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. Some of these "personal nouns" such as 己 (onore, I (exceedingly humble)) or 僕 (boku, I (young male)) also have second-person uses: 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:

「木下さんは、背が高いですね。」

Kinoshita-san wa, se ga takai desu ne.

(addressing Mr. Kinoshita) "You're pretty tall, aren't you?"

「専務、明日福岡市西区の山本商事の社長に会っていただけますか？」

Semmu, asu Fukuoka-shi nishi-ku no Yamamoto-shōji no shachō ni atte itadakemasuka?

(addressing the managing director) "Would it be possible for you to meet the president of Yamamoto Trading Co. of Fukuoka's West Ward tomorrow?"

While there is no lexical difference between nouns and daimeishi, the possible referrents of daimeishi can be constrained depending on the order of occurrence. The following pair of examples (due to Bart MathiasDiscussion of pronoun reference constraints by Bart Mathias on sci.lang.japan.) illustrates one such constraint.

ホンダ君にあって、彼の本を返した。

honda-kun ni atte, kare no hon wo kaeshita

(I) met Honda and returned his book. ("His" here can refer to Honda.)

彼に会って、ホンダ君の本を返した。

kare ni atte, honda-kun no hon wo kaeshita

(I) met him and returned Honda's book. (Here, "him" cannot refer to Honda.)

Reflexive pronouns

誠は靜子に自分の家で本を読ませた。

Nobu ga Shizuko ni jibun no uchi de hon wo yomaseta.

Nobu made Shizuko read book(s) in her house.

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

機械がひとりでに動き出した

kikai ga hitorideni ugokidashita

"The machine started operating by itself."

Demonstratives

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

「こちらは林さんです。」

Kochira wa Hayashi-san desu.

"This is Mr. Hayashi."

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 fulfil a related but different anaphoric role. The anaphoric distals are used for shared information between the speaker and the listener.

A：先日、札幌に行って来ました。

A: Senjitsu, Sapporo ni itte kimashita.

A: I visited Sapporo recently.

B：あそこ(*そこ)はいつ行ってもいい所ですね。

B: Asoko (*Soko) wa itsu itte mo ii tokoro desu ne.

B: Yeah, that's a great place to visit whenever you go.

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.

佐藤：田中という人が昨日死んだって...

Satō : Tanaka to iu hito ga kinō shinda tte...

Sato: I heard that a man called Tanaka died yesterday...

森：えっ、本当?

Mori: E', hontō?

Mori: Oh, really?

佐藤：だから、その(*あの)人、森さんの昔の隣人じゃなかったっけ？

Satō : Dakara, sono (*ano) hito, Mori-san no mukashi no rinjin ja nakatta 'kke?

Sato: It's why I asked... wasn't he an old neighbour of yours?

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:

一体何ですか、これ(*あれ)は?

Ittai nan desu ka, kore (*are) wa?

What on earth is this?

Conjugable words

Stem forms

Imperfective form (未然形 mizenkei) : is used for plain negative (of verbs), causative and passive constructions. The most common use of this form is with the -nai auxiliary that turns verbs into their negative (predicate) form. (See Verbs below.)

Continuative form (連用形 ren'yōkei) : is used in a linking role. This is the most productive stem form, taking on a variety of endings and auxiliaries, and can even occur independently in a sense similar to the -te ending. This form is also used to negate adjectives.

Terminal form (終止形 shūshikei) : is used at the ends of clauses in predicate positions. This form is also variously known as plain form (基本形 kihonkei) or dictionary form (辞書形 jishokei).

Attributive form (連体形 rentaikei) : in modern Japanese is practically identical to the terminal form (but see Adjectives, below), but differs in use: it is prefixed to nominals and is used to define or classify the noun. In this function, the root of this stem form is called a prenominal adjective (連体詞 rentaishi).

Hypothetical form (仮定形 kateikei) : is used for conditional and subjunctive forms, using the -ba or -domo ending.

Imperative form (命令形 meireikei) : is used to turn verbs into commands. Adjectives do not have an imperative stem form.

The application of conjugative suffixes to stem forms follow certain euphonic principles (音便 onbin), which is discussed below.

