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Japanese nouns do not have gender, they may not be modified by definite or indefinite articles because none exist in Japanese, and the singular and plural forms are usually the same. In romaji the names of persons and places are capitalized as are the names of languages except English (eigo).

hon (本) book, books, a book, the book, the books

Plural

For nouns referring to people, the suffix -tachi may be used to indicate the plural.

子供［こども］	kodomo	child, children
子供達［こどもたち］	kodomotachi	children
田中さん達。	Tanaka san tachi	Mr. Tanaka and his family or others

Names

Japanese give the family name first followed by the given name. Sometimes a comma is inserted after the family name for indication.

田中広見 Tanaka Hiromi (Tanaka, Hiromi) ←→ Hiromi Tanaka

The suffix -ya means the store where the objects are sold or the person who sells them. The suffix -ka means a person who is is an expert or specialist in the designated subject.

花	hana	flower	花屋	hanaya	flower shop, florist
肉	niku	meat	肉屋	nikuya	butcher shop, butcher
小説	shousetsu	novel	小説家	shousetsuka	novelist

When referring to a clerk or shopkeeper, the honorific san is used.

本屋さん

honya san

bookstore clerk, bookseller

Two nouns used together as a compound noun are joined by the particle no.

日本語のクラス	nihongo no kurasu	Japanese language class
アパートのビル	apaato no biru	apartment building

Credit

This page is a part of "Some Notes on Japanese Grammar" published for your personal use, with the kind permission of Keith Smillie (http://www.cs.ualberta.ca/~smillie/)

Comments (5)

Written by mhars09, on 20-11-2008 02:20

i really like this site...

Written by williams, on 17-11-2008 23:24
:grin

yay
Written by williams, on 17-11-2008 22:59
awesome

アパート
Written by tony, on 07-11-2008 18:48
apaato (アパート) is correct. It comes from the English word "apartment," and whenever a vowel sound is followed by an "r" in an English word, the corresponding loan word has a lengthened vowel instead-- except when the "r" starts a new syllable in the English word.

Written by kiami, on 07-11-2008 18:31
apaato or apato,which one is correct