the classical auxiliary たり (-tari) whose forms た (-ta), て (-te), etc. are now no longer viewed as verbal endings, i.e., they can take no further affixes.
| auxiliary | group | attaches to | meaning modification | example |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ます (masu) | 1 | continuative | makes V polite | 書く (kaku, to write) → 書きます (kakimasu) |
| られる (rareru)1 | 2b | cont. of grp. 2 | makes V passive/polite/potential | 見る (miru, to see) → 見られる (mirareru, to be able to see) 増える (fueru, to increae) → 増えられる (fuerareru, to have the ability to increase) |
| る (ru) | hyp. of grp. 1 | 飲む (nomu, to drink/swallow) → 飲める (nomeru, to be able to drink) | ||
| させる (saseru)2 | 2b | cont. of grp. 2 | makes V causative | 考える (kangaeru, to think) → 考えさせる (kangaesaseru, to cause to think) |
| せる (seru) | imperf. of grp. 1 | 思い知る (omoishiru, to realize) → 思い知らせる (omoishiraseru, to cause to realize/to teach a lesson) |
Much of the agglutinative flavour of Japanese stems from helper auxiliaries, however. The following table contains a small selection of an abundant store of such auxiliary verbs.
| auxiliary | group | attaches to | meaning modification | example |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ある (aru, to be (inanimate)) | 1 | -te form only for trans. | indicates state modification | 開く (aku, to open) → 開いてある (aite-aru, opened and is still open) |
| いる (iru, to be (animate)) | 2a | -te form for trans. | progressive aspect | 寝る (neru, to sleep) → 寝ている (nete-iru, is sleeping) |
| 2a | -te form for intrans. | indicates state modification | 閉まる (shimaru, (intransitive) to close) → 閉まっている (shimatte-iru, is closed) | |
| いく (iku, to go) | 1 | -te form | "goes on V-ing" | 歩く (aruku, to walk) → 歩いていく (aruite-iku, keep walking) |
| くる (kuru, to come) | ka | -te form | inception, "start to V" | なる (naru, become) → なってくる (natte-kuru, start becoming) |
| 始める (hajimeru, to begin) | 2b | continuative non-punctual | "V begins", "begin to V" | 書く (kaku, to write) → 書き始める (kaki-hajimeru, start to write) |
| continuative punctual & subj. must be plural | 着く (tsuku, to arrive) → 着き始める (tsuki-hajimeru, have all started to arrive) | |||
| 出す (dasu, to emit) | 1 | continuative | "start to V" | 輝く (kagayaku, to shine) → 輝き出す (kagayaki-dasu, to start shining) |
| みる (miru, to see) | 1 | -te form | "try to V" | する (suru, do) → してみたい (shite-mitai, try to do) |
| なおす (naosu, to correct/heal) | 1 | continuative | "do V again, correcting mistakes" | 書く (kaku, to write) → 書きなおす (kaki-naosu, rewrite) |
| あがる (agaru, to rise) | 1 | continuative | "do V thoroughly" / "V happens upwards" | 立つ (tatsu, to stand) → 立ち上がる (tachi-agaru, stand up) 出来る (dekiru, to come out) → 出来上がる (deki-agaru, be completed) |
| 得る (eru/uru, to be able) | 2b/1 | continuative only for group 1 verbs | indicates potential | ある (aru, to be) → あり得る (arieru, is possible) |
| かかる (kakaru, to hang/catch/obtain) | 1 | continuative only for intrans., non-volit. | "about to V", "almost V" | 溺れる (oboreru, drown) → 溺れかかる (obore-kakaru, about to drown) |
| きる (kiru, to cut) | 1 | continuative | "do V completely" | 食べる (taberu, to eat) → 食べきる (tabe-kiru, to eat it all) |
| 消す (kesu, to erase) | 1 | continuative | "cancel by V" "deny with V" | 揉む (momu, to rub) → 揉み消す (momi-kesu, to rub out, to extinguish) |
| 込む (komu, to enter deeply/plunge) | 1 | continuative | "V deep in", "V into" | 話す (hanasu, to speak) → 話し込む (hanashi-komu, to be deep in conversation) |
| 下げる (sageru, to lower) | 2b | continuative | "V down" | 引く (hiku, to pull) → 引き下げる (hiki-sageru, to pull down) |
| 過ぎる (sugiru, to exceed) | 2a | continuative | "overdo V" | 言う (iu, to say) → 言いすぎる (ii-sugiru, to say too much, to overstate) |
| 付ける (tsukeru, to attach) | 2b | continuative | "become accustomed to V" | 行く (iku, to go) → 行き付ける (iki-tsukeru, be used to (going)) |
| 続ける (tsuzukeru, to continue) | 2b | continuative | "keep on V" | 降る (furu, to fall (eg. rain)) → 降り続ける (furi-tsuzukeru, to keep falling) |
| 通す (tōsu, to show/thread/lead) | 1 | continuative | "finish V-ing" | 読む (yomu, to read) → 読み通す (yomi-tōsu, to finish reading) |
| 抜ける (nukeru, to shed/spill/desert) | 2b | continuative only for intrans. | "V through" | 走る (hashiru, to run) → 走り抜ける (hashiri-nukeru, to run through (swh)) |
| 残す (nokosu, to leave behind) | 1 | continuative | by doing V, leave sth behind | 思う (omou, to think) → 思い残す (omoi-nokosu, to regret (lit: to have sth left to think about)) |
| 残る (nokoru, to be left behind) | 1 | continuative for intrans. only | be left behind, doing V | 生きる (ikiru, live) → 生き残る (iki-nokoru, to survive (lit: to be left alive)) |
| 分ける (wakeru, to divide/split/classify) | 2b | continuative | the proper way to V. | 使う (tsukau, use) → 使い分ける (tsukai-wakeru, to indicate the proper way to use) |
| 忘れる (wasureru, to forget) | 2b | continuative | to forget to V | 聞く (kiku, to ask) → 聞き忘れる (kiki-wasureru, to forget to ask) |
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