THE QUICK AND DIRTY GUIDE TO JAPANESE - by Tad Perry


Many students of Japanese just want to communicate. Sure, they want to
say things correctly as often as possible, but they also want to get
into the language quickly and start mixing it up early. This QUICK AND
DIRTY GUIDE TO JAPANESE was meant to help you do just that. It makes
no pretense of being complete, but tries to pack the most *useful
information* necessary to achieve the *goal of using Japanese* in the
*shortest possible space*. This article therefore only covers *two*
things: Particles (those wa, ga, wo, de, ni and he thingies) and verb

This is my reasoning on this: you can build a vocabulary of nouns,
just by looking in a dictionary or asking a native speaker. They
almost never inflect (in any true meaning of the word) and are easy.
Plus we won't be worrying about those strange noun-like things that
can act like adjectives. So *you* can take care of the nouns yourself
as you see fit.

On the other hand, the verbs and adjectives inflect so I'll try to
present the most compact rules conceivable for allowing you to
manipulate every verb you ever encounter and hopefully you can take it
from their. The less mental overhead for remembering how to do it, the
less painful it will be. After knowing the conjugation rules pat, you
can get new vocabulary out of a dictionary or ask a native speaker.

Now that you have a bunch of nouns and a bunch of verbs and adjectives
(that you can inflect), you need to know how to piece them together.
That's where learning about the particles come in.  Remember, this is
a *Quick and Dirty* guide so don't expect these generalizations to
*always* work, just expect them to work in as many cases as possible
based on what I know.

Now, in compiling this, I noticed that the descriptions are pretty
comprehensive. So why aren't these things presented this way in class?
Well, an educational institution obviously has a financial stake in
dragging out your language learning as long as possible (and confusing
you along the way), now doesn't it? The also feel obligated to teach
you every little detail so you feel like you're getting your money's
worth. In the case of this guide, return comments such as: "You made
generalization X, but for got to mention exceptions Y and Z." won't
be appreciated very much. This is a *quick and dirty* guide, remember?
So be forewarned that their are exceptions all over the place, but
that I have tried to be as accurate as space allows. And space is the
primary concern here. Please don't forget that.


Word Order

Before talking about particles let's get into word order. In general,
standard word order for Japanese when using an action verb is:


   "Ashita, gakkou de sensei ni purezento wo agemasu."
   ("[I'm] going to give a present to [my] teacher tomorrow.")

For an existence verb it is:


   "Takahashi wa, ima honsha ni iru."
    ("Takahasi is in the main office right now.")

For a motion verb it is:


   "Ashita, paatii ni iku."
   ("I'm going to a party tomorrow.")

SUBJECTs are put in brackets to stress that they are very often
been previously understood, signal the change by placing "wa" after
the subject. If a subject is understood, but for some reason not
deleted (that's rare) use "ga" or nothing. Often you can move a
subject out after the verb when things start piling up before the
verb.  Like: "Ashita boku ga kooen de utau." (I'm singing at the park
tomorrow.) often becomes: "Ashita kooen de utau, boku." For more on
SUBJECTs, see the longer description in the next section, "Subjects
and Deletion". Knowing how to delete is a key to sounding natural.

TIME is usually followed by "ni". In general, use "ni" for specific
points in time or specific spans of time. So "jyuu gatsu [ni]"
(October), "san gatsu mikka [ni]" (March 3rd) take "ni". A word like
"ashita" (tomorrow) that can only be understood by context (it changes
depending on when you say it). These types of words are called
"deictic" time words and don't take "ni".  "Ashita iku" ("I'm going
tomorrow."), but: "sanji ni iku" ("I'm going at 3.")  Even if you have
trouble making the distinction between these two types of time words,
get it backwards.

PLACE/IMPLEMENT is followed by "de". By PLACE, I mean the location
that a volitional *action* occurred. If you're eating at home, that's
"ouchi de shokuji suru". If you're eating with chopsticks, that's
"ohasi de taberu". The place you do something or the thing you use to
do something takes "de". If you're going somewhere by car, you say
"kuruma de iku". It's not that hard to understand really. (See
INDIRECT OBJECT for why DESTINATIONs are different.) Verbs of motion
something take "ni". (DESTINATIONs can also take "he".) Try to
Use "kara" ("from") after an ORIGIN and "wo" after a ROUTE. "Gakkoo
kara, kooen wo totte, ouchi ni kaeru."  (Lit. "I'm going home from
school through the park.") There's usually an intermediate verb in
this type of usage.

