The goal of the first section is to an attempt to disambiguate how to mark subject and object. The part following trying to disambiguate は and が is. This list of grammar points is tailored for intermediate (or more experienced) learners.
Table of Contents
(Coming soon)
(Last Updated 7 September, 2017)
Below is a list of important supplements to what the guide is missing. Keep in mind that the line of between
what counts as vocabulary and what as grammar is blurry.
This FAQ by sci.lang.japan is incredibly very useful for filling out fringe knowledge. A collection of research in Japanese that's fairly useful. Both list their references.
Grammar terms explanation: A relative clause in Japanese typically refers to when a sub-sentence (clause) is used as an adjective, and the verbs arguments are typically omitted as they can be inferred. For example the section in brackets: [りんごが食べたい]人が現れた. Grammatical case is primarly used to refer to marking the nouns that a verb will reference. For example, "I went there" has two arguments in English: "I" marks the subject (nominative case) and "there" marks the direct object (accusative case). Inflection is another way of saying verb conjugation, you can say adjectives and nouns inflect, whereas you would only use conjugation for verbs.
Brackets are used for personal notes or things to add or parenthetical references (see bottom for list of references they refer to).
On Marking Case: Subjects and Objects
は vs が
- One line explanation: は places focus on predicate (on the description). が places focus on the noun.
- は is a semantic marking only; it never marks case. [Rubin 38] It both distinguishes topic from other topics and provides emphasis. [Rubin 33] Two main uses: topic marker, constrastive use.
- が has three main syntactic uses: subject marker, object marker, conjunctive "but". が has two semantic uses, neutral and exhuasitive listing.
- When added to が-marked and を-marked nouns, it deletes them を and が. [Kasier et al. 340]
- ✘~がは~をは → ✔~は~は. [See conditional section for example]
- While it can look like, and often is mistaken for, replacing case-marking particles を and commonly が, it does not actually mark case
- What one should really consider is skipped-particle, は or が. One must take into preceeding question. [Rubin 32–33]
- どうしましたか→行きまた。
- そして、やまむるさんは。どうしましたか→私は行きました。
- だれが行きましたか→私が行きました。
- は vs が and another explanation. More on は.
- Emphasize the use of は as a conversational topic linker and show how this leads to ambigious sentences (that are assumed to have meaning). Eg. 夜空は何でも知っているの?"Does the night sky know everything/anything?" or much less likely "Do you know anything about the night sky?"
Overview of Marking Grammatical Case
This section is an attempt to summarise the upcoming breakdown of words. There are generally two types of patterns which inflectable words (verbs, na-adj, and i-adj) can adopt case. Typically, が marks subject, を marks object, に marks indirect object but is also used for non-case-marking purposes (eg. adverbs).Additionally, も and は can attach after these case-marking particles (namely が、を, and に); が and を will be deleted (✔にも→✔にも, ✗がは→✔は) so always keep that in the back of your mind. は can exist separetly as a topic marker, ie. double-は sentences.
- が subject, に indirect object
- Intrasitive verbs
- Movement words can use a special type of を
- Transitive verbs, を-marking direct object
- Passives verbs
- Intrasitive passive is abrasive
- Transitive passive is
- Resultative acts like a regular
- Intranstive adjectives (most adjectives)
- が・を marking object. A-second-が・に・other mark agent (doer of the verb).
- There's no good way to summerise adjectives.
- In double-が cases, が for agent marking is secondary.
- Transitive Adjectives (二項述語) and Deseratives
- Potential, に can also mark agent
- Resultative
General Forms (Verbs, na-adj, i-adj):
- は、も may replace other verb arguments. [Look for cite] が and を are deleted by は [Kasier et al. 340] and も. [Look for cite]
- Only accepts only arguments (intrasitive). Prototypical form: 「~が○」
- Most adjectives are this.
- に can sometimes market the agent (the do-er). But do take note of に's other uses.
Eg. 「~には~が分かる」「~に~が」「~」
[Both に and は alone are possible, would like good explanation] - Accepts two+ arguments (transitive etc.). Prototypical form: 「~が~を○」
- が marks the subject, を marks the object
- を to mark adjective arguments seems to be becoming acceptable as part of either Tokyo dialect (basis of standard) or modern speech
- に can also mark case. Eg. 「~が~に~を上げる」
- の as a subject marker in relative clauses. Sounds more literary.
- There are two を's, so you can use を with intransitive verbs, but you can only use を per verb in a clause. Using を with motion intransitive verbs. Compare with で that indicates place without implicating through or the route. Some examples. [Maybe useful paper?]
