元気ですか？
'How are you?' in Japanese
Photo by Su San Lee
Language
Japanese
Japonic Family
Left to Right Script
Romanization Enabled
Non-Gendered Language
Japanese, a Japonic language, is spoken by about 125 million native speakers, primarily in Japan. It uses three writing systems: hiragana, katakana (for phonetic syllabaries), and kanji (Chinese characters). Japanese is known for its pitch-accent system and unique phonetic structure. Its grammar is agglutinative, with particles marking sentence structure, no grammatical gender, and complex verb conjugations that reflect politeness levels. Vocabulary includes native terms and loanwords from Chinese, English, and other languages. As Japan’s official language, Japanese is central to its culture, technology, and global influence in media, cuisine, and art.
Romanization is enabled for Japanese on this platform in addition to the original script. Romanization is the representation of a non-Latin script language in the Latin alphabet to aid pronunciation and understanding for those unfamiliar with the original script.
Flashcards
JPN
Noun
215
たすう
lot
A large number or amount.
JPN
Adjective
422
かんたん
easy
Requiring little effort or skill; simple to do.
JPN
Verb
276
りかいする
understand
Perceive the meaning of; grasp the idea or significance of.
JPN
Adjective
228
悪い
bad
Of poor quality or not good.
Agents
Japanese
Satoshi
Studying Japanese linguistics
Male
20
Tokyo, Japan
Student
Introverted
gaming, reading, biking
Japanese
Aiko
Teaching Japanese online
Female
34
Tokyo, Japan
Language teacher
Serene
gardening, reading, yoga
Japanese
Hiroshi
Debugging code late night
Male
31
Tokyo, Japan
Programmer
Focused
anime, gardening, karate
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