JLPT N5 Grammar List: Every Point, Organized by Logic

A JLPT N5 grammar list can look like a wall of numbered "points" to tick off in alphabetical order, which is the fastest way to learn nothing at all. There is a better way in. Sort the grammar by how the language actually thinks: three sentence types, the particles that hold them together, the verb forms, and the two families of adjectives. Once it is arranged like that, the whole foundation fits in your head.

Japanese works very differently from English, but it is pleasantly regular about it. The verb sits at the end, small particles mark the job of each word, and there is no gender and no plural to keep track of. Let us take the pieces in the order that makes them click, rather than the order the alphabet happens to put them in.

文The three sentence types

Everything starts here. A complete Japanese sentence ends in one of three kinds of predicate. Get comfortable with these three molds and you can already say the basics.

• Verb sentence ・ the predicate is a verb, always at the very end.
• Noun sentence ・ the predicate is a noun followed by です (polite) or だ (plain).
• Adjective sentence ・ the predicate is an い-adjective doing the work itself.

私は学生です。
watashi wa gakusei desu.
I am a student.

です is not really the verb "to be." It is a politeness marker that closes off a noun sentence. Drop the formality and it becomes だ. Keep that in mind and half the confusion around です disappears on day one.

助The particles you actually need

Particles are the heart of Japanese grammar. They, and not the word order, tell you who does what. Here are the ones the N5 leans on constantly.

• は (wa) ・ marks the topic, the thing you are talking about.
• が (ga) ・ marks the grammatical subject, often brand-new information.
• を (o) ・ marks the direct object.
• に (ni) ・ marks where something exists, a destination, or a point in time.
• で (de) ・ marks where an action happens, or the means used to do it.
• へ (e) ・ marks the direction you are heading.
• の (no) ・ shows possession and links two nouns together.
• も (mo) ・ "too, also," replacing は or が.
• と (to) ・ "and" between nouns, "with" a person.
• や (ya) ・ "and" for a loose, non-exhaustive list of examples.
• から (kara) ・ "from," "since," and also "because."
• まで (made) ・ "until, up to."
• か (ka) ・ at the end of a sentence, turns it into a question.

私は電車で駅へ行きます。
watashi wa densha de eki e ikimasu.
I go to the station by train.

The は versus が pair alone earns its own article, because it trips up nearly everyone at first. We untangle it in は vs が: Finally Understand the Difference. If you want the wider tour of how each marker behaves, start with our guide to Japanese particles.

動Verb forms on the N5 grammar list

At N5 you meet verbs mostly in their polite ます form, plus a handful of key transformations. The verb always conjugates at the end of the sentence, and it never changes to match the subject or the number of people involved.

• Polite (ます) ・ the everyday courteous form. 食べます (tabemasu, I eat).
• Negative (ません) ・ 食べません (tabemasen, I do not eat).
• Past (ました) ・ 食べました (tabemashita, I ate).
• Past negative (ませんでした) ・ 食べませんでした (tabemasen deshita, I did not eat).
• The て form ・ links actions, softens requests, and marks something in progress. 見て (mite).
• Desire (たい) ・ says what you want to do. 飲みたい (nomitai, I want to drink).

昨日は何も食べませんでした。
kinō wa nani mo tabemasen deshita.
Yesterday I did not eat anything.

The て form is the one worth taming early. It shows up everywhere, from polite requests to strings of actions, so the sooner it feels natural the sooner the rest of the grammar opens up.

形The two adjective families

Japanese splits its adjectives into two groups, and the difference reshapes the whole sentence. The N5 tests this on purpose, again and again, so it pays to sort them out now.

• い-adjectives ・ end in い and conjugate on their own. 高い (takai, expensive) becomes 高くない (takakunai, not expensive) in the negative.
• な-adjectives ・ behave like nouns and take な before the noun they describe. 静かな部屋 (shizuka na heya, a quiet room).

この店は安くないです。
kono mise wa yasukunai desu.
This shop is not cheap.

問Asking a question

Good news: no inversion, and no obligatory question mark. You add か to the end of the sentence and leave the word order exactly where it was.

お茶を飲みますか。
ocha o nomimasu ka.
Do you drink tea?

For open questions you keep か and slot in a question word: 何 (nani, what), 誰 (dare, who), どこ (doko, where), いつ (itsu, when). The frame stays the same, only the missing piece changes. Because word order does not move, the same skeleton carries you from a plain statement to a yes-or-no question to a full "who, what, where" without any rearranging.

指This, that, and that over there

Japanese sorts its demonstratives by distance from the two speakers, on a very tidy ko / so / a series. Learn one row and you have learned them all.

• これ ・ kore ・ this (near me)
• それ ・ sore ・ that (near you)
• あれ ・ are ・ that over there (far from both of us)
• この・その・あの ・ placed before a noun: this book, that book, and so on.

これは私の本です。
kore wa watashi no hon desu.
This is my book.

在Existence: ある and いる

To say that something is located somewhere, Japanese uses two different verbs depending on whether the thing is alive or not.

• ある ・ for things, objects, anything without a heartbeat.
• いる ・ for living beings, people and animals.

店の前に猫がいます。
mise no mae ni neko ga imasu.
There is a cat in front of the shop.

Pick the wrong one and a native speaker will still understand you, but this is an easy point to get right, so make the alive-or-not check a habit early.

数Numbers and counters

Counting in Japanese asks for a little extra effort. You do not just say the number, you attach a counter that depends on the shape or nature of the thing. It feels fussy at first, then turns into reflex.

• つ ・ the generic counter, for objects with no dedicated one.
• 人 (nin) ・ for people.
• 枚 (mai) ・ for flat objects (sheets of paper, tickets, bills).
• 本 (hon) ・ for long, thin objects.

子どもが三人います。
kodomo ga sannin imasu.
There are three children.

You do not need every counter for the N5, just the common handful above and the numbers one through ten. The rest you pick up by running into them.

続From the JLPT N5 grammar list to living sentences

You now hold the whole map: three sentence types, a short set of particles, the core verb forms, the two adjective families, questions, demonstratives, existence, and counters. It is not a mountain. It is a small box of parts that snap together in endless combinations. For the exam itself, from timing to what the paper feels like on the day, our complete JLPT N5 guide walks you through the rest.

The trick is not to recite these rules, but to meet them inside real sentences, over and over, until they turn into instinct. That is exactly what Hibi is built for: everyday grammar in context, with the kanji shown and spaced repetition to hold on to what would otherwise fade. Hibi is launching soon on the App Store, and you can see what it is about on the Hibi page. A few minutes a day, and this list stops being a list and starts being a language you can actually use.