OBJECT is followed by "wo" or nothing. "Hon wo yonde iru" (I'm reading
a book.) This is a really simple one in most cases.  I really don't
know many Japanese learners who can't understand this.

INDIRECT OBJECT is followed by "ni". By INDIRECT OBJECT, I mean a sort
of secondary object that some verbs take. "Kono hon wo anata ni
ageru." ("I'm going to give this to you.") You have "this book" and
you have "to you". The "this book" part is the OBJECT. The "to you"
part is the INDIRECT OBJECT. "Wo" and "ni" are used to distinguish
these two.

VERB doesn't take any particles, but it needs to be inflected. There's
a big section at the end on how you do that, and useful colloquial
English equivalents of what those inflections mean.

To boil this section down, remember it this way:

SUBJECT+wa/ga/nothing (delete subject if possible, show changes with "wa")
TIME+ni/nothing       (use nothing if it's a deictic time word)
PLACE/IMPLEMENT+de    (is the place where you *do* or where you *are*?)
LOCATION+ni           (is the place where you *are* or where you *do*?)
ROUTE+wo              (is this a place on the way to where you're going?)
DESTINATION+ni/he     (use "ni" over "he" but be aware that both are okay.)
INDIRECT OBJECT+ni    (use this if you're out of choices :-)

After understanding the descriptions given earlier, these nine lines
these rules cause you to make a mistake you're definitely being

Subjects and Deletions

Usually, you don't have to worry about whether to use wa or ga,
because most subjects can usually be deleted. "You can't get something
wrong, if you left it out in the first place." That's my philosophy.
So we'll work on the parts of sentences that you can delete, starting
with subjects.

If you turn to a Japanese and suddenly make a statement:

  "Ashita paatii ni iku."
  ("[I'm] going to the party tomorrow.")

The listener will assume the subject is you. So don't bother supplying
any subject. To do so, is in fact, not natural; a Japanese wouldn't
normally do it.

If you turn to a Japanese and suddenly ask a question:

  "Ashita paatii ni iku?"
  ("[Are you] going to the party tomorrow?")

one-on-one conversations where you or the listener is the subject
*don't need an explicit subject*. No chance of screwing up wa/ga here.

If you suddenly turn to a Japanese and want to make a statement or ask
a question about some other person altogether, use "wa" after that
person's name or title the first time you mention that person:

  "Shachoo wa, ashita paatii ni iku?"
  ("Is the shachoo going to the party tomorrow?")

Let's just say the "wa" introduces a change in subject. This time it
signals a change from the default "you the listener" to the "shachoo".
After you establish that you're talking about the president you can
go back to dropping subjects again:

   "Sono ato wa, kaeru ka na?"
   ("Is he going home after that?"--again some vagueness added with
    "ka na" ("I wonder"). Don't be too forward making assumptions
    about other people. This trick also stops the listener from
    thinking the question is back to being about themself. There's a
    strong tendency for questions to erase understood info and you
    have to signal that things are unchanged. Usually you play with
    the verb a little bit to get this across. Note that the change in
    time being talked about was also signaled with a "wa".)

Note that this tendency to delete in Japanese parallels the point
where an English native speaker would use plain pronouns like, I, you,
he, she, they. When you start a comment about yourself, you use "I"
(Japanese delete). When you ask about the listener, you use "you"
(Japanese delete). When you've first established someone and then keep
going with that person, you use "he" or "she" (Japanese delete). See?

Deleting other Established Info

Just like with subjects any info that's been established can be
deleted, and any changes in established info can be signalled using

  "Ashita paatii ni iku?"

  "Un, anata wa?"
  ("Yeah, how about you?"--info about "paatii ni" and "iku" unchanged,
   therefore deleted. Subject changed to original questioner, so the
   change is signaled with "wa".)

  "Un-n, ikanai"
  ("No, I'm not going."--info about "paatii ni" still deleted, "iku"
   comes back as "ikanai" because it has changed form.)

