48 Posts Found

It Sometimes Sounds More Polite, But… That’s Not All

Author: Kanae Nakamine | Source: “Tofugu” | Subjects: Language Study, Vocabulary / Phrases

How do you describe what you just did in Japanese? Maybe you just brushed your teeth, or you just bought a car. How can you describe those past activities that have just happened? Well, you’ve got two great options: ばかり and ところ.

Authors: Emily Suvannasankha, Kanae Nakamine, Sarah Bush | Source: “Tofugu” | Subject: Vocabulary / Phrases

Wondering how to give a compliment and tell someone they look “pretty” in Japanese? I’ll teach you how in this article, and explain how to give a compliment based on gender, too.

Besides telling you how to say “pretty” in Japanese, I’ll explain how to give and receive compliments. I’ll also link to several of our other Japanese articles to help with any cultural or language … [ Read more ]

Author: Caitlin Sacasas | Source: “Fluent in 3 Months” | Subjects: Language Study, Vocabulary / Phrases

Come inside and learn when 中 and 内 are the same and when they’re different

Authors: Jenny Stainton, Mami Suzuki | Source: “Tofugu” | Subjects: Language Study, Vocabulary / Phrases

Onomatopoeia like ギリギリ and ドキドキ are so widespread in conversational Japanese and creative contexts that you’re sure to have come across them if you chat to Japanese speakers or read fiction in Japanese. If you’ve mostly studied Japanese in a more academic context, though, you might not have come across them as much.

We’ve already covered books on onomatopoeia, but Onomappu is the first … [ Read more ]

Author: Hitoki | Subjects: Language Study, Video / Audio, Vocabulary / Phrases

This YouTube channel has been around for a few months now, and new videos are added twice a week, meaning there’s already quite a variety to choose from. Made by students in global communications at Doshisha University in Kyoto, the channel covers a range of topics that are interesting for Japanese learners. These include explanations of how to use words in context, especially common slang, … [ Read more ]

Sources: “Doshisha University”, “YouTube” | Subjects: Video / Audio, Vocabulary / Phrases

Nihongo to Tabi is a relatively new YouTube channel, launched back in January of this year. The host and creator of the channel, who is unnamed, didn’t really start publishing videos at warp speed until May though. As this is being written, he’s currently up to 167 uploads! That’s quite the output for such a short time frame — at some points, he was even … [ Read more ]

Source: “YouTube” | Subjects: Grammar, Language Study, Video / Audio, Vocabulary / Phrases

My Sensei Said I Should Never Use あなた, So Why Did I Learn It in the First Place?

Author: Kanae Nakamine | Source: “Tofugu” | Subjects: Language Study, Vocabulary / Phrases

A Word That Is Not “As You Expect.”

Author: Kanae Nakamine | Source: “Tofugu” | Subjects: Grammar, Language Study, Vocabulary / Phrases

よ is for new information and ね is for shared information.

Authors: Mami Suzuki, Moeko Norota | Source: “Tofugu” | Subjects: Grammar, Language Study, Vocabulary / Phrases

The YouTube word search tool, YouGlish, is now available in Japanese. If you want to listen to a way a word is pronounced in real life — or at least in a YouTube video — you can search a word and pull up hundreds of videos with that term. The videos are cued up to start a few seconds before the word is spoken and … [ Read more ]

Subjects: Language Study, Video / Audio, Vocabulary / Phrases

とりま, ぱくる, じわる, エモい… how much Japanese slang do you know? If you want to spice up your vocabulary, follow Learn Native Japanese (LNJ) on Instagram for regular doses of slang!

The account is run by two native speakers of Japanese, Dai and Ryo. Each post is a short video of them introducing a Japanese slang word or phrase, from decades-old ones to newer, currently trending … [ Read more ]

Subjects: Language Study, Vocabulary / Phrases

How To Address and Refer to “Others” in Japanese

Author: Kanae Nakamine | Source: “Tofugu” | Subjects: General, Language Study, Vocabulary / Phrases

This site is a basic but useful reading and listening resource. You’ll find short news articles read by site owner Sakura in both a slow and fast speed to suit your ability. There are three tabs for the text. The default tab shows the original Japanese text with popup definitions and translations. Another tab is for a romaji version and the third tab is the … [ Read more ]

Author: Sakura | Subjects: Language Study, Reading Material, Video / Audio, Vocabulary / Phrases

Tatoeba is a large database of sentences and translations. Its content is ever-growing and results from the voluntary contributions of thousands of members.

Tatoeba provides a tool for you to see examples of how words are used in the context of a sentence. You specify words that interest you, and it returns sentences containing these words with their translations in the desired languages. The name Tatoeba … [ Read more ]

Author: Trang Ho | Subjects: Language Study, Vocabulary / Phrases

Learn Japanese hiragana, katakana and kanji, and test yourself by drawing, or multiple choice. This application helps you memorize:

• Japanese syllabary :Katakana & Hiragana, with flash card, keyboard, or drawing recognition
• Numbers, in romaji, Hiragana, or kanji
• 2300+ japanese kanji’s (level 1-5 JLPT or Jouyou 1-7) with stroke animation (source KanjiVG), translation, readings (Source KanjiDict) with flash card and drawing game.
• 14600+ japanese words (in

… [ Read more ]

Author: Atomusk | Subjects: Apps, Grammar, Kanji, Language Study, Vocabulary / Phrases

Expand your Japanese vocabulary and comprehension by getting in the habit of reading short, native content daily. Manabi Reader makes it easy to jump into interesting native reading material without having to worry about your level: just one tap on any word you don’t know to see its reading and definition.

Don’t waste time trying to find engaging reading material—a curated selection of news feeds, online … [ Read more ]

Author: John A Ehlke | Subjects: Apps, Language Study, Reading Material, Vocabulary / Phrases

Marshall’s Blog is a not-for-profit website to help people learn Japanese. It was created by Marshall Yin, a student living in Tokyo who has himself been learning Japanese as a second language for ten years. The site is packed with vocabulary lists, grammar explanations, and quizzes, all organized according to JLPT level. While the lessons and forum are accessible to everyone, you’ll need to create … [ Read more ]

Author: Marshall Yin | Subjects: Blogs, Grammar, Language Study, Vocabulary / Phrases

This delightful podcast is hosted by three bilingual speakers of Japanese and English—My, Dan, and Yurie. They cover a wide range of topics, including culture, current events, and travel, mixed in with anecdotes from their own lives. If you’re looking for some Japanese listening practice that is both fun and accessible, this podcast is definitely worth a listen.

The podcast is decidedly bilingual, and this is … [ Read more ]

Subjects: Language Study, Multimedia, Vocabulary / Phrases

This is a tool that’s meant to help you study Japanese counters. You’ll be given a random item and a random number, and then you tell us how you’d count that in Japanese. Current study packs include common counters, essential counters, and counters for JLPT N4 and N5.

Subject: Vocabulary / Phrases