N4 lessons
N4 Japanese lesson catalogue
Browse all published N4 Japanese lessons in the Readnihongo catalogue, then open the grammar hub when you want a guided study path.
How the N4 path helps
N4 lessons reinforce the grammar and sentence connections that help lower-intermediate readers stay in Japanese longer.
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N4 grammar and reading guides
Use these hub pages when you want grammar organized around the reading practice it supports.
N4 Japanese grammar lessons
A focused N4 grammar hub with lesson recommendations and reading pairings.
Open guideN4 Japanese reading practice
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Open guide60 N4 lessons
Open full catalogueJust Did: 〜たばかり
Learn 〜たばかり to describe actions that feel recent from the speaker’s point of view, even when the exact clock time may vary.
- • Use past plain form + ばかり to express that something was just done.
- • Understand that “recent” is relative to the speaker’s point of view.
Casual Commands and Prohibitions
Understand direct commands, softer casual requests, and strong prohibitions in speech, signs, and manga-style dialogue.
- • Recognize imperative verb forms and strong negative commands.
- • Distinguish direct commands from softer casual requests.
Nothing But / Too Much Of: ばかり
Use ばかり to express repeated excess, strong concentration, or “nothing but” in everyday contexts.
- • Use noun + ばかり and て-form + ばかりいる.
- • Understand the common critical or complaining nuance of ばかり.
Only...Not: しか〜ない
Use しか with a negative predicate to express “only” with stronger emphasis than だけ.
- • Use noun + しか + negative verb or adjective.
- • Understand the stronger, often limiting tone of しか〜ない.
Limiting with だけ
Use だけ to limit quantity, choice, or action in a neutral way.
- • Use だけ after nouns, quantities, and clauses to mean “only” or “just”.
- • Recognize the neutral tone of だけ compared with stronger forms like しか〜ない.
Comparison with ほど
Use ほど to compare degree, especially in the common N4 pattern A は B ほど ... ない.
- • Use A は B ほど adjective-negative ない to say “A is not as … as B”.
- • Read ほど as a standard of comparison rather than a simple particle.
Seems Like: みたいです
Learn みたいです for soft similarity and informal-sounding inference in everyday Japanese.
- • Use みたいです to compare things and describe resemblance.
- • Use clause + みたいです to make a soft guess.
Appearance そうだ
Use 〜そうです to describe how something appears based on what you can see or sense right now.
- • Form appearance そう from adjectives and verb stems.
- • Tell the difference between appearance そう and hearsay そうだ.
Casual Quotations with って
Learn how って works as a casual quotation marker in conversation and everyday informal writing.
- • Recognize って as a casual alternative to と for quotation.
- • Use って to report speech or information informally.
The One That... with の
Learn how の can replace an understood noun, creating natural expressions like 'the red one' or 'the one I bought yesterday.'
- • Use の to stand in for a noun that is already understood from context.
- • Build expressions such as adjective + の and clause + の.
Conditional ば
Learn the conditional ば and how it expresses hypothetical conditions, especially in judgments and general statements.
- • Form the ば conditional for verbs and adjectives.
- • Understand how ば differs in tone from たら, なら, and と.
Natural Consequences with と
Learn how the conditional と expresses automatic results, regular sequences, and general truths.
- • Understand how と marks automatic or habitual results.
- • Use と for machines, natural consequences, and repeated situations.