Japanese grammar about to

They're based on written Chinese characters, and along with hiragana and katakana, kanji make up all of written Japanese. Kanji was imported from China around the fifth century. The Japanese incorporated both the original Chinese reading and their native Japanese reading, based on what was then an entirely spoken version of the Japanese language. Sometimes in Japanese, the pronunciation of a particular kanji character is based on its Chinese origin, but not in every instance. Since they're based on an ancient version of the Chinese pronunciation, on-readings usually bear little resemblance to their modern-day counterparts. Here we explain the difference between on-reading and kun-reading of kanji characters.

Learning a new language can be a lot of fun. But it is important to begin your learning with structure. This page is the first in five lessons that cover grammar points. These pages will introduce important grammatical points in a structured way. We will introduce only the most useful grammatical points in a simple and direct way. It is not, however, designed to replace a textbook or a detailed grammar book. It is our goal with this to help make complex grammatical patterns seem a little less intimidating.

This guide was created as a resource for those who want to learn Japanese grammar in a rational, intuitive way that makes sense in Japanese. The explanations are focused on how to make sense of the grammar not from English but from a Japanese point of view. Traditionally with romance languages such as Spanish, these goals present no problems or are nonexistent due to the similarities to English.

Even when you were learning your native language growing up, grammar probably presented some serious roadblocks here and there. According to some , Americans still suck at English grammar! And sometimes, these mistakes slip by. Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere.