56 articles
grammar
ばかり after a noun means 'nothing but this,' after a verb means 'always doing this,' and after た-form means 'just did this' -- one word, three faces.
grammar
Why do Japanese people speak so briefly? Casual speech has three secret rules — questions use rising intonation instead of か, は・が・を get dropped, and だ vanishes before か.
grammar
やれるだけやった, 言いたいだけ言って -- when だけ sits between two verbs, it means 'as much as possible within the limit.' An N3 must-know.
grammar
だけ draws a boundary ('only this much'), まで marks an endpoint ('up to here') — plus まで can express surprise ('even this').
grammar
だって at the start of a sentence is a whiny excuse; after a noun it means 'even.' Two faces, one word.
grammar
Both mean 'made from,' but で and から tell you something completely different about the material. The key: can it be turned back?
grammar
私は日本語がわかります — wait, isn't 日本語 the object? Why が instead of を? Because certain words in Japanese mark their objects with が.
grammar
「吉田さんが来ます」uses が to mark the subject. 「おいしいですが高いです」uses が to mean 'but.' Same particle, easy to tell apart.
grammar
Want to say 'I don't know if he's coming'? Japanese can't embed a question directly -- use かどうか for 'whether' and か〜か for 'A or B'.
grammar
What time to what time? Where to where? The particle pair から and まで lets you define any range of time or space.
