Japanese Language

My Notes

• Japanese Counters
• Japanese Particles
• Japanese Particle Patterns: are suffixes or short words in Japanese grammar that immediately follow the modified noun, verb, adjective, or sentence.
• Sentence Ending Particles: Particles used on the end of sentences to indicate questions, emphasis, etc.
• Japanese Sentences - ChatGPT practice 1

Links regarding various topics

• Apologizing in Japanese
• Introductions in Japanese

Dictionaries

• Takoboto: Japanese/English dictionary and Japanese language learning too
• JLearn.net: Dictionary with conjugations
• Jotoba: More of a dictionary, with example sentences

Specific References

• Japanese numbers (omniglot.com)
• Japanese numerals (Wikipedia)
• Yokai.com: a dictionary of the Yokai, a specific class of supernatural beings that includes vast range of beings including shapeshifters, ghosts, demons, and tricksters.

Dictionary Mobile apps

• Takoboto mobile app (free): Very useful
  • Definitions
  • conjugated forms.
  • save words to a list and view search history.
  • View hiragana and katakana tables
  • Search Kanji
• Imiwa (free): iOS dictionary app based on Jim Breen's dictionary
• JED (free): Japanese dictionary app for Android

Verb conjugations

• Reverso Japanese Conjugator: Accepts conjugated words and lists all of the forms of a verb
• Ultra Handy Japanese Verb Conjugator: Lists conjugated forms of verbs
• Japanese Verb Conjugator
• Verbix
• Japanese Conjugation (Wikipedia)

Guides and Resources

• Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese: This is a pretty cool resource. His YouTube channel is also good.
  • Grammar Guide
• Japanese Language StackExchange

Flashcards

• Anki Flashcard app ⭐️: free on PC and Mac, a flashcard system that repeats the hard ones more frequently. Surprisingly effective.
• AnkiWeb: Community sourced flashcard decks. Lots of Japanese decks.
  • Pimsleur Japanese: Covers vocabulary from Pimsleur Japanese 1-5, with audio
  • Pimsleur Japanese 1 phrases: Covers phrases from Pimsleur Japanese 1, with audio
  • Pimsleur Japanese 2 phrases
  • Pimsleur Japanese 3 phrases
  • Pimsleur Japanese 4 phrases
  • Pimsleur Japanese 5 phrases
  • Japanese Basic Hiragana: Begin here
  • Japanese Hiragana: The extended hiragana. Start this after learning the basic hiragana.
  • Full Japanese Study Deck [JLPT N5~N1 vocab/kanji + more]
• My Pimsleur Japanese 1 Flashcards in Obsidian
• My Japanese basics flashcards in Obsidian
• Memrise:
• Rikaikun: a Chrome extension for translating Japanese (also available on Firefox)

Videos

• My Japanese Language playlist (YouTube playlist)
• easy talk: This channel produces longer form conversations, spoken slowly, for language immersion

Language Learning services

• Pimsleur
• Duolingo

Kana

Hiragana

Used for:

• Grammatical elements (particles, endings)
• Native Japanese words without kanji (or when kanji is avoided)
• Verb/adjective inflections (okurigana)

Example:

• 食べる → the る is hiragana (inflection)
• 調子はどう → は (particle)

Katakana

Used for:

• Loanwords (especially from English)
• Emphasis (like italics)
• Onomatopoeia
• Scientific names, technical terms

Example:

• コンピュータ (computer)
• コーヒー (coffee)

Kanji (漢字)

Used for:

• Core meaning words (nouns, verb roots, adjectives)
• Disambiguation (reduces ambiguity vs all-hiragana)

Example:

• 食べる (eat)
• 本 (book)
• 調子 (condition)