Intermediate Japanese

Build the dictionary, ない, た and なかった forms of any verb, and see why the plain form is not the casual option but the base that the whole rest of the grammar attaches to.

Put a whole plain clause in front of a noun to describe it, turn a clause into a noun with の or こと, and use the んです that falls out of the same construction.

Use とき, まえに, あとで, てから, ながら, うちに and あいだに to place one event against another, and see why the tense inside a time clause is not the tense you expect.

Give a reason with から, ので or し, take it back with が, けど, のに or ても, and learn which of them will tolerate a request in the second half.

Build と, ば, たら and なら, and choose between them by asking whether the consequence is automatic, whether it comes after the condition, and who put the condition on the table.

Use と to attach a clause to the verbs of saying and thinking, see why Japanese quotation shifts almost nothing where English shifts three things, and embed a question with かどうか.

Choose between はず, にちがいない, でしょう, かもしれない, ようだ, みたい, らしい and the two different そう, on the basis of what kind of evidence you have rather than how likely you think it is.

Use phonetic components to guess a reading, use okurigana to tell a native word from a borrowed one, and see from the frequency counts what a working set of characters actually buys you.

Use あげる, くれる and もらう for the same event seen from three places, attach them to the て form to say who did whom a favour, and build the request ladder that ends in ていただけないでしょうか.

Build the potential form with the same vowel shift the ば form used, watch を turn into が, and keep it apart from the verbs that describe what reaches you rather than what you are able to do.

Build the volitional form, state a plan with つもり or an arrangement with よてい, and see why Japanese announces even a decision you made yourself as something that came to be decided.

Sort the transitive and intransitive halves of a Japanese verb pair, tell ている from てある, and use ておく and てしまう for the preparation and the regret.

Build the passive with the same vowel shift the ない form used, mark the actor with に, and meet the adversative passive, which lets something happen to you that you were never part of.

Build the causative from the same vowel shift as the negative and the passive, tell making from letting by the particle, and combine the two voices into the form for being made to do something.

Raise the other person with the お plus になる frame, lower yourself with お plus する, learn the handful of special verbs that carry most of the traffic, and see why your own boss becomes humble in front of a customer.

Drop です, ます and the particles that go with them, contract the long forms the way speech actually does, choose between ね and よ, and learn the noises a Japanese listener is obliged to make.