- に、と、へ、etc. may also verb arguments (grammatical case) or serve other unrelated functions
Passive (-areru, ~れる・~られる) and Resultative (~てある)
- The original (indicative) を-marked object now uses が (and old subject is now the agent marked with に).
- Regular passive 直接受動. 「~が◯」 for transitive or 「~が~に◯」 for intransitive.
が marks patient (thing verb is done to) and に the agent (doer).
「~が~に◯」 is the prototypical order for transitive passives.
Eg. AがBを殴る → BがAに殴られる. - 間接受動 (the Japanese passive? Indirect passive doesn't work since used up later on). Also known as the adversive/adversative passive or suffering passive. JGram.
- Often, but not always, implies being negatively affected (adversely).
- Intransitive, 「XがYに◯」.
- Patient X, agent Y
- X is directly affect by action of Y typically adversely [Kasier et al. 389]
- Transitive, 「XがYにZを◯」
- Patient X, agent Y
- Indirect passive: If Z belongs to X, typically implies X affected adversely. [Kasier et al. 387]
- Direct passive: If Z does not belong X (no adversity). Z (を) marks the object of the verb [Kasier et al. 387]
- [It's very weird that Kaiser et al. calls these indirect/direct considering the Japanese names, have to check on this]
- Non-passive use of passive conjugation
- Passive Honorifics (軽い敬語)
- が (or は) marks subject [Kasier et al. 390] [or も?]
- を、に、(or は<も) can mark arguments like normal
- Spontaneous passive (自発), with verbs of feeling, expectation etc. [Need better link] [Kasier et al. 389]
- Resultative (~てある) only works with transitive verbs. が、を (or は) can mark the object of the original transitive verb [Kasier et al. ] (or も)
Transitive Adjectives and Desideratives
- ~たい (desideratives) act like i-adj
- が is typically always used. を mark object of desire gives sentence a more objective ring. [Kasier et al. 40]
- Unlike the potential, に as a case-marker only works if the original (indicative) form took に for case marking.
- ✗私にりんごが食べたい
- ✔私に送りたい
- Some adjectives are transitive, they take two arguments. [Kasier et al. ] They only take two arguments.
- List of possible arguments for transitive adjectives.
- The nominative object.
- See also this study.
Potential (~れる・られる)
- Originates from the passive form. Recall that ら抜く言葉 for 一段 verbs to form a potential-only form to avoid confusion with passive.
- 「~は~が◯」 is the prototypical form. Eg. 私は英語を話す → 私は英語が話せす [Potential Explanation]
- For explanation, view 「~に~が◯」 as base form. に marks agent (doer), が marks object. This order of agent and object will remain the same. Eg. 私に英語が話せす
- All this information comes from this Potential Explanation
- Adding は to base: 「~には~が◯」 「~は~が◯」 「~は~は◯」 (は deletes を) [Potential Explanation]
- Adding exhaustive-listing が to base: 「~が~が◯」 [Potential Explanation] (が deletes に [need a proper citation for deletion])
- を object-marking 「~が~を◯」, likely to avoid this double が, has now become part of Tokyo dialect or modern colloquial. [Potential Explanation][2] This gives it a more object ring. [Kasier et al. 40]
- (You can change order of agent and object, though agent > object is more natural.)
- [Marking agent is a double subject or nested sentence?]
- [Note about も?]
Particles and Inflections
- ~て + は. Contrastive use of は.
One use is for emphasis. Limits the scope to just the verb (forgot the grammar term for this). For example in negation, 私、言いてることを勘ffしてはいないが、糸が見えないな it negates just 勘違いする rather than the entire sentence. You can see this with the construction てはならない as well. [Lost my citation for this...] Can be seen to be the same as では (copula) - ~て + から
- ~て + の. [Should find something better than this.]
- Verb Groups (these are all equivalent) [Find better links]
- Explanation u-verbs and ru-verbs from masu-stem. Cleaner Listing of characteristics
- 一段 vs 五段. Refers to how six stems of the verb are either in one 段 (all share one vowel) go to all five (go to all vowels).
- Class 1 vs Class 2. Arbitrary in other words.
- なくて、ないで、ず、ずに. Nihongo no Mori. iTalki. Japanese Stack Exchange.
- More conjoining
- 中止形 (aka the 連用形) vs te-form. The conjunctive use of the adverbial form. て形 has more restrictions than 中止形. Kyouko Tokashiki's paper comparing the two (1989).
