Putting It Together

Japanese Grammar 4

Course 4 · Chapter 12 · Putting It Together

🧩 Putting It Together — まとめ

This chapter closes both the course and the grammar track. It does three things: it puts the whole of Japanese Grammar 1 to 4 on one map, it trains your eye on the errors that survive to this level, and it finishes with a recap of Course 4 and a pointer to what comes next. Nothing here is new; it is where everything you have learned meets.

The rule in one box Grammar at this level is a set of choices: which register (Chapters 1 to 5), which particle (Chapter 6), which shade of meaning (adverbs, final particles, mimetics: Chapters 7 and 8), which word-building and connecting tool (Chapters 9 and 10), and which ready-made phrase (Chapter 11). A good sentence is one where every choice fits the listener, the situation and the purpose.

1. The four-course grammar track on one map

Course	Main job	What it gave you
Japanese Grammar 1	The foundations	Basic sentence shapes, the main particles, polite verbs and adjectives, the first conjugations.
Japanese Grammar 2	Everyday patterns	The te-form and its patterns, the plain form, wanting, experience, opinion, comparison.
Japanese Grammar 3	Complex sentences	Clauses, relative clauses, conditionals, giving and receiving, the passive and the causative.
Japanese Grammar 4	Register and polish	Honorific and humble language, business and written style, particles in depth, adverbs and final particles, mimetics, word formation, connectors, idiom.

If you trace a single idea through the track you can see the climb. Take "to give": あげる in Course 3 (the giver's point of view), then さしあげる and くださる in Chapters 2 and 3 of this course (the same ideas in honorific and humble form). Or take "because": から early on, ので and ため in Course 3, and したがって and なぜなら in Chapter 10 here.

2. One idea at six levels

The same message, "The meeting is moved to three o'clock", dressed for different situations:

Situation	Form
To a close friend	かいぎ、3じになったよ。
To a colleague	かいぎは 3じにかわりましたよ。
To your boss	かいぎは 3じにへんこうになりました。
To a client	かいぎのじかんが 3じにへんこうとなりましたことをおしらせいたします。
In a report	かいぎは 3じにへんこうされた。
In a headline	かいぎ、3じにへんこう

3. Clinic: spot the error

Each line below has one error that a learner at this level might make. Read it first, find the problem, then check the answer.

#	Sentence with an error	Correction and reason
1	しゃちょうがこうもうしました。	しゃちょうがこうおっしゃいました。申す is humble; the president needs the honorific おっしゃる.
2	せんせいのかばんをおもちします。 (about the teacher's own bag, said of the teacher carrying it)	せんせいがかばんをおもちになる。お〜する is for your own action, not for what someone above you does.
3	コーヒーしかのみました。	コーヒーしかのみませんでした。しか needs a negative.
4	これはだいじなもんだいである。しかし、むずかしいです。	…むずかしい。 Do not mix である style and です style.
5	だれはきましたか。	だれがきましたか。 A question word takes が.
6	あまりおいしいです。	あまりおいしくないです。あまり needs a negative.
7	せんせいをほめられました。	せんせいにほめられました。 The passive agent takes に.
8	A notice: でんわ、それともメールでごれんらくください。	でんわ、またはメールで… それとも belongs to questions.

Watch out: the error is usually a mismatch, not a missing word Most advanced errors are not gaps in knowledge but mismatches: a humble form for a superior, a polite ending inside a plain text, a positive after a word that wants a negative. When you check your own work, ask three questions: who is this for? what register is it in? does each word match its neighbours?

4. What to do next

You now have the complete grammar framework taught in this track. Further progress comes from use: reading real texts, writing real messages, listening to real speech. Two directions are natural:

Japanese Intermediate 1, the next step in the language courses, which builds reading and conversation on top of this grammar.
Reading practice in the written style (Chapter 5): newspaper headlines, short essays, product pages and emails, using the connectors of Chapter 10.

🎓 Course Complete — Recap

Chapters	What you can now do
1	Name the five registers and choose between them by who you are speaking to (うち / そと).
2-3	Use honorific (尊敬語) and humble (謙譲語) language correctly, and never mix their directions.
4	Handle set phrases, emails, telephone calls, refusals, apologies and thanks in business Japanese.
5	Write in the だ・である style and use impersonal opinion expressions, and read headlines.
6	Choose between は / が, に / で, を / が and use だけ, しか, ばかり, さえ, まで.
7	Use adverbs for degree, frequency, stage and attitude, and the final particles ね, よ, よね; recognise gendered endings.
8	Read and use about forty sound and state words, with と, する, の, な.
9	Read compounds, sort on and kun readings, and build words with 不, 無, 未, 非, 〜的, 〜化, 〜性.
10	Link sentences with the right connector and build a paragraph in four moves.
11	Recognise four-character idioms, proverbs, body-word idioms, contractions and slang.
12	Spot register and particle mismatches in your own writing.

✍️ Practice — れんしゅう

Try each one, then click to check.

1. Give the honorific: せんせいがきました。

Show answer

せんせいがいらっしゃいました。

2. Give the humble form: わたしがしょるいをもちます。

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わたしがしょるいをおもちします。

3. Rewrite for a report: あめがふったので、しあいはちゅうしになりました。

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あめがふったため、しあいはちゅうしになった。

4. Fill in だけ or しか: コーヒー（　）のんでいません。

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しか, which goes with the negative.

5. Say "my heart is pounding" with a mimetic.

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むねがどきどきしている。

6. Choose the connector: かれはべんきょうした。（　）、おちた。 (the result was unexpected)

Show answer

ところが

7. Write "unfinished" using a prefix on 完成.

Show answer

未完成(みかんせい)

8. Complete the proverb: しっぱいはせいこうの（　）

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もと

9. Say "I was made to wait" (the causative-passive of まつ).

Show answer

またされました。

10. You write an email to a client. Which style: ですます + 敬語 or だ・である?

Show answer

ですます + 敬語. だ・である is for essays and reports, not for addressing a person.

What's next: The grammar track is complete. Continue with Japanese Intermediate 1, and keep using the written style and the register map from this course in everything you read and write.