Learning a new language can be a lot of fun. But it is important to begin your learning with structure. You don’t want to end up knowing random or useless information that will sap your motivation once the initial enthusiasm fades.
This page is the first in five lessons that will (eventually) cover 100 grammar points that will introduce important grammatical points in a structured way. We will introduce only the most useful grammatical points in a simple and direct way. It is not, however, designed to replace a textbook or a detailed grammar book. It is our goal with this to help make complex grammatical patterns seem a little less intimidating.
Learning complex concepts is like meeting a new friend. At first, you may recognize the face but not the name. Then, you talk and become acquaintances. Over time, you may become good friends. But it takes time and constant reinforcement. Therefore, the grammar lessons found on this page are intended to help you recognize a concept so that when you come across it again (in your textbook), you will have the advantage of at least being familiar with the grammar point.
Two last things... While we are including romanized characters here, we highly recommend starting your language-learning journey with learning hiragana. Learning hiragana will teach you all the sounds in Japanese and it will prevent romaji from becoming a crutch. Click here to learn hiragana quickly and for free.
The other thing is we are adding spaces in the example sentences. This isn't natural Japanese, but it will help you mentally parse the sentences.
Here are a few other pages on Japanese grammar.
