53 docs tagged with "vocabulary"

Japanese animal idioms explained: phrasal 慣用句 built on 馬, 犬, 猫, and 虎, each with its reading, literal gloss, real meaning, and everyday usage.

Body parts and health vocabulary in Japanese: the N5 core list (頭, 目, 手, 足), illness words like 風邪 and 熱, plus the が痛い pattern and doctor phrases.

A Japanese counters list grouped by category: 50+ counters with kanji, readings, what they count, and JLPT estimates, plus links to each deep-dive.

Japanese counters (助数詞) explained: why the language needs measure words, the top 20 to memorize first, and where 一本 becomes いっぽん. Start counting here.

Japanese emotion onomatopoeia decoded: the top 30 feeling words like ドキドキ, ワクワク, and イライラ, the nuance between near-synonyms, plus intensity scaling.

How Japanese slang works: the four formation patterns behind 若者言葉 and net-speak, why slang churns so fast, with dated examples like やばい and 草.

How many Japanese words do you need to be fluent? See the JLPT vocab targets from N5 to N1, the passive vs active gap, and the native-speaker ceiling.

How new loanwords are coined in Japanese: the pipeline from foreign concept to katakana to a settled word, the language bodies that steer it, and why some fail.

How to learn Japanese vocabulary effectively: compare pre-made decks, sentence mining, and textbook lists, and pick the right approach for your JLPT level.

Japanese body-part idioms explained: 慣用句 built on 手, 目, 口, and 心, each with its reading, literal gloss, real meaning, usage, and how everyday it is.

Japanese colors vocabulary made predictable: which colors are い-adjectives (赤い, 青い), which are nouns needing の (緑, 紫), and the 青/緑 blue-green history.

Japanese counter sound changes explained: why 一本 reads いっぽん, not いちほん. The euphonic rules for 1, 3, 6, 8, 10 across h-, k-, s-, and t-row counters.

Japanese feelings and emotions vocabulary: a register-sorted list of 嬉しい, 悲しい, 怒る, 楽しい, 寂しい plus the ～がる third-person rule for describing how others feel.

Japanese family vocabulary explained: the full N5 kinship list, why 父 and お父さん split into own-family vs other-family sets, plus in-law terms.

Japanese food and eating vocabulary for N5–N4: core foods, the cooking verbs 焼く 煮る 蒸す 揚げる, tableware, restaurant phrases, and いただきます explained.

Japanese internet and tech vocabulary, organized: core word lists for ネット, スマホ, and SNS, plus the clipping, する-verb, and wasei-eigo patterns behind them.

Japanese shopping vocabulary for N5–N4: 円 (yen), the 買う/売る/払う verbs, store types like コンビニ and 八百屋, price words 高い/安い, plus いくらですか and shop keigo phrases.

Japanese numbers for beginners: the native and Sino-Japanese sets, the 万-block grouping for large numbers, reading zero, decimals, and counter forms.

Japanese onomatopoeia explained: the four classes (giseigo, giongo, gitaigo, giyougo), reduplication and form patterns, and why mimetic words fill daily speech.

Japanese school vocabulary for N5–N4: the 小学校→大学院 ladder, subjects 国語 算数 数学 理科 社会 英語, classroom words, the 勉強する/習う verbs, and 運動会/文化祭.

Japanese transportation vocabulary for N5–N4: train, bus, and station words, the 乗る/降りる particle rule, ticket and IC-card phrases, and directions.

Japanese weather vocabulary for N5–N4: the words 晴れ 雨 雪 曇り 風, the four seasons 春夏秋冬, temperature adjectives, the 降る/吹く verbs, and 梅雨 explained.

Japanese workplace vocabulary for N4–N3: job titles 社長/部長/課長, 働く vs 勤める, 出勤/退勤/会議, 名刺 business-card words, and the keigo of humbling your own company.

The JLPT N1 vocabulary list, ~10,000 words: the new literary, formal, specialized, and long-tail layer beyond N2, and why you read and mine it, not drill it.

JLPT N1 vocabulary means ~10,000 words, most seen rarely. Learn why deck-drilling hits diminishing returns and how immersion plus a curated core closes the gap.

