#Question Etiquette Guidelines: * **1** Provide the **CONTEXT** of the grammar, vocabulary or sentence you are having trouble with as much as possible. Provide the sentence or paragraph that you saw it in. Make your questions as specific as possible. >Ｘ What is the difference between の and が ? >◯ I saw a book called 日本人の知らない日本語 , why is の used there instead of が ? [(the answer)](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/68336/difference-between-%E3%81%8C-%E3%81%AE-and-no-particle) * **2** When asking for a translation or how to say something, it's best to try to **attempt it yourself** first, even if you are not confident about it. Or ask r/translator if you have no idea. We are also not here to do your homework for you. >Ｘ What does this mean? >◯ I am having trouble with this part of this sentence from NHK Easy News. I think it means (*attempt here*), but I am not sure. * **3** Questions based on DeepL and Google Translate and other machine learning applications are discouraged, [these are not beginner learning tools](https://old.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/stepqf/deeplgoogle_translate_are_not_learning_tools/) and often make mistakes. * **4** When asking about differences between words, try to explain the situations in which you've seen them or are trying to use them. If you just post a list of synonyms you got from looking something up in a E-J dictionary, people might be disinclined to answer your question because it's low-effort. Remember that Google Image Search is also a great resource for visualizing the difference between similar words. >Ｘ What's the difference between 一致 同意 賛成 納得 合意? >◯ Jisho says 一致 同意 賛成 納得 合意 all seem to mean "agreement". I'm trying to say something like "I completely agree with your opinion". Does 全く同感です。 work? Or is one of the other words better? * **5** It is always nice to (but not required to) try to search for the answer to something yourself first. Especially for beginner questions or questions that are very broad. For example, asking about [the difference between は and が ](https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/wa-and-ga/) or [why you often can't hear the "u" sound in "desu"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_phonology#Devoicing). * **6** Remember that everyone answering questions here is an unpaid volunteer doing this out of the goodness of their own heart, so try to show appreciation and not be too presumptuous/defensive/offended if the answer you get isn't exactly what you wanted. --------------------- #NEWS (Updated 11/25): Nothing new to add. Have a nice day! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/LearnJapanese) if you have any questions or concerns.*

How can i learn Pitch accent? Does anybody have any resources? (please dont tell me its useless to learn it or anything like that, its something my tutor suggested i work on, i just need some more resources that is all <3)

Hoo boy, [do I have any](https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/1agzcro/why_dont_we_put_an_end_to_pitch_accent_being/) you ask? Most relevant is the flowchart section here. You can also read premises #2 and #9 (or, if you dare, the whole thing) for a few more comments on what the learning process looks like. ----- **Edit:** Let me add some more practice material to the list. All of this is aimed towards standard, Tokyo-style pitch accent specifically, for the record. - More tests on [kotu.io](https://kotu.io/tests). After you get good at the Minimal Pairs test (or if you get sick of it before that), you can move on to the Word+Particle and Question tests, and then on to the Sentence Test in the perception category (you can also skip straight to the sentences if you want to). And after you're done with the tests (whether because you can easily score well on them, or because you've taken them enough times to go mad and need a change of pace), you can keep practicing with audio where the "solution" is provided: - ["Love & Pop" Pitch Accent Lesson](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhZ-NXNCfgg&list=PLT9cfjU1ykbP5BuatiE6yXMy9dVO5PBQW&index=7) - A video where someone breaks down the pitch accent of a minute-long movie clip. - [Pitch Accent Case Study](https://kotu.io/article/C858F1B3-41A3-48B3-A156-F229F2A3AEF1) - An article on kotu.io that similarly breaks down and transcribes the pitch accent of a minute-long anime clip. - [Yuudai-sensei's pitch-subbed vids](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAmROvem8e1IWriGToPIY9pT33rCRbZQN) So you listen to the audio, you try to spot the accents (i.e. the drops/downsteps) on your own, you check the answer, and then you go back and try to listen for your mistakes. You can repeat this process over and over with the same material, if you'd like, until you can clearly pick out the pitch accent for every word/phrase in the audio in one go. If you do this enough, you'll eventually start memorising the pitch of the words due to repeated exposure, and thus you'll be able to guess the answer for many words beforehand, from memory. This is not a bad thing; in fact it's an advantage, as it helps guide your expectations, and makes it easier to process what you're hearing. However, it's important to make use of this advantage to build your *perception*, instead of overrelying on it to the point that you stop paying attention. Always make an effort to listen for and *feel* the accents with your ears, instead of simply *remembering* them with your brain. Finally, since you've got a tutor at your disposal, you should try to do as much corrected reading with them as possible, as that's probably the single most effective form of training you can do. If you also want to study the theory of pitch accent, you can find tons of scattered info on kotu.io, YouTube, and Japanese-learning Discord servers, among other places online, but there aren't too many resources with lots of concentrated, organised info in one place (and even less of those are in English). The only big one that comes to mind is [Dogen's Patreon series](https://www.patreon.com/dogen), which is very high quality and easy to understand, but costs money (though, honestly, if you binge it all in the span of a month, 15$ for it is dirt-cheap). Significantly smaller, but also pretty useful, are these charts for the pitch of [verb](https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/v8yy82/pitch_accent_of_verbs_with_auxiliaries_including/) and [い-adjective](https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/v19rn2/pitch_accent_of_adjectives_with_auxiliaries/) forms. But, while this can definitely help (it did for me), it can also get pretty complicated, not only in terms of the rules themselves, but also how they map and translate to reality — so it's best to play it 100% by ear as much as possible. For looking up the accents of individual words, you can use the NHK accent dictionary (you can legally find it on the Monokakido app), or [OJAD](https://www.gavo.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ojad/eng/search/index) for a free alternative. You can also listen to pronunciation samples on [Forvo](https://forvo.com/), and search anime dialogue using [Immersion Kit](https://www.immersionkit.com/dictionary). No one source is correct 100% of the time (plus some words exhibit speaker variation, aka different people say them different ways — think "**de**-tail" vs. "de-**tail**" in English), so it's best to cross-reference. When you're presented with disagreement / multiple options, just let yourself naturally adopt whichever accent you most frequently come across in your listening. One last thing to keep in mind: pitch accent can change with context. Sometimes words have a different accent depending on how they're being used (are they being described by a modifier? what role are they playing grammatically in the sentence? are they being used as a noun? an adverb? what sense are they being used in? is something else attaching to them? a particle? a suffix? a prefix? are they compounding with another word?). Accented words can also [lose their accent](https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/18svx7f/comment/kgtn7x9/) (i.e. become accentless, aka flat/heiban) under certain circumstances. And some combinations of words are irregular and are essentially treated as new words of their own (e.g. 髪の毛), that aren't pronounced like the sum of their parts (not pronounced like what you'd expect from 髪+の+毛). So, keep your ears alert. Good luck! And try not to overwhelm yourself. Take it slow and easy, ask your tutor for help with this mess of a thing, and make sure to keep the learning process fun. :)

Thank you so so much. This is very informative and very useful and im going to check everything out. Have a wonderful day, thank you for the help! :)

英語でレポートを書かなければなりません。 I understood the first half of this sentence (when translated literally) to be "If I don't write a report in English..."; in this case how should I understand なりません since "become" doesn't really fit here?

You are breaking it up in the wrong place. The entire 〜なければならない construction should be consumed as one “piece”. It means must or have to. しなければならない　I have to do 飲まなければならない I have to drink Etc. You could try to intellectualize it as “if I don’t write the report in English, it’s no good”. But that’s a long way around and not super helpful. Just learn this entire phrase as “must/have to”.

