Most courses make you grind the alphabet for two weeks before you touch real Japanese. We’re doing it backwards. Every day is a real bite you can understand and say out loud — written in romaji at first, with the real characters fading in as you learn them. The kana rides along as a quick side-quest at the end.
Understand this — tap “Hear it”
kore wa sushi desu
This is sushi.
これ kore — thisは wa — (topic)すし sushi — sushiです desu — is
kore wa neko desu
This is a cat.
これ kore — thisは wa — (topic)ねこ neko — catです desu — is
kore wa hon desu
This is a book.
これ kore — thisは wa — (topic)ほん hon — bookです desu — is
The pattern you can now use
これは ___ です
kore wa ___ desu
This is ___.
Two things to notice up front. Japanese has no “a” or “the” — so “___ です” covers both “it’s a ___” and “it’s the ___.” And です never changes: no am/is/are to choose between, no singular or plural. One word — and it always lands at the very end of the sentence.
Words to use today — tap a row to hear
sushisushi
sushi
nekoneko
cat
inuinu
dog
honhon
book
mizumizu
water
kurumakuruma
car
penpen
pen
kabankaban
bag
tokeitokei
watch / clock
kasakasa
umbrella
Your turn — say it, then check
Say: “This is a dog.”
kore wa inu desukore wa inu desu
Say: “This is a bag.”
kore wa kaban desukore wa kaban desu
Say: “This is water.”
kore wa mizu desukore wa mizu desu
Quick check
What does これ mean?
this
Where does です sit in a sentence?
at the very end — always
⤷ Kana side-quest — ~2 min · tap to hear, watch the strokes
👀 Today’s input · ~5 min — where fluency actually comes from
Train your ears
You can’t read much yet — so listen. Put on one “Complete Beginner” video from Comprehensible Japanese: all visual, all Japanese, zero English. You’ll understand more than you’d expect, and this is where real fluency actually comes from — a little every day.
Day 1 done — you can already say “this is ___” about ten different things, and you met your first five characters. Tomorrow: turning it into a question.
Audio by your browser · romaji fades into kana as you learn each character — gone by Day 15, when grammar begins.