Guide

Whether you want to begin with polite Japanese or casual Japanese, learn how verb groups work first. That means getting comfortable with the dictionary form rather than learning only the -MASU form.

• Dictionaries use the dictionary form. If you search for 食たべます (tabemasu), the entry you need is 食たべる (taberu, “to eat”).
• It makes later conjugations easier. Starting from the base form helps you see how Japanese verbs change instead of memorizing isolated forms.
• The -MASU form can hide the original verb. For example, おきます (okimasu) can come from 置おく (oku, “to put”, group 1) or 起おきる (okiru, “to wake up”, group 2).

Good news: verb groups only take a few minutes to understand. KANJI-Link’s N5 grammar section starts there.

Review verb groups →

Very little everyday Japanese is written in the Latin alphabet, so start learning hiragana early instead of relying on rōmaji for too long.

• You will be able to read much more Japanese. Many manga and beginner materials add furigana — small hiragana that show how kanji are read.
• Conjugations become more logical. Hiragana makes changes such as hanasu → hanashimasu and matsu → machimasu much easier to see.

Katakana are easy to postpone once hiragana are familiar, but they are part of everyday Japanese and worth learning from the beginning.

• Katakana appear everywhere. They are used for many loanwords, names, brands and other common vocabulary.
• You can write your own name. Foreign names are normally written in katakana.
• They can even help with kanji mnemonics. For example, 名 (used in 名な前まえ, namae, “name”) can be visually broken into タ + ロ. Think of Tarō, a traditional Japanese given name.