ENGLISH GRAMMAR TOPICS THAT CAUSE PROBLEMS FOR JAPANESE STUDENTS

Japanese-speaking students often struggle with English grammar because the two languages encode meaning in very different ways. English depends on fixed word order, obligatory articles, auxiliary verbs, and a rich tense-aspect system, while Japanese has no articles, minimal tense marking, and relies heavily on particles and context rather than word order or inflection. Many distinctions that English marks explicitly—such as definiteness, number, and aspect—are optional or implicit in Japanese. As a result, English verb forms, especially tense and aspect, along with articles, auxiliary verbs, and subject-verb agreement, are particularly challenging for Japanese learners.

ARTICLES

Japanese has no articles, so they're often omitted or misused.

Examples:
❌ I bought book yesterday.
✅ I bought a book yesterday.
❌ Teacher is kind.
✅ The teacher is kind.

PLURAL MARKING

Plurality is usually inferred from context in Japanese.

Examples:
❌ Many student come here.
✅ Many students come here.
❌ Two cat are sleeping.
✅ Two cats are sleeping.

SUBJECT PRONOUNS (OVERUSE OR OMISSION)

Japanese frequently drops subjects once they're understood.

Examples:
❌ Went to the store after class.
✅ I went to the store after class.
❌ My brother, he likes soccer.
✅ My brother likes soccer.

VERB TENSE VS. ASPECT

Japanese has essentially two tense forms:
非過去 (non-past) → present and future
過去 (past)

Aspectual meanings (ongoing, completed, result state) are often inferred from context or constructions, not directly encoded the way English does.

English verbs combine tense (past, present, etc.) and aspect (simple, progressive, perfect)

Examples: eat, is eating, has eaten, was eating, had eaten

Japanese does not have direct equivalents for all of these so confusing English tenses can occur.

Examples:
❌ I am knowing the answer.
✅ I know the answer.
❌ I finished my homework now.
✅ I have finished my homework.

WORD ORDER

Japanese is subject-object-verb, English is subject-verb-object.

Examples:
❌ I pizza ate yesterday.
✅ I ate pizza yesterday.
❌ She English studies at night.
✅ She studies English at night.

MISSING OR MISUSED PREPOSITIONS

Japanese uses particles instead of prepositions.

Examples:
❌ I arrived to the station.
✅ I arrived at the station.
❌ I listened music.
✅ I listened to music.

RELATIVE CLAUSES

Japanese relative clauses come before the noun, with no relative pronouns.

Example:
❌ The yesterday I bought book is interesting.
✅ The book that I bought yesterday is interesting.

COUNTABLE VS. UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS

Like Chinese, Japanese uses counters, not countability distinctions.

Examples:
❌ Two furnitures
✅ Two pieces of furniture
❌ Many advices
✅ Much advice

EXPRESSING POLITENESS

Japanese politeness is grammaticalized; English politeness is lexical and pragmatic.

Examples:
❌ I humbly request you to check this.
✅ Could you please check this?
❌ I'm sorry for disturbing you suddenly.
✅ Sorry to bother you.

OVERUSE OF PASSIVE VOICE

Japanese frequently uses passive forms for politeness or indirectness.

Examples:
❌ The meeting was held by us yesterday.
✅ We held the meeting yesterday.
❌ Mistake was made.
✅ I made a mistake.

More Language-Specific Grammar Issues Language-specific issues home
Chinese-speaking students
Korean-speaking students