4.2. PARTICLES 155
quite a bit of ground to cover.
The list of particles covered in this chapter is not an exhaustive list
of all particles used in the Japanese language, but does represent the bulk
of particles that you might encounter. They have been ordered in three
sections, the first covering the absolutely essential particles, the second and
third covering less frequently and even several ’rare’ particles and particle
combinations.
4.2.1 Essential particles
The essential particle list consists of the particles , , , , , , ,
and (as well as , which is not essential but belongs in this list because
of the way it contrasts with a particular use of ). Traditionally, would
be considered part of this list, but we already extensively covered in the
verb section on the form.
The particles in this section are considered ”essential”, because they
cover the absolute minimum of grammatical roles that you need to un-
derstand before you understand Japanese at a basic conversational level.
While the list seems short, a mere 10 particles, most of these particles –
in terms of what you might be used to from English – do many different
things. While there is typically some unifying concept that describes what
the particle does ”in concept”, in practice this means having to remem-
ber several roles per particle, and being able to identify which one is used
when.
- Questioning particle
This particle is sometimes called the Japanese equivalent of the question
mark, but this is not entirely true. While it acts as the question mark when
used at the end of sentences, it actually acts as a general questioning parti-
cle. It usually ends a sentence, because most of the time the entire sentence
is the question, but you can find it used inside sentences as well, where it
turns only part of the sentence into a questioning phrase. The ’question