BriefJapanese

Category: Grammar

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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)…

  • 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…