Learn Grammar Through Manga
The Sentence Skeleton
Start with the pieces that identify a sentence’s topic, main statement, subject, and object.
Common Verb Forms
Learn to recognize these core endings before moving on to the constructions built from them.
- Connecting actions with 〜て・〜で
- Ongoing actions and resulting states with 〜ている
- Past tense with 〜た・〜だ (under development)
- Negation with 〜ない
- Receptive verbs with 〜れる
- Volitional with 〜う・〜よう (under development)
- Able to do with 〜れる・〜られる (under development)
- Making and letting with 〜せる・〜させる (under development)
- The plain imperative
- The prohibitive な
Conversation Essentials
These explanations, quotations, and sentence endings carry much of the meaning and tone in dialogue.
- Quoting and reporting with と and って
- Informing with よ (under development)
- Seeking agreement with ね (under development)
- Reasoning with 〜のだ
- Presuming with 〜だろう and 〜でしょう
- Rough declarations with ぞ and ぜ (under development)
- Casual emphasis with さ (under development)
- That said with だって
- Wondering with かな
- Casual reasons with 〜もん
Casual Forms and Contractions
Casual speech regularly compresses forms.
- How casual contractions work (under development)
- Contracting 〜ているのだ to 〜てんだ
- Contracting 〜る＋な to 〜んな
- Contracting 〜らない to 〜んない
- One's house with 〜んち
- Contracting いる＋の to いんの
- Contracting 行っておいで to 行っといで
The て-Form Family
These all build on the て or で form. They stay together as a family and are ordered by how often their forms appeared in the manga corpus.
- Even if with 〜ても (under development)
- Receiving kindness with 〜てくれる
- Doing for someone with 〜てあげる
- Having someone do something with 〜てもらう
- Doing completely or ending up doing with 〜てしまう and 〜ちゃう
- Trying it out with 〜てみる
- Doing in advance with 〜ておく
- Permission to do with 〜てもいい
- After doing with 〜てから
- Want you to do something with 〜てほしい
- Must not do with 〜てはだめだ
- Should not do with 〜てはいけない
- Please let me with 〜させてください
Conditions, Reasons, and Contrasts
These connect one situation to another. Common conversational conditions and reasons come first; narrower and more formal links come later.
- Natural result with 〜と
- If and when with 〜たら (under development)
- Because with 〜から (under development)
- Hypothetical condition with 〜ば (under development)
- Even though with 〜のに (under development)
- Contrasting with 〜が〜
- If that's the case with なら
- Objective reason with 〜ので
- The reason or result with それで
- In addition to with それに〜
- Wasted effort with せっかく〜のに
- Taking advantage of an opportunity with せっかく〜だから
- Precisely because of with 〜からこそ
- Completely opposite to with 〜どころか
- Proportional to with 〜ば〜ほど
- Of all times to happen with 〜に限って
- It's not the case with 〜ではあるまいし
- Contradicting with 〜つつも
- When the time comes with いざ〜となると (under development)
Wants, Plans, and Purpose
Use these to recognize what a character wants, intends, expects someone to do, or treats as necessary.
- Wanting to do with 〜たい
- Going to for a purpose with 〜に行く
- Doing for a reason with 〜ように
- Coming to for a purpose with 〜に来る
- Thinking of doing with 〜ようと思う
- Should be with 〜べきだ
- Hoping with 〜といい
- Giving advice with 〜た＋方がいい
- Making an effort to with 〜ようにする (under development)
- Someone else's desire with 〜たがる
- Must do with 〜なければならない
- Want to say or do something with 〜たい＋ことがある
- Speaker's conviction with 〜た＋つもり
Appearance, Reports, and Judgments
These let a speaker compare appearances, report evidence, express uncertainty, or draw a conclusion. Forms that look alike stay together.
- More than with 〜方が and 〜より
- Likening things with 〜みたい
- Hearsay with 〜そうだ (under development)
- Looking like with 〜そうだ (under development)
- Giving an example with 〜ようだ (under development)
- Evidence-based guessing with 〜ようだ (under development)
- Metaphor with 〜ようだ (under development)
- Expectation with はず
- Might with 〜かもしれない
- Logical conclusion with 〜わけだ (under development)
- Thinking or feeling something with 〜気がする
- Conjecture with 〜らしい
- Not necessarily with 〜わけではない (under development)
- Negative conjecture with 〜まい (under development)
- Covered in with 〜だらけ
- Instead of with 〜の代わりに
- Or something similar with 〜か何か
- Sensation of with 〜気味
- No way with 〜わけがない (under development)
- A strong denial with 〜っこない
- Worth it with 〜甲斐がある
- It might be one thing if with 〜ならともかく
- As if with 〜んばかり
Time, Sequence, and Experience
These locate events in time, describe changes and repeated experiences, or mark the beginning and end of an action.
- Until an action occurs with 〜まで
- Leaving as is with 〜まま (under development)
- During the same time with 〜間(に)
- Starting something with 〜出す
- Timing of an action with 〜ところだ (under development)
- Concurrent events with 〜ながら
- Sometimes with 〜ことがある
- Coming to do with 〜ようになる (under development)
- To end up being with 〜ことになる
- During with 〜うちに
- Just happened with 〜た＋ばかり (under development)
- Listing example actions with 〜たり〜たりする (under development)
- While with 〜うちは
- Previous experience with 〜た＋ことがある
- Completing an action with 〜終わる
- Doing better with 〜直す
- Leaving something as-is with 〜っぱなし
- Every 〜 with 〜ごとに
- Past decision still in effect with 〜ことになっている
- Managing to complete an action with 〜終える
Degree, Difficulty, and Additions
These useful modifiers and extensions are less central than the earlier families but still recur across the corpus.
- Limiting with 〜だけ
- Amount with 〜分
- Too much with 〜すぎる
- Nothing but with 〜ばかり (under development)
- Not at all with 全然〜ない
- Because of too much with 〜あまり
- Easy to do with 〜やすい
- Furthermore with さらに〜
- Difficult to do with 〜にくい
- Difficult to do with 〜づらい
- Difficult to do with 〜がたい
- Not only this but also that with 〜だけではなく〜も
- Not limited to just this with 〜だけじゃなくても
Stylized and Fixed Expressions
These are among the least frequently observed forms and are strongly tied to a particular register, character voice, or fixed expression.
The Rest
These are various uncategorized pages.
- Can do with ことができる (under development)
- Offering an example with 〜でも