  "Sono ato no eiga wa?"
  ("How about the movie afterwards?"--the established info "paatii"
   changed to "eiga" so we use "wa" to establish the change in
   understood information. Understood info that *hasn't* changed is
   still left out, like the subject "boku" and the action "iku".)

  "Un-n, ikanai."

This is pretty much how deletions work whether it be subjects or
something else. In general, always go for deletions if possible. This
section also serves the purpose of giving you a feel for "wa".

Particle Ga

to state the subject even though it is established info. Usually,
this is to add emphasis or avoid ambiguity.

  "Shacho wa, ashita paatii ni iku?"

  "Un-n, ikanai mitai."
  ("No, it doesn't look like it."--throw in a "mitai" because you
   don't wan't to act too sure of the actions of others in Japanese.

  ("Why not?")

  "Sore ga wakaranai"
  ("I don't know why not."--there's no real ambiguity in this case,
   and "wakaranai" alone would have worked, but it is a case where
   you're not changing an understood subject to another, you're
   restating the understood subject as such for some emphasis. If
   you're stating an established subject, for whatever reason, use
   "ga". But you could've deleted, and if you were following my
   explanation you should have. This one sentence also helps dispell
   the huge MYTH that "wa" is for negative sentences.)

Particle Mo

Use mo when you're adding more info on a list of established info. It
other particles (like ni, de, and he). Put it this way: if "wa" clears
the understood info and replaces it, "mo" adds extra info on top of
what's already there without clearing out anything.

  "Ashita paatii ni iku?"

  "Un, iku yo."
  ("Yeah, I'm going, how about you?"--note what was deleted and why.)

  "Boku mo iku."
  ("I'm going too."--add yourself to the understood subject.)

Mo is easy, so we won't waste any more time with it. Just trying to be
complete and it only took a few lines to do.


Another thing that many Japanese learners need is an easy method of
arriving at all the verb conjugations and a highly reduced set of
That's easy enough really because there are only three major verb
types: -ru verbs, -u verbs, and -aru verbs (a polite type not much
used except for "gozaru/gozaimasu"). People really hate Eleanor Jordan
for this kind of naming, but in language learning you take what's easy
and go with it; there's no need to worry about theoretical linguistics
here. Also note that I changed romanization styles at this point to
one that makes the changes in verbs appear much more uniform.

-Ru verbs are those that end in -ru like taberu and ireru. "-u" verbs
end in u, ku, gu, bu, mu, nu, su, tu, or [a,i,u,o]+ru (rarely e+ru
because those are almost always -ru verbs like taberu. I only know of
three like that: keru/kick, heru/decrease and heru/elapse--there are
syllables like these). So the only real overlap worth worrying about
is "i+ru".  If you memorize two forms for each of these (like:
ireru/irete and hairu/haitte) you can keep them straight.

-Ru Verbs

Everything's done by dropping or replacing -ru with something else.
Just remember the different uses of each conjugation.

drop -ru to add things like -masu, -yasui (easy to):	tabe
 (tabeyasui (easy to eat))

replace with "-te" for gerund:		tabete
 (gerund is for "and"-ing verbs (eat and go, "tabete iku") and simple
 orders (eat that, "are tabete")

replace with "-ta" for past tense:	tabeta

replace with "-tara" for meaning "if":  tabetara
 (if I/someone eats)

replace with "-tari" for meaning "do things like":  tabetari
 (I did things like eating--tabetari sita. not used much)

replace with "-reba" for another "if":	tabereba
 (if I/someone eats. A little different from "-tara" but don't worry
 about that now, they're pretty much interchangeable.)

replace with "-yoo" for "let's":	tabeyoo
 (let's eat)

replace with "-ro" for rude orders:	tabero
 (eat dammit!)

replace with "-nai" for negative:	tabenai

replace with "-rareru" for "can":	taberareru <- these are now -ru verbs 
 (I can't eat this! kore taberarenai yo! Good in cafeteria's.)

replace with "-saseru" for "make (someone) do":	tabesaseru <- now a -ru
 ("Kore tabesasenai de yo!" Don't make me eat this. A negative request
 equal in level to "tabete" is "nai" plus "de")

replace with "-rareru" for passive "was X-ed":  taberareru <- now a -ru
 (looks exactly like "can" for this type verb. "Raion ni tabesaserareta."
 I was eaten by a lion. Use "ni" for "by" to show the agent.)

replace with "-saserareru" for "be made to":	tabesaserareru
 (this follows from just putting two separate types above together.
 My mom made me eat chicken. "Okaasan ni chikin wo tabesaserareta."
 Putting it in passive makes you seem like you didn't want to and you
 feel sorry for yourself.)

