youkoso ようこそ

In Japanese, youkoso ようこそ means "welcome." It's an expression used when welcoming a guest to a new place, like "welcome to city X" or "welcome to organization Y," and so on.

• にようこそ, へようこそ
• Origin

へ vs. に

In Japanese, the e へ particle and the ni に particle are similar in that they can be both used to mark a place for a movement verb.

• gakkou ni iku
  学校に行く
  To go to school.
• gakkou e iku
  学校へ行く
  (same meaning.)

However, there are differences between e へ and ni に that can be noted.

• に行く vs. へ行く
• にある vs. へある
• への vs. にの
• Style
• Other Functions

へ Particle

In Japanese, the e へ particle marks the direction "toward" which an action occurs, or simply means "toward." It's spelled as he へ, but pronounced like e え.

• Destination
• Sentence-Ending Particle
• Toward
  
  • Time
  • Addressee
  • Change
• Compounds
• Kanji
  
  • 辺
  • 江

naku wa nai なくはない

In Japanese, naku wa nai なくはない is the i-adjective or auxiliary adjective nai ない in the adverbial form, plus the wa は particle, plus the auxiliary nai ない again.

If the first nai is an auxiliary, ~naku wa nai ～なくはない means something "is indeed" somehow. If the first nai isn't an auxiliary, then it depends on what the phrase is saying. The exact grammar has been explained in the article about ~ku wa ～くは.

• Usage
  
  • 無くはない

nakunai なくない

In Japanese, nakunai なくない means "is not not" or "there is not no" or "[I] don't have no." It's a double negative, so it translates to the positives "is," "there is," and "[I] have."

Grammatically, it'a the i-adjective or negative auxiliary nai ない, inflected to the adverbial form, naku なく, plus the negative auxiliary nai ない. So it's nai twice.

• Grammar
• Usage
  
  • なくなくない
• 無くない

~ku wa nai ～くはない

In Japanese, ~ku wa nai ～くはない is the adverbial form of an i-adjective, plus the wa は particle, plus the negative auxiliary nai ない. Or it might be kuwanai 食わない, "won't eat."

Basically, ~ku wa nai is used to affirm something "is not" a given adjective.

• warui?
  悪い？
  Is [it] bad?
• waruku wa nai kedo..
  悪くはないけど･･･
  Bad, [it] is not but...
  • It's something else. (this is a contrastive wa は.)

See ~ku wa ～くは for details about the grammar.

~ku wa ～くは

In Japanese, ~ku wa ～くは is the adverbial form of an i-adjective plus the wa は particle. This can work just like ~te wa ては, separating the adjective and an auxiliary into topic-focus, or just mark the adverb as topic.

• Grammar
• Contractions

nakya なきゃ

In Japanese, nakya なきゃ is often used to say you "must" do something. It can also be used to say "if not something, something else."

• ganbaranakya
  頑張らなきゃ
  [I] must work hard. Try my best. Put effort.
  • ganbaru 頑張る
    To work hard. Try your best. Etc.
• yasukunakya urenai
  安くなきゃ売れない
  If [it's] not cheap, [it] can't be sold.
  • yasui 安い
    Cheap.

Grammatically, it's either a contraction of nakereba なければ, the conditional ba-form of the i-adjective nai ない, "nonexistent," which can be suffixed to verbs and adjectives to create their negative forms.

This nakya なきゃ is almost synonymous with nakucha なくちゃ, which contracts nakute wa なくては instead.

• Grammar

~kya ～きゃ

In Japanese, ~kya ～きゃ is a contraction of ~kereba ～ければ, the conditional ba-form of i-adjectives. Or some sort of fangirling shriek: kyaa! きゃー！

nakucha なくちゃ

In Japanese, nakucha なくちゃ is normally used to say that you "must" do something. For example:

• ganbaranakucha
  頑張らなくちゃ
  [I] must word hard. Try my best. Put effort.
  • ganbaru 頑張る
    To work hard. Try your best. Etc.
• nigenakucha
  逃げなくちゃ
  [I] must run away.
  • nigeru 逃げる
    To run away.

Grammatically, it's a contraction of nakute wa なくては, which is the te-form of the i-adjective nai ない, "nonexistent," plus the wa は particle. See the article about ~te wa ～ては for details.

• Grammar
• Usage

~cha ～ちゃ

In Japanese, ~cha ～ちゃ is a contraction of ~te wa ～ては. Although sometimes it means "tea," ocha お茶.

~te wa ～ては

In Japanese, ~te wa ては is the te-form of a verb plus the wa は particle. This can have two different functions.

• Auxiliary Focus
• Condition
• Contractions

Contractions

Just like how in English "I am" is contracted to "I'm," "is not" to "isn't," "will not" to "won't," and "don't know" to "dunno," Japanese has contractions, too. For reference, in this article I'll list the Japanese contractions.

• Types
• ている to てる
  
  • でいる to でる
• ていく to てく
  
  • でいく to でく
• ておく to てく
  
  • でおく to でく
• ておく to とく
  
  • でおく to どく
  • ておけ to とけ
    
    • でおけ to どけ
• られる to れる
• の to ん
  
  • るの to んの
  • ているの to てん
• るな to んな
  
  • らない to んない
• では to じゃ
  
  • では to じゃあ
• ては to ちゃ
• れば to りゃ
  
  • ければ to けりゃ
  • ければ to きゃ
• てしまう to ちゃう
  
  • てしまった to ちゃった
  • でしまう to じゃう
    
    • でしまった to じゃった
• れは to りゃ
• ない to ん
• という to っつ
  
  • といった to っつった
  • といって to っつって
• い Adjectives
  
  • aい to eぇ
  • oい to えぇ
  • ~uい to いぃ
• です to っす
  
  • でしょ to っしょ
  • ます to っす
• ぬ to ん
• は to ぁ
• Sokuonbin and Rendaku
• Slangs
• Other Contractions

Null Particle

In Japanese, the "null particle," "zero particle," is an invisible, unpronounced, and basically imaginary particle that often replaces the particles wa は, ga が, wo を, and ni に, in all sorts of phrases. Literally, it's using "no particle," mu-joshi 無助詞, or just omitting the particle.

For example, in kankei ga aru 関係がある, kankei is marked as the subject by the ga が particle. However, the phrase is often just: kankei aru 関係ある. Since a particle is supposed to come after kankei, but isn't there, we call that the null particle.

Symbolically, the empty set symbol ∅ or the similar-looking Greek letter phi φ is used to refer to the null particle during analysis: kankei φ aru 関係φある, the null particle φ marks kankei.

• Grammar
• Usage
  
  • Nuance
    
    • Casualty
    • Ambiguity
    • Two Ga が
    • Simplicity
• References

Contrastive は

In Japanese, the contrastive wa は refers to the wa は particle when it marks the contrastive topic. Normally, the wa は particle just marks the (non-contrastive) topic, hence why this distinction is important.