Japanese Particles

Particles are probably the single most important aspect of Japanese grammar. They're also one of the more difficult parts to understand. Oddly enough, if you're trying to speak Japanese and care more about being understood than being correct, you'd actually be better off leaving out particles if you're unsure of how to use them. You'll sound a lot like a little kid, and will be harder to understand than if you used particles correctly, but it's usually not difficult for native speakers to fill in the conceptual blanks, and using a particle in the wrong place is generally worse.

Although particles are somewhat similar to prepositions in English, they have no meaning of their own. All a particle does is affect the effect of words, phrases, and sentences, and the interrelations between them.

In addition to common (and some uncommon) particles, I have listed several things that are similar enough to particles to be confused. Actually, I'm not sure how you can tell (from a dictionary, anyway) exactly what is and isn't a particle, or even whether the distinction is clear anyway, but whatever. If it looks like a particle, this is where I'm putting it.

English words, such as prepositions, that have functions similar to particles usually come before what they modify. Japanese particles, on the other hand, always come after what they mark. Particles that mark words come after the word, those that mark phrases come after the phrase, and those that affect entire sentences come at the end of the sentence. Be careful that they're really affecting what you think they are.

Entries on this page are sorted in Japanese dictionary order.

か (ka)

Marking questions:

This comes at the end of a sentence to form a question. It's all you need to make a statement into a question. No rearranging required. Question marks are a relatively new concept in Japanese, and are not always used on questions, especially in more formal language.

On a sentence with a negative nonpast verb, it's an invitation:

Informal questions frequently drop か and, like English, tend to rely on a rising intonation (in speech) or a question mark (in writing) to indicate that it's a question.

Embedded questions:

A question phrase can be used as part of a larger sentence, as in English. Just put the question in short form, with か on the end, and plug it in.

The complication is that yes/no questions usually end in かどうか (ka dou ka) when used this way. It's not uncommon for people to just use か in conversation, however, even though using かどうか with questions that don't already have a question word is proper grammar.

Questions that would end in ～んですか (-n desu ka) or an equivalent form use のか (no ka) at the end when used in a larger sentence.

Alternatives:

か can be used to express alternatives within a sentence. The かどうか construct mentioned above is an idiomatic example of this.

"Any" versions of question words:

か is frequently used with question words such as 誰 (dare - who) and 何 (nani - what), and longer question phrases, to create something like the "existential quantifier" in logic. Since that probably doesn't mean anything to most people, basically it indicates that the statement applies to at least one possible answer to the question, or that some accurate answer exists. Using 誰か means the statement applies to someone. When used like this, other particles used come after か.

が (ga)

Marking subjects:

This is simpler than the topic particle to understand since English already has grammatical subjects. The subject is just the noun the performs the action (or non-action, in some cases) indicated by the verb. Although the usage can get a bit odd with certain verbs and adjectives, that's probably a complication with translating the verbs and adjectives and not an oddity of が.

[person]は [attribute]が [description] is normally used to refer to a person's attributes (such as height, eyes, hair), rather than [person]の [attribute]は [description], which is more intuitive to English speakers. Ownership, similarly, is usually [person]は [object]が ある or [person]に [object]が ある, using the existence verb. See は, above, for a longer discussion of both cases.

Subordinate clauses in a sentence (those that aren't the main clause) will use が, not は (wa):

When a phrase modifies a noun, the particle の (no) may mark the subject of the phrase, instead of が.

One case that deserves special mention is that when a verb is used in potential form, the noun that would otherwise take the を (wo) object particle frequently takes the が subject particle instead. The change appears to be optional for most verbs, but almost always occurs when the verb is 出来る (dekiru).

Contrast:

I don't really understand why, but if you stick が on the end of a phrase 'A' and follow it with another phrase 'B' you get one sentence essentially meaning "A, but B". You can also attach が to the end of a sentence to make it more tentative (probably with an implied "but maybe not" nuance), or to seek a follow-up reply in a conversation.

This usage may also appear at the beginning of a sentence, much like "but" in English. Similarly, だが (da ga), the combination of the copula だ and が, is also used. だ effectively stands for something that is implied or has already been mentioned, and doesn't need to be repeated..

