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How と links nouns into a complete list, marks who you do an action with, and introduces what someone says or thinks. Plus how it differs from や.

は (wa) frames what's already known, が (ga) points at new information. The core rule, the cases where が is mandatory, and a quick test to always pick right.

Anki is the most powerful vocabulary tool, as long as you don't start with it. Kana first, then a deck like Kaishi 1.5k, and a few settings that change everything.

Google Translate and DeepL hand you a fluent English sentence, and that's exactly the problem: they erase the Japanese. Localized titles, flattened register, kanji with no reading. What a learner's translator does instead.

The most frequent particle in written Japanese, in 4 uses: possession, one noun describing another, turning a verb into a noun, and sentence-final の in speech.

Why a single kanji reads two ways, how to tell on'yomi (Chinese-derived) from kun'yomi (native Japanese), and the simple rule to guess which one applies.

The official figure (2136 jōyō), how many kanji it takes to actually read, the JLPT-level estimates, and why aiming for "all the kanji" makes no sense.

What a radical (部首) is, why it often carries the kanji's meaning, where it sits, and how this lens turns a 15-stroke block into a readable assembly.

Overview of the five base Japanese particles, with a dedicated article for each. The starting point for beginner grammar.

How the particle は (wa) works, why it's pronounced "wa" and not "ha", and how to use it in a real Japanese sentence.

How が marks the grammatical subject, why it's mandatory with certain verbs (好き, ある, 分かる), and how to choose between は and が.

How を marks the object of a transitive verb, why it's written を but pronounced "o", and its lesser-known use with motion verbs.

The most versatile Japanese particle, in 4 uses: destination of motion, point in time, recipient of an action, location of existence with ある/いる.

How で marks the context of an active action, the means used, or the material of an object, and how to choose between で and に in lookalike cases.

How to decode a real Japanese sentence when you barely know the kana: the role of furigana, and how Darumoji's translator overlays it automatically on any text.

Why stroke order matters, the 5 universal rules that apply to hiragana and katakana, and how to practice them efficiently.

I built Darumoji to learn hiragana through micro-sessions, with no lessons and no gates. Here's why this approach worked for me and how it can work for you.

Hiragana and katakana share the same sounds but serve opposite purposes. How to tell them apart, when to use each, and the order to learn them.