名詞 – Japanese Nouns made Simple
Nouns are words for objects, living things, places, or concepts. They are different from adjectives which describe things, and verbs which are actions or events performed by nouns.
Japanese also has nouns. Japanese nouns are actually pretty straightforward and simpler than many other languages. Let’s take a look
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What are Japanese Nouns?
Japanese Nouns don’t have gender and don’t have a bunch of different word forms like some languages. For example, in English, some words change when you are talking about it in the singular or in the plural. So, if you are talking about more than one foot you would say feet. Japanese on the other hand uses the same word for singular and plural words.
足 – foot / feet
The context of the sentence will tell you if you are talking about multiple things or not.
https://japaneseuniverse.com/2024/02/18/pac-man-in-japaneseconcepts-behind-development-to-global-icon/Japanese Nouns in Sentences
You can find Japanese nouns in a sentence pretty easily. Most nouns will be followed by a particle.
猫が魚を食べる
the cat eats the fish
Above, the cat and the fish are both nouns. You can also find nouns if you look at words followed by auxiliary verbs such as だ or です. You can think of auxiliary words as a fancy way to say is or are.
魚だ
it is a fish
Some Japanese nouns though don’t always have particles after them but we will talk about that below.
Examples of Japanese Nouns
We already know that Japanese nouns can be objects, living things, places, and other concepts. Here are some examples
靴 – shoe
人 – person
日本 – Japan
経済 – economy
These types of nouns are pretty self-explanatory. There are other nouns that need a bit more explanation.
Borderline Nouns
Since Japanese is a different language from English, there are times when even word-classes do not line-up exactly the same between the two languages. In Japanese, there are certain nouns that can function as adverbs, adjectives, or even verbs.
Numbers, Quantity, and Time Nouns
Earlier I said that not all nouns have particles following them. Words in Japanese for numbers, quantity, and time do not always have particles after them. These words can be called Adverbial Nouns since they function somewhat like adverbs. Adverbs are words that add extra information to verbs or to full phrases.
一番 – number one
今 – now
さっき – just now
全部 – everything
ほとんど – almost everything
さっきうちの猫が魚を全部食べた
my cat just now ate all of the fish
な-Adjectives or Nominal Adjectives
These are actually adjectives but they act partially like nouns. When at the end of a sentence the auxiliary verb だ follows them just like other nouns. But, Nominal Adjectives can’t have particles follow them.
猫が静かだ
the cat is quiet
✖静かは猫だ → 〇静かなのは猫だ (The word の turns phrases words into nouns)
Instead, they come before other nouns and act as adjectives. They do this by adding a な after them.
静かな猫だ
that is a quiet cat
Verbal Nouns
Finally, certain Japanese Nouns can become verbs. They do that by adding する after them.
ジョンが勉強する
John studies (John does studying)
If we just take the noun 勉強 and translate it from Japanese to English it would become studying. If you have a Japanese word that can be translated to something ending in -ing in English, chances are it is a Verbal Noun. Either way, Verbal Nouns are not that difficult to learn. They can function just like a noun would but just have the added feature of becoming a verb.
