This website started as a hobby to explain photography (posts listed here), but over time expanded to provide (hopefully) useful information about Japan and the Japanese language. I also run edonoyu.com with a friend—a site that covers onsen in the Tokyo region.
Ending Particles (よ, ね, よね)
Now that we’re beginning to form more complex sentences it is a good time to introduce two particles…
The Directional Particle (へ)
The directional particle へ could be said to be a more literary version of the target particle に…
Creating Partial Lists (や, など, とか)
We know we can connect nouns with the と particle like so: 野菜やさいと 魚さかなと 牛乳ぎゅうにゅうと 水みず。 Vegetables and fish and milk…
Nominalising Verbs (こと)
The ability to nominalise verbs is arguably the single piece of grammar that lets us move away from…
From (から) & Until (まで)
From The particle から has various grammatical uses but its most basic meaning in Japanese is “from”. Like…
The Subject Particle (が) Explained (and the difference between は and が)
Last but by no means least is the subject particle, が. This is the one particle that many…
The Difference Between は & が
Like the も particle, the topic particle は can also append itself to other basic particles. The fact that…
The Connecting Particle (と)
The most basic usage of the connecting particle と is—wait for it—to connect things. When used to connect…
The Contextual Particle (で)
The contextual particle で is one of the most versatile and difficult to fully master. It has many…
The Target Particle (に)
The three main uses of the target particle に are as follows: To show the target (objective) of…
The Object Particle (を)
The object particle を lets us move from being able to say, “Robert ate” to “Robert ate an…
Counters in Japanese
Counters “count” things. English doesn’t have counters. We just say the number to count objects, people, animals, e.g.…
