The Japanese language has a highly regular agglutinative verb morphology, with both productive and fixed elements. Typologically, its most prominent feature is topic creation: Japanese has prominent topics (although it is possible for topics and subjects to be distinct). Grammatically, Japanese is an SOV dependent-marking language, with verbs always constrained to the sentence-final position, except in some rhetorical and poetic usage. The word order is free as long as the order of dependent-head is maintained among all constituents: the modifier or relative clause precedes the modified noun, the adverb precedes the modified verb, the genitive nominal precedes the possessed nominal, and so forth. Thus, Japanese is a strongly left-branching language; to contrast, Romance languages such as Spanish are strongly right-branching, and Germanic languages such as English are weakly right-branching.
Text (文章 bunshō) is composed of sentences (文 bun), which are in turn composed of phrases (文節 bunsetsu), which are its smallest coherent components. Like Chinese and classical Korean, written Japanese does not typically demarcate words with spaces; its agglutinative nature further makes the concept of a word rather different from words in English. Word divisions are informed by semantic cues and a knowledge of phrase structure. Phrases have a single meaning-bearing word, followed by a string of suffixes, auxiliary verbs and particles to modify its meaning and designate its grammatical role. In the following example, bunsetsu are indicated by vertical bars:
Some scholars romanize Japanese sentences by inserting spaces only at phrase boundaries (i.e., "taiyō-ga higashi-no sora-ni noboru"), in effect treating an entire phrase as the equivalent of an English word. There is a good reason for this: phonologically, the postpositional particles are part of the word they follow, and within a phrase the pitch accent can fall at-most once. Traditionally, however, a more basic concept of word (単語 tango) forms the atoms of sentences. Words, unlike phrases, need not have intrinsic meaning, therefore admitting particles and auxiliary verbs. It must be noted that some classical auxiliary verbs such as -ta (which might have developed as a contraction of -te ari) are grammaticalized as conjugations or verb endings in modern Japanese, not individual words.
Subjects are de-emphasized in Japanese: they are most commonly found at introductions of topics, or in situations where an ambiguity might result with their omission. Thus, the following sentence has more than one possible translation
The words translate literally to "went to Japan", but the meaning depends on context: if the topic is the first person, then it means "I went to Japan"; for a third person, "he/she went to Japan", and so forth. The closest analogue in Japanese of the subject-predicate structure of Western languages is the so-called topic construction. Consider the following pair of sentences:
Both sentences mean "the sun rises", but the sun (太陽 taiyō) in the first sentence is the subject, and in the second the topic. The difference is a matter of context and focus. As a subject — indicated by the particle が (ga) — the sentence is a specific observation that the sun rises. For instance, one might say the following (surprising) statement:
When the sun is a topic — using the particle は (wa) — the statement is less focused on the sun, and is a general statement of fact. It is often a description of a state or a judgment, rather than a particular observation.
The structure of this article will mirror the following classification of words. There are two broad categories: independent words (自立語 jiritsugo) having internal meaning, and ancillary words (付属語 fuzokugo) which are meaning modifiers.
Independent words divide into a conjugable (活用語 katsuyōgo) class containing verbs (動詞 dōshi), i-type adjectives (形容詞 keiyōshi), and na-type adjectives (形容動詞 keiyōdōshi), and a non-conjugable (非活用語 hikatsuyōgo or 無活用語 mukatsuyōgo) class containing nouns (名詞 meishi), pronouns (代名詞 daimeishi), adverbs (副詞 fukushi), conjunctions (接続詞 setsuzokushi), interjections (感動詞 kandōshi) and prenominals (連体詞 rentaishi).
Ancillary words also divide into a non-conjugable class, containing grammatical particles (助詞 joshi) and counter words (助数詞 josūshi), and a conjugable class consisting of auxiliary verbs (助動詞 jodōshi). There is not wide agreement among linguists as to the English translations of the above terms.
meaning | plain | respectful |
---|---|---|
rice | 飯 meshi | ご飯 go-han |
money | 金 kane | お金 o-kane |
body | 体 karada | お体 o-karada 御身 onmi |
word(s) | 言葉 kotoba | お言葉 o-kotoba 詔 mikotonori |
Japanese has no grammatical gender, number, or articles. Thus, Japanese nouns are non-inflecting: 猫 (neko) can be translated as "cat", "cats", "a cat", "the cat", "some cats" and so forth, depending on context. Unlike conjugating words, nouns do not inflect to show politeness or respect. Generally, the prefix o- for native nouns, and go- for Sino-Japanese nouns, serve to make the noun polite. A few examples are in the adjoining table. Note that while these prefixes are almost always in Hiragana — that is, as お (o-) or ご (go) — the kanji 御 is used for both o and go prefixes in formal writing. Many common nouns have unpredictable polite or respectful forms not governed by this general principle. (See also: Honorific speech in Japanese.)
Lacking number, Japanese does not differentiate between count and mass nouns. (An English speaker learning Japanese would be well advised to treat Japanese nouns as mass nouns.) A small number of nouns have collectives formed by reduplication (possibly accompanied by rendaku); for example: 人 (hito, person) and 人々 (hitobito, people; the 々 means the preceding kanji is repeated). Reduplication is not productive and though they always refer to more than one, these words are not true plurals. Hitobito, for example, means "a lot of people" or "people in general". It is never used to mean "two people". A phrase like 江戸の人々 (edo no hitobito) would be taken to mean "the people of Edo", or "the population of Edo", not "two people from Edo" or even "a few people from Edo". Similarly, 山々 yamayama, the duplication of yama, mountain, means "many mountains".
A limited number of nouns have collective forms that refer to groups of people. Examples include 私達 (watashi-tachi, we); あなたたち anata-tachi, you (plural); 僕等 bokura, we (informal male). One uncommon personal noun, 我 (ware, I, or in some cases, you) has a much more common reduplicative collective form 我々 (wareware, we).