-U Verbals

-RU verbs are by far the easiest to conjugate: you drop -ru and add
something else. Simple. -U verbs aren't that easy but almost.
Typically you drop -u and add something else. The problem is that
there might be a phonetic change (such as when ha becomes pa, or ta
becomes da) for some of the types. See the other chart for
keep the conjunction rules clear.

First, there are some -u verbs that end in -ru. We have to get that
out of the way right now. Real -ru verbs (where -ru gets dropped)
always end in "iru" or "eru", if you see one that ends:

"aru" (exist)
"uru" (sell)
- or -
"oru" (break)

It's guaranteed *not* to be a -ru verb. It's probably a -u verb. (With
the exception of super-polite oddballs like gozaru/gozaimasu, but
effectively, you can forget about those and assume anything ending
"aru", "uru" or "oru" is an -u verb.) Verbs like "iru" (exist or need
depending on context) can be either type. In fact, "need" is an -u
verb (gerund is itte) and and "exist" is a -ru verb (gerund is ite).
If you hear one of these, (like "hairu") be sure to ask what the
gerund ("haitte") or past tense ("haitte") is too, so you can remember
what type it is. So far I've only met three verbs that ended "-eru"
that were -u verbs instead of -ru verbs. These are: keru/kette (kick),
heru/hette (decrease), and heru/hette (elapse). Except for these
"iru/eru" verbs, every other type of verb is obvious by hearing only
one form.

Including -u verbs which might happen to end in -ru, these are all the
types there are:


-ku  (these two types conjugate similarly)

-bu  (these three types conjugate similarly)

-ru  (these three types conjugate similarly)

-su is the only one that is well-behaved, -(s)u will change simply to
-s(a), -s(i), -s(e), -s(o) in all cases with no odd behavior to

Here are the replacements:

replace -u with -i to add "-masu", "-yasui", etc.
 (works straight across, no phonetic changes in any of the types)

hanasu -> hanasi (talk)
kiku   -> kiki   (listen)
oyogu  -> oyogi  (swim)
yobu   -> yobi   (call)
nomu   -> nomi   (drink)
sinu   -> sini   (die)
tukuru -> tukuri (make)
matu   -> mati   (wait)
harau  -> harai  (pay)

Replace -u with -ite for do "X and Y" and for simple commands.
 (types not following the rule, but acting similarly, are grouped)

hanasu -> hanasite (talk)

kiku   -> kiite   (walk)    (replace entire -ku)
oyogu  -> oyoide  (swim)    (replace entire -gu, be sure to use -ide)

yobu   -> yonde    (call)   (replace entire -bu, be sure to use -nde)
nomu   -> nonde    (drink)  (replace entire -mu, be sure to use -nde) 
sinu   -> sinde    (die)    (replace entire -nu, be sure to use -nde) 

tukuru -> tukutte  (make)   (replace entire -ru, be sure to use -tte)
matu   -> matte    (wait)   (replace entire -tu, be sure to use -tte) 
harau  -> haratte  (pay)    (replace -u, be sure to use -tte)

Replace -u with -ita for past tense.
 (types not strictly following the rule, but acting similarly, are grouped)

hanasu -> hanasita (talk)

kiku   -> kiita   (walk)    (replace entire -ku)
oyogu  -> oyoida  (swim)    (replace entire -gu, be sure to use -ida)

yobu   -> yonda    (call)   (replace entire -bu, be sure to use -nda)
nomu   -> nonda    (drink)  (replace entire -mu, be sure to use -nda) 
sinu   -> sinda    (die)    (replace entire -nu, be sure to use -nda) 

tukuru -> tukutta  (make)   (replace entire -ru, be sure to use -tta)
matu   -> matta    (wait)   (replace entire -tu, be sure to use -tta) 
harau  -> haratta  (pay)    (replace -u, be sure to use -tta)

(In fact, I query search and replaced "e" with "a" on the gerunds to
get this if that helps any. The rule breakers are breaking the rule
uniformly now.)

