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The Japanese grammar has lots of specific features, mostly because it is so scarcely
related to other languages. On the other hand it is very sensible, logically very well
connected. Some of its features are:
Personal pronouns
Singular plural
わたしたち
I watashi わたし 私 we watashitachi
私達
あなたたち
you anata あなた you anatatachi
あなた達
he kare かれ 彼
they karera かれら 彼ら
she kanojo かのじょ 彼女
There is no neuter gender ("it") in Japanese. There are other forms of personal
pronouns too. For example, the most polite form of "I" is "watakushi". Then there is
the form that can only be used by men, "boku", and so on...
For "you" males can say "kimi", informally. But "kimi" is not dependent on the
gender of the person to whom it relates, but on the gender of the one who talks. Only
men can say that! It's a very specific feature of the Japanese language too.
For "they" there are different feminine and masculine forms too: "karetachi" and
"kanojochi".
Particles
Particles are suffixes which follow promptly after the word that they relate to. They
determine the function of that word in the sentence. Some of the most common
particles are:
Notice, that "wa" is written as "ha" in hiragana. This is one of the few exceptions in
Japanese.
This is also an exception, because "wo" is written , but just "o" is read.
NI - indirect object
- place marker
- time marker
Also an exception.
NO - indicates possession
"mo" replaces "wa" and indicates that the word before it also has some property.