About Japanese – briefly
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The mystery of は
Or why is は pronounced わ. Have you ever wondered why all the Japanese learners are confused at the beginning of their learning journey with the topic particle は being pronounced as わ？Then this short text is for you! In the early history of Japanese, the modern HA row consonants (HA, HI, FU, HE, HO)…
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Brief history of い adjectives
Ever wondered why some end with しい and other ones with just い and where their past form came from? Originally wrote this as an answer on Japanese learning forums, but I thought this might be interesting. Long time ago, in Japanese nominals (nouns) were used as adjectives, to describe other nouns. They were simply…
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How to use わけ？
BriefJapanese – How to use わけ？What does わけではない mean? – All about わけ explained. わけ is an expression all Japanese students eventually encounter, sooner or later (usually sooner, as わけではない, is often used in anime). The more we encounter it, the more confusing it becomes – a tough nut to crack. Especially since the explanations…
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all about もの
When we reach intermediate Japanese in our study, we start to encounter specific expressions that have a multitude of uses and are not explained well. One of those expressions is もの which appears really often in light novels, manga, and so on. The goal of this text is to list many of those uses and…
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そう、だろう、らしい and よう
The expressions used to form an opinion or supposition about (something) on the basis of incomplete information – conjectures are really numerous and commonly used in Japanese and are really problematic for language learners. In this post, I will explain you nuances they have. Believe it or not, but once you know them, they become…
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よう
There is nothing scarier for the person learning Japanese than grammar patterns of words that have multiple usages. Especially the ones which are not covered completely by a textbook. One such expression is よう. The grammar pattern that many of us hate, and fear. Well, this will stop today, because I have listed most of…
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ように
There is this moment in the life of a Japanese learner when similar grammars start popping out one after another. One of the expressions like that is ように, which has so many uses that one gets completely lost. Especially since no textbook covers all of them. I have decided to list various uses of ように…
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Particle を
Japanese learners often understand the particle を as a direct object marker, but later, in their study, they find it used in a strange context, which cannot be explained with that use. In this post, I decided (briefly) to list those and explain them in a few words. But first, a short historic note. The…
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ないで vs なくて
Almost every Japanese student sooner or later stumbles upon a certain problem – the existence of two negative forms of て. This caused many headaches in the past, but with this (unlike before) Brief article I will try to explain where it’s better to use one or other. So let’s start, with conjugations, so we…
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The passive
The mystery of passive form, it’s uses, history and what it has in common with potential form explained. ` The passive form is one of the conjugations we learn first and causes us many troubles since it is quite different from the one used in English. Therefore I wanted to introduce it (briefly) to make…
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Common Slang
Contracted forms used in casual Japanese. When Japanese learners start reading or watching shows, they start to encouter numerous expressions like とこ、こりゃ、とる、てんの that do not appear in their dictionary or in textbooks and the reading or watching becomes quite discouraing. So I thought that it would be really useful if there were a list of…
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ている, what is it all about
And what 食べてんの and 食べとる mean. Hey and Good luck on JLPT everybody! And if you are after, then this might be a fun read to get read of stress. Have you been confused by all the ている functions? Well then, you are not alone! And this short article will be perfect for you, explaining…