The suffixes 達 (-tachi) and 等 (-ra) are by far the most common collectivizing suffixes. These are, again, not pluralizing suffixes: 太郎達 (tarō-tachi) does not mean "some number of people named Taro", but instead indicates the group including Taro. Depending on context, tarō-tachi might be translated into "Taro and his friends", "Taro and his siblings", "Taro and his family", or any other logical grouping that has Taro as the representative. Some words with collectives have become fixed phrases and (commonly) refer to one person. Specifically, 子供 (kodomo, child) and 友達 (tomodachi, friend) can be singular, even though -[t]omo and -[t]achi were originally collectivizing in these words; to unambiguously refer to groups of them, add an additional collectivizing suffix: 子供たち (kodomotachi, children) and 友達たち (tomodachitachi, friends), though tomodachitachi is somewhat uncommon. Tachi is sometimes applied to inanimate objects, 車 (kuruma, car) and 車達 (kuruma-tachi, cars), for example, but this usage is colloquial and indicates a high level of anthropomorphisation and childlikeness, and is not more generally accepted as standard.
person | plain, informal | polite | respectful |
---|---|---|---|
first | 僕 (boku, male) あたし (atashi, female) 私 (watashi, female) 俺 (ore, male) |
私 (watashi) | 私 (watakushi) |
second | 君 (kimi) お前 (omae) |
貴方 (anata) そちら (sochira) |
貴方様 (anata-sama) |
third | 彼 (kare, male) 彼女 (kanojo, female) |
Although many grammars and textbooks mention pronouns (代名詞 daimeishi), Japanese lacks true pronouns. (Daimeishi can be considered a subset of nouns.) Strictly speaking, pronouns do not take modifiers, but Japanese daimeishi do: 背の高い彼 (se no takai kare, lit. tall he) is valid in Japanese. Also, unlike true pronouns, Japanese daimeishi are not closed-class: new daimeishi are introduced and old ones go out of use relatively quickly.
A large number of daimeishi referring to people are translated as pronouns in their most common uses. Examples: 彼 (kare, he); 彼女 (kanojo, she); 私 (watashi, I); see also the adjoining table or a longer list.[1] Some of these "personal nouns" such as 己 onore, I (exceedingly humble), or 僕 boku, I (young male), also have second-person uses: おのれ (onore) in second-person is an extremely rude "you", and boku in second-person is a diminutive "you" used for young boys. This further differentiates daimeishi from pronouns, which cannot change their person. Kare and kanojo also mean "boyfriend" and "girlfriend" respectively, and this usage of the words is possibly more common than the use as pronouns.
Like other subjects, Japanese de-emphasizes personal daimeishi, which are seldom used. This is partly because Japanese sentences do not always require explicit subjects, and partly because names or titles are often used where pronouns would appear in a translation:
While there is no lexical difference between nouns and daimeishi, the possible referents of daimeishi can be constrained depending on the order of occurrence. The following pair of examples (due to Bart Mathias)[2] illustrates one such constraint.
English has a reflexive form of each personal pronoun (himself, herself, itself, themselves, etc.); Japanese, in contrast, has one main reflexive daimeishi, 自分 (jibun), which can also mean "I". The uses of the reflexive (pro)nouns in the two languages are very different, as demonstrated by the following literal translations (*=impossible, ??=ambiguous):
English | Japanese | reason |
---|---|---|
History repeats itself. | *歴史は自分を繰り返す。 *Rekishi wa jibun o kurikaesu. |
the target of jibun must be animate |
??Hiroshi talked to Kenji about himself. | ひろしは健司に自分のことを話した。 Hiroshi wa Kenji ni jibun no koto o hanashita. Hiroshi talked to Kenji about himself (=Hiroshi) |
there is no ambiguity in the translation as explained below |
*Makoto expects that Shizuko will take good care of himself. | ??誠は静子が自分を大事にすることを期待している。 ??Makoto wa Shizuko ga jibun o daiji ni suru koto o kitai shite iru. either "Makoto expects that Shizuko will take good care of him", or "Makoto expects that Shizuko will take good care of herself." |
jibun can be in a different sentence or dependent clause, but its target is ambiguous |
If the sentence has more than one grammatical or semantic subject, then the target of jibun is the subject of the primary or most prominent action; thus in the following sentence jibun refers unambiguously to Shizuko (even though Makoto is the grammatical subject) because the primary action is Shizuko's reading.
In practice the main action is not always discernible, in which case such sentences are ambiguous. The use of jibun in complex sentences follows non-trivial rules.
There are also equivalents to jibun such as mizukara. Other uses of the reflexive pronoun in English are covered by adverbs like hitorideni which is used in the sense of "by oneself". For example
Reflexive pronouns are not used to change a verb's valency as in many European languages other than English. Instead, separate (but usually related) intransitive verbs and transitive verbs are used.
ko- | so- | a- | do- | |
---|---|---|---|---|
-re | kore this one |
sore that one |
are that one over there |
dore which one? |
-no | kono (of) this |
sono (of) that |
ano (of) that over there |
dono (of) what? |
-nna | konna like this |
sonna like that |
anna like that over there |
donna what sort of? |
-ko | koko here |
soko there |
asoko * over there |
doko where? |
-chira | kochira this way |
sochira that way |
achira that way over there |
dochira which way? |
-u ** | kō in this manner |
sō in that manner |
ā * in that (other) manner |
dō how? in what manner? |
-itsu | koitsu this person |
soitsu that person |
aitsu that (other) person |
doitsu who? |
Demonstratives occur in the ko-, so-, and a- series. The ko- (proximal) series refers to things closer to the speaker than the hearer, the so- (mesial) series for things closer to the hearer, and the a- (distal) series for things distant to both the speaker and the hearer. With do-, demonstratives turn into the corresponding question form. Demonstratives can also be used to refer to people, for example
Demonstratives limit, and therefore precede, nouns; thus この本 (kono hon) for "this/my book", and その本 (sono hon) for "that/your book".
