Japanese Grammar

I’m not fluent in Japanese yet, and I don’t have any official certificates or credentials, I’m still learning and refining as I go. Everything I’ve written on these grammar pages reflects what I’ve studied so far and what I’m continuing to work on. Please feel free to fact-check anything or do your own research to make sure it all checks out.
(And if you spot a mistake, don’t hesitate to correct me!)

All of my grammar breakdowns are written in romaji (the Roman alphabet). Since I don’t plan to learn how to read Japanese at this time, you won’t find hiragana, katakana, or kanji here. If your goal is to take the JLPT or learn to read Japanese, I recommend supplementing this with another resource, or even using ChatGPT to study grammar in more depth.
(You can also check out the r/languagelearning and r/LearnJapanese subreddits for more resources, recommendations, and advice.)

I try to explain grammar as clearly and simply as I can. If anything is confusing, ChatGPT is a great tool for breaking down concepts further, testing your understanding, or generating example sentences. You can also check out my weekly progress updates and study vlogs to see how I practice and learn.

I’m still in the process of learning and improving my Japanese each week, I post a weekly progress page in Japanese (and any other language I’m studying), including a quick video of me speaking, the criteria for my current rank, my notes, and test results, mistakes and all:
👉 Weekly Language Progress Updates

There’s probably a more “official” or “efficient” way to learn Japanese grammar, but I’ve organized these pages in the order I personally believe should be learned first and would recommend to other learners.

I’ve never really taught before, nor do I consider myself especially good at explaining things, but my goal is to make these pages as clear and beginner-friendly as possible. I’m constantly trying to figure out how much context and information to include, so that readers can understand without feeling overwhelmed or needing to drastically their mindset, or change how they naturally learn.

Thanks for being patient with me 🙏, and I hope the content here is helpful on your own language journey!

Japanese adverbs

Japanese Honorifics (Keishō) (Romaji Only)

Japanese prohibition form

Japanese Obligation form (have to do)

Japanese Suggestion Form

Japanese Volition Form

Japanese Trying form

Japanese Experience Form Have Done Before

Japanese Causative + passive (might separate)

Japanese Causative-passive

🔗 Connecting & Describing

Japanese Connecting Sentences

Japanese Measure/Numeric counters (in romaji)

Japanese Explanatory particles (mon/shi)

Japanese Give/Receive words

Japanese Desire Form

Japanese Intention Form

Japanese Judgment / Emphasis endings

Japanese Conditional if

Japanese Conditional when

🎯 Nuance & Advanced usage

Japanese Uncertainty

Japanese Transitive/Intransitive words

Japanese Assumption/Guess

Japanese Reason Form

Japanese Explanations form

Japanese Time Marker Words

Japanese Recent form (bakari) (might combine with time marker)

Japanese Comparison Form

Japanese Hearsay Form

Japanese Reported Confirmation Form

Japanese Formal conjunction/ Transitions

Japanese Opinion Form

Japanese Nuance Form