Table of Contents
SECTION ONE: ABSOLUTE BEGINNER
Part 1: Getting Started
- Lesson 1: State of being with だ and です
- Lesson 2: Nouns, pronouns
- Lesson 3: Particles and grammatical case
- Lesson 4: の means の: possession and attributes; bonus: honorifics
- Lesson 5: Moving things with に, へ, and から
- Lesson 6: What is a verb? Nothing but a miserable pile of conjugations!
- Lesson 7: Negated verbs and using い-adjectives
- Lesson 8: The verb strikes back: the past tense
- Lesson 9: The て particle, the て form, and the imperative
- Lesson 10: Being more with で, では, and じゃ
- Lesson 11: Getting detailed with relative clauses and な-adjectives
- Lesson 12: Irregular verbs and basic formality
Part 2: Rest
- Lesson 13: Questions with か and の, featuring のだ
- Lesson 14: Why, cruel world? なぜ なんで どうして
- Lesson 15: Getting more with も and と
- Lesson 16: Existence with いる and ある, finding である and っす
- Lesson 17: Enduring the pain of ている and てある
- Lesson 18: Demonstrating: これ, それ, あれ, どれ, and friends
Part 3: The Gauntlet
- Lesson 19: Passive られる・あれる and so-called "transitive pairs"
- Lesson 20: Potential れる・える and できる
- Lesson 21: Wanting with おう/よう, たい, and ほしい
- Lesson 22: One way of saying "if" with ば
- Lesson 23: Verbs review
SECTION TWO: ABSOLUTE TERRITORY
At this point, you should begin reading, looking ahead to future lessons to see what the guide has to say about unfamiliar grammar. The remainder of this guide is half guidance, half reference.
Part 4: Communicating
- Lesson 24: "Quoting" with って and と and という/っていう/つう taking note of だって
- Lesson 25: Adverbs with と-adverbs, に-adverbs, and い-adjectives even
- Lesson 26: Sentence ending particles with ね, な, よ, ぜ, ぞ, わ, さ
- Lesson 27: Asking kindly with なさい, ください; prohibition with な
- Lesson 28: Question nouns: なに, だれ, どれ, いつ
- Lesson 29: か and も as modifying question nouns (note なんと なんて なんか.md)
- Lesson 30: Saying yes and no with うん, ううん, はい, いいえ, ええ, and いや
- Lesson 31: Generic nouns and nominalization with 事, 物, ところ, and の
- Optional Lesson 1: Polarity
Part 5: Getting a point across
- Lesson 32: Just with だけ, のみ, ただ, ばかり, しか
- Lesson 33: Still, already, and yet with もう まだ また
- Lesson 34: Not wanting with まい and permission with いい, ますか/ませんか
- Lesson 35: More questions with っけ/け, かい, じゃない, and じゃん
- Lesson 36: Making lists with や and とか and と and か
- Lesson 37: Getting self-conscious with より and counting with つ
- Lesson 38: なる and でできる, bonus causative せる, and reviewing the passive
- Lesson 39: Reflexes with 自分
- Optional Lesson 2: Bonus auxiliaries: 見る, とする, と思う, と決める
Part 6: Putting things together
- Lesson 40: Being more negative: なくて, ないで, and ず and ずに
- Lesson 41: If and when with と たら なら
- Lesson 42: Concurrence with ながら あいだ うちに つつ
- Lesson 43: Adversatives with が けど けれど しかし ても and でも
- Lesson 44: Entailment with から そして ので で
- Lesson 45: Linking conjunctions のに ように ために せいで だって し
- Lesson 46: Aspect with てしまう, ていく, てくる, ておく, ておる
- Lesson 47: The normalization of でも and だって
- Optional Lesson 3: Formal logical conjunctions または, あるいは, 及び, and more
Part 7: Relatively speaking
- Lesson 48: Expectation with わけ, はず, べき, べし, ものだ, かもしれない
- Lesson 49: Approximately ころ, くらい, たり, and limits with まで, ほど, すぎる
- Lesson 50: Doing the time with 後, 前/先, 時 (note さっき.md)
- Lesson 51: Likeness with らしい ぽい そう など
- Lesson 52: Being done for someone with やる あげる もらう くれる
- Lesson 53: Wrongness with だめ, いけない, ならない, featuring "must"
- Lesson 54: "Oh well" and "I can't help it" with "It can't be helped"
- Optional Lesson 4: Under the rug: A mess of particles and auxiliaries
INTERMISSIONS
Part 1: Getting Started (intermissions.md)
- Vowels
- Long vowels and gemination
- Devoicing
- Spelling irregularities
- Consonant irregularity
- "Synthetic" language
- What's subarashiki about poetry anyway?
- About jargon
- What even is an infinitive?
- Japanese japanese grammar is bad, too, actually
- The dreaded parse and auxiliary verbs
- Keigo and some archaic speech
Part 2: Rest (intermissions.md)
- Two notes on の and のだ
- Notes on なぜ なんで どうして
- Single piece of trivia on と
- Notes on いる, ある, である, and っす
- Notes on ている and てある
- Notes on demonstratives