If you've tried learning Japanese before, maybe you've been frustrated by the complex grammar descriptions in textbooks and language learning websites. To you, the grammar rules of Japanese may look just as complicated as those of English, not to mention the countless exceptions to those rules that appear to be scattered throughout the language at random. It might seem impossible to learn such a complicated language, especially when it's written with all those confusing Chinese symbols.

But what if we told you that Japanese is, in fact, one of the most straightforward, easily-understandable, and clear languages in the world? Look at the facts: countless people speak Japanese all across the world. Moreover, for hundreds of years, millions of schoolchildren in Japan have learned how to speak Japanese just fine.

"But how?" you might ask, thinking back to all those complicated grammar rules. "Are Japanese second graders just that much smarter than me?"

Not impossible. But since you made it to this website, we have to assume that you're at least as smart as some of them.

On the contrary, the truth is that many Western learners of Japanese struggle with the language because it is taught to them in the wrong way.

You see, in a second grade class in Japan, they don't teach the language through certain phrases because they are easy to translate. They don't use Western grammatical terms like "passive voice" and "conjugation" to talk about concepts that arose in a language where those words don't even exist. They don't cover how all the grammar rules function "mostly" like they do in English, except for a wide set of exceptions where they're different.

Believe it or not, most Japanese second graders don't know anything about passive voice or conjugation. Therefore, unlike many textbooks and Japanese learning websites you may be familiar with, they are taught Japanese without any references to English or any other Western languages at all.

And think about it: isn't that actually... simpler?

Doesn't it make more sense to learn a language without viewing it through the lens of a completely different language, from a completely different continent, with a completely different set of grammar rules that, of course, don't map 1:1?

Doesn't it seem better, not to mention easier, to just learn Japanese as it actually exists?

Today we're going to be looking at a real worksheet used to teach basic grammar in a Japanese 2nd grade classroom. We will learn some Japanese at a level that even an eight-year-old can understand. Still, by the end of the lesson, you will be familiar with how to approach native learning resources, as well as several Japanese concepts that are never even explained in many Western textbooks. And we'll do it all without relying on forced translations or complicated explanations of English grammar.

始めましょう！
hajimemashou!
Let's begin!

The Worksheet

This worksheet is sourced from the Japanese learning site ちびむすドリル, where it is listed as a resource for teaching Japanese second graders the basics of Japanese grammar.

In Japanese, the title of the packet is 主語と述語 (shugo to jyutsugo), Main Words and Modifier Words.

For the purposes of this lesson, we will be focusing on the first worksheet in the packet. The title of this worksheet is 文の種類がわかる (bun no shurui ga wakaru), Understanding Types of Sentences. The worksheet is also hosted as an image below.

Now, especially if you don't know how to read Japanese, this worksheet might not mean much to you right off the bat. But this is also a great opportunity to start practicing how to approach native learning materials. With just a little help, even with very little experience, we can begin to see the important lessons the worksheet is trying to teach us about basic Japanese grammar.

First, let's look at the worksheet as a whole. The first thing you might notice is that the writing on the worksheet is laid out in the traditional Japanese up-and-down orientation. Again, if you're not very familiar with Japanese, you may not immediately recognize that the worksheet is also meant to be read right-to-left.

On the right side of the page, you can see the aforementioned title of the packet (主語と述語) and worksheet (文の種類がわかる), as well as the instructions for the worksheet marked with a black square.

In the middle of the page, you can see eight sentences, each with a blank space underneath them to be filled in. These are the worksheet's exercises.

On the left side of the page, you can see a red box with three more lines. We'll give you a hint—the three characters above each of these sentences (ア A, イ I, ウ U) are what the students are supposed to fill in the blanks in the exercises.

So, to recap, it seems that we have eight sentences, and the task is to mark which one of the three groups described in the red box each sentence corresponds to. If we translate the aforementioned instructions (marked by the black square), it confirms the same:

次の文は、 あとのア〜ウのどれにあてはまりますか。記号で書きましょう。
tsugi no bun wa, ato no A~U no dore ni atehamarimasu ka. kigou de kakimashou.
For the following sentences, which apply to A~U? Let's write with symbols.

The Three Types of Japanese Sentences

But what are these three groups, ア A, イ I, ウ U? Well, from the title of the worksheet (文の種類がわかる bun no shurui ga wakaru, Understanding Types of Sentences), and the fact that we're matching the symbols to the eight sentences in the middle, we can reasonably assume that each group/symbol corresponds to a different type of sentence in Japanese.

Let's start by going over each sentence type, translating the red box on the left. Please note that the English translations below are not literal but are mainly written to give an accurate sense of how each sentence type functions.

1. ア (A) — "A does B" Sentence

The first line from the right in the red box reads:

ア 何が (は) どうする
A nani ga (wa) dou suru
A: Something performs some action.

From this, we can see that the first sentence type will have two main elements. Something (何 nani, marked by the が ga or は wa particle) will be performing an action (どうする dou suru).

