Nouns (名詞, “meishi“) are the names that you use to identify and label people, places, objects, and concepts.
In everyday life when you are having a daily conversation, you will be naturally using nouns when you’re conversing in generally. You leave your home and see your neighbor, as you meet eyes and get closer then say your hello and ask how they are doing. That interaction, and that entire sentence that you just read has numerous different nouns that have been listed such as “home”, “neighbour”, and “eyes”.
However, unlike English, Japanese nouns come with a set of unique characteristics that make them quite different in terms of usage, structure, and grammar.
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Types of Japanese Nouns
The nouns in the Japanese language also are separated into separate categories very much just like English. They can be categorized into several types which we will look at.
Common Nouns
Common nouns (普通名詞, “futsuu meishi”) refer to general people, objects, places, and concepts.
Let’s take a sentence in English:
Imagine you are heading down to the store, and you need to get some food. You are planning to get some rice and chicken to make some dinner tonight. In this sentence store, food, rice, and chicken, are all common nouns as they refer to generic things rather then a specific thing by name. The rule of thumb is that essentially in the written English language is that if the entire spelling is lowercase, then the word is probably a common noun.
Now the concept of common nouns also applies to the Japanese language as well, but the Japanese language does not have any concepts of capitalization of a letter in their language.
Here are some examples of common Japanese nouns:
| Japanese | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 机 | つくえ (tsukue) | Desk |
| 車 | くるま (kuruma) | Car |
| 山 | やま (yama) | Mountain |
| 食べ物 | たべもの (tabemono) | Food |
Proper Nouns
Proper nouns (固有名詞, “koyuu meishi”) refer to specific names of people, places, and things. Unlike common nouns, they are always capitalized in English but are written normally in Japanese (often in kanji or katakana).
Let’s take a sentence in English:
I have a cat named Snowball.In this case, Snowball would be the proper noun as it is the name of the cat, whilst the common noun would be cat. A rule of thumb is that if an English word always starts with a capital letter (when not at the beginning of a sentence), it is most likely a proper noun.
Examples of Proper Nouns in Japanese:
| Japanese | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 日本 | にほん (Nihon) | Japan |
| 東京 | とうきょう (Toukyou) | Tokyo |
| 田中 | たなか (Tanaka) | Tanaka (surname) |
| アメリカ | アメリカ (Amerika) | America |
Naming Conventions in Japanese
The names of Japanese people are normally written in specific Kanji. Japanese names are usually written in kanji, and the specific characters chosen often have meaning. For example, 田中 (Tanaka) takes the characters of 田 (Ta, “rice paddy”) and 中 (naka, “inside”) to form the name.
For the names of Non-Japanese names, they are typically written in katakana to approximate their pronunciation. For example, the English name “Michael” would be written as マイケル (Maikeru) in Japanese. It’s in approximation as you can see the Japanese does not have the L sound and instead uses the ル (ru) character.
Verbal Nouns
Verbal nouns, in Japanese, are nouns that have been converted into verbs.
Don’t confuse this with verbal nouns in English. In English, Verbal nouns are nouns that are derived from verbs, which commonly refer to the act of doing that verb (e.g. run transformed to running).
In Japanese it’s different, you instead convert a common noun into a verbal noun. You typically accomplish this by adding “する” (suru) to the end of the noun. The hiragana “する” means “to do,” and when it’s added to a noun, it turns that noun into a verb-like action or process.
For example:
| Noun | Verb (with する) | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 勉強 (benkyou) | 勉強する (benkyou suru) | To study |
| 運動 (undou) | 運動する (undou suru) | To exercise |
| 旅行 (ryokou) | 旅行する (ryokou suru) | To travel |
| 整理 (seiri) | 整理する (seiri suru) | To organize |
Example:
Verbal Noun Example:
私は毎晩、勉強を頑張っています。
(Watashi wa maiban, benkyou o ganbatte imasu)
"I am working hard at studying every night."
Verb Example:
私は毎日勉強する。
(Watashi wa mainichi benkyou suru)
"I study every day."In the Verbal Noun example, you can see that 勉強 (benkyou, “studying”) is being used as a verbal noun. It might be a bit counter intuitive why “studying” would be a noun but if you think about it, “working” would be the verb and “studying” is the object/action/target of that verb.
In the Verb Example, you can see that 勉強する (benkyou suru, “study”) is the verb in this sentence which is used as a verb.
Personal Pronouns
Personal pronouns are words that replace nouns referring to people.
In English, this would typically be words like “you”, “they”, “him”, etc. In the conversation, if the context of the conversation contains talk about a person, then you will see personal pronouns being used quite often.
However, Japanese uses personal pronouns far less frequently than English, as they are often omitted when the subject is clear from context.
| Japanese | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 私 | わたし (watashi) | I / Me |
| 彼 | かれ (kare) | He / Him |
| 彼女 | かのじょ (kanojo) | She / Her |
| 私たち | わたしたち (watashitachi) | We / Us |
Omitting Pronouns
As Japanese is a context heavy language, the speakers will automatically distinguish between topics in that discussion.
Hence, if the subject is already clear, then you can typically leave out the topic which is still acceptable in conversation.
For example:
私は学生です。
(Watashi wa gakusei desu)
"I am a student."
学生です。
(Gakusei desu)
"I am a student."Because Japanese relies heavily on context, pronouns are often unnecessary in conversation.
Articles (A, An, The)
In English, we use “a,” “an,” and “the” to indicate whether a noun is specific or general. These are called articles:
- “A” / “An” → Used for non-specific, singular nouns (e.g., a cat, an apple).
- “The” → Used for specific nouns (e.g., the cat, the apple).
However, Japanese does not have direct equivalents for these articles. Instead, context and additional words clarify meaning.
When referring to something unspecified (like “a cat” or “an apple”), Japanese simply states the noun without an article. Japanese relies heavily on context, so “a” vs. “the” is often implied:
Example:
猫がいる。
(Neko ga iru)
"There is a cat."
猫がいた。
(Neko ga ita)
"There was a/the cat."
林檎を食べる。
(Ringo o tabemasu)
"I eat an apple."
その猫は可愛い。
(Sono neko wa kawaii)
"That cat is cute."