How to use Nihongo Skilltree

Nihongo Skilltree maps Japanese grammar, particles, and conjugation as connected skill trees you can browse, study, and track.

The point of this app is to replace the flat, chapter-by-chapter checklist that most resources hand you with a map of how Japanese actually fits together. Grammar is not a list to be memorized in order; it is a web where each pattern leans on the ones before it. Come in expecting to wander a little — follow a thread because it is interesting, not because it is “next.” The most successful learners here treat it less like a textbook to finish and more like a city to get to know, returning often and letting the structure sink in over many short visits rather than one long cram.

The Explorer is the full grammar graph — pan and zoom across every point and see how they connect.

The Explorer is here to fight the biggest problem in self-study: not knowing what you don’t know. Instead of trusting a fixed syllabus, you get to see the whole terrain and decide where to go next based on what you have already mastered. Approach it with curiosity rather than anxiety — the goal is not to “clear” every node but to notice relationships you would have missed in a flat list, like how one pattern quietly underpins three others. Use it when you feel stuck or aimless: zoom out, find the cluster around what you know, and let the connections suggest your next worthwhile step.

A focused reference for postpositional particles — は, が, を, に, で, and the sentence-final particles.

Particles are small, frequent, and deceptively hard — they decide who is doing what to whom, and a single wrong one can change your whole meaning. This reference exists so you can build intuition for them instead of translating word by word. Read the nuance and contrast notes closely (は vs が is a lifelong companion, not a one-time lesson), and accept that comfort comes from seeing the same particle in many contexts rather than from a perfect rule. Come back to these pages whenever a sentence “feels” wrong but you can’t say why; the answer is usually a particle.

• Browse by category and particle. Start with core case markers, then connection, scope, and tone.
• Each particle covers its meaning, when to use it, cautions, and nuance / non-standard uses.

A reference for Japanese sound-symbolic words — giongo and gitaigo like ドキドキ, ふわふわ, and ザーザー.

Onomatopoeia is everywhere in real Japanese — manga, conversation, cooking shows, the doctor’s office — and textbooks barely touch it, so it’s a common gap for intermediate learners. This reference groups the words by what they describe, from animal cries to feelings and how the body feels, so you can build them up in clusters instead of memorizing a random list. Each word carries its sound-symbolic class and a frequency rating, so you can prioritize the handful you’ll actually hear every day before the more colorful long-tail.

• Browse by category, then mark each word Learning or Mastered — progress is tracked just like grammar and particles.
• Each word covers its meaning, common grammatical forms, cautions, related words, and example sentences with readings.

Your status on every grammar point, form, and particle is saved automatically in this browser.

Progress tracking is here to make the invisible visible — to turn “I’ve been studying for a while” into a concrete picture of what you’ve covered and what’s left. Its value depends entirely on your honesty: marks are a tool for you, not a score for anyone else, so resist inflating them. Used well, the dashboard tells you where to spend your next session and, just as importantly, reassures you on the days it feels like nothing is sticking. Glance at it to steer, not to judge yourself; steady upward movement over weeks matters far more than any single day.

• Mark items Learning or Mastered; the header dashboard shows your coverage by JLPT level.
• Progress is additive — importing from another device never downgrades a Mastered item.
• Use Reset in the header if you ever want to start fresh on this device.