Japanese particles, or, are suffixes or short words in Japanese grammar that immediately follow the modified noun, verb, adjective, or sentence. Their grammatical range can indicate various meanings and functions, such as speaker affect and assertiveness.

Orthography and diction

Japanese particles are written in hiragana in modern Japanese, though some of them also have kanji forms: (弖 or 天 for te て; 爾 for ni に; 乎 or 遠 for o を; and 波 for wa は). Particles follow the same rules of phonetic transcription as all Japanese words, with the exception of は (written ha, pronounced wa as a particle), へ (written he, pronounced e) and を (written using a hiragana character with no other use in modern Japanese, originally assigned as wo, now usually pronounced o, though some speakers render it as wo). These exceptions are a relic of historical kana usage.

Types of particles

There are eight types of particles, depending on what function they serve.

Case markers (格助詞)

Parallel markers (並立助詞)

Sentence ending particles (終助詞)

Interjectory particles (間投助詞)

Adverbial particles (副助詞)

Binding particles (係助詞)

Conjunctive particles (接続助詞)

Phrasal particles (準体助詞)

Note that some particles appear in two types. For example, kara is called a "case marker" where it describes where something is from or what happens after something; when it describes a cause it is called a "conjunctive particle".

List of particles

Index

Meaning and usage

Contrast

は wa and が ga

に ni and で de

Ni and de can both be used to show location, corresponding to the prepositions "in" or "at" in English. Their uses are mutually exclusive. Ni, when used to show location, is used only with stative verbs such as iru, "to be, exist;" aru, "to be, exist, have;" and sumu, "to live, inhabit." De is used with action verbs to convey the place of action, as opposed to location of being.

に ni and へ e

Ni and e can both indicate direction of motion, literally meaning "to" or "at" in English. However, as particles in Japanese directly modify the preceding noun, some Japanese language courses call this the "goal of movement" usage because it marks the goal of the movement. For example, in the sentence 私はうちに帰ります (Watashi wa uchi ni kaerimasu or "I'm going back home") the goal of the movement is home (uchi ni). In this sense, e is perhaps closer to English "towards" in terms of use (see example below). As long as ni is used directionally, it is possible to substitute e in its place. Ni used in other senses cannot be replaced by e: Indicating direction, using e instead of ni is preferred when ni is used non-directionally in proximity: Ni can not be replaced by e in all uses. It must be used with days of the week as in 日曜日に京都にいきます (Nichiyoubi ni Kyoto ni ikimasu "I will go to Kyoto on Sunday".) where ni is used both to mark the day of the week (日曜日) and the goal of the movement (京都). It is also required with numerical times (but not relative times). For example, ni must be used in the sentence 十一時に寝ます (Juu ichi ji ni nemasu "I will go to sleep at 11 o'clock") to mark the numerical time (十一時) but it is not used with the relative time words like tomorrow (明日), yesterday (昨日), today (今日), last week (先週), next month (来月), etc. For example, in the sentence 私は昨日仕事に行きませんでした (watashi wa kinou shigoto ni ikimasen deshita "I did not go to work yesterday") no particle is needed for "yesterday" (昨日), but ni is used to mark the goal of movement (仕事に).

が ga and を o

In some cases, ga and o are interchangeable. For example, with the tai form, meaning "want to", it is possible to say either of the following: Similarly, 好き suki, a na adjective meaning "liked", can take either ga or o:

に ni and と to

Ni and to are sometimes interchangeable in forms like になる ni naru and となる to naru. The ni naru form suggests a natural change, whereas to naru suggests change to a final stage.

や ya and と to

Ya is used for incomplete lists, whereas to is used for complete ones.

Historical particles

い i was used in Old Japanese and kanbun works. Its meaning is still debated, but has traditionally been considered emphatic.

Differences from English prepositions

Many Japanese particles fill the role of prepositions in English, but they are unlike prepositions in many ways. Japanese does not have equivalents of prepositions like "on" or "about", and often uses particles along with verbs and nouns to modify another word where English might use prepositions. For example, ue is a noun meaning "top/up"; and ni tsuite is a fixed verbal expression meaning "concerning":

Citations

General references