This article deals with the grammar of the Japanese Language.

Introduction

The Japanese language yields readily to linguistic analysis. It has a generally regular agglutinative verb morphology, with both productive (tense) and fixed (voice and aspect) elements. Typologically, the most prominent feature of Japanese is topic creation; Japanese is neither topic-prominent, nor subject-prominent, but rather has mechanisms to handle both. Indeed, it is common for sentences to have distinct topics and subjects. Grammatically, Japanese is an SOV (subject-object-verb) language with verbs rigidly constrained to the sentence-final position. The word order is generally free as long as the order of dependent-head is maintained among all constituents: the adjective or relative clause precedes the modified noun, the adverb precedes the modified verb, the genitive nominal precedes the possessed nominal, and so forth. Thus, Japanese is a left-branching language.

A brief history

Since the earliest written works from the Nara and Heian periods, the history of Japanese grammar is characterised by long periods of stasis punctuated by drastic changes. The Japanese of the Heian period is not intelligible to a speaker of modern Japanese without a certain amount of technical instruction; the extent of difference is comparable to that of Middle English and Modern English.

In modern Japanese, the grammar of Late Old Japanese, but usually containing anachronistic elements, is sometimes called classical or literary language (文語 bungo). Note that bungo is also used by scholars to refer to specific periods in the evolution of Japanese grammar. Modern writers sometimes affect a literary style (文語体, bungotai), mainly for theatrical effect; aspects of bungo are taught in Japanese schools as part of the kokugo (国語, national language) curriculum.

The most consistent syntactic feature throughout the history of Japanese has been word-order. Tense, aspect, and mood however have generally moved from richer to more impoverished systems. These have been counterbalanced with a richer system of nominative and case particles to obviate elements of agglutinative syntax. The same particle can have widely different meanings in classical and modern Japanese, to the extent that some linguists consider the particles of classical and modern Japanese to be incomparable. A major historical note in Japanese grammar is the rise of the honorific system, though it has seen an abrupt and still continuing decline after the abolishment of social classes during the Meiji restoration era.

Structure of text

Text (文章, bunshou) is composed of sentences (文, bun), which are in turn composed of phrases (文節 bunsetsu), the smallest coherent components of a sentence. Like Chinese and classical Korean, Japanese does not demarcate words with spaces. The agglutinative nature of Japanese further makes the concept of a word rather different from words in English. Word divisions are informed by semantic cues and a knowledge of bunsetsu. Bunsetsu can be identified by the following rule of thumb: it must be natural to introduce pauses and particles at bunsetsu boundaries. More descriptively, bunsetsu have a single meaning-bearing word, followed by a string of suffixes, auxiliary verbs and particles to modify its meaning and designate its grammatical role. In the following example, bunsetsu are indicated by vertical bars:

太陽が｜東の｜空に｜登る。
taiyou ga | higashi no | sora ni | noboru.
The sun rises in the eastern sky.

Due to the coherence of bunsetsu, some scholars romanize Japanese sentences by inserting spaces only at bunsetsu boundaries ("taiyouga higashino sorani noboru"). However, words (単語 tango), not bunsetsu are the atoms of sentences; unlike bunsetsu they need not have intrinsic meaning, so particles and auxiliary verbs as classified as words. Some classical auxiliary verbs like -te are grammaticalized as conjugation or verb ending in modern Japanese, not individual words.

わたし｜は｜毎日｜学校｜まで｜歩いて｜行きます。
watashi wa mainichi gakkou made aruite ikimasu.
I walk to school every day.

Words fall into two broad categories: independent words (自立語 jiritsugo), which have intrinsic meaning, and dependent words (付属語 fuzokugo) with no intrinsic meaning.

Notes:

1. Also known as -na adjective
2. Prenominal adjective

Politeness and respect

Japanese distinguishes levels of formality both lexically and grammatically, though the levels are not distinct in every situation. The descriptors politeness and formality are not used consistently by scholars, and are essentially interchangable. In modern Japanese four discrete levels of politeness can be distinguished, which are referred to as informal (常体 joutai), distal (敬体 keitai), polite (丁寧 teinei), and formal in this article. For example, for the sentence "this is a book":

These levels of politeness apply to all expressions in Japanese, and are independent of respect (which is indicated in different ways). The informal style is used among friends, the distal style among strangers or casual acquaintances, the polite style by inferiors when addressing superiors, and the formal style generally in writing or prepared speeches. The formal and informal styles are often identical.