Replace -u with -itara for "if". (Or, just add "ra" to the past.)

hanasu -> hanasitara (talk)

kiku   -> kiitara   (walk)    (replace entire -ku)
oyogu  -> oyoidara  (swim)    (replace entire -gu, be sure to use -idara)

yobu   -> yondara    (call)   (replace entire -bu, be sure to use -ndara)
nomu   -> nondara    (drink)  (replace entire -mu, be sure to use -ndara) 
sinu   -> sindara    (die)    (replace entire -nu, be sure to use -ndara) 

tukuru -> tukuttara  (make)   (replace entire -ru, be sure to use -ttara)
matu   -> mattara    (wait)   (replace entire -tu, be sure to use -ttara) 
harau  -> harattara  (pay)    (replace -u, be sure to use -ttara)

Replace -u with -itari for "do things like X". (Or just add "ri" to past.)

hanasu -> hanasitari (talk)

kiku   -> kiitari   (walk)    (replace entire -ku)
oyogu  -> oyoidari  (swim)    (replace entire -gu, be sure to use -idari)

yobu   -> yondari    (call)   (replace entire -bu, be sure to use -ndari)
nomu   -> nondari    (drink)  (replace entire -mu, be sure to use -ndari) 
sinu   -> sindari    (die)    (replace entire -nu, be sure to use -ndari) 

tukuru -> tukuttari  (make)   (replace entire -ru, be sure to use -ttari)
matu   -> mattari    (wait)   (replace entire -tu, be sure to use -ttari) 
harau  -> harattari  (pay)    (replace -u, be sure to use -ttari)

Replace -u with -eba for "if"

hanasu -> hanaseba (talk)
kiku   -> kikeba   (walk)
oyogu  -> oyogeba  (swim)
yobu   -> yobeba   (call)
nomu   -> nomeba   (drink)
sinu   -> sineba   (die)
tukuru -> tukureba (make)
matu   -> mateba   (wait)
harau  -> haraeba  (pay)

Replace -u with -oo for "let's do X".

hanasu -> hanasoo (talk)
kiku   -> kikoo   (walk)
oyogu  -> oyogoo  (swim)
yobu   -> yoboo   (call)
nomu   -> nomoo   (drink)
sinu   -> sinoo   (die)
tukuru -> tukuroo (make)
matu   -> matoo   (wait)
harau  -> haraoo  (pay)

Replace -u with -e for rude orders "do X dammit".

hanasu -> hanase (talk)
kiku   -> kike   (walk)
oyogu  -> oyoge  (swim)
yobu   -> yobe   (call)
nomu   -> nome   (drink)
sinu   -> sine   (die)
tukuru -> tukure (make)
matu   -> mate   (wait)
harau  -> harae  (pay)

Replace -u with -anai for negative. (This is now an adjective.)
 (works straight across, only one phonetic change in one type)

hanasu -> hanasanai (talk)
kiku   -> kikanai   (walk)
oyogu  -> oyoganai  (swim)
yobu   -> yobanai   (call)
nomu   -> nomanai   (drink)
sinu   -> sinanai   (die)
tukuru -> tukuranai (make)
matu   -> matanai   (wait)
harau  -> harawanai (pay)    (stick a wa in there, not just an "a". Makes
                              it easier to say, too. Lucky us!)

Replace -u with -eru for "can do X". This is now a -ru verb.

hanasu -> hanaseru (talk)
kiku   -> kikeru   (walk)
oyogu  -> oyogeru  (swim)
yobu   -> yoberu   (call)
nomu   -> nomeru   (drink)
sinu   -> sineru   (die)
tukuru -> tukureru (make)
matu   -> materu   (wait)
harau  -> haraeru  (pay)

Replace -u with -aseru for "make (someone) do X". This is now a -ru verb.
 (works straight across, only one phonetic change in one of the types)

hanasu -> hanasaseru (talk)
kiku   -> kikaseru   (walk)
oyogu  -> oyogaseru  (swim)
yobu   -> yobaseru   (call)
nomu   -> nomaseru   (drink)
sinu   -> sinaseru   (die)
tukuru -> tukuraseru (make)
matu   -> mataseru   (wait)
harau  -> harawaseru (pay)  (Don't forget to throw a wa in there!)