When demonstratives are used to refer to things not visible to the speaker or the hearer, or to (abstract) concepts, they fulfill a related but different anaphoric role. The anaphoric distals are used for shared information between the speaker and the listener.
Soko instead of asoko would imply that B doesn't share this knowledge about Sapporo, which is inconsistent with the meaning of the sentence. The anaphoric mesials are used to refer to experience or knowledge that is not shared between the speaker and listener.
Again, ano is inappropriate here because Sato doesn't (didn't) know Tanaka personally. The proximal demonstratives do not have clear anaphoric uses. They can be used in situations where the distal series sound too disconnected:
Prior to discussing the conjugable words, a brief note about stem forms. Conjugative suffixes and auxiliary verbs are attached to the stem forms of the affixee. In modern Japanese there are the following six stem forms.
The application of conjugative suffixes to stem forms follow certain euphonic principles (音便 onbin), which is discussed below.
Verbs in Japanese are rigidly constrained to the ends of clauses in what is known as the predicate position.
猫 | は | 魚 | を | 食べる。 |
neko | wa | sakana | o | taberu |
Cats | TOPIC | fish | OBJECT | eat |
Cats eat fish. |
The subject and objects of the verb are indicated by means of particles (see the section below), and the grammatical functions of the verb — primarily tense and voice — are indicated by means of conjugation. When the subject and the dissertative topic coincide, the subject is often omitted; if the verb is intransitive, the entire sentence may consist of a single verb. Verbs have two tenses indicated by conjugation, past and nonpast. The semantic difference between present and future is not indicated by means of conjugation. Usually there is no ambiguity because few verbs can operate in both uses. Voice and aspect are also indicated by means of conjugation, and possibly agglutinating auxiliary verbs. For example, the continuative aspect is formed by means of the continuative conjugation known as the gerundive or -te form, and the auxiliary verb iru; to illustrate, 見る (miru, to see) → 見ている (mite-iru, is seeing).
Verbs can be semantically classified based on certain conjugations.
There are other possible classes, and a large amount of overlap between the classes.
Lexically, nearly every verb in Japanese is a member of exactly one of the following three regular conjugation groups.
Historical note: classical Japanese had upper and lower 1- and 2-row groups and a 4-row group (上/下一段 kami/shimo ichidan, 上/下二段 kami/shimo nidan, and 四段 yodan), the nidan verbs becoming most of today's ichidan verbs (there were only a handful of kami ichidan verbs and only one single shimo ichidan verb in classical Japanese), and the yodan group, due to the writing reform in 1946 to write Japanese as it is pronounced, naturally became the modern godan verbs. Since verbs have migrated across groups in the history of the language, conjugation of classical verbs is not predictable from a knowledge of modern Japanese alone.
Of the irregular classes, there are two:
Classical Japanese had two further irregular classes, the na-group, which contained 死ぬ (shinu, to die) and 往ぬ (inu, to go, to die), the ra-group, which included such verbs as あり (ari, the equivalent of modern aru), as well as quite a number of extremely irregular verbs that cannot be classified.
The following table illustrates the stem forms of the above conjugation groups, with the root indicated with dots. For example, to find the hypothetical form of the group 1 verb 書く (kaku), look in the second row to find its root, kak, then in the hypothetical row to get the ending -e, giving the stem form kake. When there are multiple possibilities, they are listed in the order of increasing rarity.
group/ example |
1 | 2a | 2b | sa | ka | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
使・ (tsuka(w).) | 書・ (kak.) | 見・ (mi.) | 食べ・ (tabe.) | ||||
Imperfective form (未然形 mizenkei) |
使わ (tsukaw.a)¹ 使お (tsuka.o)¹ |
書か (kak.a) 書こ (kak.o) |
見 (mi.) | 食べ (tabe.) | さ (sa) し (shi) せ (se) |
来 (ko) | |
Continuative form (連用形 ren'yōkei) |
使い (tsuka.i) | 書き (kak.i) | 見 (mi.) | 食べ (tabe.) | し (shi) | 来 (ki) | |
Terminal form (終止形 shūshikei) |
使う (tsuka.u) | 書く (kak.u) | 見る (mi.ru) | 食べる (tabe.ru) | する (suru) | 来る (kuru) | |
Attributive form (連体形 rentaikei) |
same as terminal form | ||||||
Hypothetical form (仮定形 kateikei) |
使え (tsuka.e) | 書け (kak.e) | 見れ (mi.re) | 食べれ (tabe.re) | すれ (sure) | 来れ (kure) | |
Imperative form (命令形 meireikei) |
使え (tsuka.e) | 書け (kak.e) | 見ろ (mi.ro) 見よ (mi.yo) |
食べろ (tabe.ro) 食べよ (tabe.yo) |
しろ (shiro) せよ (seyo) せい (sei) |
来い (koi) |
The above are only the stem forms of the verbs; to these one must add various verb endings in order to get the fully conjugated verb. The following table lists the most common conjugations. See Japanese verb conjugations for a full list. In cases where the form is different based on the conjugation group of the verb, arrows point to the correct formation rule.