For each politeness level there are two types of respectful forms (敬語 keigo). The first form gives the most respect to the subject of the sentence; this is known as respect language (尊敬語 sonkeigo). The second form gives respect to the (direct or indirect) object by a variety of means, the most common being to humble the speaker; this is known as humble language (謙譲語 kenjougo). These respectful forms are represented by different forms of the noun, verb, adjective, etc.

Since respect is on a different axis as politeness, one obtains a style matrix. Consider the verb to wait (待つ matsu)

¹ The passive form of the verb often plays this role.

Differences in politeness and respect is sometimes indicated by selecting different words, though the pattern is irregular. The following are a few examples:

¹ The distinction between these three verbs is lost in some respectful forms.

² いただく itadaku is actually the humble form of receive (くれる kureru) and can also be used for drink (飲む nomu).

In using polite or respectful forms, it is important to keep in mind that the point of view of the speaker is shared by the speaker's in-group (内 uchi), so it is impossible for in-group referrents to take honorifics. To illustrate, members of one's own company are refferred to with humble forms when speaking with an external person; similarly, family members of the speaker are refferred to humbly when speaking to guests. Dually, the out-group (外 soto) addressee or referrent is always mentioned in the polite style (though not necessarily with honorifics).

Needless to say, mastery of politeness and honorifics is critical for functioning in Japanese society. Not speaking politely enough can be insulting, and speaking too politely can be distancing (and therefore also insulting). Children generally speak using plain informal speech, but they are expected to master politeness and honorifics by the end of their teenage years. Recent trends indicate that the importance of proper politeness is not as high as before, particularly in metropolitan areas. The standards are inconsistently applied towards foreigners, though it is generally recommended for adult Japanese learners to master the distal style before attempting the others.

Nouns, pronouns, other deictics

Nouns (名詞 meishi)

Japanese nouns are non-inflecting, have no gender, and take no articles. Thus neko 猫 could be translated into English as "cat", "a cat", "the cat", "cats", or "the cats", depending on context.

In respectful speech, The o- prefix is used for native nouns, and go- for Sino-Japanese nouns. Some common nouns have unpredictable respectul forms. Examples:

Pronouns (代名詞 daimeishi)

The use of pronouns in Japanese is rare, limited to when the referrent can't be deduced from the context. For example, 日本に行きました nihon ni ikimashita says just "went to Japan". The subject is inferred from context: if the topic is the first person, then it means "I went to Japan", for a third person, "he/she went to Japan", etc. Speakers of Japanese tend to use names instead of pronouns in speech. For example:

「木下さんは、背が高いですね」
"Kinoshita-san wa se ga takai desu ne"
(addressing Mr. Kinoshita:) "You're pretty tall, aren't you?"

(Note a potential source of confusion for students of Japanese: it is not uncommon for speakers, particularly children, to refer to themselves in the third person.)

Japanese has many nouns that can be used as personal pronouns; see [1] for a long list. Some common ones:

Although Japanese nouns don't inflect for number, there are "plural" forms to indicate semantic number: watashitachi (私たち) for "we", anatatachi (あなたたち) for "you (plural)", bokura (僕等) for "we (inform. male)". (Tachi (たち) and ra (等) are the most common pluralizing suffixes.)

The reflexive pronoun 自分 jibun

Whereas in English there are many reflexive pronouns (himself, herself, itself, themself, etc.), in Japanese there is a single reflexvie pronoun 自分 jibun. The use of the reflexive pronouns in the two languages are very different. The following incorrect literal translations demonstrate the differences (*=impossible, ??=ambiguous)

¹ If the sentence has more than one grammatical or semantic subject, then the target is the subject of the main action; thus, the following is grammatical, even though John is the grammatical subject, because the main action is Mary's reading:

ジョンがメリーに自分の家で本を読ませた。
jon ga meri- ni jibun no uchi de hon wo yomaseta
John made Mary read book(s) in her (note: not his) house

In practice the main action is not always discernible, in which case such sentences are ambiguous.