Verbs

Verbs can be semantically classified based on certain conjugations.

Stative verbs : indicate existential properties, such as to be (いる iru), can do (出来る dekiru), need (要る iru), etc. These verbs generally don't have a continuative conjugation with -iru because they are semantically continuative already.

Continual verbs : conjugate with the auxiliary -iru to indicate the progressive aspect. Examples: to eat (食べる taberu), to drink (飲む nomu), to think (考える kangaeru). To illustrate the conjugation, 食べる (taberu, to eat) → 食べている (tabete-iru, is eating).

Punctual verbs : conjugate with -iru to indicate a repeated action, or a continuing state after some action. Example: 知る (shiru, to know) → 知っている (shitte iru, am knowing); 打つ (utsu, to hit) → 打っている (utte iru, is hitting (repeatedly)).

Non-volitional verb : indicate uncontrollable action or emotion. These verbs generally have no volitional, imperative or potential conjugation. Examples: 好む (konomu, to like, emotive), 見える (mieru, to be visible, non-emotive).

Movement verbs : indicate motion. Examples: 歩く (aruku, to walk), 帰る (kaeru, to return). In the continuative form (see below) they take the particle ni to indicate a purpose.

Conjugation

Lexically, nearly every verb in Japanese is a member of exactly one of the following three regular conjugation groups.

Group 2a (上一段 kami ichidan, lit. upper 1-row group) : verbs with terminal stem form rhyming with -iru. Examples: 見る (miru, to see), 着る (kiru, to wear).

Group 2b (下一段 shimo ichidan, lit. lower 1-row group) : verbs with terminal stem form rhyming with -eru. Examples: 食べる (taberu, to eat), くれる (kureru, to give).

Group 1 (五段 godan, lit. 5-row group) : verbs with terminal form rhyming with -u. This description has a slight ambiguity -- certain verbs like 帰る (kaeru, to return) are group 1 instead of group 2. (See Miscellaneous section, below.) In modern Japanese the ending -fu is impossible, though it was common in classical Japanese; it is spelled with -u in modern Japanese.

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:

sa-group : which has only one member, する (suru, to do). In Japanese grammars these words are classified as サ変 (sa-hen), an abbreviation of サ行変格活用 (sa-gyou henkaku katsuyō, sa-row irregular conjugation).

ka-group : which also has one member, 来る (kuru, to come). The Japanese name for this class is カ行変格活用 (ka-gyou henkaku katsuyō) or simply カ変 (ka-hen).

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, ka, then in the hypothetical row to get the ending ke, giving the stem form kake. When there are multiple possibilities, they are listed in the order of increasing rarity.

1. the unexpected ending is due to the verb classically conjugating as -ha, phonemic drift moving -ha to -wa, and finally modern spelling reform reuniting pronunciation with spelling.

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.

1. See the note on hypothetical forms below.
2. Note that this is an entirely different verb; する (suru) has no potential form.

僕は姉に納豆を食べさせられた。

boku wa ane ni nattō o tabesaserareta.

I was made to eat natto by my (elder) sister.

Adjectives

Japanese has two main classes of adjectives.

i-type adjectives (形容詞 keiyōshi) : these are very similar to verbs, having roots and conjugating stem forms, and are often classified as stative verbs.

na-type adjective (形容動詞 keiyōdōshi, lit. "adjectival verb") : most of these are nouns that are affixed with -na or -no (or in rare cases without an affix) to form the adjective.

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). All na-type adjectives conjugate regularly.

1. The attributive and terminal forms were formerly 安き (.ki) and 安し (.shi), respectively; in modern Japanese these are used productively for stylistic reasons only, although many set phrases such as 名無し (nanashi, anonymous) and よし (yoshi, sometimes written yosh', general positive interjection) derive from them.
2. The imperative form is extremely rare in modern Japanese, restricted to set patterns like 遅かれ早かれ (osokare hayakare, sooner or later), where they are treated as adverbial phrases! It is impossible for an imperative form to be in a predicate position.

Like verbs, we can enumerate some common conjugations of adjectives. Also, ii isn't special-cased, because all conjugations are identical to yoi.

