に in Japanese, the Particle with the most Usages

The particle に in Japanese can tell you a range of things from time, place, direction, purpose, and who is receiving something. Let’s take a look at all of those situations so we can better understand.

Representing Time

The most basic use of に is to tell time. に follows nouns related to time and tells you that something happened at that time.

Not all words for time need に. If you are talking about seasons for example に is optional. In fact, there are words such as today, yesterday, last week, and so on that, you can’t but に after. This is similar in English where you would not say at today, or at next week. Basically, に is for hours and minutes, days of the week, holidays.

Place and Movement

You can also talk about places and movement with に in Japanese. This is a bit more complex but with a few examples, it should make more sense.

Place

First, に specifies a place or surface that some action is done onto physically. So, if you use に to talk about tables like the following examples, it means you are writing or climbing on that specific table. This differs from a similar particle で which says the place where an action or event takes place.

Other than talking about surfaces, に also tells you where someone or something is located.

Movement or Direction

Verbs in Japanese for movement usually use に to tell you the direction they are going.

You can also use に with the same sort of movement verbs to talk about the purpose, or where someone is going.

This is a special usage of に though. In this situation, に follows phrases or verbs in their noun form. So, just try to be careful when you use this form because it is easy to create a sentence that sounds not quite right if you pick the wrong words. Instead of the sentence above, to be safe we could have said instead:

or

Using に in Japanese as the Indirect Object

I have talked about objects in a previous post about the Japanese particle を. This particle specifically is called a direct object. に is also an object but called an indirect object. The details are not important but just know that an indirect object is something that receives or is affected by the direct object. So if you give something, send something, or throw something at a friend, then your friend is the indirect object.

Verbs for giving and receiving in Japanese are special. Depending on who is giving what to whom, the verb you choose will change. The indirect object is an important piece of grasping how all the components fit together for these verbs.

Resources

• に – Weblio 
• 2,110 Pages, No Word Wasted – A Dictionary of Japanese Grammar, Reviewed