9 Must-Know Japanese Parts of Speech With Charts & Examples

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Learning any language, including Japanese, means understanding how to put a sentence together. This is where parts of speech come in. Native English speakers will be familiar with nouns (people, places, things, or ideas) and verbs (action words). Japanese parts of speech are much the same, making a new learner’s job easier. 

See how parts of speech work in Japanese sentences with the Rosetta Stone app. Each lesson includes the spoken sentences in writing, helping you identify each word individually and how it relates to other words in a greater context. 

What are Japanese parts of speech?

Japanese parts of speech (hinshi, 品詞) are categories of words divided by their function in a sentence, working the same way as parts of speech in English. Nouns, verbs, adjectives, and other English parts of speech have near-identical counterparts in Japanese. 

There are a few critical differences between Japanese grammar and English grammar that can make identifying parts of speech challenging for new learners.

• Japanese does not use spaces, meaning words appear to run together at first glance.
• English word order generally puts the verb after the subject performing the action. This is referred to as “SVO” (“subject-verb-object”) word order. In Japanese, the verb goes at the end of a sentence or clause, making it “SOV” (“subject-object-verb”) word order.
• Punctuation is used sparingly in Japanese. For example, commas are almost entirely optional, whereas they are essential in English.
• There are no articles (“the,” “a,” and “an”) in Japanese, and there are also no indicators for plurals in most cases. Context is key for determining whether a noun is singular or plural in Japanese.

Japanese parts of speech chart

There are nine main parts of speech in Japanese. Conveniently, all of these words end in the suffix -shi (詞), literally meaning “part of speech” or “words.”

Joshi (particles) in Japanese

Particles, or joshi (助詞), are short Japanese words that make identifying the roles of the words around them easier. Each Japanese particle can have multiple uses, but they all function to tie the pieces of a sentence together. Here are a few common ones:

The breakdown of this sentence shows how particles wa and o work with the word before it:

• Inu wa mizu o nomimashita.（犬は水を飲みました。）= The dog drank water.

Meishi (nouns) in Japanese

Japanese nouns, like English, describe a person, place, or thing. Unlike English, they generally do not identify quantity (plurals), and there are no articles. Japanese nouns also lack grammatical gender like that seen in languages such as Spanish and German.

• Neko wa dōbutsu desu.（猫は動物です。）= Cats are animals.

Nouns can also be used to describe other nouns by using particle no, which indicates possession or ownership. The noun before no qualifies the noun that follows it. In the sentence below, nihongo (日本語) means “Japanese language” and hon (本) means “book.”

• Nihongo no hon o yondeimasu.（日本語の本を読んでいます。）= I am reading a Japanese book.

Daimeishi (pronouns) in Japanese

Japanese pronouns include such words as “I,” “you,” and “they.” However, there are several different words for each to distinguish how formal or casual the speaker is being. A handful of suffixes such as -ra (ら) or -tachi (たち) can even be used here in a rare case of pluralization.

The pronoun “I” alone has more than three common options! While some of them lean toward the masculine or feminine, there are no strict rules about what a person can use in casual conversation—Japanese pronoun use for the individual depends on self expression and social situations.

Once a relationship is established, using names in place of pronouns is common, even used in the second-person instead of “you.” Pronouns are often dropped in a sentence if the subject being referred to is obvious. For example, when introducing yourself as “George,” the “I” or watashi can be omitted in the sentence:

• (Watashi wa) jōji desu.（（私は）ジョージです。）= I am George.

Dōshi (verbs) in Japanese

Japanese verbs are action words and go at the end of a sentence or clause. The three categories of Japanese verbs are godan (五段) verbs, ichidan (一段) verbs, and irregular verbs. The first two are differentiated (and conjugated) by the last sound of the word: Godan verbs end in a “u” sound (the character ru (る) is sometimes included) and ichidan verbs always end in the character ru. 

Like other languages, there are many Japanese verb conjugations to remember. However, the good news is that they’re the same regardless of the subject of the sentence. 

In these examples, the conjugation of the verb hanasu (話す) or “to speak” is the same in Japanese while the English conjugation changes. 

• Watashi wa nihongo o hanashimasu.（私は日本語を話します。）= I speak Japanese.
• Tomodachi wa nihongo o hanashimasu.（友だちは日本語を話します。）= My friend speaks Japanese.

