Many believe that the Japanese language is very difficult to learn. And it really scares because of its thousands of ideograms. However, the reality is that the Japanese language is very simple, in this article I will try to show in what sense the Japanese language is very simple and easy to learn.
It is worth making it clear that all languages require dedication and paciência to learn. I personally believe that the fact that we speak Portuguese makes the process of learning 日本語 a little more difficult. All of this is because Portuguese is a very complicated language, full of grammatical rules and has a different structure. Enough beating around the bush, and let's understand why aprender japonês can be easier than we imagine.
Table of Content
Simplicity in grammar and verbs
Unlike Portuguese, Japanese does not have thousands of verb conjugations or pronouns. While Portuguese has 10 indicative tenses and 6 subjunctive tenses, Japanese only has 2, the present and the past. In Japanese, verbs do not conjugate according to the subject.
The example below shows how many different variations of the verb Ir exist in Portuguese and how few there are in 日本語:
- Portuguese - Go - will go, will you go, he/she will go, we will go, you (plural) will go, they will go, went, you (plural) went, went, we went, you (plural) went, they went, was going, were going, was going, we were going, you (plural) were going, were going, had gone, had gone, had gone, we had gone, you (plural) had gone, had gone, will go, will you go, we will go, you (plural) will go, they will go, would go, would you go, would go, we would go, you (plural) would go, would go, go, go, go, let's go, go, go, go, will go, will go, will go, go, let us go, you (plural) go, will go, will go;
- Japanese 行く - iku - iki(masu), ikou, ike(nai), itte, itta, ika;
Just the iku is already capable of being used most of the time. These variations shown above are just to add an ending that changes the sentence to the past, present, negative, or to give formality, condition, emphasis, etc. (masu, mashita, nai, tte, ta, nda, zo.)
Japanese also does not have gender (masculine and feminine) in nouns and neither plural. And there is also no definite article or indefinite article in the Japanese language.

Japanese pronunciation and syllables
Because we speak Portuguese, learning Japanese pronunciation is very easy. Unlike English, Japanese syllables are similar to Portuguese, so pronunciation is not a problem. Not to mention that Japanese has fewer syllables than most languages (109) and they don't change tonality (words).
Another thing that facilitates learning Japanese is that despite there being 109 syllables, there are only 46 kana (type letters) that represent the syllables. Japanese uses 2 alphabets composed of 46 kana that form 71 different sounds. This is possible because some kanas have a different pronunciation due to 2 little dots or a small circle placed above them. See some examples below:
か ka | き ki | は ha | ば ba | へ hey |
が ga | ぎ gi | ぐ gu | ぱ pa | ぺ foot |
By mastering these 46 kana (hiragana and katakana) and the 71 sounds, you will be able to speak and read any word and text in Japanese that does not have ideograms, or that uses furigana (kana above the ideograms).

Japanese word formation
Another proof that Japanese is an easy language is the fact that many words originated from English and Portuguese. Many nouns such as objects, names of animals, and even some verbs originated from another language or have a foreign version. These words of foreign origin are written using katakana.
Although many are afraid of the ideograms (kanji), the reality is that they are very useful. Japanese becomes much easier and more understandable when you start to understand the ideograms and see that they give life to the words. Some ideograms are composed of elements and shapes that make total sense, as if we were seeing the meaning of the word. Just like German, we can easily see that many words in Japanese are combinations of other words, like in the examples below:
- 手 (hand) + 紙 (paper) = 手紙 (letter). Junction of 2 ideograms forming a word;
- 木 (tree) = 林 (wood) = 森 (forest). All this with a single ideogram;
- 木 (tree) + 几 (table) = 机 (desk). 2 different ideograms became one ideogram;

Wrapping Up
Japanese is a super simple and easy language, its difficulty is memorizing the ideograms and writing them. Grammar, despite being simple, can be complicated because it is different from Portuguese, so it takes a long time to get used to not changing word orders. Japanese can also become quite complex because of its variations, dialects, formality, and politeness. Not to mention the countless ways of counting and other elements that can make you break your head a little.
Therefore, I find it much easier to learn the Japanese language, although it takes a longer time and a lot of dedication to master the ideograms. What do you think of the Japanese language? Do you think it's easy? Leave your opinion in the comments.