Erin Himeno, Author at Clozemaster Blog

The Definitive Guide to Using Japanese Adjectives (With Examples)

By Erin Himeno / Japanese Grammar / June 27, 2022

Adjectives are essential building blocks for learning Japanese. How else are you going to explain how delicious that fatty salmon sushi was? The Japanese language has two types of adjectives: い-adjectives and な-adjectives. Both must be conjugated like verbs. In this article, we’re going to introduce 10 fail-proof Japanese adjectives that you’ll be certain to …

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Best Intermediate Japanese Apps: Our Top 6 Picks

By Erin Himeno / Learn Japanese / April 20, 2022

Studying Japanese takes time and effort, but it doesn’t have to be boring. There are countless Japanese apps available to make your learning journey more fun and efficient. In this article, we’ve made a list of our favorite intermediate Japanese apps. These apps are a great way to continue your studies if you’ve covered basic …

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How to Say the Days of the Week in Japanese

By Erin Himeno / Learn Japanese / February 22, 2022

If you’re traveling to Japan, you may want to learn the days of the week (or youbi) in Japanese to talk about your schedule. Let’s break down the days of the week and how to use them in a sentence. Days of the Week in Japanese Learning the days of the week can be easy …

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Japanese Pronouns: All You Need to Know

By Erin Himeno / Japanese Grammar / December 17, 2021

Japanese is infamous for its tendency of omitting the subject in a sentence, but pronouns are still an important part of the language. Personal pronouns are especially numerous in Japanese, many have one or more honorific versions. Japanese personal pronouns are more commonly omitted as the subject of a sentence than impersonal pronouns are. In …

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How Long Does It Take to Learn Japanese? Here Are Our Thoughts

By Erin Himeno / Learn Japanese / November 24, 2021

Learning a new language requires time commitment, and you may be wondering how long it will take you to learn Japanese. The answer depends on what level of Japanese fluency you want to achieve in your studies. For example, the Japanese Language Proficiency N1, which is the highest level of Japanese proficiency, requires between 2,150 …

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What Are Japanese Particles? Understanding Wa, Ga, and More

By Erin Himeno / Japanese Grammar / March 23, 2021

In Japanese, particles are called 助詞 (joshi) or てにをは (tenioha). These one-syllable building blocks within a Japanese sentence follow immediately after a noun, verb, or adjective. They modify each of these words, indicating what the word’s role is within the sentence. In this article, we’re going to cover the major Japanese particles, how they work, …

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Sorry in Japanese: Learn How to Properly Apologize in Japanese

By Erin Himeno / Learn Japanese / February 16, 2021

How do you say sorry if you make a faux pas in Japan? Japanese people will say sorry when they feel they’ve done something wrong, when they want to correct an inconvenience—and even when they want to say thank you! Apologizing properly is vital in Japan. Some of you might already know the words すみません …

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I Love You in Japanese: Learn How to Express Your Feelings in Japanese

By Erin Himeno / Learn Japanese / January 24, 2021

As Valentine’s Day approaches, you may be wondering how to say I love you in Japanese. Whether you’ve been together for a while now or one of you is just picking up the courage to confess your feelings, saying I love you isn’t as simple as anime would have you believe. Japanese culture is nuanced when …

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All You Need to Know about Christmas and New Year in Japan

By Erin Himeno / Learn Japanese / December 11, 2020

As the holiday season approaches, do you ever wonder how Christmas and New Year’s are celebrated in Japan? Both holidays are widely celebrated, but Japan has only been celebrating Christmas for about 500 years! New Year’s is a much bigger, much older celebration. In this article, we’ll take a look at these two popular year-end …

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Japanese Sentence Structure: Do’s, Don’t’s, and Other Helpful Tips

By Erin Himeno / Japanese Grammar, Learn Japanese / December 4, 2020

The rules governing Japanese sentence structure are quite different from those of English sentence structure. Many learners struggle with how to best approach that difference. Some box Japanese sentence structure into an SOV (Subject Oject Verb) formula in order to compare it to the SVO (Subject Verb Object) structure that English takes. Others argue that …

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