Japanese Nouns
Japanese Nouns
Nouns in Japanese serve as the building blocks of sentences, representing people, places, things, or concepts. While they share similarities with nouns in other languages, they also possess unique characteristics that set them apart.
Characteristics of Japanese Nouns
No Plural Forms
Japanese nouns do not differentiate between singular and plural forms.
teacher(s)
As a result of there being no plural form, you'll need context or extra words to determine whether one or multiple things are being referred to.
No Gender or Articles
Unlike some languages, Japanese nouns do not have a gender (e.g., masculine or feminine) or require definite/indefinite articles (e.g., "the" or "a").
(a/the) cat(s)
Due to this, the above word can mean a cat, the cat(s), cat, or cats depending on context.
Types of Japanese Nouns
Many types of nouns in Japanese are shared with other languages. The following list provides a quick overview of the kinds of nouns encountered in Japanese.
Common Nouns: General words like 猫 cat, 山 mountain, or 机 desk.
Proper Nouns: Specific names of people, places, or organizations, such as 東京 Tokyo or 田中さん Mr./Ms. Tanaka.
Verbal Nouns: These are nouns that can also act as verbs when combined with the verb する to do (勉強 study vs. 勉強する to study).
Personal Pronouns: Japanese personal pronouns, like "I," "you," and "he/she," are less commonly used than in English due to the language's tendency to omit information made obvious by context. These pronouns include first-person pronouns (私 I), second-person pronouns (あなた you), third-person pronouns (彼 he) and reflexive pronouns (自分 self).
Demonstrative Pronouns: Demonstratives are words like これ this and あれ that over there that help indicate things, both physically and abstractly.
Interrogative Pronouns: These are nouns like "what" or "who" used to ask questions. Examples include 誰 who, 何 what or どこ where.
Relational Nouns: Relational nouns indicate a location relative to other objects. They function like prepositions in English but are treated as nouns in Japanese and often pair with particles. Some common ones are 上 above, 中 inside or 前 in front of.
Loanwords
Loanwords function just like any other noun. However, a notable category is 'Gairaigo' 外来語—words borrowed from other languages. These are easy to recognize as they are almost always written in katakana.
Radio
Cake