体言 and other

Standalone, non-用言 words

There are five types of words that aren’t primarily about action or state.

名詞(めいし) (nouns)

These are words that can become subjects or objects (introduced with the particle を). Sub-types include pronouns, numbers, and counters.

名詞 means a word type, a part of speech. 体言 means the category of subject or object words themselves. The two terms are effectively equivalent: all 体言 are 名詞 (in English: all subject words are nouns).

Examples:

• 新湯(あらゆ) (a freshly drawn bath)

• 森林(もりばやし) (a wooded forest)

副詞(ふくし) (adverbs)

These words modify or qualify 用言 (predicate words).

Note that despite calling these ad-verbs, they also modify 形容詞 and 形容動詞. Yet another reason for considering the latter as “is-verbs” rather than “adjectives”!

Examples:

• 再(ふたた)び帰る, (to return again)

• とても面白(おもしろ)い (awfully interesting)

• すこし静かだ (slightly quiet)

連体詞(れんたいし) (pre-noun adjectives)

These modify 体言. They further qualify the meaning of a person or object to a particular person or thing that the audience already knows. The closest English grammatical terms are “determinant” or “definite/indefinite article” (words like “this” or “every”).

Examples:

• この猫 (this cat)

• あらゆる方向 (every direction)

接続詞(せつぞくし) (conjunctives)

These words connect two clauses or even different sentences together.

Examples:

• 食べない。また、たべたくはない！ (I won’t eat it. Further, I’ve no desire to eat that!)

• おかしい、しかしきれいだ (It’s strange, however it’s pretty)

感動詞(かんどうし) (interjections)

These are basically “uhm” words. Interjections or exclamatory words that don’t have much grammatical function.

Examples:

• さあ (used like “c’mon”, “all right”, or “oh” in English)

• はい (acknowledging you’ve heard someone — this doesn’t necessarily mean “yes”!)

Auxiliary word-suffixes

This category is for words-suffixes, not standalone words. These should be thought of as auxiliary or attached word parts not words in themselves.

助動詞(じょどうし) (auxiliary verbs)

Japanese 用言 have many different inflections. Just as we’d add other words in English to connote different usages of a base verb (“eat” vs. “have eaten” vs. “will eat”), Japanese adds 感動詞 to the ends of verbs to do the inflecting.

Note that 助動詞 can inflect all 用言. This includes 形容詞 and 形容動詞, not just 動詞. The specific methods/rules vary depending on what’s being modified, but 助動詞 aren’t limited to suffixes that only affect 動詞 specifically.

Examples:

• 〜られる a suffix that makes a 用言 passive.

  • 食べ・る (to eat)

  • 食べ・られる (to be eaten)

• 〜ない a suffix that negeates the meaning of a 用言.

  • 食べ・ない (won’t eat or doesn’t eat)

  • 美味し・くない (not delicious)

  • 便利・じゃない (not convenient)

助詞(じょし) (particles)

Examples:

• 〜は (usually used to indicate a topic)

• 〜へ (usually used to indicate a destination or direction)