1. note that these are just forms of the i-type adjective ない (nai)
2. see the note on hypothetical forms below.
3. since most adjectives describe non-volitional conditions, the volitional form is interpreted as "it is possible", if sensible. In some rare cases it is semi-volitional: 良かろう (yokarō, OK (lit: let it be good)) in response to a report or request.

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 (だ da)

Euphonic changes (音便 onbin)

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 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.

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.

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.

In speech, common combinations of conjugation and auxiliary verbs are contracted in a fairly regular manner.

Other independent words

Adverbs

Verbal adverbs : are verbs in the continuative form with the particle ni. Eg. 見る (miru, to see) → 見に (mi ni, for the purpose of seeing), used for instance as: 見に行く (mi ni iku, go to see (sth.)).

Adjectival adverbs : are adjectives in the continuative form, as mentioned above.

Nominal adverbs : are grammatical nouns that function as adverbs. Examples: あまり (amari, a little/not a lot), どう (dō, how), 一番 (ichiban, most highly), etc.

Sound Symbolism : are words that mimic sounds or concepts. Examples: きらきら (kirakira, sparklingly), ぽっくり (pokkuri, suddenly), するする (surusuru, smoothly (sliding)), etc.

Often, especially for sound symbolism, the particle to ("as if") is used. See the article on Japanese sound symbolism.

Conjunctions and interjections

Examples of conjunctions: そうして (sōshite, 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.

Ancillary words

Particles

Particles in Japanese are postpositional—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): Wikipedia follows the Hepburn-style of romanizing them according to the pronunciation rather than spelling.

Topic, theme, and subject: は (wa) and が (ga)

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 ennumerating uses of these particles.

''See は.

=Thematic wa

ジョンは学生である。

JON wa gakusei de aru

(On the topic of John), John is a student.

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. (As a side note, the separation of grammatical topic and subject is sometimes transported by native Japanese speakers to other languages; for example, a Japanese with a shaky grasp of English might say "I am an eel" in a restaurant in an attempt to order eel.)

=Contrastive wa

雨は降っていますが・・・

ame wa futte imasu ga...

It is raining, but...

Because of its contrastive nature, the topic cannot be undefined.

*誰かは本を読んでいる。

*dareka wa hon o yonde iru

*Someone is reading the book.

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.

僕が知っている人は誰も来なかった。

boku ga shitte iru hito wa daremo konakatta

(1) Of all the people I know, none came.

(2) (People came but), there wasn't any of the people I know.

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.)

=Exhaustive ga

ジョンは学生です。

JON wa gakusei desu

John is a student. (There may be other students among the people we're talking about.)

ジョンが学生です。

JON ga gakusei desu

(Of all the people we are talking about), it is John who is the student.

It may be useful to think of the distinction in terms of the question each statement could answer, e.g.:

ジョンの仕事は何ですか。

JON no shigoto wa nan desu ka

What is John's occupation?

どちらの方が学生ですか。

Dochira no kata ga gakusei desu ka

Which one (of them) is the student?

Similarly, in a restaurant, if the waitress asks who has ordered the eel, the customer who ordered it can specify himself with

僕がうなぎだ

boku ga unagi da

The eel is for me (not these other people).

=Objective ga

ジョンはフランス語が出来る。

JON wa FURANSU-go ga dekiru

John knows French

Objects, locatives, instrumentals: を (o), に (ni), で (de), へ (e)

ジョンは青いセーターを着ている。

JON wa aoi SE-TA- o kite iru

John is wearing a blue sweater.

This particle can also mean "through" or "along" or "out of" when used with motion verbs.

メアリが細い道を歩いていた。

MEARI ga hosoi michi o aruite ita

Mary was walking along a narrow road.

国境の長いトンネルを抜けると雪国であった

kokkyō no nagai TONNERU o nukeru to yukiguni de atta

The train came out of the long tunnel into the snow country

The general instrumental particle is で (de), which can be translated as "using" or "by":

肉はナイフで切ること。

niku wa NAIFU de kiru koto

Meat must be cut with a knife.

