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日本語を学ぶ

Learn Japanese.
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Lessons built for English speakers going from zero to conversational. Covers the writing system, grammar, vocabulary, and kanji, all mapped to JLPT levels.

Not sure where to start? Find your JLPT level in 2 minutes

Free to start. An account keeps your progress, your streak and your review schedule in sync on every device.

おかえり

Welcome back.

Pick up where you left off.

Open Today →

みち the way

Kanji2,136Jōyō
Vocabulary3,589words
Grammar303points
PriceFreeto start

Read across a level

級別 JLPT levels

Every dataset is tagged to a JLPT level, so you can work one level at a time instead of guessing what belongs where.

LevelKanjiVocabularyGrammarConjugation
N5 7968590185
N4 16659881208
N3 3671,69834389
N2 3673105267
N1 1,1572984648
All levels 2,1363,589 303897

How a day works

流れ
Learn

Something small, once

One lesson, one grammar point, or one unit of the N5 course. Marking it learned is what starts the clock on it.

Use

Straight away, in context

Eighteen practice modes, from kana drills to an AI conversation partner and branching voice stories. Every mistake becomes a card.

Review

Only what you are about to forget

FSRS picks tomorrow's cards, so the things you nearly lost come back first and the things you know stop wasting your time.

Stepping stones crossing still water toward a distant torii gate Stepping stones crossing still water toward a distant torii gate
見本

Open any entry
and this is what you get

Not a word list. Every entry carries what you actually need to use it, and these three are live, pulled from the same data the learn pages serve. Switch between them.

Choose which kind of entry to preview
4 strokes
water water family, 79 kanji share it
N5 Grade 1 223th most common
On readingスイ
Kun readingみず
Example 水曜日 suiyoubi Wednesday
Stroke order from KanjiVG Free to read
〜を direct object marker
N5 Particles
How it worksWo (pronounced o) marks the direct object of a verb, the thing the action is done to. It comes right after the object noun and before the verb. It is also used with motion verbs to mark the space moved through, as in kouen o sanpo shimasu.
Example パンを食べます。 Pan o tabemasu. I eat bread.
One of 303 grammar points Free to read
1 stroke
shi さ行 S-Row
Start here 1 of 105
MnemonicA fishing hook, it swoops up to catch fish! One smooth curved stroke, exactly like a fishhook.
Example しろ shiro white / castle
Stroke order from KanjiVG Free to read

Seven tracks, in order

学習の道 Everything in Learn

7 are open now. Start at the top. Each one says what it needs before you begin.

You can check every claim on this page

根拠 Trust and transparency

Written for English speakers, mapped to the JLPT, and free at the core. Most study sites ask you to take their word for it; here the sources are named, the counts come from the data itself, and every entry tells you how it was reviewed.

Named, open sources

The canonical Jōyō list for kanji, JMdict for the dictionary, KanjiVG for stroke order, Tatoeba for example sentences. All credited, all licence-checked, all linked from the credits page.

Counts that cannot drift

The counts on this page are read from the data itself, so they cannot quietly go stale as the content grows. The 2,136 above is counted, not typed in. The dictionary total is the one exception: it lives in the database, so it is a snapshot.

Every entry shows its review status

Explanations start as drafts and say so, on the entry itself. As reviewers confirm them the badge changes. You always know which you are reading, and you can flag anything that looks wrong.

Corrections ship the same week

Report something and it goes into a queue you can watch. No support ticket, no ignored inbox. Reviewers who help out earn Pro time.

One Japanese lesson, every day.

Vocabulary, grammar, and real-life examples posted daily at @japanesecompass. Free. No algorithm to fight.

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七転び八起き

nana korobi ya oki

Fall down seven times, stand up eight.

You will forget things you were sure you knew. The scheduler is built on that assumption rather than against it, which is why the eighth time is the one that counts.

Ink-wash mountain in mist with a small torii gate on a hill below it Ink-wash mountain in mist with a small torii gate on a hill below it はじめ

Start at the beginning.

Unit 1 teaches you to read. Everything after it is written in what you just learned.

Start the N5 course

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