Keigo Nouns
Keigo Nouns More Polite Versions of ですです→でございますですか→でしょうか です As previously covered, to make a noun polite you simply add です instead of だ。 猫です – It is a cat. ペンです – It is a...
Category: N4 Grammar
Introduction to Keigo
Introduction to Keigo 敬語（けいご) is the word for polite speech in Japanese. It is the bane of many Japanese learners (and Japanese people). It’s a fairly hard topic, but fortunately, especially as a foreigner,...
Keigo Verbs
Keigo Verbs This page explains how to make polite, humble, and respectful forms of verbs for Keigo. Polite Verbs ます Form This is the ます form we learned in N5 ケーキを食べますEat a cake. 酒を飲みます...
ていく and てくる
ていく and てくる Verb comes, Verb goesVerb て form + くる – Verb comesVerb て form + いく – Verb goes いく and くる are verbs that represent “movement“, but in different directions. いく...
Giving and Receiving
Giving and Receiving あげる Give to X (person socially higher)Ｘにあげる あげる means to give (to someone higher (socially)). This pattern is pretty straightforward. に is used to identify to who/what you gave something. を...
Transitive and Intransitive Verbs
Verb Types Japanese generally has 2 types of verbs, Transitive (action verbs) and Intransitive (state) verbs. This is hard to understand in English, as we use the same verbs for both situations, so let’s...
か Sentence Endings
Question Sentence Endings っけ Remind me againだ ending Sentence + っけた Ending sentence + っけ っけ attaches to the end of a sentence, much like か does. It indicates a guess of which you...
ことにする and ことになる
ことにする and ことになる ことにする and ことになる are essentially the same as Nounにする and Nounになる, but with nominalized verbs instead. This is achieved through using こと to nominalize the verb. Reminder: する implies a decision...
Verbs as Adjectives
Verbs as Adjectives Plain form verbs (i.e. not ます form) can modify nouns directly. The two basic patterns are: Object and Verb + Noun This consists of an Object + Verb modifying a noun....