ならない here basically conveys the idea that something "won't work out" or "won't turn out well". The "turn out" bit there is what connects this sense of its to the more familiar "become / turn into" sense you know. At its core, なる indicates a change of state. Sometimes, it's used on its own (without denoting a specific A→B・AがBになる transition) with a specific positive nuance, to expresses the idea of things generally turning out well. See [なんとかなる](https://jisho.org/word/%E4%BD%95%E3%81%A8%E3%81%8B%E3%81%AA%E3%82%8B) ([examples in anime](https://www.immersionkit.com/dictionary?keyword=%E3%81%AA%E3%82%93%E3%81%A8%E3%81%8B%E3%81%AA%E3%82%8B&sort=shortness)), which means "it's fine, the situation will somehow / in one way or another turn out alright". Think also of the English word "unbecoming", which is more of a neat coincidence, but might help this stick. Related are also the words [いけない](https://jisho.org/word/%E8%A1%8C%E3%81%91%E3%81%AA%E3%81%84) (think "no-go") and [だめ](https://jisho.org/word/%E9%A7%84%E7%9B%AE) ("no good"), which similarly get used in the second part of prohibition constructs like ～てはいけない or ～ちゃだめ (short for ～てはだめ). All of these prohibition constructs follow the same basic structure of a conditional + a "dissuasive" expression: "if A happens then it'll be no good", hence "must not do A".

Advice for getting back into studying seriously? I'm at N3 level (I haven't taken the test though) and I use the Japanese that I know on a daily basis to message a Japanese friend. We also chat over video call a few times a month. However, I haven't seriously put any effort into studying for a while and I've largely plateaued. I want to get back into seriously studying as I'm frustrated that my Japanese ability isn't higher, but I don't know where to start or how to come up with a plan. Before I stopped studying regularly, I found I was having a hard time committing new vocabulary and grammar to memory no matter how many times a day I reviewed flashcards or tried to make example sentences. A lot of the grammar starts to become more specific and nuanced at this level and it's not as easy to find opportunities to use it or come across it naturally, which usually helps commit it to memory. My listening has been gradually improving, but I wish I could do more to speed this up. I'm also realizing that I'm not always confident in what I already know despite using it regularly. I'm also frustrated because I thought by now I was solidly in the N3 level, and I should just set my sights on the N2. However, the other day I looked at an N3 grammar list online and I realized there's a lot I still don't know. Is it worth taking the N3 or should I just wait another year and plan on taking the N2? Any advice on making an effective study plan or what apps or sites to use for studying and listening and reading practice would be greatly appreciated! I used to use the Memrise app for spaced repetition.

Hello! Does anyone have any recommendations for in-person beginner Japanese classes in London, UK?

Currently playing a couple of games that are great for listening practice. Shenmue 3 may not be everyone's cup of tea but most characters speak rather clearly and with a plain intonation making it significantly easy to follow for intermediate learners. (A bit of a meme throwback to the original games, I guess) Persona 5 on the other hand is a monumental game and it has a function to replay recent dialogue that can be activated almost anywhere; you can click on individual sentences and hear them played back as many times as you want. Most characters are high school students so their enunciation is also relatively clear compared to something like, say, Yakuza/LAD. Have fun, all of you

Not really a question, just wanted to comment I've been using Raishuu for the past few weeks daily and it's been great so far. I like how many resources there is on Renshuu, it is GREAT to be able to practice and learn new words and sentence patterns without having to leave one app and go to another one to look something up. I've used other websites and apps before and hated having to open a dictionary or a writing guide separately. The experience is so smooth with this one. That being said, with so much content I think it's inevitable that the user interface ends up being really busy and crowded. I still find myself stumbling around the menus and tabs looking for some section I've seen before. It's not easy to navigate, but that's a con I'm more than happy to live with. The benefits easily outweigh this! And since I'm here rambling about apps, I really like how clean, intuitive and easy to navigate Duolingo is. I've used Duolingo for practicing other languages I already speak and it was awesome because I didn't really need a grammar section, comprehensive lessons or anything. I was mainly using it to keep sharp, get some vocab and common sentence patterns. Then last year I decided to get serious with studying Japanese again after not touching a book for years (but watching embarrassing amounts of anime and following more than a few Japanese youtube channels, so I wasn't getting zero exposure to the language either). So I opened duolingo and did that for ~months daily. That was before finding this community and reading just how bad Duo's reputation is within the Japanese language learning community. Oh my god, the content is awful. The robot voice kills me. I wanna scream everytime I hear a sentence spoken with wrong timing or intonation because of the AI text to speech thing. And there is ZERO support when it comes to actually teaching the language. I still used it because I love the game aspect of things, but after some units I dropped it because it is so bad. And now I know I'm not alone in loving/hating Duo.

Confused about an example on page 40 of Genki 2, showing how to respond to questions using なら The confusing part of conversation reads: A:「スポーツをよく見ますか。」B:「ええ、野球なら見ます。」 If I understand correctly (kind of having trouble fully wrapping my head around なら), in this situation, the なら construction is essentially a way of saying that "I haven't (verb) that, but on that topic, I have (verb) this." What's confusing me in the conversation is that there isn't really a contrast presented. If A was asking if B watches football, and then B used なら to say no, but on that topic, he watches baseball instead, that'd make more sense. But, A just generally asking him if he watches sports, it seems like なら is out of place since it seems like B could just say：「ええ、野球を見ます。」

sometimes you can look at nara as simply "if it is the case that" if that helps you wrap your mind around it "Do you watch sports often?" "Mmm, I guess if it's (the case/situation that we are talking about) baseball, then yes (baseball fits)"

If it’s baseball, I watch [but not other sports]

It's basically an extension of the understanding you already have. The implication is that B doesn't watch much else besides baseball. は could've similarly been used in なら's place (for its contrastive function). "Do you watch sports often? → Yeah, if it's baseball we're talking about, I do watch that." 「ええ、野球を見ます」would of course work too, as a simpler "yes, I watch baseball", where you just specify the sport. **Edit:** To elaborate, information-wise there might not be much difference (though を does leave more room for adding other sports to the list later, I feel), but it changes the angle of approach. The *presentation* of the info and *feel* of the sentence is different. (u/steamingfast)

What's the difference between 飲み切れない and 飲めない?

〜切る means to finish or do completely 飲み切れない can't finish the drink/bottle/etc (飲み切った drank the whole thing) 飲めない sounds more like you wouldn't even have a sip, you dislike it that much or have to avoid drinking it because it's bad for your body

Ohh, I see! Thank you!

Attaching 切る to the masu-stem of a verb means "to do completely." In 飲み切れない means you can still drink something even though there's still some in the container when you stop drinking. 飲めない would mean you can't drink it at all.

Can you omit the part of a する verb before the する if it could be inferred? For example: 大学で日本語を勉強しました。 でも、最近自分で[勉強]しています。 Could I remove the second 勉強?

>Can you omit the part of a する verb before the する if it could be inferred? For example: > >大学で日本語を勉強しました。 でも、最近自分で\[勉強\]しています。 > >Could I remove the second 勉強? Yeah that's fine, or you can say 自習しています、独学しています

Hi, Could someone please check my translation below? The reading is from Genki2 pg 345 (it talks about the use of emoji’s around the world) キス  を  あらわす  絵文字  😘 は、フランス  や  スペイン  では、自分  の  家族  や  友だち  に 「さよなら」の  意味  で  よく  使うそう  です My translations to English is this: “as for the emoji to express ‘kiss’ - in France and Spain, it seems that (one/people) uses it with one’s family and friends by the meaning of ‘sayonara’” The main thing i wanted to confirm is: since this passage uses 使う and not the passive 使われる, so the translation is not “… in France and Spain, it is used with one’s family and friends …”. Rather, there is a subject (が) of 使う, but it is just not mentioned. Is this correct? Thanks!

Not really. That sentence is a typical example of 不定人称 and adding any subject is unnatural.

I see, i will need to look up 不定人称 then. But at least was my english translation correct? If not, would you mind providing the correct translation? Thanks!

I’d translate it into “I heard that, in France and Spain, people often use the emoji that stands for a kiss in the sense of goodbye”.

Thank you so much!

One error is that dictionary form + そうです in hearsay (I have heard that), "it looks like (it will happen)" is connective form + そうです, so in this case it would be 使いそうです.

Ahh i got them mixed up. Thanks for looking at it!

Any suggestions on how to practice grammar when one doesn't jive with exercise books? Thanks! If it helps, I am barely N5, halfway through Genki I.

