The Japanese Grammatical Particles: A Review (Exercises)
Getting Started: Knowing the Basics
This article is meant as a review of the Japanese grammatical particles. It contains exercises as well as the answer key. A English translation is provided for each sentences.
The translation of difficult Japanese words is also available for each exercise.
For those of you unfamiliar with Japanese particles, I strongly recommend reading the following articles.
Japanese Particles: General Introduction to Particles by Tommy Carlton
Some new particles are discussed in this article with detailed explanation for each one of them (as well as examples).
Once you have some understanding of the Japanese particles, move on to the next section.
The Review
Choose the appropriate particle.
1) 見ました____?
Have you seen it?
a)は
b)の
c)か
d)へ
2) (In a restaurant) パン＿＿食べますか？
Would you like some bread?
a)は
b)の
c)か
d)を
3)トランク＿＿中にあります。
It is in my trunk (car).
a)を
b)の
c)か
d)へ
4) どこ＿＿行きますか？
Where are you going?
a)は
b)の
c)か
d)へ
5) 何＿＿買いますか？
What would you like to buy?
a)は
b)の
c)を
d)へ
6)友達＿＿来ました。
A friend came.
a)は
b)の
c)が
d)へ
7) アメリカ＿＿映画を見ました。
I saw an American movie.
a)は
b)の
c)が
d)へ
8) フォーク＿＿食べません。
I don’t eat with a fork.
a)は
b)の
c)が
d)で
9) あそこの喫茶店＿＿行きましょう。
Let’s go to that coffee shop over there.
a)は
b)の
c)が
d)へ
10) 私＿＿コーヒー。
I’ll have a coffee.
a)は
b)の
c)が
d)へ
11) お嬢さん＿＿いくつですか。
How old is your daughter?
a) が
b)の
c) は
d)へ
12) (in a bookstore)右＿＿本を見せてください。
Show me the book to the right please.
a) が
b)の
c) は
d)へ
13) 遠いです＿＿？
Is it far?
a) が
b)の
c) か
d)へ
14) てんぷら＿＿食べたいな。
I’d like to eat some tempura.
a) が
b)の
c) は
d)へ
Glossary
1.
見ました：to see (past form)
2.
パン：bread
食べます：to eat (polite form)
か：question particle
3.
トランク：trunk
中：inside
あります：there is (exists)
4.
どこ：where
行きます：to go (polite form)
か：question particle
5.
何：what
買います：to buy (polite form)
か：question particle
6.
友達：friend
来ました：to come (past polite form)
7.
アメリカ：America
映画：movie
見ました：to see (past polite form)
8.
フォーク：fork
食べません：to eat (negative polite form)
9.
あそこ：over there (far from both speaker and listener)
喫茶店：Coffee shop
行きましょう：let’s go
10.
私：Me, I
コーヒー : coffee
11.
お嬢さん：daughter (when talking about someone else’s daughter)
いくつ：how much
です : it is
か：question particle
12.
右：right (direction)
本：book
見せて：to see
ください：please
13.
遠い：far
です：it is
14.
てんぷら：a Japanese dish consisting of pieces of vegetables or fish that have been fried in batter (= a mixture of flour, egg and water)
食べたい：to want to eat
Answer Key
1)か
2)を
3)の
4)へ
5)を
6)が
7)の
8)で
9)で
10)は
11)は
12)の
13)か
14)が
Remembering Kanji: a Review
This article is a review, once you’ve completely finished reading the following series of articles about the Japanese Kanji, proceed to reading this one.
So you’ve successfully read and understood what is explained in the earlier articles, and you’re ready to learn some more Kanjis. Before we do so however, let’s proceed to a short and quick review exercise.
Simply match up the meaning with the appropriate Kanji in the table right below:
a) _____ as in quickly
b) _____ as in person
c) _____ as in river
d) _____ as in mouth
e) _____ as in seven
f) _____ as in mountain
g) _____ as in blue
h) _____ as in companion
i) _____ as in car
j) _____ as in eye
k) _____ as in tree
l) _____ as in to slip
m) _____ as in heart
n) _____ as in two
o) _____ as in knife or sword
p) _____ as in one
q) _____ as in sky
r) _____ as in three
s) _____ as in seven
t) _____ as in ten
Answer Key (Japanese Kanji Review)
A : 1 B : 4 C : 7 D : 9 E : 20 F : 11G : 14 H : 16 I : 19 J : 13 K : 2 L : 3 M :12 N : 17 O : 5 P : 10 Q : 15 R : 8 S : 20 T : 18
If you haven’t made any mistakes, congratulations! You’re along the right path in learning to read (and write) Japanese. If you’ve made some mistakes, take some notes in order to identify which Kanji you find more difficult. Take some time to associate the Kanji with a familiar picture or make up your story like we’ve done before. It is important to really have those 20 Kanjis clear in your mind before progressing any further. Trying to rush things will only turn out to be disappointing in the long run as you’ll find out that you can’t remember what you studied before.
Don’t worry, however, as I’ll keep using the Kanjis I’ve introduced before in order to make sure that they’re not forgotten.
A Few New Kanji! (Japanese Kanji Review)
六
This Kanji stands for the number “6”. Since we’ve already covered most numbers from 1 to 10, it seems logical that we should add this one in. It might seem a bit confusing but it’s actually not that hard to remember once you’ve got a good story figured out. Let’s first have a look at the writing.
And now for the actual kanji:
Simply picture a person walking. Each part of its “body” counts for 1: head, torso, left arm, right arm, left leg and right leg. A total of 6 body parts.
Let’s move on to the next Kanji, 五。Now remembering this Kanji is a bit trickier. Suppose I told you this Kanji represents a number, would you be able to guess which one it stands for?
It actually somewhat looks like the shape of the number 5. Look at the picture below to get a better idea:
Let’s move on to the last Kanji, a very common one:
The meaning of this Kanji can almost be guessed without any prior Japanese knowledge. The general meaning of this Kanji is “in” or “inside”. Simply remember that the last stroke in drawing this Kanji is inside the rectangle.
