Japanese: Topic Hubs

Each of these is a compact briefing on an area of Japanese. The deep work lives in the pillar guides; these hubs are the map.

• Hiragana: The Japanese Cursive Script

  The 46-character cursive script used for native Japanese words, particles, and verb endings.

• Katakana: The Japanese Angular Script

  The 46-character angular script used for foreign loanwords, brand names, and emphasis.

• Kanji: The Japanese Imported Characters

  The thousands of Chinese-derived characters that carry meaning in Japanese. The long tail of Japanese learning.

• Japanese Particles

  The one- and two-syllable markers that do in Japanese what word order does in English.

• Japanese Grammar: What You Actually Need

  The grammar patterns that cover most real-world Japanese. Shorter than the textbook makes it look.

• Japanese Pronunciation

  Phonetically simpler than English, but with pitch accent that most apps ignore.

• Essential Japanese Phrases

  The phrases you actually need in your first week of using Japanese.

• Japanese Pitch Accent

  The high/low tone pattern most learners (and most apps) skip. Why it matters and when to study it.

• Keigo: Japanese Honorific Speech

  The polite, humble, and respectful registers that change Japanese sentences depending on who is speaking to whom.

• Japanese Verbs

  The two main verb classes (ru-verbs, u-verbs) plus two irregulars. The whole system fits in a page.

• Japanese Numbers

  How to count from 1 to a billion in Japanese. The two reading systems, the counters, and the big four irregularities.