Beginner’s guide
This post is for people with zero Japanese experience to help them get started.
Using this site, the things you should do in order are:
- Read the introductory posts. These are meant to give you a quick overview of Japanese.
- Start learning Hiragana and Katakana. Learn one row at a time. Learn and respect stroke order.
- Install Rikai-kun or Rikai-chan for your browser. It will tell you the meaning and reading of any Japanese word you hover on.
- Learn the “Essential vocabulary” vocab sheet (Work in Progress, sorry). Use these words for writing practice.
- Check out the Basic Grammar Lessons. These should serve as a basic intro to Japanese sentence structure.
- Check out the Conjugation Pages (harder grammar).
- Proceed to the N5 page. A few of the pages have romaji, but most will assume you learned kana and the information above.
You should also check out the external resources to find helpful dictionaries and plug-ins.
If you have some Japanese experience or just want to test yourself, check out the beginner quiz here.
It covers all of the grammar knowledge from the basic grammar lessons below.
Introductory Posts
| Topic | Things Covered |
|---|---|
| Introduction to Japanese | Basic overview of everything |
| How to type in Japanese | How to type in Japanese |
| Japanese Pronunciation | How to pronounce Japanese. Information about intonation. |
| Japanese Writing | Information about Japanese writing systems. |
| Hiragana and Katakana | Resources to help you start learning Hiragana and katakana as well as advice |
| ツ(tsu)・シ(shi)・ソ(so)・ン(n) | Help page for ツ・シ・ソ・ン |
| Katakana シ・ツ・ソ・ン Quiz | Quiz for ツ・シ・ソ・ン |
Basic Grammar
| Topic | Things learned |
|---|---|
| Overview Page | In case you prefer it. |
| Pronouns | Basic Pronouns. わたし、ぼく |
| Honorifics | Basic Honorifics When and which to use. |
| Nouns and の (no) | Nouns and the の particle |
| だ/です | how to say "is" |
| は | Topic Marker は |
| Adjectives | Adjectives (Surprise) |
| が | Subject Marker が |
| Simple Adverbs | Basic Adverb Usage |
| Verbs | Basic Verbs |
| を | Object marker を particle |
| に | Direction, endpoint, and 2 party に particle |
| へ | Vague direction marker へ |
| で | Means or area marker で |
| と | "and" marker と |
| Questions | Question particle か。 Question Words and が. |
| は and が | Optional, more in depth look at the は が difference. Needs to be re-written. |
Conjugation
| Topic | Things Learned |
|---|---|
| Conjugation and Tense | What is conjugation Japanese Tenses |
| Verb Conjugation | Present/Future Past Negative Negative Past |
| Adjective Conjugation | Present/Future Past Negative Negative Past Adverb |
| Noun Conjugation | だ じゃない だった じゃなかった |