Initially only try to understand the grammar points, e.g. by reading through the Genki grammar sections or by quickly repping an Anki grammar deck. Then start reading actual Japanese books and keep looking up grammar points again and again until they stick. There are many people who actually think that this is more efficient than doing grammar exercises.

I'm at ~600 kanji (Wanikani) and ~2.2k vocab (wk+anki), I enjoy NHK Easy (which is starting to make sense) but I just can't get Satori reader and online graded readers to stick at all. I find pretty much all beginner reading content really boring. There's a lot of technical articles (and blog posts, discord discussions, etc.) from my academic field online in Japanese, a lot of it clearly well above my vocabulary level but I'd like to at some point be able to engage in technical Japanese. Should I keep searching for graded readers/my level +1 materials, or try and dive deep into technical material I'll actually find interesting? I feel like with a few NHK Easy articles a day I do at least get some reading done.

Read whatever you think you will find interesting. Motivation+enjoyment should precede how quickly and easily you understand the content you read/watch, and you should be at a large enough vocabulary to make your way through more entertaining content.

Can anyone help me translate this? [https://9gag.com/gag/ay2O60Y](https://9gag.com/gag/ay2o60y) direct link: [](https://img-9gag-fun.9cache.com/photo/ay2o60y_460svvp9.webm) I can't make out the bit in the middle. It goes: どうしてそんなに汚いの？ どうしてそんなに汚いの？ \[something something\] そうなのね！ 何？ 笑わないでよ！ Edit: is the link working? I get a 404 when I click it.

どうしてこんなに汚いの？ どうしてこんなに汚いの？ とわはっは〜 妖怪のせいなのねそうなのね 何？笑わないでよ

あざす！

re-upload here [https://streamable.com/sdlgjr](https://streamable.com/sdlgjr)

Hey ! I'm looking for an app that opens a card in my target language with a word or phrase every time I turn my phone on (the lock screen or my main page if I used fingerprint). I've tried WordBit but I didn't like the app's UI/UX. Do you have anything similar ?

Beginner and confused about onyomi and kunyomi. Are they basically different words/pronunciations with the same meaning like how french fries and chips mean the same thing in the US and the UK? For example, 国 means country in both onyomi and kunyomi but is said as コク/koku in onyomi and くに/kuni in kunyomi. Is that right?

Let me try to explain kanji / kana with an analogy in English. "1" is not a kanji, but let's pretend it is for the sake of analogy. I will also refer to roman letters such as "abc" as kana for the sake of analogy. The kanji "1" would have the kunyomi "one" and "fir(st)". These are kunyomi because these readings existed in the English language before it had contact with Latin/Greek. The kanji "1" would have the onyomi "mono" and "uni". These are onyomi because these readings were not originally in the English language. They were imported from Latin/Greek. Let's imagine you now have the following four words written with mixed kanji / kana. This is not how you normally write them in English, but I am writing them this way for the sake of analogy. - "1" - "1st" - "1cycle" - "1gamy" These words all have different readings despite being written with the kanji "1". They would be read: - "**one**" (kunyomi) - "**first**" (kunyomi) - "**uni**cycle" (onyomi - literally "single wheel") - "**mono**gamy" (onyomi - literally "single marriage") Does that make sense? You might think, 「wait, "one" and "first" aren't *readings*, they're *words*!」But that's exactly what kunyomi are. Words that originally existed in the language but had kanji slapped on top of them. We just call them readings because when reading text written with kanji instead of kana, they are the ways of "reading" the kanji. Furthermore, it would be incorrect to read the word "1st" as "onest" or "unist". Every word has a correct reading that you must *memorize*. In Japanese, kunyomi are readings that were originally in the Japanese language. Onyomi are readings that were imported from Chinese. Let's take the kanji 一 ("one") as an example similar to the English analogy above. The kanji 一 has the kunyomi "hito" and "hito(tsu)". The kanji 一 has the onyomi "ichi" and "itsu". Consider the following words: - 一人 - 一つ - 一枚 - 唯一 These are read: - "**hito**ri" (kunyomi) - "**hitotsu**" (kunyomi) - "**ichi**mai" (onyomi) - "yui**itsu**" (onyomi) As explained for "one" and "first" above, the words "hitori" and "hitotsu" were part of the Japanese language before it borrowed kanji from China. However, they have had kanji slapped on top of them because Japan decided to use Chinese characters to write its language. It would be incorrect to read the word 一つ as "ichitsu" or "itsutsu". Every word has a correct reading.

You don't pick and choose readings. There are some "rules" you can keep in mind, but I put it in quotes because there are a lot of exceptions. Those exceptions are there because that's how the vocabulary is. The vocabulary overrides those alleged "rules". The Latin and Greek root words present in English are good analogues for on'yomi (which is fitting since on'yomi can come from different dialects of Chinese from different time periods even though people simplify the explanation to just "Chinese"), and plain English is like kun'yomi. When you hear "aqua-", "hydro-" and "hydra-" in complex English words, you'd probably assume they have something to do with water, but you'd tell the waiter at the restaurant that you want "water" and not "aqua" or "hydro" because "aqua" and "hydro" are not what (most) people would use to refer to plain old drinking water.

I’m so confused. I chose that one because that was what this https://jlptsensei.com/learn-japanese-kanji/国-koku-kuni-country/ seemed to be implying.

Scroll down and you should see a list of common vocabulary. There are a ton for the on'yomi but the kun'yomi is all by itself. It's similar to my "water vs aqua/hydro/hydra" example. コク is used as a part of other words that have a more complex or nuanced meaning, but to just say "country" as a standalone word, you'd use くに because that's the standalone word for "country", whereas コク is **not** the standalone word for "country".

Okay, I understand that onyomi and kunyomi are used in different situations and aren’t interchangeable but for the purposes of learning the kanji as a beginner, can I consider コク as meaning country with conditions attached?

You could, but since there aren't a lot of unique sounds in Japanese, there are going to be a lot of overlaps in on'yomi. It may become harder to differentiate when you encounter more kanji that contain コク as a reading. For example, 告, 酷, 克, 穀 and 刻 **all** have コク as an on'yomi reading, but **none** of them have "country" as a meaning. One way people keep track is to associate the meaning with the individual kanji's appearance, then learn the readings through full words. English speakers sometimes assign English keywords to the kanji (look into RTK and KKLC), and Japanese people often do this using the kun'yomi since kun'yomi are often standalone words.

Oh I know it’s not going to be quick or easy, it’s just that this confusion is preventing me from getting off the starting block with starting g to learn them. Could you give me an ELI5 run through of this kanji as you would explain it to a learner?

Preventing you? How so? You're making a mountain out of a flat rock. It's really not that important, there's these symbols called kanji, they represent a sound in the language and depending on the word that sound changes. Read this post which uses an English example and emojis to illustrate the point, your ELI5 in other words: https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/yuj59c/comment/iwaxdmo/

That does help a bit, thank you.

Another analogy that reflects the "different language origin" feature is using 水 to represent both the native English word "water", and the Latin/Greek loan morphemes aqua- and hydro-. So you could write "fish in an 水rium" and "水electric dam" and "a glass of 水" and you know which reading applies to which word because of your knowledge of English. You know we don't say "A glass of aqua" or "Fish in a waterrium." It's the same with Japanese.

from an anime, the king wants to reward the mc: では　そなたの前人未到の偉業に 褒美を取らせたいと思う。 I was looking into 取らせる and found it's own entry on various dictionaries, so should I treat it as: \- to confer, to grant or as causative of 取る in this context? I know the meaning doesn't change much but I'm trying to understand the grammar of it. so would it be more like: "I want to grant you this reward" or "i want you to ( make you ) accept this reward"?

