Did your teacher ever correct when you confuse and ?
A lot of my students find it confusing, and it’s one of the most common mistake.

But it is actually easy : )
First, let me introduce our particle family!

 

ni-kun
likes to go somewhere.

So he is always with verbs that require “direction“.

When is used as “to (where?/ whom)” .

To where?
E.g

行く iku
to go
日本  行く
nihon NI iku
(I) will go to Japan

来る kuru
to come
うち  来る?
uchi NI kuru
Do you wanna come to my house?
(来る does not include the meaning of “want to”, but it’s the best translation.)

旅行する ryokou-suru
to travel
どっか  旅行したい・・・
dokka* NI ryokou shitai…
I wanna travel (TO) somewhere…
*どっか dokka is the casual form of どこか dokoka = somewhere

帰る  kaeru
to go home
もう うち  帰らなきゃ
mou uchi NI kaeranakya
I gotta go (to) home already
TO whom?
E.g

あげる ageru
to give
子供 プレゼント を あげた。
kodomo NI purezento wo ageta
(I) gave a present to (my) child(ren).

言う iu
to say
お母さん「ありがとう」って言った。
okaasan NI “arigatou” tte itta.
(I) said “Thanks” to my mum.

(電話を)かける
(denwa wo) kakeru
to call
彼女電話をかける。
kanojo NI denwa wo kakeru.
to call (to) my girlfriend .

書く kaku
to write
おじいちゃん 手紙 を 書く。
ojiichan NI tegami wo kaku.
to write  a letter to my grandpa.

 

He seems pretty active, huh?
But no…he usually stays at home and does nothing…
So he gets along pretty well with verbs like “staying, living, being (somewhere)“…
Verbs that express “where you ARE”. 

When  に is used as “at / in “
E.g

いる iru
to be (somewhere) / there is ~ (only for living things)
机 の下   ねこ が いる。
tsukue no shita NI neko ga iru.
There is a cat under the desk.
今どこいるの?
ima doko NI iru no?
Where are you at now?

ある aru
to be (somewhere) / there is ~ (only for things)
ここあった!
koko NI atta!
It was (at) here! (I found it here.)

住む sumu
to live (somewhere, not how you live)
イギリス住んでる。
igirisu NI sunderu.
(I) live in the UK.

泊まる tomaru
to stay (somewhere)
高いホテル泊まる。
takai hoteru NI tomaru
I will stay in an expensive hotel.

立つ  tatsu
to stand
あそこ立っている人は誰?
asoko NI tatteiru hito wa dare?
Who is the person standing (at) there?

座る suwaru
to sit 
座る
yuka NI suwaru
to sit on the floor

 

There aren’t too many verbs that take に as “in / at” so
you can pretty much use で most of the time.
Just remember, verbs like “to live / stay / sit / stand / exist (aru / iru)” take the に particle.

 

By the way, has cousins who are twins  called “へ he” and “へ e”.
(They complain how people get confused…
Please remember, へ He is always in a word. (e.g へや Heya – room)
へ E works as a particle, and usually is alone : (
But sometimes hangs out with other particles は “Wa”  and も “mo “. )
Anyways, へ E also has a meaning of “to (where?).
So you can interchangeably use へ instead of に, when it means “to”. (But not as “at /in”)
E.g
お店 行く。 omise NI iku
-> お店 行く。 omise E iku.
Both means “to go to a store / shop”,
the only difference is that へ E sounds much much more formal.
But you can use ni in both casual and normal-formal situations, though.

 

Now meet our で de-chan :)

de

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She’s very active, likes to do things, and cannot stay quiet.

So de is always with verbs of action.
Basically verbs that に ni doesn’t get along well with :)

When で de is used as “at /in “
E.g

食べる taberu
to eat
レストラン 食べる
resutoran DE taberu
to/will eat at the restaurant

見る miru
to see / watch / look
映画 は、映画館 見る 方 が いい。
eiga wa, eiga kan DE miru hou ga ii.
It is better to see movies  in the cinema.

勉強する benkyou suru
to study
日本人 は 学校 英語 を 勉強する。
nihonjin wa gakkou DE eigo wo benkyou suru.
Japanese people study English at school.

使う tsukau
to use
飛行機 は、ほとんど の 場合、ケータイ は 使えない。
hikouki DE wa, hotondo no baai, keetai wa tsukaenai.
On the airplane, most of the time, you cannot use your cellphone.

