Language practice

Choose a language, then practise its grammar, vocabulary, culture or writing.

WORKSPACE

Pick a task before a language tab. Choose the language you want to use, then work on one small task. Reading a script, learning a grammar rule and responding in conversation need different practice.

Before you start: Choose one goal: say a phrase, understand a sentence, or recognize writing. Guided lessons are the explanation-first route; the practice tabs let you drill a skill.

Grammar: Patterns that let words form sentences.
Writing system: The characters or letters used to record a language.

Start here — Need to speak today?: Choose a language and start with Survival. Practise the reply as well as the phrase you say first.

What you should get: You can make one small variation and explain why the form changes. If you cannot, revisit that rule before adding more phrases.

Full steps, example and limits

Need to speak today?
Choose a language and start with Survival. Practise the reply as well as the phrase you say first.
Need to read?
Use Writing systems for recognition, Pronunciation for spelling-to-sound rules, and Kanji + Hanzi for character and word study.
Need to build sentences?
Read a grammar rule, work through its example, then answer without looking. Check Vocabulary and Culture to see how the words are used.

Try this: Choose German. Find a survival exchange and say both parts aloud. Change one noun using the grammar explanation instead of memorizing a second whole sentence.

Know the limit: Track depth varies. A chart is a reference, and recognizing an answer is not the same as producing it in a conversation.

Start with pronunciation

Kanji + Hanzi: character lookup, 214 radicals and stroke practice →

Mandarin Chinese / Taiwan

Bopomofo / Zhuyin

注音符號

Mandarin Chinese: language lessons & context

A set of phonetic symbols used to show Mandarin pronunciation. Syllables are assembled from an initial, a medial or final, and a tone.

The first version was created in 1913 and released in 1918. It remains a practical reading, dictionary, and keyboard tool in Taiwan.

SYMBOLS: 37
TONES: 5
ALSO CALLED: Zhuyin / Zhuyin Fuhao

Taiwan Ministry of Education manual

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Initials

Medials

Finals

Tones

Gitaigo & giongo · sound, texture, movement and feeling → · 新聞の読み方 · Read newspapers →

Pronunciation: sounds, reading rules, stress, tone & practice →
All 47 pronunciation chapters & the IPA sound key →

Kanji + Hanzi studio

All 214 Kangxi radicals, all 2,136 Jōyō kanji, thousands of stroke models, character readings and writing-standard comparisons.

Open character study →

Guided Japanese lesson

Choose a request by who will perform the action. Compare taking a photograph yourself with asking someone else to take it.

Ask permission or ask someone to act →

Explanation, worked examples and four exercises with answers.

Open the writing chart for this script →

JAPANESE / FOUNDATIONS

日本語

Start with the words you need.
Build your own sentences.

The words for everyday life.

Find a situation, read the phrase, or show the native text. Learn common replies as well as questions.

SituationFind a phrase

Pronunciation & how to use these phrases

Start with the writing charts, then listen to complete words. Device speech depends on installed voices and may use a different regional accent. Spelling and sound do not match one-to-one.

大丈夫です can accept reassurance or decline an offer. Here いえ、大丈夫です clearly declines. Use gestures and the surrounding question to interpret replies. Learning path: recognise words and phrases → build simple sentences → practise questions and replies → expand tense and connected speech → read and discuss longer texts. These foundation lessons are available now; later stages will grow with the collection.

24 phrases

Basics

Helloこんにちは。

Thank youありがとうございます。

Excuse me / sorryすみません。

Communication

I do not understand.分かりません。

Please speak more slowly.もう少しゆっくり話してください。

Could you repeat that?もう一度お願いします。

Please write it down.書いてもらえますか。

Bathrooms

Where is the bathroom?トイレはどこですか。

Food & ordering

This one, please.これをお願いします。

Water, please.お水をお願いします。

The bill, please.お会計をお願いします。

Without milk, please.牛乳抜きでお願いします。

To take away, please.持ち帰りでお願いします。

Shops & payment

How much is it?いくらですか。

Can I pay by card?カードで払えますか。

A bag, please.袋をお願いします。

Taxi & transport

To the airport, please.空港までお願いします。

Airport

Where is the exit?出口はどこですか。

Help

I need help.助けてください。

Listen for

Cash or card?現金ですか、カードですか。

Anything else?ほかにご注文はありますか。

Reply

No, thank you.いえ、大丈夫です。

Yes, please.はい、お願いします。

Hotels

I have a reservation.予約しています。

JAPANESE / GRAMMAR REFERENCE

Forms, rules & structure

Standard contemporary Japanese. Plain and polite forms are distinguished; morphology is independent of subject person.

8 chapters

Grammar terminology

Noun: A word used to name or classify an entity: person, place, object, substance, idea.
Adjective: A word that describes a property; its form and position depend on the language.
Pronoun: A form used to refer to a participant or entity without repeating a full noun phrase.
Determiner: A word such as an article, demonstrative or possessive that helps specify a noun phrase.
Verb: A word heading a predicate, often describing an action, event or state.
Conjugation: A pattern of verb forms expressing grammatical distinctions such as person, tense or mood.
Declension: A pattern of noun, pronoun or adjective forms, often marking case, number and gender.
Case: A distinction marking a noun phrase’s grammatical role or its relationship to a governing word.
Gender: A grammatical classification of nouns; it need not match sex or have a transparent meaning.
Agreement: A form changes to match features of another expression, such as person, number, gender or case.
Tense: A grammatical way of locating a situation relative to a time of reference.
Aspect: How a situation is viewed: for example ongoing, habitual, completed or prior to a reference point.
Mood: A grammatical distinction associated with assertion, possibility, commands, wishes or other clause functions.
Finite form: A verb form that can serve as a clause’s main inflected verb, contrasting with infinitives and participles. The precise criteria vary by language.
Participle: A verb-derived form used in constructions such as modifiers, compound tenses or passives; its roles vary by language.
Infinitive: A nonfinite verb form in languages that have one; it is not automatically equivalent to English “to + verb”.
Subject / object: Grammatical relations in a clause, not universal synonyms for “doer” and “receiver”.
Clitic: A short grammatical form that depends phonologically on a neighboring word.
Transitive: Describes a verb construction that takes a direct object.
Register: A variety of expression associated with context, relationship or level of formality.

RULES & PATTERNS

Nouns, particles & the copula

Japanese nouns do not inflect for grammatical gender or obligatory number. Particles follow noun phrases to mark their role.
A nominal predicate can use plain だ or polite です; past and negative forms belong to the copular construction rather than a gender agreement system.

Nouns, particles & the copula · reference forms
Construction	Plain	Polite
nonpast nominal	学生だ	学生です
past nominal	学生だった	学生でした
negative nominal	学生ではない	学生ではありません
past negative	学生ではなかった	学生ではありませんでした

Worked examples

私は学生ではありません。

I am not a student.

How it works: は marks the topic and ではありません negates the nominal predicate 学生.

Practice scores last for this visit.Japanese audio is unavailable on this device. All exercises work without audio.