formation rule | group 1 | group 2a | group 2b | sa-group | ka-group | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
plain polite nonpast |
cont. + ます (masu) | 書く (kaku) 書き・ます kaki.masu |
見る (miru) 見・ます mi.masu |
食べる (taberu) 食べ・ます tabe.masu |
する (suru) し・ます shi.masu |
来る (kuru) 来・ます ki.masu |
informal past |
cont. + た (ta) | 書い・た kai.ta* |
見・た mi.ta |
食べ・た tabe.ta |
し・た shi.ta |
来・た ki.ta |
informal negative nonpast |
imperf. + ない (nai) | 書か・ない kaka.nai |
見・ない mi.nai |
食べ・ない tabe.nai |
し・ない shi.nai |
来・ない ko.nai |
informal negative past |
imperf. + なかった (nakatta) |
書か・なかった kaka.nakatta |
見・なかった mi.nakatta |
食べ・なかった tabe.nakatta |
し・なかった shi.nakatta |
来・なかった ko.nakatta |
-te form (gerundive) | cont. + て (-te) | 書いて kai.te* |
見て mi.te |
食べて tabe.te |
して shi.te |
来て ki.te |
conditional1 | hyp. + ば (ba) | 書け・ば kake.ba |
見れ・ば mire.ba |
食べれ・ば tabere.ba |
すれ・ば sure.ba |
来れ・ば kure.ba |
provisional1 | cont. + たら (tara) | 書いたら kai.tara* |
見たら mi.tara |
食べたら tabe.tara |
したら shi.tara |
来たら ki.tara |
volitional | imperf. + う(u) | 書こ・う kak.ō* |
↓ | |||
imperf. + よう (-yō) | ↑ | 見・よう mi.yō |
食べ・よう tabe.yō |
し・よう shi.yō |
来・よう ko.yō |
|
passive | imperf. + れる (reru) | 書か・れる kaka.reru |
↓ | さ・れる sa.reru |
↓ | |
imperf. + られる (-rareru) | ↑ | 見・られる mi.rareru |
食べ・られる tabe.rareru |
↑ | 来・られる ko.rareru |
|
causative | imperf. + せる (seru) | 書か・せる kaka.seru |
↓ | さ・せる sa.seru |
↓ | |
imperf. + させる (-saseru) | ↑ | 見・させる mi.saseru |
食べ・させる tabe.saseru |
↑ | 来・させる ko.saseru |
|
potential | hyp. + る (ru) | 書け・る kake.ru |
↓ | 出来る dekiru¹ |
↓ | |
imperf. + られる (-rareru) | ↑ | 見・られる mi.rareru |
食べ・られる tabe.rareru |
↑ | 来・られる ko.rareru |
The polite ending -masu conjugates as a group 1 verb. The passive and potential endings -reru and -rareru, and the causative endings -seru and -saseru all conjugate as group 2b verbs. Multiple verbal endings can therefore agglutinate. For example, a common formation is the causative-passive ending, -sase-rareru.
As should be expected, the vast majority of lexically legal combinations of conjugative endings are not semantically meaningful.
Japanese has a large variety of related pairs of transitive verbs (that take a direct object) and intransitive verbs (that do not take a direct object), such as hajimaru, (an activity) begins and hajimeru, (an actor) begins (an activity). [3] [4] [5] For example,
Japanese has two main classes of adjectives:
Unlike adjectives in languages like English, adjectives in Japanese inflect for aspect and mood, like verbs. Japanese adjectives do not have comparative or superlative inflections, which have to be marked periphrastically using adverbs like もっと (motto, more) and 一番 (ichiban, most). Nearly every Japanese adjective can be used in a predicative position; this differs from English where there are many common adjectives such as "major", as in "a major question", that cannot be used to in the predicate position (that is, *"The question is major" is not grammatical English). The handful of Japanese adjectives that cannot predicate — 大きな (ookina, big), 小さな (chīsana, small), おかしな (okashina, strange) — are all stylistic na-type variants of normal i-type adjectives. Every adjective in Japanese can be used in an attributive position.
All i-type adjectives except for いい (ii, good) have regular conjugations, and ii is irregular only in the fact that it is a changed form of the regular adjective 良い (yoi) permissible in the terminal and attributive forms. For all other forms it reverts to yoi. All na-type adjectives conjugate regularly.
i-type adjectives | na-type adjectives | |
---|---|---|
安・い (yasu.) | 静か- (shizuka-) | |
Imperfective form (未然形 mizenkei) |
安かろ (.karo) | 静かだろ (-daro) |
Continuative form (連用形 ren'yōkei) |
安く (.ku) | 静かで (-de) |
Terminal form¹ (終止形 shūshikei) |
安い (.i) | 静かだ (-da) |
Attributive form¹ (連体形 rentaikei) |
安い (.i) | 静かな (-na) |
Hypothetical form (仮定形 kateikei) |
安けれ (.kere) | 静かなら (-nara) |
Imperative form² (命令形 meireikei) |
安かれ (.kare) | 静かなれ (-nare) |
Like verbs, we can enumerate some common conjugations of adjectives. Also, ii isn't special-cased, because all conjugations are identical to yoi.
