N4 grammar is where Japanese stops being a list of phrases and starts being a system. N5 taught you sentence patterns; N4 teaches you how to bend them — potential, passive, causative, conditional, and the plain form that everything above N4 is built on. There are about 139 points, and roughly fifteen of them account for most of the difficulty.
The one structural change that matters
At N5 you lived in ます-form. At N4 the plain (dictionary) form becomes the base that grammar attaches to — 行くとき, 行くつもり, 行ったら, 行ければ. If plain form is not automatic, every N4 pattern costs you double. Fix that first and half the list gets easier.
How the 139 points group
Studying N4 grammar as a flat alphabetical list is the slow way. Grouped by what theydo, the list collapses into about eight families.
| Family | Examples | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Verb form changes | potential 読める, passive 読まれる, causative 読ませる, volitional 読もう | The core of N4. Everything else assumes you can form these. |
| Conditionals | 〜たら, 〜ば, 〜と, 〜なら | Four ways to say 'if', each with a different flavour. Heavily tested. |
| Giving & receiving | あげる, くれる, もらう, 〜てあげる, 〜てくれる, 〜てもらう | Direction of benefit. Alien to English speakers, and constant in real Japanese. |
| Intent & plan | 〜つもり, 〜予定, 〜ようと思う | Distinguishing degrees of intention. |
| Reported & hearsay | 〜そうだ, 〜という, 〜らしい, 〜みたい | Where information came from. N3 leans on this hard. |
| Permission & obligation | 〜てもいい, 〜なければならない, 〜なくてもいい, 〜てはいけない | Four-way grid of may/must/needn't/mustn't. |
| Experience & change | 〜たことがある, 〜ようになる, 〜ていく, 〜てくる | Aspect. Subtle and frequently examined. |
| Connectors | 〜ので, 〜のに, 〜ながら, 〜間に, 〜ように | Joining clauses. This is what makes writing sound adult. |
All 139 N4 grammar points are on LenGaki with structure, example sentences, breakdowns and a “commonly confused with” section on nearly every one.
Browse the N4 listThe four ways to say “if”
If you learn nothing else from N4 grammar, learn this properly. Textbooks translate all four as “if” and then examine the difference between them.
春になると、桜が咲きます。— When spring comes, the cherry blossoms bloom.
Cannot be used for requests or intentions. If the result is not automatic, this is wrong.
雨が降ったら、行きません。— If it rains, I won't go.
The safe default. When unsure in speech, たら is rarely wrong.
時間があれば、手伝います。— If I have time, I'll help.
Common in set phrases and written Japanese. Negative form 〜なければ is everywhere.
東京へ行くなら、新幹線が便利です。— If you're going to Tokyo, the shinkansen is convenient.
Responds to context. This is the one 問題1 loves, because たら feels acceptable but isn't natural.
The giving-and-receiving problem
あげる / くれる / もらう defeat English speakers because English has one verb for “give” and does not care which direction the benefit flows. Japanese cares a great deal.
Direction is everything
- あげる — I give outward, away from me. 友達に本をあげました。
- くれる — someone gives inward, toward me. 友達が本をくれました。 Never used for giving away from yourself.
- もらう — I receive. Same event as くれる, told from the receiver’s side. 友達に本をもらいました。
Then attach them to て-form and the same logic applies to favours: 手伝ってあげる (I do you the favour), 手伝ってくれる (you do me the favour), 手伝ってもらう (I receive the favour). Getting くれる and あげる backwards is one of the fastest ways to sound rude in Japanese.
Pairs that look identical and are not
| Pair | Difference |
|---|---|
| 〜ので / 〜から | ので is softer and more objective; から is more personal and can sound blunt when making excuses. |
| 〜のに / 〜けど | のに carries disappointment or surprise at the contrast; けど is neutral 'but'. |
| 〜そうだ (hearsay) / 〜そうだ (appearance) | Attaches to plain form = 'I heard'. Attaches to stem = 'looks like'. Same ending, different meaning. |
| 〜らしい / 〜みたい | らしい is second-hand information; みたい is your own impression from evidence. |
| 〜ながら / 〜間に | ながら = one person doing two things at once. 間に = during a period when something else happened. |
| 〜ために / 〜ように | ために for a controllable purpose; ように for a hoped-for state or an uncontrollable one. |
| 〜ことができる / 〜られる | Same meaning, different register. ことができる is more formal and explicit. |
| 〜つもり / 〜予定 | つもり is personal intention; 予定 is a scheduled arrangement. |
How 問題1 exploits this
The N4 grammar paper does not test whether you recognise a pattern. It gives you four patterns that all fit grammatically and asks which fits the context. That is why learning a point in isolation is not enough — you need to know what it contrasts with. Any list that gives you 139 definitions without 139 comparisons has done half the job.
問題2: the ★ question
N4’s sentence-composition questions give you a sentence with four blanks, one marked ★, and four fragments to order. You are asked only what goes in the ★ slot.
The trick is that you do not need to solve the whole sentence. Find the fragments that must be adjacent — a particle and its noun, a な-adjective and its noun, a て-form and the verb it connects to — and the ordering usually collapses to one possibility. Work from the end backwards: the fragment before the final verb is the most constrained.
A study order that works
- Plain form to full automaticity. Not a grammar point, a prerequisite. All of N4 attaches to it.
- The verb form changes. Potential, volitional, passive, causative. Drill the conjugation mechanically until it needs no thought.
- The four conditionals, together. Learning them as a contrast set is far faster than one at a time.
- Giving and receiving, plus their て-forms. Give this a full week; it is conceptually new rather than just unfamiliar.
- Everything else in the eight families. Roughly 12–15 points a week gets you through in ten weeks.
- Timed 問題1 and 問題2 practice. Contrast-recognition is a separate skill from knowing the patterns, and it only develops under time pressure.
LenGaki’s N4 mock papers include the full 55-minute 文法・読解 section — 13 grammar-form questions, 4 ★ composition questions, 4 text-grammar and 8 reading, exactly as the real paper is built.
Sit an N4 paperStudy N4 grammar on LenGaki
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- 445 grammar points with examples and commonly-confused comparisons
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See the app ›The summary
139 points, eight families, one prerequisite. Get plain form automatic, learn the verb transformations mechanically, and learn every remaining point against the point it is confused with — because that contrast is precisely what the exam tests. N4 is the level where Japanese becomes generative, and the effort compounds into everything above it.