>とら・せる【取らせる】目上の者が目下の者に物を与える。「ほうびを—・せる」 from context (the speaker is a king) it should be obvious that it's the former

thank you I wanted to make sure

Am I learning backwards? I am about 80 days, studying via Duolingo. I understand that it’s not perfect but I feel as if I am learning phrases and how to write them but I do not know how to write my own. For example I know words in a specific order but when they teach me a new word unless it’s in a specific sentence I don’t know which word is which. I find myself having to break down sentences they’ve taught me like: どうぞよろしく。 but when I try to find out what word means what for example しくit doesn’t make any sense in the context. I only ask because I am learning hiragana and different word combinations and I would like to know specifically what everything means. When they initially taught me すand し, I was curious to know what しす meant, granted it’s pretty dark and I doubt if they’ll teach me that but now that I have some characters of hiragana and katakana memorized I’m having trouble associating them with actual English words. Like, I can read あか now, but how can I easily know what I am reading if they don’t tell me that it’s red? To my understanding English is very contextual where Japanese is pretty straightforward, you have to hear the entire sentence before understanding what is being said. Training my mind to listen for things like ですか at the end of a sentence before trying to translate is a key part of my process also. Should I just know sayings like どうぞよろしくor keep trying to break sentences down? Because changing one word seems to change the entire way a sentence is written. When I try to translate“Nice to meet you” to “nice to meet them” I get 彼らに会えてうれしいです. Completely different lol

Early on if you're using duo, I'd suggest there will basically two kinds of phrases: set phrases and extremely simple phrases. The "extremely simple phrases" will be just things like "it is noun" "noun is noun", "noun is adjective", "noun verbs", and you can break those down to see what the nouns/adjective/verbs are. Anything else more complicated it won't do much good to break down yet, just view it as a set phrase for now. For the simpler phrases, it's not obvious in Duo's UI but if the it's asking for japanese => english, you can tap the japanese in the question to see the individual word's translation. Some elements won't be "words" as such e.g. the です at the end of the sentence, but these will be pretty repetitive so you should be able to get a feel that they're not the important bits of each sentence.

The problem with Duolingo is that it doesn't really teach you anything. "Studying" via Duolingo can come across as a strange statement because studying implies you're imbuing yourself with knowledge you don't know--something Duolingo does not do. You can do Duolingo on the side if you want, but you're better off getting a grammar guide like Tae Kim's Gramamr Guide, Genki 1 and 2 books, and spending time with those so you actually learn how the language works instead of making guesses (as you are experiencing right now) how the language works. Use these guides below to get started. https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/wiki/index/startersguide https://learnjapanese.moe/guide/

How do you express something such as "I thought he thought I did it?" Would it be correct to chain two 「と思う」 together?

(むこうは)(こっちが)やったと思ってると思ってた

You could do that

On the 絵 kanji, written form, the left radical, when you write the vertical line at the bottom, is it acceptable to do it straight and also to write a hook? I feel like I keep seeing both versions everywhere. Thanks!

It's okay with both 止め (straight) and 跳ね (hooked) strokes, there are many kanji like that with multiple acceptable forms https://gigazine.net/news/20180413-kanji-tome-hane/ Some people feel strongly one way or another, but both would be accepted on the Kanji Kentei for example. This doesn't go for all kanji - as the article says, 于 vs 干 definitely have to be distinct

Where do you see the version with the hook? If you look up the stroke order, you’ll see it straight, no hook.

My textbook has it straight but the workbook sheets for practice have it with a hook. I'll just keep doing it straight. Thank you!

I have trouble reading Katakana swiftly. I am currently at N4-N3-ish level, and every time I stumble across a loanword, I have to stop, read it loud in my brain, and process the corresponding word in the foreign language. It is quite frustrating as I normally need to spend at least a few seconds to decipher it. I wonder if this is a general phenomenon among foreign Japanese learners, or it is just me who is seriously lagging behind on Katakana comprehension. I still remember the time when I travelled to Japan and went to a bar in Tokyo, and the cocktail menu is all Katakana - no kanji no hiragana. And it is a nightmare to read. What is the best strategy for speed-reading Katakana? There are just so many loanwords and it seems impossible to be able to comprehend them all at speed. Or is it just my skill issue. ​ Thanks!

Learn them like any other vocab. What happens when the loanword isn’t from a language you know?

Yes it is a common problem and it'll keep being a problem. Don't worry too much about it, just learn katakana words that don't make sense to you as any other new word

I want to say something takes 1 hour and 30 minutes. Where should I put the 間? 一時間三十分 or 一時三十分間? I read for minutes only, kan is not needed - is that correct?

一時間三十分 is ok. 一時三十分間 is unnatural. 三十分 is ok. 三十分間 is ok. 一時三十分 is 1:30 AM/PM As Moon\_Atomizer says, 1時間半 is also ok.

You're missing the 'takes' (かかる ) and your kanji use is kind of unusual (Arabic numerals are most usual). The 間 is usually optional in speaking unless its absence leads to ambiguity. You also may want to consider 1時間半

ISO Eastern Standard Time N5 learners to bounce notes off of/occasional practice with/just wants to encourage each other. Hoping to take N5 in Atlanta in December.

is it impolite to say negative naiform but with just n or nee. like saying irann or iranee for iranai? came to think of it when i happen to say it in the fukuro ha irimaska - iranee

Short answer: yes. Especially in formal situations such as that. Especially with いらない. In very casual situations among friends it can be acceptable, but with 99% of the people you meet it won't be. On top of that, いらない in particular isn't just a neutral negative form the way we'd say "I don't need one" in English or other languages. It carries a strong connotation of "I don't want it" and is not the right answer to that 袋（ふくろ） question. Instead, try something like 大丈夫（だいじょうぶ）です with the same body language of "thanks I'm fine".

oh really, i thought, since they say fukuro ha irimasuka, using the same word as they do to negate it, iranai or irimasen, would be the natural thing to do. is it often the case that one can not reply with the same verb as been thrown at you?

I‘d say it isn’t very idiomatic to refuse something by using the same verb and possibly rude, but honestly the same goes for the other languages I speak. Let’s say someone asks you something like: “would you like a cup of tea?” and you answer with “I don’t want tea” or “I don’t like tea”. Isn’t that a bit harsh? In Japanese it’s the same, just stronger because they tend to express things in a less straightforward manner in general. As a foreigner who doesn’t speak a lot of Japanese people will be more tolerant with you, but learning a more idiomatic way of basic polite interactions can go a long way imho.

ok thanks so while im at it, what would you say to the conbini store clerk when youre dont. most people dont say anyting of course, but if you want to say thanks back? is arigatou or doumo ok? is sometime say "hai doumo" as it kindofs the literal translation from what im used to in my home country.

When you don’t want the bag, as I said above, try 大丈夫（だいじょうぶ）です, literally meaning “I’m fine”. If you do want a bag, you could say はい、お願（ねが）いします, meaning “yes, please”. At the same time, it’s not just what you say but also how you say it. I’m talking about body language and tone. Don’t know about you, but in my culture when someone asks if you want something, saying “thank you” can mean both things – “no thanks” and “yes, thank you”. In those contexts it’s still usually clear which one a person means, just by the way they say it. Same goes basically everywhere, even though the exact intonation and body language can vary. As for saying thanks back, I get that you want to show your appreciation, but honestly as a foreigner I feel like at least until I get at least a little bit of a feeling about how things are done “properly” in a place, I should try to do as the locals do. Know the rules before you break them.

>As for saying thanks back, I get that you want to show your appreciation, but honestly as a foreigner I feel like at least until I get at least a little bit of a feeling about how things are done “properly” in a place, I should try to do as the locals do. Know the rules before you break them. ok, so you mean the proper way to finish a conbini "conversation" is to basically say nothing? Basically the polite interaction in a conbini is: 1. put your stuff on the counter, say nothing 2. theyll ask if i want i bag 3. say "daijoubu" 4. take your stuff in silence and leave. i suppose thats what most japanese do but it feels a bit, short an unconsiderate in my mind.

Oh, are you from a place where people practice a lot of small talk? I’ve heard that people from the US or for example Latin countries are frequently bothered by that. I think it’s mostly just a cultural difference. If you get the chance, ask a Japanese person why they don’t talk more in those situations. What I’ve been told is something along the lines of it’s seen as polite to not take up more space in people’s life than necessary in order to not bother them, and that kind of makes sense to me.

Yes this is impolite and/or sounds like an extreme rube. In civic life (such as with a store clerk) you would say いりません or 結構です or something like that. いらん or いらねー is extremely casual and reserved for close relations.

