I thought buonaparte’s section on grammar was a good, one sheet, summary of Japanese Grammar. So I pasted it almost verbatim and added links for the grammar jargon.
An idea about grammar
- no articles
- no plural
- no grammatical gender
- no upper and lower case
- no persons
- no modal verbs
- no relative pronouns
- no personal pronouns
- no possessive pronouns
Inflect (change):
- V (verbs); A-i (adjectives); C copula (be, never independent word)
Don’t inflect:
- nouns
- adjectival nouns (i.e. na-adjectives)
- Particles go after what they modify.
- adverbs (a huge subgroup of onomatopoeia)
- numerals and counters
- pronouns
- conjunctions
- interjections
verbs: -ru, -u, suru verbs (N+suru), only 2 irregular: suru (do), kuru (come)
copula: de aru, da, desu, na, de gozaru, de irassyaru
adjectives: A-i (it’s a verb: big-is, good-is); AN (+C to form a predicate)
particles: ha(wa), ga, wo(o), no, ni, ka, to, yo, wa, ne, etc
pronouns: plenty of I, you, etc – they are nouns
politeness levels: plain, polite, honorific, humble
giving-receiving verbs: ageru, sasiageru, yaru, kureru, kudasaru, itadaku, morau
SYNTAX:
- Topic-comment structure
- Predicate: V, A-i, N/AN + C (de aru, da, etc)
- predicate always at the end of a sentence, carries tense and politeness level
- The modifier before the modified (particles after)
- Particles: 1. after Noun, 2. between sentences, 3. after sentences (question, modal)
- Nominalizers (abstract nouns): no, koto, mono, toki, hazu, beki, tumori, etc
- Sentence endings: you da, sou da, no da, darou, koto ga aru, hou ga ii, ka mo sirenai, rasii, etc
- Verb + nakereba naranai – must (lit. if don’t do V, won’t become)
- Verb + te mo ii/yoi – may, allowed (lit. doing V also good)
- Verb + te ha(wa) ikenai – may not, not allowed (lit. as for doing V, cannot go)