i-type adjectives 安い (yasui, "cheap") |
na-type adjectives 静か (shizuka, "quiet") |
|||
---|---|---|---|---|
plain polite nonpast |
term. + copula です (desu) | 安いです yasui desu "is cheap" |
root + copula です (desu) | 静かです shizuka desu "is quiet" |
informal past |
cont. + あった (atta) (u + a collapse) |
安かった yasuk.atta "was cheap" |
cont. + あった (atta) (e + a collapse) |
静かだった shizuka d.atta "was quiet" |
informal negative nonpast |
cont. + (は)ない ((wa) nai)¹ | 安く(は)ない yasuku(wa)nai "isn't cheap" |
cont. + (は)ない ((wa) nai) | 静かで(は)ない shizuka de (wa) nai "isn't quiet" |
informal negative past |
cont. + (は)なかった ((wa) nakatta)¹ | 安く(は)なかった yasuku(wa)nakatta "wasn't cheap" |
cont. + (は)なかった ((wa) nakatta) | 静かで(は)なかった shizuka de (wa) nakatta "wasn't quiet" |
polite negative non past |
inf. neg. non-past + ありません(arimasen)¹ | 安くありません yasuku arimasen |
inf. cont + (は)ありません ((wa) arimasen) | 静かではありません shizuka de wa arimasen |
inf. neg. non-past + naiない + copula です (desu)¹ | 安くないです yasukunai desu |
inf. cont + (は)ないです ((wa) nai desu) | 静かではないです shizuka de wa nai desu |
|
polite negative past |
inf. neg. past + ありませんでした (arimasen deshita) | 安くありませんでした yasuku arimasen deshita |
inf. cont + (は)ありませんでした ((wa) arimasen deshita) | 静かではありませんでした shizuka de wa arimasen deshita |
inf. neg. past + copula です (desu)¹ | 安くなかったです yasukunakatta desu |
inf. neg. past + なかったです (nakatta desu) ¹ | 静かではなかったです shizuka de wa nakatta desu |
|
-te form | cont. + て (te) | 安くて yasuku.te |
cont. | 静かで shizuka de |
conditional | hyp. + ば (ba) | 安ければ yasukere.ba |
hyp. (+ ば (ba)) | 静かなら(ば) shizuka nara(ba) |
provisional | inf. past + ら (ra) | 安かったら yasukatta.ra |
inf. past + ら (ra) | 静かだったら shizuka datta.ra |
volitional² | imperf. + う (u) | 安かろう (yasukarō) | imperf. + う (u) = root + だろう (darō) |
静かだろう (shizuka darō) |
adverbial | cont. | 安く yasuku. |
root + に (ni) | 静かに shizuka ni |
degree (-ness) | root + さ (sa) | 安さ yasu-sa |
root + sa | 静かさ shizuka-sa |
Adjectives too are governed by euphonic rules in certain cases, as noted in the section on it below. For the polite negatives of na-type adjectives, see also the section below on the copula だ (da).
The copula da behaves very much like a verb or an adjective in terms of conjugation.
Imperfective form (未然形 mizenkei) |
では (de wa) |
---|---|
Continuative form (連用形 ren'youkei) |
で (de) |
Terminal form (終止形 shūshikei) |
だ (da, informal) です (desu, polite) でございます (de gozaimasu, respectful) |
Attributive form (連体形 rentaikei) |
である (de aru) |
Hypothetical form (仮定形 kateikei) |
なら (nara) |
Imperative form (命令形 meireikei) |
impossible |
Note that there are no potential, causative, or passive forms of the copula, just as with adjectives. The following are some examples.
In continuative conjugations, では (de wa) is often contracted in speech to じゃ (ja); for some kinds of informal speech ja is preferable to de wa, or is the only possibility.
nonpast | informal | だ (da) |
---|---|---|
polite | です (desu) | |
respectful | でございます (de gozaimasu) | |
past | informal | cont. + あった (atta) だった (datta) |
polite | でした (deshita) | |
respectful | でございました (de gozaimashita) | |
negative nonpast |
informal | cont. + はない (wa nai) |
polite | cont. + はありません (wa arimasen) | |
respectful | cont. + はございません (wa gozaimasen) | |
negative past |
informal | cont. + はなかった (wa nakatta) |
polite | cont. + はありませんでした (wa arimasen deshita) | |
respectful | cont. + はございませんでした (wa gozaimasen deshita) | |
conditional | informal | hyp. + ば (ba) |
polite | cont. + あれば (areba) | |
respectful | ||
provisional | informal | なら (nara) |
polite | same as conditional | |
respectful | ||
volitional | informal | だろう (darō) |
polite | でしょう (deshō) | |
respectful | でございましょう (de gozaimashō) | |
adverbial and -te forms |
informal | cont. |
polite | cont. + ありまして (arimashite) | |
respectful | cont. + ございまして (gozaimashite) |
archaic | modern |
---|---|
あ+う (a + u) あ+ふ (a + fu) |
おう (ō) |
い+う (i + u) い+ふ (i + fu) |
ゆう (yū)(*) |
う+ふ (u + fu) | うう (ū) |
え+う (e + u) え+ふ (e + fu) |
よう (yō) |
お+ふ (o + fu) | おう (ō) |
お+ほ (o + ho) お+を (o + wo) |
おお (ō) |
auxiliary verb む (mu) | ん (n) |
medial or final は (ha) | わ (wa) |
medial or final ひ (hi), へ (he), ほ (ho) | い (i), え (e), お (o) (via wi, we, wo, see below) |
any ゐ (wi), ゑ (we), を (wo) | い (i), え (e), お (o)(*) |
(*) usu. not reflected in spelling
Modern pronunciation is a result of a long history of phonemic drift that can be traced back to written records of the thirteenth century, and possibly earlier. However, it was only in 1946 that the Japanese ministry of education modified existing kana usage to conform to the standard dialect (共通語 kyōtsūgo). All earlier texts used the archaic orthography, now referred to as historical kana usage. The adjoining table is a nearly exhaustive list of these spelling changes. Unlike the tradition found in English-speaking countries, where people learn that Middle English (e.g., Chaucer) was pronounced differently from the modern language, it is not generally understood that the historical kana spellings were, at one point, reflective of pronunciation. For example, えふ (lit. efu) for "leaf" (葉, modern ha) was pronounced something like [epu] by the Japanese at the time it was borrowed. However, a modern reader of a classical text would still read this as [yoo], the modern pronunciation.
