Welcome to Level 2, Lesson 1!
Congratulations on reaching Level 2! This marks the beginning of your journey into JLPT N4 level Japanese grammar. Lesson 1 at gokigen japanese blog introduces you to several versatile patterns that will significantly expand your ability to express nuanced ideas.
The main goals of this lesson are to enable you to:
- Express what you can do using potential verbs.
- Express reasons, assumptions/conditions, and estimations/suppositions.
Key grammar patterns and expressions you will master in this lesson include:
- Potential Verbs (可能動詞): Learn how to change verbs to indicate ability, allowing you to say you “can do” or “are able to do” something (e.g., 漢字が読めます – I can read Kanji).
- Expressing Multiple Reasons: Learn how to list several reasons or contributing factors using the 〜し、〜し (…shi, …shi) pattern, often leading to a conclusion or observation (e.g., 頭もいいし、親切だし、佐藤先生が大好きです – He’s smart, and kind, so I really like Professor Sato).
- Expressing Appearance or Supposition: Learn how to say that something “looks like ~” or “seems ~” based on observation using Adj(stem) + そうです (sou desu) or V(stem) + そうです (e.g., 雨が降りそうです – It looks like it’s going to rain).
- Trying Something: Learn the useful pattern V-て + みる (te miru) to express the idea of “trying to do” something or “doing something to see what happens” (e.g., この本、読んでみます – I’ll try reading this book).
- Conditional (~なら): Learn how to use the pattern (short form) + なら (nara) to express a condition, provide advice, or make a suggestion based on a premise (e.g., 行かないなら、私も行きません – If you’re not going, I won’t go either).
- Expressing Frequency: Learn how to state how often an action occurs within a given period using the pattern （period）に（frequency） (ni frequency) (e.g., 一日に三回歯を磨きます – I brush my teeth three times a day).
By the end of Lesson 1, Level 2, you’ll be able to talk about your abilities, provide multiple reasons for something, make guesses based on appearance, express trying something new, talk about conditions, and state frequencies. These patterns are essential for expanding your conversational range at the N4 level!
Explore the articles linked below to master Level 2, Lesson 1 Japanese grammar!