Japanese transitive and intransitive verbs

Within Japanese verbs is a subset called transitive and intransitive verbs. Transitive verbs are used when the subject acts directly on the object, while intransitive verbs are used when an object does something on its own.

Here is an example of the transitive verb “to open” (akeru, 開ける) in action:

• Kanojo wa mado o akemashita.（彼女は窓を開けました。）= She opened the window.

In contrast, here is an example of the window opening on its own using the intransitive verb for “something opens” (aku, 開く):

• Mado ga akimashita.（窓が開きました。）= The window opened.

Keiyōshi and keiyōdōshi (adjectives) in Japanese

Japanese adjectives come in two varieties: i-adjectives (or keiyōshi, 形容詞) and na-adjectives (or keiyōdoushi, 形容動詞). As the terms imply, i-adjectives end in the character i (い) and na-adjectives are followed by a na (な) if in front of a noun. They are functionally similar with both coming before a noun to describe it or accompanying the verb “to be” to label the subject as that adjective.

• Karai tabemono ga suki desu.（辛い食べ物が好きです。）= I like spicy food.
• Musume wa shizuka na ko desu.（娘は静かな子です。）= My daughter is a quiet child.

Like verbs, Japanese adjectives have conjugations. Fortunately, because there are only two types of endings, the conjugations are more straightforward than those of Japanese verbs.

Rentaishi (adjectival nouns) in Japanese

Japanese adjectival nouns are a unique set of words that describe which noun is being discussed. They function like adjectives in a sentence but are distinct from i– and na–adjectives. They may appear like verbs or nouns but ultimately describe a noun in the same way an adjective would. 

The most common rentaishi are the ko-so-a-do (こそあど) series of words. They are so named because each word starts with one of those four characters, and each one is used based on the distance or relationship to the speaker.

• ko words: where the speaker is
• so words: where the listener is
• a words: far from both the speaker and the listener
• do words: question words for the given category

Fukushi (adverbs) in Japanese

There are several categories of Japanese adverbs, including those that describe amount, time, or how a verb is done. The first two do not have any special conjugations.

Adjectives can also be turned into adverbs. To convert an i-adjective into an adverb, the final i (い) is dropped and replaced with ku (く). To convert a na-adjective into an adverb, ni (に) is added to the end of the word instead of na (な).

Setsuzokushi (conjunctions) in Japanese

Japanese conjunctions manifest in two ways: through particles with specific functions (some which involve conjugating a verb) or using a special verb conjugation called te-form. 

Common particles that act as conjunctions include:

On the more complex side, the te-form conjugation is a way to connect two independent clauses. The verb of the first clause is conjugated to te-form, while the verb of the second clause determines the tense of the entire sentence. This is one case where commas may or may not be used, depending on if the person writing the sentence wants to split the sentence visually and encourage a pause when speaking.

• Watashi wa shichiji ni okite, asagohan o tabemashita.（私は七時に起きて、朝ごはんを食べました。）= I woke up at 7:00 and ate breakfast.

Kandōshi (interjections) in Japanese

Japanese interjections or exclamations are a fun way to add flavor and emotion to a sentence, and you will sound more fluent if you use them naturally! They are also known as aizuchi (相槌), and it’s common for a listener to pepper them into a conversation while someone else is talking as an indicator that they are listening intently.

Having live conversations is the perfect way to practice using Japanese interjections. Finding a conversation partner through Rosetta Stone tutoring is a great place to start.

*Incredibly versatile, yabai is frequently used as slang to mean everything from “amazing” to “terrifying” to “expensive.” Context will be your guide to understanding this interjection.

Key takeaways for Japanese parts of speech

Every part of speech comes with its own set of vocabulary, uses, and even conjugations. By approaching each one individually, putting them all together will help you create complex and natural sentences.

• Japanese has nine major parts of speech: joshi, meishi, daimeishi, dōshi, keiyōshi and keiyōdōshi, rentaishi, fukushi, setsuzokushi, and kandōshi.
• Each Japanese part of speech has a specific function and works together with other parts of speech to create a complete sentence.
• Basic Japanese word order is subject-object-verb (SOV), which provides a framework for the location of Japanese parts of speech in a sentence.