- Nouns: に [would like to find explanation]
- Nouns: だ → で, adverbially form of the copula.
- おやび、ましくは bind closely and ならびに、または bind loosely.
- ~ている vs ~てある (vs ~た for comparison) can vary in aspect depending on the type and transitivity of the verb continuous, progressive, resultative, or habitual. Sources: University of Arkansas, Wikipedia, Tomioka Taeko. Some Japanese Stack Exchange answers: 1, 2. A different analysis by Mamori Sugita.
- ~た conjugation is debatebly perfective aspect or past tense, or just for politeness. Some notes about historical/literary present in Japanese in this paper by Hasegawa Yoko.
- にて particle, the ancestor of で, from imabi and here.
- Placement of counter words
- AをBに、(Aを)Bにしての略
- For negative sentences with a subordinate clause, having the verb of the subdorinate clause in negative form and the final verb (the matrix verb) postive tends to sound more natural. [Need citation and maybe not even worth mentioning since too unspecific and both options carry nuances]
- Verbal noun phrases. A common style of Japanese is ending with nouns known 体言止め to form predicated sentences without having a final verb. This includes both nouns where する is implied marked as vs in EDICT for verb-suru (eg. 再起動、情報収集)
as well as nouns where する does not make sense (eg. ナイフ、こと). [Found only one paper describe other cases - パソコンを再起動。
- 今日は一日中情報収集。
- 右からナイフ! (As in slashed as a verb) [Need source?]
- 飯は一定した時間内に食べること。 [Need source.]
- Some useful combinations of particles where order matters
- との. Just と and の applied to the same word. Note that のと would be nominalization use of の. Useful
- への. Just へ and の applied to the same word. One way to look at this is an inflection of へ to accept nouns.
- からの
- には, は deletes が and を, がは→は and をは → は. [need source]
- On using the の particle twice in a row.
- Particles that can be used after inflecting words (verbs and i-adj) not following hidden quotative use: に, nominalizers, は. [Definitely need citations on these]
- The old ~よ imperative conjugation of 一段 verbs is literary but still in use.
- こと vs の as nominalisers and meaning difference
- Additional categories for 形容動詞 (na-adj) breakdown
- たる-adj, these inflect slightly differently.
- Prenoiminals (なる-adj and 連体詞), these are words that only can appear in their 連体 form, in other words they must precede a noun and cannot inflect.
- の-adj and の・な-adj.
Vocabulary
- では vs じゃfor inflecting nouns and na-adj, more of a spoken vs written distinction. Though じゃ is more casual than では, both are acceptable in both casual and formal environments.
- もらう、くれる、あげる、やる. Yes くれる、あげる、やる are all to give. The concept of uchi vs soto and on determining who belongs in what group here and here
- ど~ vs 何 and Japanese explanation. Examples:
- この語の意味は何でか (Asking for definition)
この語はどういう意味ですか (Reading comprehension sense, more examples) - A: どういう本が好き B: 日常形とファンタジー (description)
A: 何の本がすき B: 文学少女が一番好き (specific title) - The language politeness style spectrum, what people really want to ask when they ask about 敬語:
侮蔑語、尊大語、<常体|タメ口|通常語|平常語>、<敬体|ですます>、軽い敬語、丁寧語、尊敬語 - It maybe useful to note that あまり、ぜったい、だれでも、全然、etc. are used differently in positive and negative sentences. I personally do not intuitively recognise these the positive and negative case for each as different senses (in the general case). Trivia: 全然 in positive sentences is seen as improper Japanese, but younger generation starting to use it.
- 一箇所=一ヶ所 =一ヵ所=一カ所[katakana]=一か所
- ものの、のに、けれども|が、ながら、でも|~ても
- 間, あいだ vs ま.
- 開く, あく vs ひらく.
- で+も vs でも [Expand on this][Kasier et al. 326]
- ~が分かる vs ~を分かる.
- が is regular "know" or "understand"
- を is a becoming acceptable to use recently to indicate the effort put into trying to to understand. [English]
- There is no potential form.
- Kanji as prefixes/suffixes. Selected list of ones to note: 上、下、剤、派、化、的、性、体、型、界、形、非、不、無
- Dual nature of ため here and here.
- る言葉, 体言 + る. Ru-verbed verbs. English explanation, not only for foriegn words. Lists 1, 2.
Phonetic/Spoken
- Common Contractions. きゃ for need and しちゃう for しまう already touched and well-known.
