に in Japanese, the Particle with the most Usages
The particle に in Japanese can tell you a range of things from time, place, direction, purpose, and who is receiving something. Let’s take a look at all of those situations so we can better understand.
INDEX
Representing Time
The most basic use of に is to tell time. に follows nouns related to time and tells you that something happened at that time.
今日8時に帰る
I am returning home at 8:00 today
Not all words for time need に. If you are talking about seasons for example に is optional. In fact, there are words such as today, yesterday, last week, and so on that, you can’t but に after. This is similar in English where you would not say at today, or at next week. Basically, に is for hours and minutes, days of the week, holidays.
https://japaneseuniverse.com/2024/02/18/pac-man-in-japaneseconcepts-behind-development-to-global-icon/Place and Movement
You can also talk about places and movement with に in Japanese. This is a bit more complex but with a few examples, it should make more sense.
Place
First, に specifies a place or surface that some action is done onto physically. So, if you use に to talk about tables like the following examples, it means you are writing or climbing on that specific table. This differs from a similar particle で which says the place where an action or event takes place.
テーブルに落書きする
to write doodle on the table
テーブルの上に乗る
to get on top of the table
Other than talking about surfaces, に also tells you where someone or something is located.
図書館にいる人
the person in the library
庭によく見られる鳥
a bird we often see in the yard
As I already mentioned earlier, there is a similar particle that also shows up when you talk about places. If you want to see how these two particles differ, check out で in Japanese.
Movement or Direction
Verbs in Japanese for movement usually use に to tell you the direction they are going.
鳥が上に空を飛ぶ
The bird flies up through the sky
You can also use に with the same sort of movement verbs to talk about the purpose, or where someone is going.
買い物(し)に行く
to go shopping
This is a special usage of に though. In this situation, に follows phrases or verbs in their noun form. So, just try to be careful when you use this form because it is easy to create a sentence that sounds not quite right if you pick the wrong words. Instead of the sentence above, to be safe we could have said instead:
買い物のために行く
to go shopping
or
買い物をするために行く
to go shopping
Here, ために means the same thing. Japanese has a lot of these sort of situational differences that take some getting used to. If you want to become a master at Japanese grammar and figure out why how to differentiate between these sort of situations, I would recommend checking out my review of A Dictionary of Japanese Grammar. This is probably the best resource to learn Japanese grammar in detail.
Using に in Japanese as the Indirect Object
I have talked about objects in a previous post about the Japanese particle を. This particle specifically is called a direct object. に is also an object but called an indirect object. The details are not important but just know that an indirect object is something that receives or is affected by the direct object. So if you give something, send something, or throw something at a friend, then your friend is the indirect object.
友達に電話する
to call a friend
友達に手紙を書く
to write a friend a letter
Verbs for giving and receiving in Japanese are special. Depending on who is giving what to whom, the verb you choose will change. The indirect object is an important piece of grasping how all the components fit together for these verbs. That is beyond the scope of what we are talking about here, but I wrote all about giving in Japanese in this article.