電車で行きましょう.

densha de ikimashō

Let's go by train

This particle also has other uses: "at" (temporary location):

町角で先生に会った。

machikado de sensei ni atta

(I) met my teacher at the street corner.

"In":

海で泳ぐのは難しい。

umi de oyogu no wa muzukashii

Swimming in the sea is hard.

"With" or "in (the span of)":

劇は主人公の死で終る。

geki wa shujinkō no shi de owaru

The play ends with the protagonist's death.

俺は二秒で勝つ。

ore wa nibyō de katsu

I'll win in two seconds.

The general locative particle is に (ni).

東京に行きましょう。

tōkyō ni ikimashō

Let's go to Tokyo

In this function it is interchangeable with へ (e). However, ni has additional uses: "at (prolonged)":

私はグロスター通り99番に住んでいます。

watashi wa GUROSUTA- tōri 99 ban ni sunde imasu

I live at 99 Gloucester road

"On":

氷は水に浮く。

kōri wa mizu ni uku

Ice floats on water.

"In (some year)", "at (some point in time)":

春の夕暮れに。。。

haru no yūgure ni...

On a spring eve...

Quantity and extents: と (to), も (mo), か (ka), や (ya), から (kara), まで (made)

バグには、教科書三冊と漫画本五冊入れています。

BAGU ni wa kyōkasho san-satsu to mangahon go-satsu irete imasu

I have three textbooks and five comic books in the bag.

The additive particle も (mo) can be used to conjoin larger nominals and clauses.

ヨーハンはドイツ人だ。ブリゲータもドイツ人だ。

YO-HAN wa DOITSU-jin da. BURIGE-TA mo DOITSU-jin da

Johan is a German. Brigette is a German too.

彼は映画スターであり、政治家でもある。

kare wa eiga SUTA- de ari, seijika de mo aru

He is a movie star and also a politician.

For an incomplete list of conjuncts, や (ya) is used.

ボリスやアイバンを呼べ。

BORISU ya AIBAN wo yobe

Call Boris, Ivan, etc.

When only one of the conjuncts is necessary, the disjunctive particle か (ka) is used.

スシかサシミか、何かを注文してね。

SUSHI ka SASHIMI ka, nanika wo chūmon shite ne

Order sushi or sashimi or something.

Quantities are listed between から (kara, from) and まで (made, to).

92度から96度までの熱は心配するものではない。

92 do kara 96 do made no netsu wa shinpai suru mono de wa nai

A temperature between 92 F and 96 F is not worrisome.

This pair can also be used to indicate time or space.

朝8時から11時まで授業があるんだ。

asa hachi-ji kara jūichi-ji made jugyō ga aru n da

You see, I have classes between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m.

Because kara indicates starting point or origin, it has a related use as "because":

スミスさんは強引な人ですから、いつも頼まれているかもしれない。

SUMISU-san wa gōin na hito desu kara, itsumo tanomarete iru kamoshirenai

Mr. Smith, I think it's because you're so assertive that you're always asked to do everything.

The particle kara and a related particle yori are used to indicate lowest extents: prices, business hours, etc.

我々は7時より営業して居ります。

wareware wa shichi-ji yori eigyō shite orimasu

We are open for business from 7 onwards.

Yori is also used in the sense of "than".

お前は姉ちゃんよりうるさいんだ!

omae wa nē-chan yori urusai n da

You are louder/more talkative than my sister!

Coordinating: と (to), に (ni), よ (yo)

「殺して。。。殺して」とあの子は言ってたの。

"koroshite... koroshite" to ano ko wa itte'ta no

The girl was saying, "Kill... kill."

猫はニャー、ニャーと鳴く。

neko wa NYA- NYA- to naku

The cat says: meaow, meaow.

It is also used to indicate a manner of similarity, "as if" or "like".

彼は「愛してるよ」と言って、ぽっくりと死んだ。

kare wa "aishite'ru yo" to itte, pokkuri to shinda

He said "I love you," and dropped dead.

In a related conditional use, it functions like "after", or "upon".