2. イ (I) — "A has the quality B" Sentence

The second line from the right in the red box reads:

イ 何が (は) どんなだ
I nani ga (wa) donna da
I: Something is like that.

This type of sentence will also have two main elements. Again, the primary element will be something (何 nani, marked by the が ga or は wa particle), but this time it will have some sort of quality ascribed, meaning the sentence tells how it is (どんなだ donna da).

3. ウ (U) — "A is B" Sentence

The third line from the right in the red box reads:

ウ 何が (は) なんだ
U nani ga (wa) nan da
U: Something is another thing.

In this type of sentence, two things will be equated. In other words, it will say that the primary element something (何 nani, marked by the が ga or は wa particle) is something else (なんだ nan da).

The Exercises

Now that we know the types of sentences that are available, we can begin matching them to the sentences in the worksheet's exercises.

We'll begin by translating the sentences from right to left. For these translations, we will try to be as literal as possible, breaking the sentences down word by word, so that you can see how each sentence type functions. Where literal translations are not available for a word, an explanation will be given in parenthesis.

The First Sentence

The first sentence from the right contains the following words:

ねこ (neko) — cat
が (ga) — subject particle
走る (hashiru) — runs

Therefore, the sentence reads:

ねこが走る。
neko ga hashiru
A cat runs.

If you consult the sentence types in the section above, it should be fairly clear which group this sentence fits into: it is a "A does B" sentence, indicated by the symbol ア A.

In this sentence, the subject marked by the が ga particle is a cat (ねこ neko), and it is performing the action of running (走る hashiru).

Note that, in their base forms, all action words in Japanese end in the う (u) sound, like here with 走る (hashiru)'s る (ru). This is a good way to identify the most basic examples of this sentence type.

The Second Sentence

Sentence #2 has the following words:

さめ (same) — shark
は (wa) — topic particle
魚 (sakana) — fish
だ (da) — copula, "is"

So, the complete sentence reads:

さめは魚だ。
same wa sakana da
A shark is a fish.

Looking back at our sentence types, this is clearly an "A is B" sentence, part of group ウ U.

The key to this sentence type is the final word, the copula だ (da). We won't go into detail about だ (da) in this lesson; however, in this example, you can see its core function. It creates an equivalence between the word immediately preceding it (in this example, 魚 sakana, fish) and the subject of the sentence (in this example さめ same, shark). If you already know some Japanese, you may also be familiar with the polite form of the copula, です (desu), which behaves in the same way. Some form of the copula is a critical part of any "A is B" sentence.

The Third Sentence

Let's move on to the third sentence:

あり (ari) — ant
は (wa) — topic particle
小さい (chiisai) — smallness

So, the complete sentence reads:

ありは小さい。
ari wa chiisai
An ant is small.

Of course, this sentence fits into the remaining イ I group. It is an "A has the quality B" sentence.

You may have noticed a pattern in the previous two examples that a sentence's type is largely dependent on its ending. That is the same here: the final word, 小さい (chiisai) denotes that the sentence's subject あり (ari) has the quality of smallness. Many words that end with the い (i) sound in Japanese can be placed at the end of sentences to assign qualities to subjects. Note that we don't need the copula だ (da) here. 小さい (chiisai) is able to "assign" smallness to あり (ari) all by itself.

Conclusion

With just three examples, you have already learned a lot about the three types of sentences in Japanese.

All sentences in Japanese have a subject, usually marked with the が ga or は wa particle (unless the subject is merely implied).

The three sentence types are as follows:

"A does B" sentences show the subject performing an action. Action words in Japanese end with a う (u) sound in their base forms.

"A has the quality B" sentences assign a quality to the subject. Words that assign qualities in Japanese end with a い (i) sound.

"A is B" sentences draw an equivalence between the subject and something else. The copula だ (da) (or its polite form です (desu)) is the primary mechanism that does this.

Hopefully, you have also learned quite a bit about how to approach Japanese learning using resources written completely in Japanese.

If you have already begun learning how to read Japanese, you may or may not have gotten a lot of value out of this lesson. Here at nihonkarano.com, we are strong believers that you are usually best served by approaching native learning materials yourself and trying to learn the language in context, just like you do when you're consuming real content from Japan or having a conversation with your Japanese friend. Now that you've read our explanation, we encourage you to verify that you can complete the rest of the exercises in the first page of the packet yourself.

On the other hand, even if you couldn't read any of the worksheet by yourself, we hope that this lesson showed you that learning resources written completely in Japanese don't have to be too intimidating. We recommend that you visit our resources for learning how to read Japanese (a crucial step in your Japanese journey!) so that you can continue immersing yourself in more and more native Japanese. Someday when you want to test your skills, you, too, can return to this lesson and complete the worksheet's exercises yourself.

Our next grammar lessons will focus on some of the subjects we glossed over in this lesson, such as the exact functions of the particles が (ga) and は (wa) as well as details about the copula だ (da).

Until next time,

これからもよろしくお願いします。
kore kara mo yoroshiku onegaishimasu