Learning Japanese is a Wonderful Thing

The question phrase "how long" is usually expressed using by any of the following: どのくらい and どれくらい. This source says that, accordi...

"volitional + to omou" = "to intend to do such and such", "to think of doing such and such" When talking abo...

Disclaimer : I didn't get this from any book, but this is something that I picked up by hearing these two expressions many times. Cons...

Note that when using ながら, the subject must be the same for the two actions that occur together! If not, use あいだ.

Note that verbs that are used with まだ cannot be used in the past tense: まだしませんでした。 should be replaced by まだしていません。 The sentence means ...

はやる "hayaru" and 人気 "ninki" are two different words that are both translated as "popular" in English. However,...

Much of this post was directly from Tae Kim's Guide to Japanese Grammar  since I'm too lazy right now to write my own explanations. ...

In English, the passive form is used to tell something that was done on an object. For example, "The car was repaired by the mechanic...

We've already discussed は + となる "to naru" in a previous post. It means "to become ". Now let's discuss som...

まるで "marude" has two basic meanings: 1. "just like" When used in this manner, まるで is often followed by よう or みたい. ...

「このごろ」 "kono goro" means "these days", while 「このあいだ」"kono aida" means "the other day". That is, ...

～ば, ～たら and ～と are all conditionals. They are not always interchangeable, as I have written here . But what does it mean when they follow th...

ごろ (goro) is used to indicate specific points in time : 3時ごろ sanji goro about 3:00 7月ごろ shichigatsu goro around July 何時ごろですか。 Nan...

クラスを出る。 Kurasu wo deru. I will leave class. クラスに出る。 Kurasu ni deru. I will attend class. Basically, the particle depends on the dire...

This is a song that I recommend to those studying the language. It is easy to translate and provides a lot of practice on verb conjugation. ...

According to Edict: 1:  (Usually written using kana alone)  if one were to speak of ..., then certainly; if it were the case that ..., th...

Maggie's site gives a nice detailed lesson for ほど. I summarize the basic idea here, together with some expressions that are noteworthy....

以上 means "above" or "more than". Sentences from Tanimori's Handbook to Japanese Grammar. Examples: 18さい以上のひとしか入れま...

The difference between the two are summarized in  TheJapanesePage . I write it now in my own words. This   is another reference. 考える (kang...

Although both mean "to try to do something", there are some nuances involved, and the two are not interchangeable. Thanks to Elenk...