Introduction:

Learning a new language is not an endeavor without hurdles. There could be many depending on the language that you are trying to learn. If it is Japanese and you find it difficult, don’t worry, you are not alone. There are many reasons why people feel learning Japanese could be a difficult task to master and grammar is one of them.

Grammar is an essential element of any language learning course. The same holds good for the Japanese. Yes, learning a completely new language that shares very little or no common grammar rules with English might be a little time-consuming task that takes effort but is completely achievable with grit and determination.

What makes Japanese grammar difficult for foreigners?

When compared to the romance languages which are so similar to English, learning Japanese might seem to be very difficult to foreigners or non-native speakers because it has different grammar rules, and learning and understanding the characters of kanji might seem to be an uphill task.

It need not be if you really pay close attention to Japanese and see how the grammatical rules work.

In English where we follow the SVO – subject – verb – object order in a sentence, the order in Japanese becomes SOV – subject – object – verb. In Japanese, the verb is always at the end. Thus, if I have to say Sam eats an apple in Japanese it would be Sam and apple eats.

This might look a little weird but that is how the sentence formation is in Japanese. Once you get used to it, it becomes very easy.

When compared to the three tense forms of English, past, present, and future, Japanese has only two tense forms which are past and present or non-past. By adding words that indicate a time in the future, a sentence can be changed to future tense without changing the verb in Japanese.

Verb conjugations can also be quite different from what we have in English. A good practice of the hiragana and katakana chart can prove to be very handy in changing the forms of the verb.   

The difference in genders, singular, and plurals, prominent use of particles, understanding omissions are all different aspects of learning Japanese grammar.   

With so many basic differences foreigners may find Japanese grammar very difficult to learn. However, that need not be the case. Start with some basic steps that can help you learn grammar and in turn learn Japanese better.

• Read the grammar book thoroughly 

Start with a simple grammar book and read it many times to understand the rules properly.

• Listen to native speakers and practice with them 

Listening to how native speakers talk can be of great help in understanding grammar from a conversational point of view.  

• Join a class

Joining an online class like this can greatly help you out in achieving the goals you want