The use of jibun in complex sentences follows non-trivial rules. For a thorough analysis, refer to Susumu Kuno, The reflexive pronoun and internal feeling, chapter 26 in The Structure of the Japanese Language, MIT Press 1973 (ISBN 0262110490).

Demonstratives

Demonstratives occur in the ko-, so-, and a- series. The ko- series refers to things closer to the speaker than the hearer, the so- series for things closer to the hearer, and the a-series for things distant to both the speaker and the hearer. With do- demonstratives turn into the corresponding question form. Demonstratives of are also used for people, for example

こちらは林さんです

kochira wa Hayashi-san desu

This is Mr Hayashi

Demonstratives limit, and therefore precede, nouns; thus この本 kono hon for "this/my book", and その本 sono hon for "that/your book".

When demonstratives are used to refer to things not visible to the speaker or the hearer, or to (abstract) concepts, they fulfill a related but different anaphoric role. The anaphoric so- series is used to refer to experience that is not shared between the speaker and the listener, generally because one party has no information about it. For shared information the anaphoric a- series is used.

佐藤： 昨日田中という人が死んだって。その(*あの)人、森さんの昔の隣人だったんでしょう。

Sato: kinou tanaka to iu hito ga shinda-tte. sono (*ano) hito, mori-san no mukashi no rinjin datta n' deshou.

Sato: I heard that a man called Tanaka died yesterday. Wasn't he an old neighbour of yours?

森： ええ、そうです。

Mori: ee, sou desu.

Mori: Yes, that's right.

Ano is inappropriate here because Sato doesn't (didn't) know Tanaka personally. On the other hand:

A: 先日、札幌に行ってきました。

A: senjitsu, sapporo ni itte kimashita.

A: I visited Sapporo recently.

B: あそこ(*そこ)はいつ行ってもいい所ですね。

B: asoko (*soko) wa itsu itte mo ii tokoro desu ne.

B: Yeah, that's a good place to visit whenever you go.

Again soko instead of asoko would imply that B has no knowledge of Sapporo, which is inconsistent with the rest of the sentence.

The ko- series demonstratives don't have clear anaphoric uses. They can be used in situations where the a- series sound too analytic:

一体何ですか、これ(?あれ)は？

ittai nan desu ka, kore (?are) wa?

What on earth is this?

Stem forms

Overview

Conjugative suffixes and auxiliary verbs are not independent words (自立語 jiritsugo); they are tacked on to the stem forms of the affixee, which may be verbs, adjectives or the copulative だ da. To understand the stem forms, one needs to classify the verbs and adjectives morphologically. For verbs there are two major classes: regular and irregular. These major classes have further distinctions based on certain stem forms.

• Regular
  • 上一段 kami ichidan or group 2a verbs, whose attributive or plain form (連体形 rentaikei) rhyme with -iru.
  • 下一段 shimo ichidan or group 2b verbs, whose attributive form rhyme with -eru.
  • 五段 godan or group 1 verbs, whose continuative form end in some element of the -u line in the kana chart. Note that in modern Japanese, -yu is impossible, though it was once common.
• Irregular
  • サ変 sa-hen, of which the sole member is する suru.
  • カ変 ka-hen, which also has exactly one member, 来る kuru.

All pure adjectives (形容詞 keiyoushi) in modern Japanese end in -i. All of these except 良い yoi are regular. All adjectival nouns (形容動詞 keiyoudoushi) are regular.

Attributive form (連体形 rentaikei)

Also known as the plain (基本形 kihonkei), or dictionary form. Though certain suffixes like -mai are applicable to this form of verbs, it is in general used before nouns (名詞 meishi) or pseudonouns (形式名詞 keishikimeishi) to classify for the noun. In this function, the word is said to be a prenominal adjective (連体詞 rentaishi).

Terminal Form (終止形 shuushikei)

Also commonly known as predicate form. This form of the verb or adjective is used only in the ends of clauses. It is not restricted to the end of sentences, but can be followed by particles like to or nado. In modern Japanese, the terminal form is identical to the attributive form for all except the adjectival nouns, for which -na changes to the copula -da.

