Tags
A tag is a keyword or label that categorizes your question with other, similar questions.
文法. A collective term for syntax (the way sentences are put together) and morphology (forms of words, including the way new words are put together). Often used to describe function words such as particles, to describe word endings, and to talk about general sentence structure.
8940 questions
意味. The meaning of words or phrases within certain contexts, especially when it does not seem to match the standard definition.
4750 questions
翻訳. This site does not provide a translation service. However, questions about translation are welcome provided that they have some academic merit. For example, questions about translating uncommon words, phrases that have different meanings in different contexts, and other non-trivial topics.
3820 questions
使い分け. The differences between two or more words or phrases and how to select the best one for a given situation.
3237 questions
言葉. Any question that does not deal specifically with grammar or pronunciation. Includes questions about prefixes, suffixes, compound words, loanwords, dialectal differences, pragmatic usage, etc. In other words, phenomena that occurs at the level of the word.
2880 questions
助詞. Non-inflecting function words which follow words, phrases, or entire sentences.
1584 questions
用法・使い方. How to use certain words, phrases, particles, endings, constructions, and their variants.
1556 questions
漢字. Chinese characters as used in Japanese writing as opposed to the two kana syllabaries and rōmaji (Latin letters).
1528 questions
動詞. A class of words which describe events or states and can be inflected to indicate tense, aspect, voice, and so forth. In citation form, all Modern Japanese verbs end in -(r)u.
1291 questions
語源. The study of the origin of words and the historical development of their meanings. Sometimes used for kanji as well; we currently don't have a separate tag for character origins.
841 questions
助詞「に」. The particle に (ni) represents motion towards something (English "to") and location (English "at" and "in"). Dative, locative and temporal case particle.
672 questions
発音. How the Japanese language is pronounced. For questions about which readings to use for particular kanji, use the "readings" tag instead.
593 questions
読み. The reading of a kanji character or a word written in kanji characters refers to how it is “read” in terms of kana characters. Please use this tag rather than 'pronunciation' if it fits your question.
588 questions
活用. The inflections of verbs and adjectives. How the endings of verbs and adjectives change to reflect grammatical factors such as tense and aspect.
577 questions
テ形. A non-finite form of a verb or adjective primarily used to connect to a following predicate or subsidiary verb, with some secondary uses derived by ellipsis (e.g. of くれ or ください). In many cases it corresponds to English "and". Linguists often refer to it as the "gerund" form, and some have also called it the "gerundive" or "past participle" form.
554 questions
語法. Word usage.
単語の使い分けと単語の使い方
This tag should be used for questions about how specific words are used in speech or writing.
497 questions
助詞「と」. Used as a conjunction ("and") or preposition ("with") when attached to nouns, or "if" when attached to verbs.
446 questions
助詞「の」. Genitive case particle showing relationships between two nouns, such as possession. Also used for apposition (同格), to indicate subjects in relative clauses, and as a nominalizing particle (準体助詞).
441 questions
助詞「は」. Indicates the topic of a sentence or shows contrast in the universe of discourse.
428 questions
漫画. For questions about language usage in the context of Japanese comics (manga).
428 questions
句. More than one word in a row. In linguistics, this term is used for a string of words that forms a syntactic constituent, generally with a head and zero or more dependents, above the word level but below the clause level. However, on this site, the tag is used with the simple definition non-linguists are more likely to be familiar with; linguists can understand this definition as "strings of more than one word".
400 questions
丁寧表現（待遇表現）. From social politeness ("please", "thank you", etc) to the technical Japanese grammatical concepts of honorifics and respectful and humble forms known as "keigo".
380 questions
カタカナ. That form of the Japanese kana syllabary which is not cursive and is most commonly used for (but not restricted to) writing words borrowed from other languages.
379 questions
口語表現（話し言葉）. Words, forms and expressions used only in non-formal spoken language.
378 questions
助詞「が」. Nominative case particle, typically indicating the subject of a verb or other predicate. Also a conjunctive particle and, in Classical Japanese, a genitive case particle.
376 questions
俗語. Words, expressions, etc. considered very informal, usually used mostly by in-groups, such as young people, and easily affected by trends and fashions.
350 questions
形容詞・形容動詞. Japanese doesn't technically have adjectives, but special types of nouns and verbs called na-adjectives and i-adjectives respectively have the same function.
348 questions
345 questions
読解. Help with reading passages in Japanese and understanding their meaning.
336 questions
英和訳. Finding a Japanese equivalent of an English word or expression, especially when a straight translation to Japanese might have different connotations from the original English phrase.
331 questions
助詞「で」. A sentential particle that can indicate the location of an event, or a means, material, cause or necessity.
330 questions
構文解析. Questions about understanding how a phrase / sentence / utterance is put together, what its components are.
327 questions