Japanese sentences usually have no spaces between words. Practise finding their structure without adding spaces to ordinary writing.

The idea

Look for a familiar word, a particle and a verb: りんご｜を｜買います. The bars in the table are learning aids, not ordinary punctuation. Kanji, hiragana and katakana changes can help, but a change of script is not automatically a word boundary.

Patterns to compare
SentenceWord boundaries
りんごを買かいます。りんご｜を｜買かいます。
私わたしは家いえでおちゃを飲のみます。私わたし｜は｜家いえ｜で｜おちゃ｜を｜飲のみます。
スーパーへ行いきます。スーパー｜へ｜行いきます。

Examples

  • りんごを買かいます。I buy an apple.
  • 私わたしは家いえでおちゃを飲のみます。I drink tea at home.
  • スーパーへ行いきます。I go to the supermarket.
  • でんわをかけます。I make a phone call.
  • コーヒーを飲のみます。I drink coffee.
  • あさ、犬いぬと歩あるきます。I walk with my dog in the morning.

Read-aloud uses a synthetic Japanese voice available on your device. Voice quality and availability vary; it does not assess your pronunciation.

Watch out

A particle such as は, を, で or へ is separate grammatically even though it is written next to the word. Kana-only text can be ambiguous; use the whole sentence and context rather than dividing after every kana.

Try it yourself

  1. Choose and fill the blank: 「りんごを買かいます。」の助詞じょしは＿。（を／りんご）

    Show answer or example answer

    を

    を marks りんご as the object of 買います.

  2. Choose and fill the blank: 「家いえでおちゃを飲のみます。」の場所ばしょは＿。（家／おちゃ）

    Show answer or example answer

    家

    家 is the place; で marks where the action happens.

  3. Choose and fill the blank: 「スーパーへ行いきます。」の助詞じょしは＿。（へ／スーパー）

    Show answer or example answer

    へ

    へ marks the destination スーパー.

Use it today

Cover the boundary column. Mark the words and particles in two examples, then compare your divisions and read each sentence naturally.