One of the most important grammar in the Japanese language ⑤ : Ending Particle

Today’s topic is about “Ending Particle,” one of the most important grammars and you see these very often if you live in Japan.

This is a series of the topic “Postpositional Particle” and I recommend you to check the the previous blog before you read this.

か(ka), な(na), ね(ne), よ(yo), ぞ(zo), とも(tomo), なあ(naa), や(ya), わ(wa), and ねえ(nee) are in this group.

It gives words various meanings and are put at the end of the sentence as the word “Endling” shows.

Japanese people use them as showed below.

EN : Don’t run in the corridor.

JP : 廊下で走るな。 (roukade hashiruna.)

The bold parts are the particles.

As we learnt and we saw this many times, で(de) is a case particle and gives the noun a locative case.

Also, Japanese people omit the subject, “You” here. It’s same as in English because it’s an imperative sentence.

な(na) is an ending particle and means prohibition.

Here is another example.

EN : Can he be late?

JP : 彼が遅刻するだろうか。 (karega chikokusuru darouka.)

Again, が(ga) is a case particle and gives the noun a nominative case.

“か(ka)” is an ending particle and means the rhetorical question. The speaker thinks that he will not be late.

Here is another example.

EN : Will there be a meeting tomorrow?

JP : 明日は会議ですか (ashitawa kaigi desuka?)

は(wa) is an adverbial particle and it’s a topic marker.

There are no topic marker in the English language. It shows the topic of the sentence.

Here, “明日(ashita, tomorrow)” is the topic.

Since this is just a topic, so Japanese people also say “会議は明日ですか(kaigiwa ashita desuka)” and they don’t feel any difference.

“か(ka)” is an ending particle and means the rhetorical question. The speaker thinks that he will not be late.

This is the end of learning postpositional particle and I hope you enjoyed it.

In the next blog, I’m going to introduce the first person pronouns. Do you know the most correct one?