Japanese grammar basics: the 8 rules that matter most

Japanese grammar looks unusual to speakers of European languages: the verb comes last, small particles mark who does what, and the same sentence changes with politeness. But it is also very regular — verbs never change for person, number or gender. These eight rules, checked against Britannica and Wiktionary, cover what beginners need first. Not sure of your level? Take the free Japanese level test.

Updated November 7, 2026 · 4 min read

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1. The verb comes last

Japanese is a consistent subject–object–verb language, and modifiers come before what they modify: adjectives and relative clauses before nouns, adverbs before verbs (Britannica). Tarō-ga ringo-o kau is literally “Taro apple buys” — ‘Taro buys an apple’.

2. Particles say who does what

Nouns never change their form; small particles after them show their role (Britannica). が (ga) marks the subject of a verb (Wiktionary) and を (o) the direct object (Wiktionary): in Tarō-ga ringo-o kau, ga tells you who buys and o what is bought.

3. は marks the topic

は (wa) marks the topic of a clause or a conversation (Wiktionary). Britannica’s example: John-wa kita talks about John — “as for John, he came” — while John-ga kita simply reports that John came. The pattern A-wa B-da does a lot of work: Kore-wa hon-da, ‘This is a book’ (Britannica).

4. No agreement, no plural

Verbs do not agree with the subject in person, number or gender, and nouns show neither number nor gender. Some nouns form a plural by doubling — hito-bito ‘people’, yama-yama ‘mountains’ — and whatever is clear from context is simply left out: Kaita can mean ‘I wrote’, ‘he wrote’ or ‘they wrote’ (Britannica).

5. Adjectives conjugate like verbs

Verbs and adjectives conjugate and can be the predicate on their own, without a word for ‘is’: Yama-ga taka-i, ‘The mountain is high’. Nouns and adjectival nouns need the copula da: Tarō-wa sensei-da, ‘Taro is a teacher’ (Britannica).

6. Politeness is part of the verb

The ending ます (masu) expresses politeness toward the listener (Wiktionary). Britannica contrasts the plain kaku ‘write’, used with equals or in newspapers and books, with the polite kakimasu; on top of that, respectful forms such as o-kaki-ni naru raise the person you talk about, and humble ones such as o-kaki suru lower yourself (Britannica). Learners usually start with the masu form.

7. Questions end in か

か (ka) at the end of a sentence marks it as a question (Wiktionary), and the word order stays the same — Britannica’s O-iki-ni narimasu ka is a polite ‘Are you going?’ (Britannica).

8. Counting uses counters

Numbers take a counter that depends on the kind of thing counted: 本 (hon) counts long, cylindrical things such as pens, glasses of drink or trains (Wiktionary). Learn each common counter with the nouns it goes with. Chinese works in a similar way — compare Chinese grammar basics.

The eight rules at a glance

Keep learning

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• Free Japanese level test · Learn Japanese with 16Word · JLPT levels
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