Continuative Form (連用形 ren'youkei)

This is the most productive form of the stem, taking on a variety of suffixes. It is also used suffixless to conjoin verbs in a continuative sense, similar to the -te suffix. This form is sometimes called the pre-masu form, because the -masu auxiliary verb is affixed to this form in polite speech.

This common form has seen a lot of phonemic drift (音便 onbin) over the years; see the subsection on it below.

Imperfective form (未然形 mizenkei)

This form is used for plain negative, causative or passive constructions. The most common occurrence of this form is with the -nai adjectival suffix, which turns verbs into their negative form. Important note: -nai is attached to the continuative form for adjectives.

¹ The final う -u of the attributive form becomes わ -wa in the imperfective form. The reason is that classically such verbs belonged to the ワ or ハ column instead of the ア column.

In modern Japanese the 五段 verbs ある aru (在る or 有る) have irregular imperfective forms when used with ない nai: instead of *あらない *aranai, it is simply ない nai. For other suffixes that attach to the imperfective form there is no change; for example, あらず arazu and あらぬ aranu are valid, though exceedingly rare.

Irrealis (已然形 izenkei) and hypothetical (仮定形 kateikei) forms

These related forms are used with subjunctive suffixes -ba and -domo. Classically there was only one form, the 已然形 izenkei, which was used with -ba and domo for subjunctives, and also independently or with the interrogative particle -ya to indicate rhetorical questions (primarily in Nara poetry). This second use has disappeared, so in modern Japanese grammars hypothetical form (仮定形 kateikei) is preferred.

Imperative Form (命令形 meireikei)

This form is used for commands. It is usually seen without any suffixes or auxiliaries. Adjectives don't have an imperative form.

Phonemic change (音便 onbin)

The above generally regular formation rules have a few phonemic exceptions, some of which can be traced back to the Late Old period. Luckily, there are only a few exceptions, and are easily learned.

The case of verbs

For verbs the exceptions are all in the ending of the continuative form of group 1 (五段 godan) verbs when the following auxiliary is た ta, て te, たり tari, etc. (which are, incidentally, stem forms of the same auxiliary verb たり tari of classical Japanese).

There is one other irregular change: 行く iku (to go), for which there is an exceptional form: 行き iki + て te = 行って itte.

The case of adjectives

The continuative form of proper adjectives (形容詞 keiyoushi) when followed by polite forms such as ございます gozaimasu or 存じます zonjimasu undergo a transformation.

The case of polite verbs

Polite verbs like くださる kudasaru, なさる nasaru, ござる gozaru, いらっしゃる irassharu, おっしゃる ossharu, etc. behave like group 1 (五段 godan) verbs, except in the continuative (連用形 ren'youkei) and imperative (命令形 meireikei) forms.

Adjectives

Japanese has two categories of words that function as adjectives: adjectives (keiyōshi 形容詞) and adjectivial nouns (keiyōdōshi 形容動詞).

Adjectives 形容詞

These adjectives are also known as an i-adjectives (so called because the dictionary form ends in ~i).

早い車

hayai kuruma

fast car

But hayai 早い can also act as a verb meaning "is fast":

車が早い

kuruma ga hayai

The car is fast

Adjectives conjugate as follows:

Notes:

1. Modern Japanese does not use the imperative form of the adjective, however, the imperative form is used as a stem for other forms.

TODO: fill in the blanks

Notes:

1. stem + i + you + da is based on the 連体形 form of the adjective, as opposed to the others, which are based on the 終止形 form of the adjective. (There was a phonetic distinction between the two in bungo.)
2. stem + sa is based on the 命令形 of the adjective.

It should be noted that, although なくて nakute is the correct ~te form of ない nai, ないで naide has begun to displace it in modern times in some contexts.

Polite speech does not use the adjective by itself as a verb, but adds the polite copula "desu". For example:

本は赤い

hon wa akai

The book is red (plain)

本は赤いです

hon wa akai desu

The book is red (polite)

Adjectivial nouns (na-adjective) 形容動詞

An adjectivial noun is a noun that turns into an adjective when followed by na な and into an adverb when followed by ni に. When used with na it modifies the following noun. For example:

• hen 変 "strangeness"
• hen na gaijin 変な外人 "strange foreigner"
• hen ni 変に "strangely"
• benri 便利 "convenience"
• benri na sofuto 便利なソフト "convenient software"
• benri ni 便利に "conveniently"

This category is not recognised by all grammarians.