As mentioned above, conjugations of some verbs and adjectives differ from the prescribed formation rules because of euphonic changes. Nearly all of these euphonic changes are themselves regular. For verbs the exceptions are all in the ending of the continuative form of group when the following auxiliary has a ta-sound, i.e., た (ta), て (te), たり (tari), etc.
continuative ending | changes to | example |
---|---|---|
ひ hi, ち chi or り ri | っ (double consonant) | *買ひて *kahite → 買って katte *打ちて *uchite → 打って utte *知りて *shirite → 知って shitte |
び bi, みmi or に ni | ん (syllabic n), with the following タ t sound voiced | *遊びて *asobite → 遊んで asonde *住みて *sumite → 住んで sunde *死にて *shinite → 死んで shinde |
き ki | い i | *書きて *kakite → 書いて kaite |
ぎ gi | い i, with the following タ t sound voiced | *泳ぎて *oyogite → 泳いで oyoide |
There is one other irregular change: 行く iku (to go), for which there is an exceptional continuative form: 行き iki + て te → 行って itte, 行き iki + た ta → 行った itta, etc.
The continuative form of proper adjectives, when followed by polite forms such as ございます (gozaimasu, to be) or 存じます (zonjimasu, to know), undergo a transformation.
continuative ending | description | examples |
---|---|---|
[not し] + く | う, possibly also combining with the previous syllable according to the spelling reform chart | *寒くございます *samuku gozaimasu → 寒うございます samū gozaimasu *おはやくございます ohayaku gozaimasu → おはようございます ohayō gozaimasu |
しく | しゅう | *涼しくございます *suzushiku gozaimasu → 涼しゅうございます suzushū gozaimasu |
Respectful verbs such as くださる (kudasaru, to get), なさる (nasaru, to do), ござる (gozaru, to be), いらっしゃる (irassharu, to be/come/go), おっしゃる (ossharu, to say), etc. behave like group 1 verbs, except in the continuative and imperative forms.
change | examples | |
---|---|---|
continuative | ーり changed to ーい | *ござります *gozarimasu → ございます gozaimasu *いらっしゃりませ *irassharimase → いらっしゃいませ irasshaimase |
imperative | ーれ changed to ーい | *くだされ *kudasare → ください kudasai *なされ *nasare → なさい nasai |
In speech, common combinations of conjugation and auxiliary verbs are contracted in a fairly regular manner.
full form | colloquial | example |
---|---|---|
-てしまう -te shimau |
-ちゃう/-ちまう -chau/-chimau group 1 |
負けてしまう (makete shimau, lose) → 負けちゃう/負けちまう (makechau/makechimau) |
-でしまう -de shimau |
-じゃう/-じまう -jau/-jimau group 1 |
死んでしまう (shinde shimau, die) → 死んじゃう (shinjau) or 死んじまう (shinjimau) |
-ては -te wa |
-ちゃ -cha |
食べてはいけない (tabete wa ikenai, must not eat) → 食べちゃいけない (tabecha ikenai) |
-では -de wa |
-じゃ -ja |
飲んではいけない (nonde wa ikenai, must not drink) → 飲んじゃいけない (nonja ikenai) |
-ている -te iru |
-てる -teru group 2b |
寝ている (nete iru, is sleeping) → 寝てる (neteru) |
-ておく -te oku |
-とく -toku group 1 |
しておく (shite oku, will do it so) → しとく (shitoku) |
-て行く -te iku |
-てく -teku group 1 |
出て行け (dete ike, get out!) → 出てけ (deteke) |
-るの -ru no |
-んの -nno |
何しているの (nani shite iru no, what are you doing?) → 何してんの (nani shitenno) |
-りなさい -rinasai |
-んなさい -nnasai |
やりなさい (yarinasai, do it!) → やんなさい (yannasai) |
-るな -runa |
-んな -nna |
やるな (yaruna, don't do it!) → やんな (yanna) |
Adverbs in Japanese are not as tightly integrated into the morphology as in many other languages. Indeed, adverbs are not an independent class of words, but rather a role played by other words. For example, every adjective in the continuative form can be used as an adverb; thus, 弱い (yowai, weak, adj) → 弱く (yowaku, weakly, adv). The primary distinguishing characteristic of adverbs is that they cannot occur in a predicate position, just as it is in English. The following classification of adverbs is not intended to be authoritative or exhaustive.
Often, especially for sound symbolism, the particle to ("as if") is used. See the article on Japanese sound symbolism.
These parts of speech are much as in English.
Examples of conjunctions: そして (soshite, and then), また (mata, and then/again), etc.
Examples of interjections: はい (hai, yes/OK/uh), へえ (hē, wow!), いいえ (īe, no/no way), おい (oi, hey!), etc.
Particles in Japanese are postpositional, as they immediately follow the modified component. A full listing of particles is beyond the scope of this article, so only a few prominent particles are listed here. Keep in mind that the pronunciation and spelling differ for the particles wa (は), e (へ) and o (を): This article follows the Hepburn-style of romanizing them according to the pronunciation rather than spelling.
The complex distinction between the so-called topic (は wa) and subject (が ga) particles has been the theme of many doctoral dissertations and scholarly disputes. Two major scholarly surveys of Japanese linguistics in English, (Shibatani 1990) and (Kuno 1973), clarify the distinction. To simplify matters, the referents of wa and ga in this section are called the topic and subject respectively, with the understanding that if either is absent, the grammatical topic and subject may coincide.
As an abstract and rough approximation, the difference between wa and ga is a matter of focus: wa gives focus to the action of the sentence, i.e., to the verb or adjective, whereas ga gives focus to the subject of the action. However, a more useful description must proceed by enumerating uses of these particles.
However, when first being introduced to the subject and topic markers wa and ga most are told that the difference between the two is simpler. The topic marker, wa, is used to declare or to make a statement. The subject marker, ga, is used for new information, or asking for new information.
See Topic marker: Japanese: は.
