In Tokyo, you can rarely walk along a street, turn left four times and arrive on the same street you started on. Like Edo roads, Kobun conjugations do not form expected paths. We’ve gone over most of the winding alleys … [Read more...]
What do dinosaurs, outdated fashions, and SNL have in common? They’re going to help us with Classical Japanese. Today’s course in your Kobun education is easy breezy: Jodoushi (助動詞). They’re “helper” or auxiliary verbs. I … [Read more...]
Please read my introduction to Kobun article before reading this one. Brave Kobun pupils! I’m going to take you further into the woods of Classical Japanese with verbs. Remember, Kobun is very different from Modern … [Read more...]
Since a lot of Tofugu readers fancy the older, traditional stuff in Japan, (and for a lot of other reasons as well) I’m going to be writing a series of introductory lessons on 古文 (こぶん) or 文語 (ぶんご), the “literary language” … [Read more...]
It seems that even after years of study, a number of people taking formal Japanese classes and doing self-study don’t get comprehensive coverage of the following particles: しか、さえ、and すら. By “comprehensive”, I mean that, … [Read more...]
When I first started learning Japanese, the amount of progress I could make in the course of a few months was astounding. Most of you will recognize this sharp beginner’s learning curve, either because you’re riding it now … [Read more...]