differences between の and こと and what is this nominaliser THING all about? and also what XVI century has in common with のだ。 Have you ever wondered what is the difference between の and こと? Did you read or heard them being called nominalizers and you didn’t really get it? Or are you curious about… Continue reading の and こと
Month: June 2022
聞こえる 見える 見られる and 聞ける
What are differences and when to use them? 見[み]える、 聞[き]こえる and 見[み]られる cause a lot of confusion for Japanese learners, so much that many are left not understanding the uses for years. In this post, I wanted to show the uses of those verbs and their brief history. A long, long time ago, before what… Continue reading 聞こえる 見える 見られる and 聞ける
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)… Continue reading The mystery of は
History of だ
And what it has in common with じゃない。 If we want to understand how the だ came to be, we have to back in time to the auxiliary verb にあり which came to be from particle に expressing localization and あり (modern ある) indicating existence. Eventually, にあり was then shortened to なり. And for example… Continue reading History of だ