Introductory Japanese Lessons (6)

Characteristics of Japanese

Do you still think Japanese is a difficult language to learn? I would say "No!". Of course, it is a little hard to master all Japanese writing, but for speaking it is not as hard as you think.

Here are some facts.

(1) Japanese is easy to pronounce. It has only five vowels.

(2) Japanese nouns do not have gender, and rarely, number aspects. With most Japanese nouns, number is not an issue. The same word is used for one or more than one.

 hon = a book or books
 kuruma = a car or cars

(3) Verb conjugation is not affected by the gender or number. The same verb is used no matter what the subject is.

(4) Japanese verbs have only two tenses; the present tense and the past tense. The present tense refers to habitual action or the future. The past tense is used for actions completed in the past. It is also equivalent to the English present perfect or past perfect.

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