In this Bonus Topic, we're going to learn more about the types of Japanese words, often called 'parts of speech'. So far, we've seen many different types of word and given them labels as they've come up. In this Topic, we'll take a step back and look at the bigger picture of how Japanese words work and how all these labels fit together.

Back to School

When learning Japanese as a foreigner, we end up learning all sorts of terms for different types of words. But why? The main reason is to quickly tell how words are used grammatically, how they connect to other sorts of words, and so on.

It is not just foreign learners who classify words. Japanese schoolchildren also learn a basic classification system for words, not dissimilar to English speakers learning what 'nouns' and 'verbs' are. One of the main takeaways from this classification system is that we can divide all Japanese words up based on two important questions.

1. Can it be used independently? (Does it normally need other words around it to be used?)
2. Can it conjugate? (Does it change form?)

With these two questions we can see the essential grammatical relationships that all Japanese words have with each other.

Unchanging and Independent

First let's look at independent, non-conjugating words.

This category is where the meat of Japanese sentences come from. These words can convey meaning just on their own, and they do not need to change forms to attach to other words.

This category includes things like nouns, adverbs, 'pre-noun adjectivals', conjunctions, and interjections. With this sort of word, what you see is what you get.

Changing and Independent

Next, we have the independent words which conjugate.

This category is the real engine of Japanese sentences. Often, these words come at the end of sentences and, consequently, are the focal point of meaning in the sentence.

The category of conjugating, independent words includes verbs, い-Adjectives, and な-Adjectives.

Unchanging and Dependent

Next, we have dependent words which do not conjugate.

These are words which normally rely on others to be used and never change form. They are the static glue of Japanese sentences, attached to other words to show relationships within a sentence.

That is to say, this category is entirely made up of particles!

Changing and Dependent

Finally, we have dependent words which can conjugate.

These words are the little extras and modifiers of Japanese. Just like particles, they cannot be used on their own. However, just like adjectives and verbs, they can change form to fit in grammatically with what is around them.

This category is made up of auxiliary verbs, which we learned all about in the previous Bonus Topic.

So What?

What's the point of knowing all this anyway? At this point, just having a passing familiarity with these concepts is more than enough. Still, on the path to becoming fluent in Japanese it is extremely useful to immediately understand how a word typically behaves just from knowing what type of word it is.

Although we have stuck to English terms in this Topic, the ideas we've discussed here are the same ones used by dictionaries and Japanese natives. This means that being familiar with these ideas will allow us to properly understand how words are used when we look them up and, also, better understand how native speakers actually think about Japanese on its own terms!