雨が上がると、子ども達はもう学習を忘れて、太陽に表を向ける水溜りの誘惑を従う。

ame ga agaru to, kodomo-tachi wa mou gakushū o wasurete, taiyō ni omote wo mukeru mizu-tamari no yūwaku o shitagau

Rain stops and then: children, forgetting their lessons, give in to the temptation of sun-faced puddles.

Finally it is used with verbs like to meet (with) (会う au) or to speak (with) (話す hanasu).

ジョンはメアリと初めて会ったのは、1942年の春の夕暮れだった。

JON ga MEARI to hajimete atta no wa, 1942 nen no haru no yūgure datta

John met Mary for the first time on a dusky spring afternoon in 1942.

This last use is also a function of the particle に (ni), but to indicates reciprocation which ni does not.

ジョンがメアリと恋愛している。

JON ga MEARI to ren'ai shite iru

John and Mary are in love.

ジョンがメアリに恋愛している。

JON ga MEARI ni ren'ai shite iru

John loves Mary (but Mary might not love John back).

Finally, the particle よ (yo) is used in a hortative or vocative sense.

可愛い娘よ、顔をしかめて私を見るな。

kawaii musume yo, kao o shikamete watashi wo miruna

O my beloved daughter, don't frown at me so!

Final: か (ka), ね (ne), よ (yo) and related

そちらはアメリカ人でしょうか?

sochira wa amerika-jin deshō ka?

Are you perchance an American?

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!".

彼に電話しなかったのね。

kare ni denwa shinakatta no ne

You didn't call him up, did you?

近々ロンドンに引っ越されるそうですね。

chikajika rondon ni hikkosareru sou desu ne.

I hear you're moving to London soon. Is that true?

A final よ (yo) is used for emphasis or a stronger way to say "you know".

嘘吐いてないよ！

uso tsuite nai yo!

I'm not lying!

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

• particle + verb (term. or cont. or -te form)
• particle + noun + particle
• noun + particle

Other structures are rarer, though of course possible. A few examples:

その件に関して知っている限りのことを教えてもらいたい。

sono ken ni kan-shite shitte-iru kagiri no koto wo oshiete moraitai

Kindly tell me everything you know concerning that case. (particle + verb in cont.)

外国語を学習する上で大切なことは毎日の努力がものを言うということである。

gaikokugo wo gakushū suru ue de taisetsu na koto wa mainichi no doryoku ga mono wo iu to iu koto de aru

In studying a foreign language, daily effort gives the most rewards. (noun + particle)

兄は両親の心配をよそに、大学をやめてしまった。

ani wa ryōshin no shinpai wo yoso ni, daigaku wo yamete shimatta

Ignoring my parents' worries, my brother dropped out of college. (particle + noun + particle)

Auxiliary verbs

Pure auxiliaries (助動詞 jodōshi) : are usually just called verb endings or conjugated forms. These auxiliaries cannot possibly function as an independent verb.

Helper auxiliaries (補助動詞 hojodōshi) : are normal verbs that lose their independent meaning when used as auxiliaries.

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.

¹ ます (masu) has stem forms: imperfective ませ and ましょ, continuative まし, terminal ます, attributive ます, hypothetical ますれ, imperative ませ.

² られる (rareru) in potential usage is sometimes shortened to れる (reru, grp. 2); thus 食べれる (tabereru, to be able to eat) instead of 食べられる (taberareru). But it is considered non-standard.

³ Technically, such an auxiliary verb る, ru, denoting the potential form, does not exist, as for example 飲める (nomeru) is thought to actually come from the contraction of 飲み得る (nomieru) (see below). However, textbooks tend to teach it this way. (飲める in old texts would have been the attributive past tense form of 飲む instead of the potential meaning.)

⁴ させる (saseru) is sometimes shortened to さす (sasu, grp. 1), but this usage is somewhat literary.

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.

• Note: 得る eru/uru is the only modern verb of shimo nidan type (and it is different from the shimo nidan type of classical Japanese), with conjugations: imperfective え, continuative え, terminal える or うる, attributive うる, hypothetical うれ, imperative えろ or えよ. Additionally, by convention, the terminal form ありえる arieru is not used; it is always ありうる ariuru.

Notes