アリ

Can be thought of as meaning ‘step by step’, ‘stepwise’, or even ‘steadily’. だんだん is similar to ほとんど, in that it can modify the meaning of entire phrases, rather than just single words.

だんだん + （と） + Phrase

To use だんだん, simply put it before the phrase that you want to express as ‘(A) that is increasing steadily’.

*While だんだん can take the particle と, it is not required. In fact, と is very often omitted from adverbs/onomatopoeic words (words that represent a sound or motion) in Japanese.

*Don't mix it up with どんどん, which is essentially the antonym of だんだん. どんどん is an onomatopoeic word that represents loud banging (like on a drum), and is used to express fast changes/progression. 

だんだん雨が降ってきた。It is starting to rain. (Slow progression, does not imply great speed or severity)

どんどん雨が降ってきた。It is starting to rain. (Rapid progression, may imply great speed and/or severity)

友達が話している：「だんだんとあのやつの事が嫌いになってきていて、今は避けるようにしている。」 Chat between friends: "I gradually came to dislike that guy, and now I do my best to avoid him."

Clothes swap!

( requested by → Anon )

hehehe, inspired by the bi flag colours ! ugh, i love pinks and purples so much my heart hurts. i hope these are what you were looking for, Anon !

packs : 001 / 002 / 003 / 004 / 005

feel free to use; please like, reblog, and credit 〜

 想う「おもう」= to think

読書「どくしょ」 = reading a book

興味深い「きょうみぶか」 = very interesting

興味　「きょうみ」＝　interest

短い 「みじかい」＝ short

小説 「しょうせつ」＝novel

主人公 「しゅじんこう」＝ protagonist

中止「ちゅうし」＝interruption

自然と「しぜん」＝naturally

夜更かし 「よふかし」＝ staying up late

髪「かみ」＝ hair

満喫「まんきつ」＝ enjoying to the full

ダラダラ = leisurely; idly

Original vlog

Japanese seems to come built-in with ways of avoiding directly addressing your conversation partner.

The Japanese way of expressing things often involves voicing your internal monologue, which means people will say things ostensibly to themselves, even though what they really want is to communicate to the other person. When I first noticed it, I thought it was a bit similar to how some (western) cartoons occasionally handle exposition by having a character mutter something to themselves so that the audience can hear. This can be seen in the following extremely common forms of expression:

Using adjectives as an exclamation

うま！Literal translation: “Delicious!” Semantic translation: “Wow, this is really good”

怖い！Literal translation: “Scary!” Semantic translation: “I’m scared!” or “This place is giving me the creeps”

It could be argued that these single word exclamations may not always be “talking to yourself”. But imo more often than not, they are spoken with the vibe of “I felt this adjective so strongly that the word just slipped straight through my internal monologue and out of my mouth”.

Wondering aloud (かな)

雨降るかな？ Literal translation: “Hmm, will it rain or not?” Semantic translation: “I wonder if it’s gonna rain.”

今夜来るかな？ Literal translation: “Hmm, will [they] come tonight or not?” Semantic translation: “I wonder if they’ll come tonight.”

Compared to the adjective examples, this is less ambiguous. There’s no direct translation for the verb “to wonder” in Japanese - you just wonder aloud! The literal translations sound funny because they only make sense if the speaker is talking to themself.

Explaining stuff to yourself (んだ)

あそこにあったんだ！(context: the listener has just shown the speaker something they were looking for) Literal translation: “There it is!” Semantic translation: “There it is!”

In this example, the literal and semantic translations are the same, because this is a case of talking to yourself in English! If you think about it, it doesn’t make sense to say “there it is” when the person you’re talking to clearly already knows that’s where “it” is. Instead, the phrase serves to convey satisfaction and surprise.

まだ20歳なんだ！(context: the speaker has just found out from the listener that a friend of theirs is younger than they expected) Literal translation: “[She’s] only 20!” Semantic translation: “She’s only 20? That explains so much!”

In this example, んだ is used to mark the sentence as an explanation of something. The listener already knew the friend was only 20, so the aim of the sentence is not to convey new information, it’s to show that some sort of internal reasoning is happening within the speaker’s mind.

In the immortal words of Carly Rae Jepsen:

🎶 Do you talk to me, when you're talking to yourself? 🎶

For every Japanese speaker, the answer is yes!

Verb + とき

［い］Adjective + とき 

［な］Adjective + な + とき 

Noun + の + とき 

出かけるときは、「行ってきます」と言います。

When you go out, you say “いってきます”! 

私はカラオケに行くときに楽しめます。

When I go to karaoke, I can have fun.

Can you create a sentence using this grammar? 

This post is dedicated to my N6 Introductory level babies <3 て form can be used in a number of different ways. From making requests, to connecting ideas, this is truly a big and versatile grammar point that will propel you forward on your journey. It does have a negative form, and it can be used for adjectives and nouns as well, but today we'll just be focusing on the positive verb form (the hardest one!).

Irregular: 行く　→　行って 来(く)る　→　 来(き)て　 する　→　して

Ichidan verbs are easy. Simply drop the last る and replace it with て!　 Ex. 食べる　→　食べて 起きる　→　起きて 閉じる　→　閉じて

The struggle lies with Godan verbs! This is gonna take some memorization.

When verbs are in their plain non-past form, they always end in an -u sound. However, the consonant sound that precedes -u differs from verb to verb. Now stay with me here - The て form of specific verbs are based on their last hiragana symbol.

All the possible endings of Godan verbs and the て forms of those endings are:

If the verb ends in う, つ, or る, the て form will be って If the verb ends in む, ぶ, ぬ, the て form will be んで If it ends in く, it will become いて If it ends in ぐ, it'll be いで and if it ends in す, it will end up as して

Now, let's give you some examples.

If the verb ends in う, つ, or る, the て form will be って

会う　→　会って

立つ　→　立って

割る　→　割って

If the verb ends in む, ぶ, ぬ, the て form will be んで

死ぬ　→　死んで

遊ぶ　→　遊んで

休む　→　休んで

If it ends in く, it will become いて

書く　→　書いて

If it ends in ぐ, it'll be いで

泳ぐ　→　泳いで

and if it ends in す, it will end up as して

話す　→　話して

These forms will be used in various sentences to communicate a wider range of ideas. If you got past the conjugation, then congrats! You just unlocked hundreds of new grammar points!

If you have a hard time reading the kanji, please download Yomichan for chrome, and watch your life change before your eyes.

Video explaining with the て form song

て form song alone (Please watch this!)

いかが how, how about

体調はいかが？How is your health?

暑いので、窓を閉めてクーラーを付けるのはいかが？Since it's hot, how about closing the window and putting on the air conditioner?

to come, to go, to be (somewhere), is (doing), are (doing)

先生が教室にいらっしゃる。The teacher is in the class.

お客さんがいらっしゃる。A customer is here.