Foundations

Introduction

How Japanese works

Three scripts, the verb at the end, and little words that do the work English gives to word order. You never have to type Japanese here: romaji is always accepted.

Grammar primer

Hiragana, part 1: the first twenty sounds

The five vowels and the k, s, t and n rows. Enough to read your first ten words by the end of the next lesson.

Vocabulary

Words 1 to 10

Grammar primer

Hiragana, part 2: the rest of the chart

The remaining rows, the two little marks that turn k into g, the small ya, yu and yo, the small tsu and long vowels.

Vocabulary

Words 11 to 20

Grammar primer

は and です: the Japanese sentence

X は Y です is half of everything you will say for the first month. Add か and it is a question.

Vocabulary

Words 21 to 30

Review session

Word Bubbles review session

Pop the words you just met by matching each one to its meaning. A couple of rounds and the batch is yours.

Vocabulary

Words 31 to 40

Grammar primer

Particles: を, に, で and の

The little words after a noun that say what it is doing in the sentence. Japanese word order is loose because these carry the meaning.

Vocabulary

Words 41 to 50

Review session

Word Bubbles review session

Pop the words you just met by matching each one to its meaning. A couple of rounds and the batch is yours.

Vocabulary

Words 51 to 60

Grammar primer

Katakana, through words you already know

The second kana, for words borrowed from other languages. Coffee, television, bread and hotel are all in it.

Vocabulary

Words 61 to 70

Review session

Word Bubbles review session

Pop the words you just met by matching each one to its meaning. A couple of rounds and the batch is yours.

Vocabulary

Words 71 to 80

Grammar primer

The ます form and the three verb groups

Every verb you have met so far, made polite: 食べます, 行きます, します. And the one rule that sorts verbs into three groups.

Vocabulary

Words 81 to 90

Review session

Word Bubbles review session

Pop the words you just met by matching each one to its meaning. A couple of rounds and the batch is yours.

Vocabulary

Words 91 to 100

Read a story

Read: 今日はちょっと……

A LINE chat between two friends: one invitation, one very Japanese way of saying no, and a photo that changes everything. Every word in it comes from this chapter.

Vocabulary

The number house: ゼロ to 九

Zero to nine. Four and seven have two readings each: say よん and なな when you count, and keep し and しち for later.

Review session

Word Bubbles review session

Pop the words you just met by matching each one to its meaning. A couple of rounds and the batch is yours.

Vocabulary

Number house two: 十 and the teens

十 (じゅう) plus a digit is a teen: 十一 is じゅういち, 11, and 十九 is じゅうきゅう, 19. Ask how many with いくつ.

Grammar primer

How Japanese numbers work

Eleven words build every number to 99,999: a digit after 十 adds, a digit before it multiplies. And the sound changes that make 三百 さんびゃく.

Vocabulary

Number house three: the tens, 百, 千 and 万

A digit before 十 multiplies: 二十 is 20. Then 百, 千 and 万, and the one that trips English speakers: Japanese counts in ten-thousands, so a million is 百万.

Themed review

Here, there, over there

これ, それ, あれ, どれ: four prefixes that build this, that, that over there and which, and the same pattern again for here and where.

Arcade review

Arcade review

Replay this chapter's words as games - a different kind of repetition, and it counts.