How to Build Complex Noun Phrases in Japanese (Free Video Lesson)

Nouns are one of the most essential building blocks in any language, since they are what we use to refer to ‘things’.

But instead of referring to ‘things’ using a single noun, like “dog”, we can also refer to things much more specifically by giving more detail, such as “the dog chewing a giant bone under the bench over there in the park”.

For this, we need complex noun phrases, and mastering these will hugely increase your ability to express yourself in Japanese.

Noun phrases are simply a sequence of one or more words that refer to a ‘thing’. They can be as simple as a single word, or incredibly long and specific.

Using complex noun phrases, we can include as much detail as we can imagine.

The best part, though, is that we can use complex noun phrases in a sentence in exactly the same way as we use a simple noun.

For example, take this simple sentence:

Daito will eat a rice ball.

With a complex noun phrase, we can be hyper-specific about the rice ball and instead say something like this:

Daito will eat the rice ball that Minato bought at the convenience store yesterday.

Same action, waaay more specific. Instead of a generic rice ball, we know exactly which rice ball Daito is going to eat.

The key, though, is that in Japanese as well as English, both sentences use the same core grammatical structure!

The only difference is the noun phrase used to describe the rice ball – one is simple but vague, the other is complex and specific.

Complex noun phrases like this give us the ability to be incredibly descriptive, and we happen to use them constantly in all kinds of contexts.

In Japanese especially, complex noun phrases are used everywhere, and they also form the basis of a wide range of everyday expressions, such as those used to:

• describe plans
• express time relative to actions or events, like “Before I go…”, or, “After we’ve eaten…”
• compare potential courses of action
• say, “in order to do X…”
• convey second-hand information (eg. “apparently…”)

And many more.

Complex noun phrases are incredibly powerful, and although they are a relatively advanced concept, they’re surprisingly simple to form once you understand the pattern.

In the video below, I break down exactly what noun phrases are and how we use them in sentences, then show you how we can build and use complex noun phrases to talk about things specifically.

Once you can master this, you will not only be able to express yourself in greater detail, but you’ll also be ready to learn many useful expressions that rely on complex noun phrases.

Want the full lesson? This is an excerpt from my comprehensive Foundations course, which includes the complete 30-minute version of this lesson, plus 60+ more video lessons that will help you finally make sense of Japanese. Sign up today!