Declension

TODO: fill in the blanks

Using -na な or -no の

When -na is used, the word is treated as an adjectivial noun, whereas when -no is used, the word is treated as a normal noun. Furthermore, the choice can change the meaning:

Honorific adjectives

The honorific copula gozaimasu can be used in stead of desu for more politeness, with the preceding i-adjective in u-onbin form, which is commonly used in Kansai dialect in place of ~ku form of i-adjectives:

This adjective formation rarely appears in standard Japanese except with this copula.

When the preceding word is a noun or a na-adjectives, de must be inserted:

Verbs

Copula

The copula da inflects as follows:

Conjugation

All verbs except the copula have a "dictionary form" ending in ~u (so-called because verbs appear in dictionaries in this form).

There are two main conjugation classes, "Group 1" (godandōshi) and "Group 2" (ichidandōshi; ending in "~iru" or "~eru"), five special polite verbs which share a conjugation class (irassharu, ossharu, kudasaru, *gozaru, nasaru), and a handful of irregular verbs (aru, iku, kuru, suru, and kureru). Kureru is irregular only in its imperative form, which is kure rather than *kurero, despite it otherwise conjugating like a Group 2 verb.

Table of inflected forms

(TODO: This table is missing tentative, ~sai, ~nasai. Also, how do you make the passive, causative and potential stems for the irregular verbs?)

¹ Passive, causative and potential forms become the dictionary form of a new verb, which then inflect like a group 2 verb. For example the causative form of yomu is yomaseru "cause to read", which can then inflect to become yomasemashita "caused to read (polite)", yomasetai "want to cause to read" and so on.

² The plain negative and desiderative forms of verbs act and inflect like adjectives. For example, tabetai "want to eat"; tabetakunai "do not want to eat"; taberaretakunakatta "did not want to be eaten".

Table of stems

¹ The infinitive and stem are formed regularly for group 1 verbs by replacing ~u with ~i and ~a respectively in the dictionary form, but this is somewhat obscured by the use of Hepburn romanization.

² These verbs are regular except for the form indicated in bold. Thus aru → nai (not *aranai); iku → itta (not *iita);

³ Derived forms of these verbs inflect in the same way. Thus mottekuru "bring" inflects like kuru and benkyōsuru "study" inflects like suru.

Conjugations of kuru 来る

Conjugations of suru する

Group 1 verbs ending in ~eru and ~iru

These verbs look as though they should be in Group 2, but are actually in Group 1:

High-frequency verbs

• ~iru
  • chiru 散る "scatter"
  • hairu 入る "enter"
  • hashiru 走る "run"
  • iru^* 要る "need"
  • kagiru 限る "restrict"
  • kiru^* 切る "cut"
  • mairu 参る kenjōgo of iku and kuru.
  • majiru 混じる "mingle"
  • nigiru 握る "grasp"
  • shiru 知る "know"
  • saegiru 遮る "interrupt"
• ~eru
  • fukeru^* 耽る "to be absorbed in"
  • heru^* 減る "decrease"
  • kaeru^* 帰る "return"
  • keru 蹴る "kick"
  • shaberu 喋る "chatter"
  • shigeru 茂る "grow thick"
  • shimeru^* 湿る "to become damp"
  • suberu 滑る "slip"
  • teru 照る "shine"
• compound verbs ending in the verbs listed above; yokogiru 横切る "go across", sakibashiru 先走る "be too hasty" and so on.

^* These verbs heve homonyms which are in Group 2 as they appaear to be. For example, iru 居る, which means "exist", is in Group 2.

(TODO: complete this list)

Other verb forms

(TODO: Japanese has many constructions involving phrasal or auxiliary verbs.)

-te form (gerund)

A verb in the -te form (gerund) is usually followed by an auxiliary verb. For example, terebi-o mite iru, "(He) is watching TV".