The use of wa to introduce a new theme of discourse is directly linked to the notion of grammatical theme. Opinions differ on the structure of discourse theme, though it seems fairly uncontroversial to imagine a first-in-first-out hierarchy of themes that is threaded through the discourse. Of course, human limitations restrict the scope and depth of themes, and later themes may cause earlier themes to expire. In these sorts of sentences, the steadfast translation into English uses constructs like "speaking of X" or "on the topic of X", though such translations tend to be bulky as they fail to use the thematic mechanisms of English. For lack of a best strategy, many teachers of Japanese emphasize the "speaking of X" pattern without sufficient warning.
A common linguistic joke shows the insufficiency of rote translation with the sentence 僕は鰻だ (boku wa unagi da), which per the pattern would translate as "(Speaking of me), I am an eel." Yet, in a restaurant this sentence can reasonably be used to say "I'd like an order of eel", with no intended humor. This is because the sentence should be literally read, "As for me, it is an eel," with "it" referring to the speaker's order. The topic of the sentence is clearly not its subject. This is an example of deferred reference, a linguistic feature much more pervasive in Japanese than in English.
Related to the role of wa in introducing themes is its use in contrasting the current topic and its aspects from other possible topics and their aspects. The suggestive pattern is "X, but..." or "as for X, ...".
Because of its contrastive nature, the topic cannot be undefined.
In this situation ga is forced.
In practice, the distinction between thematic and contrastive wa is not that useful. Suffice it to say that there can be at most one thematic wa in a sentence, and it has to be the first wa if one exists, and the remaining was are contrastive. For completeness, the following sentence (due to Kuno) illustrates the difference.
The first interpretation is the thematic wa, treating "the people I know" (boku ga shitte iru hito) as the theme of the predicate "none came" (dare mo konakatta). That is, if I know A, B, ..., Z, then none of the people who came were A, B, ..., Z. The second interpretation is the contrastive wa. If the likely attendees were A, B, ..., Z, and of them I know P, Q and R, then the sentence says that P, Q and R did not come. The sentence says nothing about A', B', ..., Z', all of whom I know, but none of whom were likely to come. The sentence is ambiguous up to this difference. (In practice the first interpretation is the likely one.)
Unlike wa, the subject particle ga nominates its referent as the sole satisfier of the predicate. This distinction is famously illustrated by the following pair of sentences.
It may be useful to think of the distinction in terms of the question each statement could answer, e.g.:
for the first statement, versus
for the second.
Similarly, in a restaurant, if the waitress asks who has ordered the eel, the customer who ordered it can specify himself with
For stative transitive verbs, ga instead of o is typically used to mark the object, although it is sometimes acceptable to use o.
The direct object of non-stative transitive verbs is indicated by the object particle を (o).
This particle can also mean "through" or "along" or "out of" when used with motion verbs.
The general instrumental particle is で (de), which can be translated as "using" or "by":
This particle also has other uses: "at" (temporary location):
"In":
"With" or "in (the span of)":
The general locative particle is に (ni).
In this function it is interchangeable with へ (e). However, ni has additional uses: "at (prolonged)":
"On":
"In (some year)", "at (some point in time)":
To conjoin nouns, と (to) is used.
The additive particle も (mo) can be used to conjoin larger nominals and clauses.
For an incomplete list of conjuncts, や (ya) is used.
When only one of the conjuncts is necessary, the disjunctive particle か (ka) is used.
Quantities are listed between から (kara, from) and まで (made, to).
This pair can also be used to indicate time or space.
Because kara indicates starting point or origin, it has a related use as "because", analogously to English "since" (in the sense of both "from" and "because"):
The particle kara and a related particle yori are used to indicate lowest extents: prices, business hours, etc.
Yori is also used in the sense of "than".
The particle と (to) is used to set off quotations.
It is also used to indicate a manner of similarity, "as if" or "like".
In a related conditional use, it functions like "after", or "upon".
Finally it is used with verbs like to meet (with) (会う au) or to speak (with) (話す hanasu).
This last use is also a function of the particle に (ni), but to indicates reciprocation which ni does not.
Finally, the particle よ (yo) is used in a hortative or vocative sense.
The sentence-final particle か (ka) turns a declarative sentence into a question.
Other sentence-final particles add emotional or emphatic impact to the sentence. The particle ね (ne) softens a declarative sentence, similar to English "you know?", "eh?" or "I tell you!"
A final よ (yo) is used for emphasis or a stronger way to say "you know".
There are many such emphatic particles; some examples: ぜ (ze) and ぞ (zo) usually used by males; な (na) a less formal form of ne; わ (wa) used by females (and males in the Kansai region) like yo, etc. They are essentially limited to speech or transcribed dialogue.
Compound particles are formed with at least one particle together with other words, including other particles. The commonly seen forms are:
Other structures are rarer, though of course possible. A few examples:
All auxiliary verbs attach to a verbal or adjectival stem form and conjugate as verbs, but they differ from normal verbs in having no independent meaning. In modern Japanese there are two distinct classes of auxiliary verbs:
In classical Japanese, which was more purely agglutinating than modern Japanese, the category of auxiliary verb included every possible verb ending after the stem form, and most of these endings were themselves active participants in composition. In modern Japanese, however, some auxiliaries have stopped being productive. The most classic example is the classical auxiliary たり (-tari) whose forms た (-ta), て (-te), etc. are now no longer viewed as verbal endings, i.e., they can take no further affixes.
