Learn Japanese
Learn Japanese free
Start with the two kana scripts, then the particles and verb forms every beginner sentence is built from.
Writing system
Grammar guides
- は vs がWhen to use は (wa) and when to use が (ga) in Japanese, with example sentences from the Open Lingo course and the mistakes beginners make most.
- The particle をHow the Japanese particle を (o) marks the thing a verb acts on, why it is written wo but said o, and how it fits Japanese word order.
- に vs でThe difference between the Japanese particles に (ni) and で (de) for places, plus に for clock times, explained with course examples.
- The て-formHow to build the Japanese te-form for every verb group, including the irregular verbs, and how it is used for requests, ongoing actions and linking actions.
- Polite vs plain JapaneseWhen to speak polite Japanese (ます, です) and when to use the plain form, how each is built, and why the quoted clause always stays plain.
- これ, それ, あれThe Japanese ko-so-a-do system explained: これ/それ/あれ/どれ, この/その/あの/どの and ここ/そこ/あそこ/どこ, with course examples.
- ある vs いるHow to say there is or I have in Japanese with ある (things) and いる (people and animals), and their negatives ない and いない.
Vocabulary lists
- Greetings and polite phrasesEssential Japanese greetings and polite phrases for beginners, with hiragana, romaji, meaning and audio, taken from the Open Lingo course.
- NumbersJapanese numbers for beginners: Sino-Japanese いち, に, さん, the native ひとつ, ふたつ counting set, and hundreds, thousands and 万, with audio.
- Food and drink vocabularyBeginner Japanese words for food, drinks and meals, from ごはん and すし to のむ and おいしい, with kanji, romaji and audio.
- Family wordsJapanese family vocabulary: the humble words for your own family (ちち, はは, あに) and the polite words for someone else's, plus counting people.
Reading
Practice this in Open Lingo
These pages come from the Open Lingo Japanese course. In the app they are interactive lessons with listening, speaking and spaced-repetition review. Free, and no account needed to try one.