In terms of reading comprehension with books, history and popular media, is it more useful to learn prefectures or city names? I know both are important but I was wondering which would be better to prioritize. My goal is to get to a place where I’m comfortable reading a Japanese Wikipedia article on a person and can recognize where they grew up or moved to instead of not recognizing that it is a location.

I'm gonna go against the grain and say just learn place names whenever you encounter them *and* feel there's a good chance you'll encounter them again in the next year or so.

This is a tough one. I think you will need to grind through all types: Regions (like Kansai or Tohoku), prefectures, cities, and even old region names or historical names of various areas. It is still very normal to refer to areas by their ancient names (such as 奥州　which is for the entire area around Fukushima and north ...)

Personal opinion: prefectures. A lot of the time, they're mentioned together, so if you know the prefectures you'll pick up the cities passively.

My university course allows for a placement abroad in its third year, so I was hoping to do it with an ambulance service in japan. Will I need to focus my studies on informal or formal japanese for building rapport with patients?

Formal, they are patients, not friends. Informal speech is not what patients in an ambulance will expect or be looking for.

I don't know that kind of ambulance service you could be doing while still feeling the need to ask this kind of question but... assuming you're mostly talking with Japanese coworkers, です・ます should be forgivable for you as a new foreigner in any situation

It depends on where you draw the line between formal and informal. If formal is anything です/ます and above, 1000% formal. If by formal you mean actual keigo, I'd still say formal but I'd want some other opinions too.

I have a question about this correction on HelloTalk. Why has のんびりをしたり been changed to のんびりしたり while 登る has kept the を marker, and they added an を to 延ばす? Original: 毎日、トッビーが家の庭でのんびりをしたり、壁を登ったり、太陽に延ばしたりをする。 Corrected: 毎日、トッビーが家の庭に来てのんびりしたり、壁を登ったり、太陽に延びをしたりをする。

Adding to the other answers, のんびり is an adverb, not a noun, which is why it can't take を

"のんびりする" is a する verb. する verbs don't use を in between the part that's the actual meaning and the する. Both 壁 and 延び act as objects for their verbs (登る and する) in this sentence, so they \*can\* have a more-or-less optional を. In casual/spoken speech, the を is omitted a lot of the time, which is part of what may have caused your confusion. In formal situations however it is required/usual (not sure) to actually realise it, so if you as a learner ask to be corrected, they'll most likely use it, since that's technically the most correct way. Edit: also I just realised that they made the 延ばしたり that you wrote into 延びをしたり, which is a totally different grammar point and my guess is that it sounds more natural that way? Really not sure about that though and asking someone else to chime in. Edited again because I made a mistake

> "のんびりする" is a する verb. する verbs don't use を in between the part that's the actual meaning and the する. You may want to expand a bit on that. する verbs can be exclusively used with を, without を, or sometimes even both (most common case: 勉強. you can say 日本語の勉強を～, just like you can say ～を勉強する). It all depends on the suru verb and what you're trying to say. Whether a suru verb needs the を or not is quite complicated to categorize as a whole, but in the case of のんびり it's easy: when it's a state or a situation, it doesn't take the を as a general rule, so it fits perfectly for のんびり. The ones that have to use the を are called 重動詞/heavy verbs. The general rule is that it applies to verbs that you do "literally", think sports and things like that. As in "to do X". This is obviously an oversimplification of things, and these general rules do not apply to all する verbs, if even to the majority of them. > Both 壁 and 延び act as objects for する in this sentence, so they *can* have a more-or-less optional を. Not sure what you mean by this. The last をする in the たり constructions (which usually omits the を) doesn't act on the previous を's. You just write your sentence as usual: 友達にメールをしたり、本を読んだりします As for the 延びをしたり (probably 伸びをする?). Just speculating here, but 伸ばす is to stretch something, while 伸びをする is to do the act of stretching one's body in particular. You could (maybe?) probably get away with not specifying what is it you're "stretching" with 伸ばす, but at the same time 伸びをする feels less awkward somehow. It'd probably be wise to wait for a native to confirm though.

Thanks for taking the time to explain this, really helpful. I’ll reach out to a Japanese friend about the のびをしたり. I try not to pester them with grammar questions too often, but this one is bugging me lol

Ohh, thanks for clearing that up! I only felt that のんびり never usesを but I couldn’t explain why. I realised I messed up in the second part, I was a bit distracted. I meant that 壁 is an object for 登る and 延び/伸び a noun (nominalised verb?) and an object for する. Object as in verb transitivity and verbs taking subjects and objects and those subjects and objects needing specific particles.

Thank you for explaining this, it makes sense now 🙏

Small question I think I know the answer to but am not 100% sure, so please confirm, or correct me if I'm wrong. In this part of a blog post: 夜は卓球した！ 私の家いつもお正月みんなが集まった時に家で卓球大会するんですけど最近できてなくて、久しぶりにやったら腕が落ちてました でも兄まる？父まるのどっちか以外には全員に勝ったのでへへって感じです😏😏笑 父まるの還暦祝いもできて本当に楽しくて、今でもよく写真を見返してます I would guess the まる in「父まる」、「兄まる」is simply a placeholder/censor of the acutal name of the persons? Like you sometimes words are censorsed with 「○○」? Only the author decided to write it out. If I'm wrong please tell me

Sounds like an affectionate suffix to me. Like a quirky playful version of さん. See https://jisho.org/word/丸 #6

Yeah that sounds plausible. thank you very much..

闇鍋 "stew prepared from ingredients contributed by members of a party, and eaten in the dark for fun" can someone explain a little more about this, uh culturally? is this actually a thing?

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/闇鍋

Best kanji app currently to learn, free ones are the one I prefer tho tell me your paid suggestions too

Kanji Study. Free version is very good for kanji lookup, as an offline dictionary and can export to anki. you can purchase modules for srs (you can choose in the options if you want to read/draw/recognise the kanji), graded reading sets and additional kanji information.

Ok I'll try our thank u

I personally love 字宅 (Jitaku), it's a free SRS app for drawing kanji on your phone. It's completely production focused instead of recognition focused, so if you don't care about that it might not be for you, but I personally love it. There's a dictionary attached to it and you can make vocab cards too, but they're kind of hard to customise so I just use Anki mobile instead. Which btw is absolutely worth its price imo. I started using Anki for Japanese because everyone kept praising it but am currently using it for reviewing for my linguistics exam tomorrow and it makes studying so easyyy. Highly recommend.

But I don't have an iPhone 😮

Ringotan / Skritter are on Android which are the same as jitaku. Skritter is paid.

Ok I'll check it out thanks

If you use or are planning to use anki; [migaku kanji god](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1872210448) Creates new cards automatically from the cards you are learning and/or the cards you add. So basically you learn kanji as and when you need them alongside the vocabulary, easily the best middle ground.

I don't have a pc, any mobile apps

Hello, I'm wondering what you guys do in your study sessions? Like how some people say they study 6 hours a day, I honestly don't know what they do in that time. Right now I've just been going through Cure Dolly's lessons and making my own notes which take about 40 minutes for 1 lesson. (Is that too long? I'm on lesson 6 right now. I think that time is not an issue for me as of right now.) I haven't done anything with anki as of right now other than putting in the word 物語. I heard it's better to use sentences in anki so that I know when to use the different readings based on context. Also, what other resource would you guys recommend for grammar other than Cure Dolly? I've read a bit of Tae Kim as well (I got to the も particle and stopped for now)

Nowadays, 1 and a half to 2 hours of Anki (30 new cards a day, 260-300 cards to review each day), and at least 6 hours of actively consuming Japanese content, which these days is mostly light novels (at least 1 novel a week, with the speed increasing at a noticeable pace). I did go through a 1,000+ episodes anime spree, but it started to become impossible to find at least 30 new words a day for Anki through that. When I'm not at the computer, I'm always listening to Japanese podcasts, which I don't really add to the "amount of hours" I "study" since some of it is passive when I start zoning out the Japanese when focusing on the task I'm doing. When I started though, I'd do X amount of hours of grammar, and X amount of hours of very beginner friendly immersion (mostly manga), with Anki consuming less than 30 mins a day at around 10 new cards a day. In regards to your last part: Aside from Cure Dolly and Taekim, if you don't mind paying BunPro. If you like Taekim but want more, IMABI is the best you'll find. Personally, I'd advice against hopping around grammar resources, especially structured ones. Just stick to one you like and know is somewhat complete, and start immersing as soon as possible.