See [2] for a complete list of auxiliary verbs that follow a verb in the -te form.

Honorific verbs

Rules are very diverse and the only certain rule is that you may not use same word as in polite speech. There is no definite guidelines for when one is appropriate and using the highest form is not appropriate for all situations. The way and the level listener has spoken to the speaker can be used as a measure of honorific needed. The next form is more honorific than the one before:

1. miru "see"
2. haikensuru "allowed to see"
3. haikensasetemorau
4. haikensaseteitadaku

Particles

Japanese indicates the grammatical role of a noun, clause or phrase by following it with a particle.

(TODO: This list is far from complete.)

ka か (question)

猫は魚を食べるか

neko wa sakana o taberu ka

Does the cat eat fish?

wa は (topic, contrast)

猫は魚を食べる

neko wa sakana o taberu

The cat eats the fish

ga が (subject, but)

海が青い

umi ga aoi

The sea is blue

和子は目が黒い

Kazuko wa me ga kuroi

Kazuko's eyes are black

日本語は難しいが面白い

nihongo wa muzakashii ga omoshiroi

The Japanese language is hard but interesting

o を (object)

水を飲む

mizu o nomu

(I) drink water

no の (possession, apposition)

日本の料理はおいしい

nihon no ryōri wa oishii

Japanese cuisine is delicious

こちらは先生の林さんです

kochira wa sensei no Hayashi san desu

This is (my) teacher Mr Hayashi

ni に (indirect object, time, location, direction)

父に本を上げました

chichi ni hon o agemashita

(I) gave my father a book

金曜日に行く

kinyōbi ni iku

(I am) going on Friday

先生は学校にいます

sensei wa gakkō ni imasu

The teacher is in the school

日本に行く

Nihon ni iku

(I am) going to Japan

本当に面白いです

hontō ni omoshiroi desu

(It) is truly interesting.

e へ (direction)

日本へ行く

Nihon e iku

(I am) going to Japan

de で (location, means)

本屋で本を買いました

honya de hon o kaimashita

(I) bought a book at the bookstore

東京に電車で行きました

Tōkyō ni densha de ikimashita

(I) went to Tokyo by train

kara から (starts at, from, because)

夏休み七月からです

natsu yasumi wa shichigatsu kara desu

Summer holiday begins in July

日本から帰る

Nihon kara kaeru

(I am) coming home from Japan

和子は目が青いからすきです

Kazuko wa me ga kuroi kara suki desu

I like Kazuko because her eyes are black

made まで (until)

冬は三月二十日までです

fuyu wa sangatsu hatsuka made desu

Winter ends on March 20th.

mo も (also, as much as)

海が青い。空も青い

umi ga aoi. sora mo aoi

The sea is blue. The sky is also blue

この飛行機に四百人も乗れます

kono hikōki ni yonhyakunin mo noremasu

As many as four hundred people can ride this airplane.

to と (together with, complete and, quotation)

家内と日本に行きました

kanai to Nihon ni ikimashita

(I) went to Japan with (my) wife

パンとジュースを買いました

pan to jūsu o kaimashita

(I) bought bread and juice.

眠いと言いました

nemui to iimashita

(He) said (he's) sleepy.

ya や (incomplete and)

東京や京都に行きました

Tōkyō ya Kyōto ni ikimashita

(I) went to Tokyo and Kyoto (and …)

ne ね (emphasis or asking for agreement)

寒いですね

samui desu ne

Cold, isn't it?

yo よ (used for emphasis or when offering an opinion)

寒いですよ

samui desu yo

It's cold, I tell you!

TODO

• Politeness
• Embedded sentence
• Particle
  • Missing particles, e.g., nagara, niwa
  • Nominal use of no
  • Compound particle
  • Sentence final particle
• Verbs
  • Explanation of tenses
  • Table of forms is missing ~ō
  • Any other irregular verbs?
  • Forms involving phrasal and auxiliary verbs
• Numbers
• Counters
• Links

See Also

• Japanese language
• Japanese language and computers
• Japanese language guide
• Japanese Language Proficiency Test
• Japanese counter word
• Japanese name
• Japanese numerals
• Wikipedia:Manual of Style for Japan-related articles
• Japanese Wikibook