What Are Particles?
Particles are short pseudo-words that have no meaning on their own. Instead, they are used to relate other words like nouns, verbs, and adjectives to each other. To note, they are always written in hiragana. There are a lot of particles—188 to be exact. (For a complete list check out Nihongo Ichiban’s website). Particles affect sentences in various ways i.e. by indicating a location or changing a sentence into a question. Furthermore, some have multiple uses depending on how and where they are used in the sentence.
How Do They Work?
Below are some examples of the most common particles:
| Particle | Meaning | Example |
| は – wa | Marks the topic of the sentence. | 私は肉を食べます (watashi wa niku o tabe masu) – I eat meat |
| が – ga | Marks the subject of the sentence. | だれが来ますか (dare ga ki masu ka) – Who will come? |
| を – wo | Marks the direct object of a verb, meaning the thing the verb is affecting. | 私は肉を食べます (watashi wa niku o tabe masu) – I eat meat |
| に – ni | Multiple uses: indirect object time (at, in) place someone is moving toward in/at a place purpose | 彼は私に手紙をくれました (Kare wa watashi ni tegami o kuremashita) – He gave me a letter 朝9時に起きた (asa kyuuji ni okita) – I woke up at 9 学校に行く (Gakkou ni Iku) – I will go to school 東京にいる (Tokyo ni iru) – I’m in Tokyo 朝ご飯にしましょう(asagohan ni shimashou) – Let’s have breakfast |
| で- de | Marks the location of an action. | 図書館で勉強しました (toshokan de benkyō shimashita) – I studied at the library |
| か – ka | Marks the sentence a question. | だれが来ますか (dare ga ki masu ka) – Who will come? |
Note:
は is hiragana for the ha, but when used as a particle it is pronounced wa.
を is hiragana for wo, but when used as a particle it is usually pronounced o.
