Sometimes you don’t just want to say something happened recently—you want to say “I just did it!” In that case, the better grammar point is た + ばかり. Let’s explore how to use ばかり when you want to express a recent action with emotion or emphasis. た + ばかり Just Did (With Feeling!) Usage Pattern [Verb […]

When you’ve just completed an action and want to tell someone, Japanese uses past short form + ところ. It’s like saying “I just did [something]” with a neutral tone. Let’s learn how to use たところ to express something you just finished. た + ところ Just Did (Neutral) Usage Pattern [Verb (past short form)] + ところ + です

If you want to tell someone that you’re in the middle of doing something—right at that moment—Japanese has a grammar point for that: ている + ところ. Let’s look at how to express that something is actively happening now. ている + ところ In the Middle of Doing Usage Pattern [Verb (て-form)] + いるところ + です Details JLPT Level:

Sometimes you’re just about to do something when someone calls or interrupts you. In Japanese, you can express this with dictionary form + ところ. It’s a simple way to say, “I’m just about to…” Let’s learn how to use ところ to say you’re just about to start an action. Dictionary Form + ところ About to Do

When one thing (or person) replaces another, or when someone does something on behalf of someone else, Japanese uses the phrase にかわって. This is different from かわりに—it’s not about a temporary switch or a tradeoff, but about full-on replacement or representation. Let’s learn how to use にかわって when one thing stands in for another. にかわって In

Sometimes we swap one thing for another—coffee for tea, walking for driving, or a late bedtime for extra morning energy. In Japanese, when you want to say “instead of” or “in exchange for,” you can use かわりに. This phrase lets you talk about substitutions and trade-offs in a flexible way, and it works with nouns, verbs,

Want to quote something you read or something someone told you? In Japanese, the best phrase to use is によると, which means “according to.” In this post, we’ll explore how to use によると to report what someone else said or what you learned from a source. によると According To… Usage Pattern [Source] によると + [Statement] + と +

Japanese can be very precise when describing causes and effects. When you want to say something is the result of something else (often a noun), use による. In this post, we’ll learn how to use による to link a cause to a resulting noun. による Resulting From / Caused By Usage Pattern [Cause] による + [Noun] Details JLPT

In English, we say things like “This book was written by the author.” In Japanese, the equivalent is によって—used in passive sentences to show who or what performed the action. Let’s look at how to use によって with passive verbs. によって “By” (in passive voice) Usage Pattern [Thing] は + [Agent] によって + [Passive Verb] Details JLPT Level:

Life doesn’t always follow one rule—sometimes things change based on the situation. In Japanese, when something changes depending on a condition, the grammar you’ll want to use is によって. In this post, we’ll learn how to use によって to express that something differs depending on something else. によって Depending On Usage Pattern [Noun] +によって + Result (often