One variant of this that deserves special mention is when used after a volitional form verb. In this case, it's used to indicate that it doesn't matter which way the preceding phrase turns out. Think of this as like an "X may [happen/be], but" usage, if that helps. For an example, take 誰だろうが (dare darou ga), roughly "it doesn't matter who [you/he/she/they] [is/are]" or "[you/he/she/they] could be anyone, but". Sometimes this appears with both positive and negative volitional forms, which makes it something like "whether or not", as in 行こうが行くまいが (ikou ga ikumai ga) meaning "whether [you/he/she/it/they/etc.] [go/goes] or not".

Possession (archaic):

In archaic language, the particle が may indicate possession much as の (no) does in the modern language. This usage of が does not appear in modern Japanese except in certain idioms, and occasionally in writing. It's fairly popular in anime spell incantations, with phrases such as 我が力 (waga chikara), which means "my power".

かい (kai)

This is an alternate form of か (ka), more often used by males, and, oddly enough, in casual speech, where か itself is usually left out.

かな (ka na) and かしら (kashira)

Thinking out loud:

Both roughly translate to "I wonder if". かしら is feminine only, and may be used to sound more refined, whereas anyone can use かな. Either one may come at the end of a sentence, like か (ka).

から (kara)

Source:

Indicates the starting point of a movement, literal or figurative. Similar to 'from' or 'out of' in English.

Reasons:

Used at the end of a clause to indicate that it's a cause or reason for something else. When the 'cause' clause is part of the same sentence as the 'result' clause, the verb in the 'cause' clause is usually in short form even in formal usage, though, of course, using long form anyway sounds more polite. Using it in a separate sentence is grammatical, even common, in Japanese, regardless of the fact that the direct English translation has a sentence fragment. This is conceptually similar to the above usage, since the reason is, in a sense, the source of the other action.

After, or Ever Since:

-te form verb followed by から and another phrase has two possible meanings. If what follows is an action, it means that the first phrase happens, and then the second does. In other words, the second phrase happens after the first. If what follows is a state or condition, it means that the condition has been true since the first phrase happened.

Commonly found in:

The "because of" sense of から is used in the standalone 'word' だから (da kara), which is the combination of the copula だ (da) with から. The だ there basically represents something that is implied or has already been mentioned, and doesn't need to be repeated. だから… is similar in meaning to "because that is so...", or "therefore...".

いいから (ii kara) literally means "because it's good", but it has a more idiomatic meaning. It tends to come up in directives, and seems to mean something more like "this is no time to explain, just do it already". An example dialog should help, even if it's fairly meaningless... maybe zombies are attacking or something, I don't know.

「ドアを閉めろ！」 (DOA wo shimero!) = "Shut the door!"

「ドアを？　なんで？」 (DOA wo? Nande?) = "The door? Why?"

「いいから、はやく！」 (Ii kara, hayaku!) = "Just hurry up and do it!"

から…まで (kara ... made)

Beginning and end:

A common combination that is often used to express start and end times, and occasionally other things like the start and end points of travel. Stick the beginning time before から and the ending time before まで, and that's it. As an example...

くらい (kurai) and ぐらい (gurai)

(placeholder)

Used in approximations. Also some more figurative usages (~は~くらい = just about the only ~ is/are ~).

けど (kedo)

Contrast:

Similar to 'although'. A sentence ＡけどＢ says that A is true, and goes on to say B is too, though you might expect A to prevent B. Unlike のに (no ni), けど can be used to connect phrases that aren't statements, such as requests or suggestions.

Like が (ga), けど can also be used at the end of sentences in conversation to prompt for a response.

Variants:

けれど (keredo) is a more formal equivalent of けど. Either may be followed by も (mo) to increase the intensity of the contrast.

Commonly found in:

けど is used in the standalone 'word' だけど (da kedo), which is the combination of the copula だ and けど. だ effectively stands for something that is implied or has already been mentioned, and doesn't need to be repeated. だけど… is similar in meaning to 'although that is the case...', or 'however...'.

こそ (koso)

(placeholder)

puts emphasis on the preceding word

さ (sa)

Emphasis, or something:

さ is even more of a pain to explain than the similar particles よ (yo) and ね (ne). It can be used for emphasis, or to lighten a statement, or a few other ways. All I can say is it's probably easier to pick it up through usage than trying to figure it out from an explanation, even though I hate saying that.

さえ (sae)

Even:

さえ is similar to も (mo), but tends to be used more in negative sentences to indicate an expected minimum that isn't reached. Like も, it tends to replace が (ga), は (wa), and を (wo).