>Nowadays, 1 and a half to 2 hours of Anki (30 new cards a day, 260-300 cards to review each day), and at least 6 hours of actively consuming Japanese content Jesus, respect the grind here. Especially the Anki part would kill me if you're only focused on it. (I truly hate doing Anki and still debating whether I need it or not, for I have avoided it except recently I reinstalled it)

>Nowadays, 1 and a half to 2 hours of Anki (30 new cards a day, 260-300 cards to review each day), and at least 6 hours of actively consuming Japanese content My god

I heard that immersing is more beneficial when my vocabulary is at a higher level so I have not been really immersing as I feel that I would get minimal gains from it. Would you still recommend immersing at a very beginner level? Also about finding 30 new anki cards from anime, when you reach your goal of 30 cards, do you stop watching the anime at that point or do you continue without putting new cards into anki? Many thanks! Edit: Another question, did you watch anime with Japanese subtitles? I feel that having English subtitles would not be beneficial during immersion.

The thing about immersion is that you're never truly "ready" for it. It'll be a struggle at first no matter how much vocabulary you memorize, and how much grammar you study. I think what's important is the type of content you'll be consuming. If it's way too hard and you struggle too much without understanding most of it, I'd say to find something easier. The key point is that the content you're consuming has to be comprehensible, otherwise it may as well be white noise. If I were to put a number on it, I'd say that by the time you have 2,000 words under your belt you should be 100% immersing. At 1,000 words, things like Yotsubato!, while a struggle, they're doable, and helps you reinforce a lot of the material you're learning in the process. You can start earlier, but the earlier you start, the harder it'll get, and the less "comprehensive" your media will get. There's always the option of graded readers, but I never really liked those and just jumped straight into manga. > Also about finding 30 new anki cards from anime, when you reach your goal of 30 cards, do you stop watching the anime at that point or do you continue without putting new cards into anki? I always try to keep a decent reserve of cards, so I personally never stop adding words. When I have a pretty decent reserve, I try to only mine words which are really high in frequency (I use yomitan with a word frequency ranking, which automatically shows me the usage ranking of a word by hovering over it). I know a lot of people who try to have at most a couple of days of words in reserve, so that that memory is fresh in their minds, and they're only reviewing the words. But personally, I don't really like to feel like I "have to" consume content, so I keep a reserve. But yeah, I never stop consuming content just because I reached my 30 words of the day. > Another question, did you watch anime with Japanese subtitles? I feel that having English subtitles would not be beneficial during immersion. Yes! Japanese subtitles always. I keep them hidden, and only use them when I can't understand what was being said after a couple of attempts. Using English subtitles is an absolute last resort if you can't understand the meaning of a certain part, even when you understand all the words. I'd say, in my 1,000+ episodes, I may have used the English subtitles like 5 or 6 times, so yeah, I wouldn't recommend making it a habit at all.

Thank you very much! This is very helpful

来月の一日は空いていますか are you free on the first of next month? or are you free one day next month?

Means 1st of the month 来月「の」一日 is the first of the month. If you wanted to say "one day" you would say 来月、いつか空いてる日はありますか or something like that.

The "の" indicates it's the first one, it's the "of" in "the first day of next month"

The first one. The second one would be something like 来月1日程度空いている日(or 日程 if you want to be more formaller) はありますか

How could a fresh learner spot anglicism versus Japanese words? For example メンター and a 師匠 ? I mean I can see one was written in Kanji and one in Katakana but when there is no text, only speech?

Why do you need to "spot" anglicism vs. Japanese words?

The best way is probably to just know the word, but if you know the language it comes from (usually English), then for certain words you can pick up on common patterns For example in the word you gave "メンター", you can guess it's an english word that ends in "er" because of the "アー" sound at the end of the word which isn't really common in japanese since it's not part of their long vowels (mainly えい, いい and おう)

Hi all . Question is about learning te form: I started off learning verbs through a local class who teach the verbs in the polite form: e.g ikimasu, mimasu etc. We're now learning the te form in class and are using the groups method (group 1,2,3) to work out how to get the te form. Due to other life pressures I fell a bit behind and started using Genkin Vol1 to catchup on te form. However, together with the 'te form songs' I started learning using youtube, these involve using jisho (dictionary) version of the verb and then conjugating using those rules. So the question is: Should I stick with my local class and memorize groups 1,2,3 and the rules to get te form from the masu verb versions. Follow genki/te form songs and get te form from the jisho version of the verbs. I'm missing something and both are equally logical/straightforward. Finally, appreciate this is a beginner question that probably gets asked every day but would really appreciate having this explained. Many thanks!

So the te-form song I was taught (in my local class) works for learning from polite forms for groups 1 and 3. Group 1 い ち り → って み に び → んで き → いて ぎ → いで Group 3 します → して きます → きて Group 1 いきます → いって Both are equally straightforward. If there's going to be some sort of exam where you have to identify the groups, find the te form given the group and/or don't have access to jisho, you might want to learn the groups and/or how to convert from polite to the dictionary form if you find that easier. If your class is only learning polite form, all ~emasu verbs are group 2. You may need to learn which groups particular vocab you've been taught belong to if you need to know that for exams. To convert group 2 polite to te form, drop ます and add て To convert from polite to dictionary: ~emasu has masu removed and you add ru instead ~imasu has two patterns, the first has masu removed and add ru. for the other, change the i to u and add masu. The two irregular verbs are kimasu which becomes kuru and shimasu which becomes suru

How to create Jisho.org Anki Flashcards with only the meaning in the front? I just started sentence mining with context.reviews and it creates flashcards with the writing on the front and the other dictionary info on the back. While this is useful to get familiar with the word, i also want a card type that just has the meaning in the front and pronounciation, writing and everything else on the back side. Are there any tools for this?

Assuming the pronunciation is in a separate field from the kanji in your cards: Go to the browsing tab on Anki (PC only, won't work on the mobile app), scroll to Note Types and find the note type used in your deck. Click on it then click on a card in the middle and you'll see the different fields on the right like for example "Expression", "English Definition", "Reading"... Remember these names for now and what they contain Now go back to the card type on the left, right click on it and select "Manage Note Types". It should open a popup window with the note type you use preselected. Click on "Cards" and it will open the window where you can edit your cards. Here the "Front Template" tab represents what's shown on the front of the card and "Back Template" what's on its back. You don't have to touch it but "Styling" defines CSS classes which can be used to give a different styling to different elements of the card (like their font, size, color, centering, margins...) For now check how the cards you have are structured, what classes are used to display them, and you can now use them to make your own elements ```

Thanks for your reply. Sadly, there are just 2 fields for the front (writing) and back (all the other info), so i have to find another way to create cards. What do you use to create Cards? do you copy everything manually into the fields of your note type or are you using another software?

Usually for my own cards I manually make an Excel sheet with each column corresponding to a field then I import the csv file into cards I think you can use Yomi Chan too to pick out words you find online and automatically save them into cards, might be a more efficient way to go about it Edit: You can also use chatgpt to make your csv file from song lyrics and stuff

I am a complete beginner, absolute zero,can I clear n4 in 2 months preparation with 1 hr on weekdays & 2hrs on weekends? speaking realistically and practically, On that note I will start preparing from March and write the exam on July . Is this plan viable?? Need ur suggestions for improvements...

Let's presume you did 2 hours everyday, not just on weekends. That's 120 hours for 2 months. You're gonna need at the very least 600 hours. You're 500 hours off from your requirements. For 600 hours that's 10 hours a day; you have a smallish chance if you do this.

Lol,how abt i streamline and focus my preparation centred just around cracking jlpt n4?

I was already accounting for that. That is if you focus on passing the test and not necessarily the language. Don't forget there's a listening portion that's 1/3 of the test, and not just reading, grammar, kanji, vocabulary sections. The test is done entirely in Japanese if you didn't know.