会う au
to meet  (we count this as something to do :P)
喫茶店(カフェ)の 会おう。
kissaten (kafe) no mae DE aou.
Let’s meet in front of the cafe.

待つ matsu
to wait (do not use に. This is something active…we think lol)
あそこ 待って て
asoko DE mattete
Wait (at) there, please (coll.)

 

Also she’s even good at using things.
(that’s what she said. – これは昨日の女が言ってたことだ。)

When you use で de as the meaning of  “by using ~”
E.g

ペン 書いて ください。
pen DE kaite kudasai.
Please write with (by using) a pen.

俺はチャリ学校に行く。
ore wa chari* DE gakkou ni iku.
I(masc.) go to school by (using) bike.
チャリ chari is a slangy way of saying 自転車 jintensya = bicycle.

日本語 日記 を 書いて みる。
nihongo DE nikki wo kaite miru
(I) will try to write a diary in (by using) Japanese.

はし すし を たべる。
(I) eat sushi with (by using) chopsticks.

 

最後に、「に」と「で」について気を付けること!
One last thing you should pay attention to!

In English, you do not say “at here / there/ somewhere / where“.
But we do in Japanese.

ここ koko here ,  (あ)そこ (a)soko there,
どこか/どっか dokoka / dokka somewhere,
どこ doko where
Depends on the verb, you put に or で.

To where? (destination): Use or
ここ来る。 koko NI kuru.
(someone) comes (to) here.
どっかある? dokka NI aru?
Is it (do you have it) (at) somewhere?
どこ引っ越すの? doko NI hikkosu no?
Where will you move to?

At / in where? + verbs
like “to stay, to live” (being somewhere)

:Use
そこ紙があるよ。 soko NI kami ga aru yo.
There are papers (at) there (near you).
どこすわろっか? doko NI suwaro kka
Where shall we sit down (at)? (coll.)

At / in where? + active verbs
like “to eat, make”

(but also including verbs like “to wait, meet”
: Use
そこ何をしてるの? soko DE nani wo shiteru no?
What are you doing (at) there?
どっかケーキ買えるかな? dokka DE keeki kaeru kana?
We can buy cakes (at) somewhere? (maybe? / you reckon?)

 

After all I said though, in an informal speech, Japanese people often omit particle
So for example,
どっかに行こう dokka NI ikou – would be
->どっか 行こう dokka ikou. Without に.
今どこにいる? ima doko NI iru – would be
->今どこいる? ima doko iru
Well, you will get used to it :D
There are actually more usages of に and で, but they are the most commonly used ones.

 

Summary ★

に particle : Use for showing “direction” as “TO <somewhere> / <someone>”.

Means “at / in” with verbs that focus on “where you are” (e.g to live / stay / stand …)

Used for time related words.
AT <time> o’clock = ~時に  ~ji ni
(e.g  四時に yo-ji ni = AT 4 o’clock)
With days of the week  (e.g 月曜日に getsu-youbi-NI = ON Monday)
ON <special day>
(e.g クリスマスに = On Christmas)

で particle : As “at / in / on” with verbs of actions. (e.g to eat / to sleep / to talk / to play…i.e most verbs!)

Used as “BY USING ~” (e.g  with chopsticks , by car , with a pen , on skype…)

 

I will write about more about these, if I get more requests.

Thank you for reading this, and I hope it helped!
Please leave your comments and love to support Misa xx
またね(/・ω・)/

 

Misa

Translator / Linguist / Japanese Teacher
/ Happy World Traveler/ manga, anime, comedy lover.

View all posts

5 comments

  • Very useful! A clear explanation with good examples to help you understand. Would love to see more of these ^-^

  • in one piece, luffy always says “kaizoku o ni, orewa naru”. is that a ni particle? so what’s the usage of ni there? to become?

    • To use the verb “naru”, you put “NI” if a NA-adjective or noun is in front. So it’s always “ NI naru” and “ NI naru”.
      For I-adjectives, you change the last “I” into “KU” so it looks like : “KU naru” e.g. “kawai-KU naru”. :)
      You can also think that “~ NI naru” as “turn inTO ~”.
      By the way thanks for the code! I really need to fix this website but hadn’t had time :(

      • I think so LOL. some plugins seem conflicted with another plugin jQuery, and in some occassions it leads the website to broken link page and some php files are missing too :p

        Thanks for the answer and your article btw.

Support Me on Patreon

YouTube player