auxiliary | group | attaches to | meaning modification | example |
---|---|---|---|---|
ます (masu) | irregular1 | continuative | makes V polite | 書く (kaku, to write) → 書きます (kakimasu) |
られる (rareru)² | 2b | cont. of grp. 2 | makes V passive/polite/potential | 見る (miru, to see) → 見られる (mirareru, to be able to see) 食べる(taberu, to eat) → 食べられる (taberareru, to be able to eat) |
る (ru)³ | hyp. of grp. 1 | 飲む (nomu, to drink/swallow) → 飲める (nomeru, to be able to drink) | ||
させる (saseru)4 | 2b | cont. of grp. 2 | makes V causative | 考える (kangaeru, to think) → 考えさせる (kangaesaseru, to cause to think) |
せる (seru) | imperf. of grp. 1 | 思い知る (omoishiru, to realize) → 思い知らせる (omoishiraseru, to cause to realize/to teach a lesson) |
Much of the agglutinative flavour of Japanese stems from helper auxiliaries, however. The following table contains a small selection of an abundant store of such auxiliary verbs.
auxiliary | group | attaches to | meaning modification | example |
---|---|---|---|---|
ある (aru, to be (inanimate)) | 1 | -te form only for trans. |
indicates state modification | 開く (hiraku, to open) → 開いてある (hiraite-aru, opened and is still open) |
いる (iru, to be (animate)) | 2a | -te form for trans. |
progressive aspect | 寝る (neru, to sleep) → 寝ている (nete-iru, is sleeping) |
2a | -te form for intrans. |
indicates state modification | 閉まる (shimaru, (intransitive) to close) → 閉まっている (shimatte-iru, is closed) | |
行く (iku, to go) | 1 | -te form | "goes on V-ing" | 歩く (aruku, to walk) → 歩いて行く (aruite-iku, keep walking) |
くる (kuru, to come) | ka | -te form | inception, "start to V" | 降る (furu, fall) → 降ってくる (futte-kuru, start to fall) |
perfection, "have V-ed" (only past-tense) | 死ぬ (shinu, die) → 死んできた (shinde-kita, have died) | |||
conclusion, "come to V" | 異なる (kotonaru, change) → 異なってくる (kotonatte-kuru, come to change) | |||
始める (hajimeru, to begin) | 2b | continuative non-punctual |
"V begins", "begin to V" | 書く (kaku, to write) → 書き始める (kaki-hajimeru, start to write) |
continuative punctual & subj. must be plural |
着く (tsuku, to arrive) → 着き始める (tsuki-hajimeru, have all started to arrive) | |||
出す (dasu, to emit) | 1 | continuative | "start to V" | 輝く (kagayaku, to shine) → 輝き出す (kagayaki-dasu, to start shining) |
みる (miru, to see) | 1 | -te form | "try to V" | する (suru, do) → してみる (shite-miru, try to do) |
なおす (naosu, to correct/heal) | 1 | continuative | "do V again, correcting mistakes" | 書く (kaku, to write) → 書きなおす (kaki-naosu, rewrite) |
あがる (agaru, to rise) | 1 | continuative | "do V thoroughly" / "V happens upwards" | 立つ (tatsu, to stand) → 立ち上がる (tachi-agaru, stand up) 出来る (dekiru, to come out) → 出来上がる (deki-agaru, be completed) |
得る (eru/uru, to be able) | (see note at bottom) | continuative | indicates potential | ある (aru, to be) → あり得る (ariuru, is possible) |
かかる/かける (kakaru/kakeru, to hang/catch/obtain) | 1 | continuative only for intrans., non-volit. |
"about to V", "almost V", "to start to V" |
溺れる (oboreru, drown) → 溺れかける (obore-kakeru, about to drown) |
きる (kiru, to cut) | 1 | continuative | "do V completely" | 食べる (taberu, to eat) → 食べきる (tabe-kiru, to eat it all) |
消す (kesu, to erase) | 1 | continuative | "cancel by V" "deny with V" |
揉む (momu, to rub) → 揉み消す (momi-kesu, to rub out, to extinguish) |
込む (komu, to enter deeply/plunge) | 1 | continuative | "V deep in", "V into" | 話す (hanasu, to speak) → 話し込む (hanashi-komu, to be deep in conversation) |
下げる (sageru, to lower) | 2b | continuative | "V down" | 引く (hiku, to pull) → 引き下げる (hiki-sageru, to pull down) |
過ぎる (sugiru, to exceed) | 2a | continuative | "overdo V" | 言う (iu, to say) → 言いすぎる (ii-sugiru, to say too much, to overstate) |
付ける (tsukeru, to attach) | 2b | continuative | "become accustomed to V" | 行く (iku, to go) → 行き付ける (iki-tsukeru, be used to (going)) |
続ける (tsuzukeru, to continue) | 2b | continuative | "keep on V" | 降る (furu, to fall (eg. rain)) → 降り続ける (furi-tsuzukeru, to keep falling) |
通す (tōsu, to show/thread/lead) | 1 | continuative | "finish V-ing" | 読む (yomu, to read) → 読み通す (yomi-tōsu, to finish reading) |
抜ける (nukeru, to shed/spill/desert) | 2b | continuative only for intrans. |
"V through" | 走る (hashiru, to run) → 走り抜ける (hashiri-nukeru, to run through (swh)) |
残す (nokosu, to leave behind) | 1 | continuative | by doing V, leave something behind | 思う (omou, to think) → 思い残す (omoi-nokosu, to regret (lit: to have something left to think about)) |
残る (nokoru, to be left behind) | 1 | continuative for intrans. only |
be left behind, doing V | 生きる (ikiru, live) → 生き残る (iki-nokoru, to survive (lit: to be left alive)) |
分ける (wakeru, to divide/split/classify) | 2b | continuative | the proper way to V | 使う (tsukau, use) → 使い分ける (tsukai-wakeru, to indicate the proper way to use) |
忘れる (wasureru, to forget) | 2b | continuative | to forget to V | 聞く (kiku, to ask) → 聞き忘れる (kiki-wasureru, to forget to ask) |
sci.lang.japan
.sci.lang.japan
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