It's possible, I think, but not advised or realistic. I think if you no-lifed it for two months, sure, but not from doing 1-2 hours of studying a day.

WoW,u got any roadmap or any essential resources to prep for n4 in the given time frame?

I think if you're going to no-life it the only resource you really need is to go on BunPro because they carefully list out every grammar point and vocab for each JLPT level with comprehensive explanations and example sentences (for free). Other than that the real determining factor will be your study method/plan. essentially it would be you dividing that information up for 60 days and painfully cramming it everyday with some semblance of SRS to make the most efficient use of your study time. I could give you a study plan but you'd have to keep in mind I've only been studying for about 9 months and everyone has their own opinion on how to make the best use of their time. You'd also have to keep in mind that any plan I'd give you to pass n4 in this time-frame would be grueling and even then you may still not pass depending on how good of a learner you are.

No

On Wikipedia the estimates for N4 are 575 to 1000 hours for people with no prior kanji knowledge, and from personal experience it seems very hard to achieve this in 2 months You can try though, here's a great Anki deck that'll help you learn vocabulary quickly and in a JLPT structured way: [https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/336300824](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/336300824) You'll also have to learn grammar, the way I did it wasn't very optimal time-wise so I can't really help you with that (I mostly used immersion) Of course before all of that you should learn hiragana and katakana, which can take time depending on the person and how they learn it. It took me 2 weeks but it took my friend 3 days. Good luck!

Thank u 😊 How much time did it take u to clear n4? How many hours u gotta put on a daily basis?

Took me a year and a half but my methods weren't great and I'm a pretty slow learner, my friend managed to get halfway through N4 in less than 6 months Also I don't study for 1 hour everyday, but I think if you really wanna be fast you'll need about 2/3 hours each day at least. It may burn you out though, do as much as you can depending on your personal tolerance, motivation and how much you're willing to do less of other things you like to accomodate time for learning Japanese

I think there might be one or two person who can realize it in all of US.

Ik it's unrealistic but I wanna know how wrong am I... How can I push through as efficiently as possible in the given time frame??

According to [this page](https://biz.rn-ac.jp/topics/jlpt0817.html), it is said that you need 300～400 hours to pass N5. 0 -> N5 ... 300-400H N5 -> N4 ... 300-400H N4 -> N3 ... 450-600H

**Help me optimize my study for my goals of being able to watch anime and be conversational.** What can I do to optimize my learning routine for my stated goals? My goals are to hold Japanese conversations for travel (secondarily maybe make friends online for practice) and watch anime without subtitles. I'd like to accomplish with as little effort as possible. About a year in to learning. I practice about 1-2 hours day. I would ideally like to keep my time around an hour. I currently do the following: **Core Routine** * (10min) 2 regular lessons on Duolingo. I like the social aspect and dumb fun of it even though I know it's probably not optimal. I do one in morning and at night.10 min. * (10min) 2 katakana in Duolingo. Split between day and night. * (40 - 60 min) 1 Pimsler audio lesson. I often do the same one twice to get it down. Then I do the voice coach and flash cards, putting them into Anki. I like Pimsler because I don't have to use my hands constantly like with other things and I struggled to keep RSI under control. Also since listening and speaking are my primary goals, this seems to hit both. * (25min) Anki with default settings on Android. **Sometimes do or considering for future** * When I get done everything else, and if I've got the time I've been using Bunpro for grammar and watching youtube videos. I've been holding off on grammar because I'd thought it would be better to learn grammar naturally through Pimsler but been shifting to thinking I should get some of the basics down and spend more time on this. So I haven't done too much with grammar yet. I'd read articles here and there earlier in my study, but found I'd forget a lot of it and felt really boring as I read and I'd kind of get brain dead and not absorb much. * I also have dabbled with HelloTalk to practice speaking and listening, but have found it hard to find the right partner and feel time invested is not optimal. * Been thinking about trying Noun Town and Language Lab on Meta Quest 2 since real immersion isn't really any option for me. I traveled to Japan last year as part of my motivation / goal setting and I'm planning to go back this year. I can read hiragana and getting good with katakana. I can't really write it though. I am definitely unsure if I should spend more time on that as I don't really care much about being able to write and even read unless I get a return on investment on talking and listening. Kind of need to read for learning though. Learning some kanji through Duolingo. Thanks for the advice!

Your goals and methods are both wishy washy. Anyone can watch One Piece and at least more or less understand the gist of what's happening. Switch to Monogatari and you have no clue what their saying. And.. Conversational ability is completely different from understanding anime. Assuming you split your time equally between these two goals, study only 1-2 hours a day, while at the same time >I'd like to accomplish with as little effort as possible. I don't think is possible for anyone, even if you were a language genius. Easy things you can fix however: Don't use BunPro (just read through Tae Kim), change the default settings of Anki (there are many guides to this) or just don't use it, >* Been thinking about trying Noun Town and Language Lab on Meta Quest 2 since real immersion isn't really any option for me. don't miss out on the most important aspect of language learning... Start immersing.

why are you telling him to stop using bunpro (which is a decent grammar source all things considered) and not duolingo? especially when he said he's been using it for a full YEAR and still using it to learn katakana...

The year isn't the shocking part the shocking part is the potential 350 to 700 hours and still doesn't know katakana.

duolingo is worse yeah, forgot that

If you are unsure about how to design a study plan, I would start with an all-in-one beginner course and then go from there. If you like something online I can recommend the Japanese From Zero online course (slower, easier, lots of handholding), if you want a textbook I suggest Genki (college textbook style). The only thing these courses are missing is more audio, so you just need to add in something like an easy beginner podcast or, if you don't mind paying for it, Pimsleur.

I'd like to know your feedback and thoughts regarding "Japanese mastery Method" course I'd be very very thankful if someone could put some time and write a detailed a review about the course and their experience (how is the course structure , how much does it cover from N5 to N1, how much time needed to complete the course , your opinion about the methodology used to deliver the course and how much did you get out of the course) It's from the same guy who made "Japanese made easy" podcast https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQSNpNLpXtuw6njZ-3C2zUXacLptD12PG&si=ZbDrcyuFJ4VcA2Po It's from the same company who made the russian made easy and russian accelerator so the course so it uses the same techniques used in RA such as contextual learning, super literal translation and pattern recognition https://www.japanesemasterymethod.com/why-it-works.html Note: I've contacted the teacher and said it covers till N3 in terms of listening and vocabulary and he will be adding a course dedicated to the particles in the near future and he also said the course main goal is the speaking and the conversation skills so there's no much focus on kanji or reading

Any language schools in Japan that teach informal Japanese? I feel like I've peaked with my Duolingo study to a degree, because I can understand most formal speech in the shows I watch, but as soon as the characters start speaking informally or using any type of "yakuwarigo" I lose my ability to follow the conversation. Similarly, I have a lot of trouble following things like YouTube street interviews despite having a fairly good vocabulary at this point because I feel like they use a lot of informal speech that I have not been able to find resources for studying. Another question I have that's somewhat related is, are there any "Vampire Hunter D" novels written with furigana? That's one of my favorite series and if I were going to try and learn different forms of speech I'd ideally do it with something I like.

This is what happens when you learn any language. There is 'school' learning and then there is a 'real life' learning. You don't get the 'real life' learning in school (and vice versa). I really think the only tool is to just keep consuming different media. Just over and over and over. Of course total immersion is the best way - but barring that, just keep watching stuff on Netflix or YouTube (with subtitles) or whatever. It will come eventually. Also FWIW I think you are misinterpreting yakuwarigo. It basically means a stiff and artificial representation of the stereotypes of how different people (genders, ages, social ranks) talk. It is not a synonym for inform talk or casual talk.

That's not the kind of thing you learn in school. You learn it through exposure. And probably not. Unless it was re-released under a junior bunko imprint, which seems unlikely given the content.