A JLPT N2 kanji and vocabulary strategy: the ~1,000 kanji and ~6,000 words, the new layer beyond N3, the decks worth using, and a parallel-track schedule.

The JLPT N2 vocabulary list, foregrounding the ~1,750 words new beyond N3: business, news, academic, and formal register, plus 漢語 and study decks.

The JLPT N3 vocabulary list, foregrounding the ~1,800 words new beyond N4: the Sino-Japanese surge, work, society, news, emotion, and study decks.

A JLPT N4 kanji and vocabulary strategy: the ~300 kanji and ~1,500 words (700 new beyond N5), the decks to use, and a parallel-track study schedule.

The JLPT N4 vocabulary list, foregrounding the ~700 words new beyond N5: verbs, transitive pairs, な-adjectives, adverbs, connectors, and decks.

The JLPT N5 vocabulary list of ~800 words, grouped by verbs, nouns, adjectives, time, and particles, with N5 kanji coverage and decks to study them.

A JLPT N5 vocabulary strategy: which decks to use (Tango N5, Core 2k, WaniKani), a 6-words-a-day plan to ~800 in four months, and when to add sentences.

JLPT vocabulary by level: the unofficial counts for N5 to N1, why no official list exists since 2010, and the real new-words-per-level figures.

Japanese proverbs (kotowaza): 50 essential sayings with literal and English-equivalent meanings, the kotowaza-vs-idiom line, and when speakers use them.

Loanwords that replaced native Japanese words rarely replace them fully. See how ミルク, スプーン, and アパート split from their native synonyms by register.

Movement onomatopoeia in Japanese: learn ゆっくり, バタバタ, グルグル and the giyougo class, how they pair with motion verbs via と, and their conversational use.

Learn the onomatopoeia + する pattern to turn mimetic words into verbs. Covers ドキドキ, ワクワク, ハラハラ, イライラ, conjugation, and when to use と instead.

Onomatopoeia in manga and anime decoded: how SFX like ドカン, バーン, and the silent シーン are drawn into the art, the katakana feel, and how translators handle them.

Passive vs active vocabulary explains why you understand far more Japanese than you can speak, and how to convert recognition into real production.

Pre-English loanwords in Japanese: where パン, タバコ, ガラス, and アルバイト come from, traced by source language from Portuguese and Dutch to German and beyond.

Sentence mining lets you build a Japanese Anki deck from what you read. Learn the i+1 method, the Yomitan, JPDB, and Migaku tools, and how to avoid over-mining.

Shortened loanwords in Japanese follow a four-mora rule. Learn why パソコン, リモコン, and アポ get clipped and how to predict the short form yourself.

Texture and appearance onomatopoeia in Japanese: learn フワフワ, ザラザラ, ベタベタ and the food-texture words like サクサク and モチモチ used in ads and menus.

Japanese time, date, and calendar vocabulary for N5: days of the week, months, clock counters 時/分/秒, relative-time words, and the irregular date readings.

Top 50 yojijukugo for N2 learners in one sortable table: kanji, reading, literal and idiomatic meaning, an English equivalent, a cited example, and origin.

Wasei-eigo are Japanese-coined pseudo-English words like サラリーマン and ホットケーキ. Learn what they are, how they form, and the real English for each.

Gairaigo are Japanese loanwords written in katakana. Learn what 外来語 means, the Portuguese, Dutch, and English layers, and how much vocabulary they cover.

Japanese word frequency follows Zipf's law: the top 1,000 words cover ~80% of speech. See the full coverage curve and what it means for study order.

Learn how to study yojijukugo: where four-character idioms appear in editorials, speeches, and formal writing, how to batch and SRS them, and how many to learn.

The 人 (nin) counter counts people in Japanese, but 一人 is ひとり and 二人 is ふたり. Learn the 1 to 10 readings, why 四人 is よにん, and when formal 名 (めい) is used.

Count animals in Japanese with 匹 (small), 頭 (large), and 羽 (birds). Learn the size boundary, the irregular 一匹・三匹 readings, and why rabbits take 羽.

The 本 (hon) counter in Japanese counts long, thin objects: pens, bottles, trees. Learn its irregular readings and why calls and movies count too.

The 枚 (mai) counter in Japanese counts flat, thin objects: paper, tickets, cards, shirts, plates. The regular counter that never changes its reading.