Replace -u with -areru for "X is done (often to someone)". This is now
a -ru verb. (works straight across, only one phonetic change in one of
the types)

hanasu -> hanasareru (talk)
kiku   -> kikareru   (walk)
oyogu  -> oyogareru  (swim)
yobu   -> yobareru   (call)
nomu   -> nomareru   (drink)
sinu   -> sinareru   (die)
tukuru -> tukurareru (make)
matu   -> matareru   (wait)
harau  -> harawareru (pay)  (Don't forget to throw a wa in there!)

Replace -u with -aserareru for "be made to do X by someone". Same
result as just doing the two conjunctions separately but is taught
in most books as a specific conjunction. This is now a -ru verb.

hanasu -> hanasaserareru (talk)
kiku   -> kikaserareru   (walk)
oyogu  -> oyogaserareru  (swim)
yobu   -> yobaserareru   (call)
nomu   -> nomaserareru   (drink)
sinu   -> sinaserareru   (die)
tukuru -> tukuraserareru (make)
matu   -> mataserareru   (wait)
harau  -> harawaserareru (pay)  (Don't forget to throw a wa in there!)

Now that was long, but it was mostly cut-and-paste because even these
are well-behaved when you organize them correctly. When you boil down
what needs to be done to these verbs to conjugate them correctly, the
information required is really minimal--even for the oddballs. That's
all you need to be able to conjugate almost every verb in Japanese.
Most books say that their are only two irregular verbs in all of
Japanese: suru and kuru. Those you have to learn separately, but they
kind of make sense. In fact, though, there's a third one: iku. The
reason is that unlike kiita for kiku, you don't say iita, you say
itta. You don't say, iite, you say itte. But it's regular in it's
irregularity because it acts like tsukuru for some weird reason.

kuru                     ("will come", or "comes (often, everyday, etc.)")
ki                       (to add "-masu", note that "-yasui" isn't used)
kite                     (casual command: "come here")
kita                     (past tense: "someone came")
kitara (add ra to past)  ("if(once) someone comes", some connotation of
kitari (ad ri to past)	 ("do things like come")
kureba                   ("if someone comes", no connotation of when)
koyoo			 ("let's come", no, it can't possibly mean orgasms)
koi                      (rude request: "come here you")
konai                    (negative: "won't come" or "doesn't come (very
korareru                 ("can come")
kosaseru                 ("make (someone) come")
korareru                 (passive--no example comes to mind)
kosaserareru             ("be made to come (by someone)")

suru                     ("will do", or "does (often, everyday, etc.)")
si                       (to add "-masu", or "-yasui")
site                     (casual command: "do this")
sita                     (past tense: "someone did")
sitara (add ra to past)  ("if(once) someone does", some connotation of
X sitari (ad ri to past) ("do things like doing X")
sureba                   ("if someone does", no connotation of when)
X siyoo			 ("let's do X")
siro                     (rude request: "do this dammit")
sinai                    (negative: "won't do" or "doesn't do (very much)")
dekiru (really "seru")   ("can do"--"someone I can love": "ai seru hito")
saseru                   ("make (someone) do")
sareru                   ("be done (by someone"))
saserareru               ("be made to do (by someone)")

A cool trick to remember suru is that many of the conjugations match
what you would get if you conjugated a lone "su", so it's kind of like
"hanasu". Hanasita--sita. Hanaseru--seru. Hanasaseru--saseru.


These aren't that hard. They always end in [a,i,u,o]+i. They *never*
end in e+i that would be a noun. Basically you replace "i" with a form
of "ka" to inflect.

yasashii                 ("It's nice")
yasashiku nai            ("It's not nice")
yasashikatta             ("It was nice")
yasashikattara           ("If it's nice.")
yasashikattari           (possible I suppose but not heard often)
yasashikereba            ("If it's nice.")

These inflections follow what a "ka+u" verb would do. If you can
conjugate "kau" (to buy) you can conjugate every Japanese adjective.
Just note that you don't say: "atsukaseru" for "make something hot"
you say "atsuku suru". For a command, say: "yasashiku natte" ("be

Tad Perry      Internet:    tvp@gibdo.engr.washington.edu
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