Make yourself at ease with Japanese through this series of lessons. Tune in each week for a 10-minute episode or look for it online. Across 48 weeks, you'll learn the basic of the language and be ...

You've learned there are two kinds of adjectives in Japanese, I-adjectives and NA-adjectives. I-adjectives end with the syllable I, such as YASUI "inexpensive." NA-adjectives take NA after them, when ...

When you ask somebody to do something in Japanese, you say TE-form verbs and then KUDASAI (Please, or I would ask you to). The TE-form verbs are the conjugated form of verbs that end with TE or DE.

In Lesson 7, Anna was surprised at seeing many cakes at the store, and said KÊKI GA IPPAI ARIMASU (There are lots of cakes). As in this case, if the subject is an inanimate thing, we use ARIMASU. We ...

The TA-form of verbs is the conjugation form of verbs that ends with TA or DA. It is for the past or the perfect aspect of verbs. Let me explain how you can change the MASU-form to the TA-form. The ...

Japanese verbs are divided into three groups. Each group has its own patterns of conjugations. "Group 1" are the verbs that have the vowel I in the syllables before MASU. KAKIMASU (to write) is an ...

When you express your ideas, opinions or guesses, first you say what you think, then you say TO OMOIMASU (I think that, more literally, That is what I think). OMOIMASU is a verb that means (to ...

We call the verbs that end with MASU "the MASU-form of verbs." We use the MASU-form, when we speak politely. To make it a negative, we change MASU to MASEN. So, YOMIMASU (to read) becomes YOMIMASEN.

In Lesson 16, you learned to express more than one action in one sentence by linking the TE-form of verbs. If you add the particle KARA (after), after the TE-form of verbs, you can make it clear that ...

You use DESHÔ at the end of a sentence, when you talk about a prediction for the future or something uncertain. When you use it in combination with nouns or adjectives, you replace DESU at the end of ...

When we want to show respect to the listener or the person we are talking about, we say O or GO before nouns or adjectives concerning that person. For example, SHIGOTO (work) becomes OSHIGOTO. GENKI ...

When you want to tell others what they are not allowed to do, you combine the NAI-form of verbs and DE KUDASAI, and say NAI DE KUDASAI (Please don't do it). For example, let's say "Please don’t go." ...