Female Language

In Japanese, "female language," or joseigo 女性語, refers to words and manner of speech predominantly used by women in Japan, that, consequently, would sound weird if used by men.

It's also called "women's language," and onna-kotoba 女言葉, "women's words."

• Usage
• Examples
  
  • Pronouns
  • てよだわ言葉
  • At Sentence End
  • 美化語
  • 山の手言葉
  • ありんす詞
  • Interjections
• Male Language
• オネェ言葉
• References

sou そう

In Japanese, sou そう means "like that," "that's right," "it seems," or "I heard from someone that" depending on what function of the word is being used in a given sentence.

• Pronoun
• Suffix
• Interjection

Nouns

In grammar, a noun is a word that refers to a thing, like a "cat." It isn't a verb: "John cats Mary." Or an adjective: "the caty person." Or an adverb: "he spoke catly." It's a noun.

Japanese has nouns too, like neko 猫, which means "cat," and turns out a lot of grammar depends on how nouns work, so that's what I'm going to explain in this article.

• Grammar Syntax
• Noun Phrases
• Compound Nouns
• Nouns as Adjectives
• Pronouns as Nouns
• Meaningless Nouns

Subject and Object

In grammar, the subject, the direct object, and the indirect object are types of arguments a verb can have. The concept applies to both English and Japanese, but there are differences between how the two languages express and interpret verb arguments in a sentence.

• Identification
• In Japanese
  
  • Order
  • Other Roles
• vs. Agent and Patient
• Theta Criterion
• vs. Topic
  
  • Transitivity Disparity
• Pronoun Dropping

Topic and Focus

In Japanese, knowing what is the topic and what is the focus helps understand how the topic-marker wa は particle and the subject-marker ga が particle work.

• Identification
• In Japanese
  
  • Focus to Topic
  • Discourse Topic
• Contrast
  
  • Contrastive Topic
  • Contrastive Focus
• References

は Particle

In Japanese, the wa は particle has multiple functions.

• Topic Marker
  
  • Argument Interpretation
  • Describing Things
    
    • Descriptions with Stative Verbs
    • Descriptions with Auxiliaries
    • Existence and Possession
    • Other Descriptions
  • Discourse Topic
  • Subordinate Clauses
  • Coordinating Clauses
  • Adjunct Clauses
  • Interrogative Pronouns
• Contrastive は
  
  • Implicatures
  • Two は, One Sentence
    
    • Switching Contrast
    • Subordinated Contrast
    • Cancellability
• Advanced Usage
  
  • Auxiliary Focus
  • Adverb Topic
    
    • Temporal Topic
  • Copula Topic-Focus
• Compounds
• Comma Usage
• Adverbial は
  
  • Pretty Good For a Girl
  • IT SHALL NOT BE
• Replaced by も
• をば
• References

を Particle

In Japanese, the wo を particle has one function: it marks the direct object of the sentence. Which should make it the simplest particle in all Japanese. However, just because it's the simplest one, that doesn't mean it's going to be simple.

To begin with, the wo を particle is also romanized o を. This happens because the wo を particle is pronounced like o お in Japanese.

In this article, as well as in the rest of this blog, it's romanized wo. In other blogs, resources, it may be romanized o. There's no difference: it's the same Japanese, different romaji.

• Direct Object Marker
  
  • In Passive Voice
    
    • Direct Object vs. Patient
  • Disparity with English
    
    • Nouns Becoming verbs
    • Passing Through
  • Replaced by ga が
    
    • Transitivity
    • Dummy Subject
    • Stative Verbs
    • Verbs Becoming Adjectives
    • Potential Form
    • Auxiliary Adjectives
• Sentence-Ending Particle
  
  • By Dislocation
  • By Omission
• Compounds

が Particle

In Japanese, the ga が particle has several functions.

• Subject Marker
  
  • Active Agent Marker
  • Passive Patient Marker
    
    • Patient vs. Direct Object
  • Disparity with English Subjects
    
    • Transitivity
    • Noun Becoming a Verb in English
    • Existence and Possession
    • Topic Marker Usage
  • Replaced by wa は
    
    • Replaced by mo も
  • Replacing wo を
    
    • With Auxiliaries
    • In The Potential Form
  • Replaced by no の in Relative Clauses
• Focus Marker
  
  • Exhaustive Listing
    
    • Cancelling Implicatures
  • Neutral Description
• Role Distinction
  
  • Two Subjects, One Sentence
    
    • Two Clauses, Two Subjects
  • Subordinated Clauses
  • Stage-Level Predicates
    
    • Accent
• Conjunction
  
  • But, However
  • Comma Placement
  • Fact plus Question
• Sentence-Ending Particle
  
  • Due to Repositioning
  • Due to Implicitness
  • Due to Omission
• Compounds
• Genitive Case Marker
  
  • Possessive Marker
  • In Names of Places and People
• Further Reading
  
  • References

に Particle

In Japanese, the ni に particle has several functions.

• Indirect Object Marker
• Passive Agent Marker
• Adverbial Copula
• "For"
• Complements of a Set
• Marking Verbs and Adjectives
• Compounds

な Particle

In Japanese, the na な particle has several functions.

• Creates Adjectives
  
  • Attributive Copula
• Negative Command
• Agreement
• Wonder
• Doubt

の Subject Marker

In Japanese, the no の particle can sometimes replace the ga が particle as subject marker in a relative clause. Since this is something that's a bit confusing, I thought I'd better make a separate article to talk about it.

• Usage
• Tricky Parts
  
  • Subject in Japanese, Object in English
  • Ambiguity with の Adjectives

の Particle

In Japanese, the no の particle has several functions.

• Creates Adjectives
• Turns Words into Nouns
• Marks the Subject
• Asks Questions
• Asserts Statements

～といい～といい

In Japanese, __ to ii __ to ii ～といい～といい is a pattern used when citing two things about a situation before concluding something the situation.

• nedan to ii, shitsu to ii, manzoku desu
  値段といい、質といい、満足です
  (citing) the price, the quality, (conclusion) [I'm] satisfied.
• Given the price and the quality, I'm satisfied with this.

They're also spelled to ii と言い, from to iu と言う, "to say." Not to be confused with the other to ii といい, which's from "good," ii 良い.

The pattern can repeat for more than two things, but it's usually just two things.

otoko 男, 漢

In Japanese, otoko 男 means a "man," and otoko 漢 means a "MAN." A man among men. Whose pride, bravery, and dignity is unrivaled.

This, of course, isn't an actual word. It's a meme. It shows up in manga and anime from time to time.

Normally, "man" in Japanese is spelled otoko 男, as seen in words like otoko no ko 男の子, "male child," "boy."

The manga slang otoko 漢 is an ateji, that is, we're spelling with a certain kanji a word that doesn't have kanji or is normally spelled with different kanji. In this case, 漢 is the kanji for "man" in Chinese. Normally, it can only be read as kan 漢 in Japanese, like in chikan 痴漢, "foolish man," "molester." (another manga ateji is otokonoko 男の娘, "trap.")

koto aru ことある

In Japanese, koto aru ことある means something "exists" or "happens," or can happen, might happen, or that it has "happened," or that someone "has done" something before, as opposed to have never done it. Variants include koto ga aru ことがある and koto wa aru ことはある.

Literally, it's the combination of the light noun koto こと plus the verb aru ある, "to exist." Grammatically, koto is qualified by an adjective, such as relative clause, so it can abstractly refer to "a kind of something," and then the aru says that kind of something exists or happens.

The opposite is koto nai ことない: "doesn't exist," "doesn't happen," "never done it."

Depending on the adjective qualifying koto, the meaning changes.