The N4 grammar checklist

N4 grammar is finite and well documented. This is a checklist rather than a course: go through it, mark what you can use rather than recognise, and study the gaps.

Verb forms

• て-form and its uses: ～ています, ～てください, ～てもいいです, ～てはいけません, ～てから. The te-form.
• Plain (dictionary) form and when it replaces polite form.
• ない-form: ～ないでください, ～なくてもいいです, ～なければなりません.
• た-form: ～たことがあります, ～たり～たりします, ～たあとで.
• Potential form: 読めます, 食べられます - can do.
• Volitional: ～ましょう, ～(よ)うと思っています.
• Passive and causative: recognition at N4, production at N3.

If verb groups are still shaky, everything above is harder than it needs to be: Japanese verb groups.

Connecting ideas

• から / ので - because
• が / けど - but
• ても - even if
• のに - although (with a note of complaint)
• し - and what is more
• とき - when
• まえに / あとで - before / after
• ながら - while doing

Conditionals

Four of them, and the differences are examined: と, ば, たら, なら. This is the single most common N4 gap.

Giving and receiving

あげる / くれる / もらう, and the て-form versions. Direction is the whole point, and it is tested: giving and receiving.

Describing and comparing

• ～より～のほうが - comparison
• ～の中で一番 - the most
• ～そうです - it looks like / I hear that (two different patterns, both examined)
• ～ようです / ～みたいです - it seems
• ～かもしれません / ～でしょう - might, probably

Politeness

Recognition of the common honorific and humble verbs - いらっしゃる, ございます, いたします - is expected at N4 and essential at work. Keigo basics.

How to use this list

Three passes, not one:

1. Mark each item as know / half-know / do not know. Be strict: if you cannot make a sentence with it, it is half-know.
2. Study the “do not know” items in blocks of related grammar, not one a day scattered.
3. Convert half-knows into knows by producing sentences about your own life. Recognition is not the skill the reading section tests.

Then check it against real questions rather than exercises: using past papers explains how to get value from them, and grammar by level shows what N3 will add on top.