Use です/ます with anyone outside your inner circle, like bosses, teachers, strangers, or new coworkers. Use plain form with...

Use あげる when the gift leaves you (or anyone) toward someone else, くれる when it arrives at you or your in-group, and もらう w...

なんで is casual, どうして is the safe neutral default, and なぜ is for formal writing or objective reasoning. All three mean "wh...

Japanese question words stay exactly where the answer noun would sit, keeping the same particle that noun would use. In ...

ここ is near the speaker, そこ is near the listener (or a place just mentioned), and あそこ is far from both of you. That one r...

これ points to what's near you, それ points to what's near the person you're talking to, and あれ points to something far from...

Drop the い from i-adjectives, or keep the na-adjective or verb stem as it is. Add そう to say something looks, seems, or i...

Attach すぎる straight onto a verb's ます-stem or an adjective's stem (drop い, leave な bare) to say something has crossed the...

Use より when you're weighing exactly two things against each other, and use 一番 when you're naming the single winner out o...

い-adjectives conjugate on their own (楽しい → 楽しくない → 楽しかった), while な-adjectives lean on だ/な/です the way a noun would (便利だ →...