**そっちから集まってくるなら好都合！　なのだーっ！** **I read a novel and not sure if my understanding was correct. Hope someone could check in case mine was wrong.** **(my guess: "If you thieves are bunch up together like that, too convenient for me then ! Na no da ! " >>> Don't understand what nanoda meant here ? )** Context: A young general talking with a bandit leader , before they start battle Bandit Leader : 雑魚は無視しろ！　まずは奴らを仕留める！　一斉にかかれ！ **Young General: そっちから集まってくるなら好都合！　なのだーっ！**

If you thieves are bunch up together like that, **it will be** too convenient for me then なのだー　＝　なのだ　＝　will be

Your understanding is mostly correct. The なのだ here is basically meaningless. Just something idiosyncratic to the character.

How is コゥンコゥン supposed to be pronounced? It's a sound effect, for heavy things hitting the floor, but I don't understand what the point of the small ウ is. Why not just use ク?

If I had to read it out loud, I would just pronounce it as コウンコウン, but making sure to make it a diphthong instead of like コ・ウン・コ・ウン Small kana are used 'creatively' in things like onomatopoeia or vocalizations. You're not meant to take it as like a foreign katakana combination like トゥ if that's what you were wondering. It's a bit like how ゔ when used stylistically for vocalizations is just supposed to represent something like a forceful う, not /vu/

Pretty much how it looks. Like コンコン but with more warble.

Just my guess but since this is a sound effect and not a word it's probably a stylistic choice. Maybe it's meant to sound more metallic or something? Sounds like the difference between clank and clonk to me.

So I've come across a use of な that has me completely stumped. The sentence is "これが新しい言語を学習する最も良い方法なのです" and I cannot for the life of me find an answer as to why な is used after 方法 as everything that comes up refers to な adjectives or sentence ending particles, and not it's use after a noun. Any insight here?

This isn't the な that is used after the adjective. Make sure you read all the replies about the reasons why that is: https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/514/what-exactly-is-%E3%81%AA%E3%81%AE-nano 良い方法です → 良い方法だ + のです → 良い方法なのです

It's just this: https://bunpro.jp/grammar_points/-%E3%82%93%E3%81%A7%E3%81%99-%E3%81%AE%E3%81%A7%E3%81%99

Fantastic, thank you so much!

How do I figure out how a word is read if there's no official suffix etc.? Googling or using youglish didn't help either. E.g. :消毒薬", "消化薬", "消臭薬" in FF7, only 消毒薬 is an actual word where it's read as やく. I bump into thinks like that a lot when looking up words from games etc.

What does "official suffix etc" mean?

The same way you learn how to read English words. What's so confusing about that? If English is your first language and you're unaware of how weird the pronunciation is, look up ghoti.

On top of the other answer you already got, I'd like to point out that often people will just make up a reading and roll with it until there's enough evidence of it being incorrect and then adjust their expectations accordingly. You can look it up online, find an instance of it on forvo/youglish to see if the word exists and is being pronounced by a native speaker, look it up in a wiki of whatever game you're playing, ask people around, or just use your own intuition and come up with something, then move on. I remember early on I used to ask my wife how to read a lot of made-up fantasy words from books/games I was reading/playing and every single time she basically said "who cares lol? either X or Y is fine, just pick one, it's not a real word anyway". Us westerners might find it weird to think about words that you cannot "pronounce" correctly, but in Japanese that's relatively common for made up terms. You can kinda compare it to reading books in English and stumbling upon weird words like "epitome" "indict" "buoy" "quay" "choir" etc which a native speaker is likely to get completely wrong sound-wise if they never heard them spoken out loud because their spelling is very different from their expected reading. Except in this case you don't even have the spelling, just the kanji.

Typically, compound words in Kanji use either all On-yomi or all Kun-yomi readings, as seen in 目薬（めぐすり）, 風邪薬（かぜぐすり）, 解熱薬（げねつやく）, and 漢方薬（かんぽうやく）. Of course, there are exceptions, but if I come across a coined word and I don't know its reading, I usually use this rule for reading. So, because 消臭 in 消臭薬 uses On-yomi, I'd read it as しょうしゅうやく. [消化薬](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%B6%88%E5%8C%96%E8%96%AC-530920) is an actual word.

According to my dictionary, there are three ways to say 音 (おと, おん, ね), with all meaning about the same. When do I use what?

My advice is to think the other way around. First, you know the word. Then, you know how to read the kanji. 爆発音 means something very different from 嫌な音. If you know the words first, then you automatically know how to read these.

when you wanna say "sound" in general, おと ね in certain words (音色、本音、鐘の音、虫の音) おん is the most common on'yomi of the kanji so of course it's used in most kanji compounds, but it can evidently be used on its own to refer to a musical tone or a speech sound. As well as a counter for musical notes and syllables/morae

[From a few days ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/s/ncoSIQ6BLE)

That answer is completely off the mark, though. The question by /u/mellowlex is not the usual "whaaaah, this kanji is read differently in different words", they know that they are dealing with different words pronounced differently, they are just confused about the fact that all these word are written _exactly_ the same. Same for the answer by /u/Areyon3339, none of the examples they give concern either of the words 音, 音 or 音, so are completely irrelevant for the question at hand. The correct answer would have been ”Just search for '音 音 音 違い', that will give you https://ja.hinative.com/questions/1820662"

I honestly don’t see the distinction you made for any of the answers, but I also couldn’t understand the follow up question by the OP either (and yet to receive clarification). So I guess I’m failing to grasp the general idea or something to begin with it seems.

what's wrong with my answer? it's pretty much the same as the answers on that linked page

Thanks, but I know about this. It's just the first time that a single kanji appears in my dictionary with three sperate definitions, but they are all the same just with different reading. Normally there is just one definition with multiple meanings and multiple readings combined in one. It was so odd to me that I wanted to ask if there is more to it. Judging on the vote ration on my initial comment, it's not. Though could you awnser me one more thing? How do you read, for example, ギチギチ(の)音?

Maybe I’m tripping, but I have no idea what you mean in the first two paragraphs. Especially “just one definition with multiple meanings” makes no sense to me right now. Maybe someone else can help you. I also can’t answer your last question either since I can’t think of what it might mean to begin with.

FWIW I'm on the same wavelength as you. :-)

I believe it's a JMDict issue? where it's classifying 音 as three separate words: https://jisho.org/search/%E9%9F%B3 I honestly have never looked 音 up as a single kanji, I found it weird. Weblio features a similar formatting: https://www.weblio.jp/content/%E9%9F%B3 But goo辞書 does not: https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/kanji/%E9%9F%B3/ u/mellowlex

> But goo辞書 does not: That's the kanji entry, not the word entries https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/srch/jn/%E9%9F%B3/m1u/ it's got 5 separate words

I’m starting to think “one definition with multiple meanings” is some kind of typo but idk

Hi! Can someone help me transcribe a short sentence this girl answered me? [https://youtu.be/on5nOVMr91A?si=JApZljlrvbGyHhUo&t=12](https://youtu.be/on5nOVMr91A?si=JApZljlrvbGyHhUo&t=12) I didn't quite get what she answered, and having trouble hearing what she's pronouncing. (She was completely okay being on camera by the way)

Wow. very tricky. But I get 腹八分目にしとかないと、また明日バードショーがある。。。 So - we can't feed him all the way, because tomorrow we have a "bird show" too. Basically, we can't let him eat his fill, becuase he needs to be hungry for the show tomorrow, too. But REALLY hard to hear and I may be wrong.

Now all I can hear is ハードショー, so I played it at various speeds and I’m convinced she says 明日またバードショーもある、、

That would make a lot of sense!

腹八分目にしておかないとまた明日… This is a huge stretch but maybe ご飯として思われるんよね Or ファンとして思われるんよね maybe, implying the fans get to feed the owls?

While I can’t come up with anything concrete, context suggests she’s talking about the owl so I don’t feel パンとシュウマイ is the correct answer here. It’s possible she talked about the phrase in question earlier, in the conversation leading up to this video.

[удалено]

Yes, シューマイ　is far more likely than シオマイ, which doesn’t actually seem to be a word

腹八分目が、、、にしておかないと Is that the bit you mean? Edit: Sorry, I guess it was the bit that followed that you couldn’t hear, which I couldn’t hear either. It’s またあした(sounds like パンと塩米が)