- ~て + いる → てる (continuative)
- ~て + おく → とく (readying or in preparation)
- ~て + おる → とる (continuative, おる is dialectal equivalent of いる)
- ~ない|~ぬ → ん (negation)
- ~ては/~では → ~ちゃ/じゃ (for colliqiual for the contractions ては)
- ~ない → ねぇ (negative, rough)
- ~れば → りゃ (conditional)
- Counting up use し...しち for 4 ... 7 but counting down use なな ... よん only for the 1–10 range. Not all natives follow this rule. You count up with し and しち to escape (count away from) father Death and count down avoiding them to not close in on (count towards) Death.
- Yotsugana. In Standard Modern Japanese, ず・づ are the same sound as ず, じ・ぢ are the same as じ. The four may have merged or split in dialects, but younger generation is becoming more two-kana based. However in Standard, ず・づ are allophones and じ・ぢ are allophones, so all sounds can technically be heard in Standard.
- Pitch Accent and more advanced phonology stuff. [Easy summary coming soon] Dogen patron series for a more comprehensive. (A few lessons are free)
Writing Specific:
- Commas almost always bear no grammatical value (ie. sentences are equivalent without them), Commas are only necessary when serving to separate sentences or occasionally replacing an omitted particle (See 無助詞 zero-postposition, and more examples).
- Spoken words that are have semantic differences in writing. For example: みる → みる/見る/観る/etc.
- いう vs 言う
- Writing conventions for what to write in kanji and kana and more. Generally function words are in kana, content in kanji, and a number of set phrases. [Cite reasoning regarding directing attention if I can find link again].
見る example: - ~てみる "to try
" auxiliary verbs are always in hiragana - みたい(な) "-like" na-adj and should be written in hiragana (Origin is: を見たやう or を見たよう post-phonetic shifts)
- 見る/観る/etc. "to see" should be in kanji
- Which script to write animals names in. Imabi. In the context of Classical Japanese (no new content).
- Pre-Script Reform writing, historical kana orthography.
Etymology and Mostly Random
- Godan verbs that did not go through the u-sound shift for an irregular て形: 問うて・とうて、乞うて・こうて、厭うて・いとうて、負うて・おうて、のたまうて
- Other irregular verbs. 得る is the only remaining mostly nidan verb.
- て形 vs 連用形 combining to form single verbs.
- ~ないで.
- 出来る.
- 面白い.
- Mostly useless classification of transitive/intrasitive pair forms.
- ~た form and its root in the 連用形
- te-form, like ~た form, has its roots in the 連用形
- 最高敬語 which bears its origins from ニ重 and 三重敬語. Mostly archaicly used to address the emporer.
- Hiragana and Katakana
- The double subject constructions. Such sentences are analyzed as nested sentence: the main sentence for the first subject and an embedded clause for the second. [Find cite?]
- This supposedly exhaustive particle. Unsure of its reliability.
- [Consider adding:]
- Ellipted predicates (like ending with を, に, etc.)
- ending sentences on を
- Attaching to verb plain forms (終止形) に, は, が without nominalisation. They are actually attached to the 連体形. A relic of Classical Japanese.
- 日本語教育 vs 国語教育 and origin sound-shift of te-form and た-form
References of Papers Mentioned
Since they're links are likely to expire.- Kaiser, Stefan, et al. Japanese: A Comprehensive Grammar. Routledge, 2013.
- Rubin, J. (2002). Making Sense of Japanese: what the textbooks don't tell you. Kodansha Amer Incorporated.
- Hasegawa, Yoko. Tense-aspect controversy revisited: The -T`A and -RU forms in Japanese. In Jef Verschueren (ed.), Pragmatics in 1998: Selected Papers from the 6th International Pragmatics Conference, 225-240. Antwerp: International Pragmatics Association. 1999.
- Tomioka, Taeko. (1994). A study of 'V-te iru' in Japanese. Online Resource. Sanno Junior College Bulletin 27. Retrieved November 21, 2006 from http://homepage3.nifty.com/park/aspect.htm. Archived November 2, 2016: http://web.archive.org/web/20161103070805/http://homepage3.nifty.com/park/aspect.htm
- Tokashiki, Kyoko. 1989. On Japanese Coordinate Structures: An Investigation of Struc-tural Differences between the -Te Form and the -I Form. Master’s thesis, The Ohio State
University. - Sugita, Mamori, 2009. Japanese–teiru and–tearu: The Aspectual Implications of the Stage-Level and Individual Level Distinction. PhD Dissertation. CUNY Graduate Center, New York.
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