Kotoba means Word in Japanese. There are about 800 words in scope for JLPT Level N5 test.
You must know Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji to learn them.
I have divided the words into different groups.
This helped me learn faster and repeated revision in intervals helped retain the knowledge.
How does grouping of words helps learn faster?
Note: If your computer/device cannot show Japanese fonts, you can browse the Kanji list as Images from posters.harushi.com
Logical Grouping of words:
We have formed the below link to 31 pages with each page having a small set of N5 Japanese words that have something in common. Master the JLPT N5 Vocabs by learning and memorizing each small groups.
| Logical grouping of words | Total Words |
|---|---|
| Katakana words | 17 |
| Hiragana words | 79 |
| Respectful Words | 17 |
| Numbers | 21 |
| Weekdays | 7 |
| Months | 12 |
| Which day of the month | 15 |
| Number of days | 13 |
| Calendar words starting with "Every" | 8 |
| Present period | 6 |
| Past period | 6 |
| Future period | 6 |
| Time of the day | 7 |
| Food | 27 |
| Counter for period | 9 |
| Counting people | 10 |
| Counters | 10 |
| Counting Objects | 10 |
| Suffix | 26 |
| Family & Relationship | 32 |
| Opposite words | 68 |
| Directions | 13 |
| Objects | 39 |
| Verb | 109 |
| Place | 46 |
| Colors | 7 |
| Body parts | 10 |
| Visiting a Doctor | 31 |
| School | 51 |
| Foreigner | 9 |
| Season | 14 |
| Others | 32 |
Note that some words could be repeated in more than one group.
How does grouping of words helps learn faster?
We all have learned Hiragana and Katakana. It is almost easy when compared to Kanji right.
If not, please learn them first
learn Hiragana
Learn Katakana
Now, let us focus on those words that are formed only with Kana (meaning Hiragana and Katakana).
***
No Kanji***.
It is easier to think of learning the words just with Kana right.
There are about 100+ words formed with Hiragana or Katakana in JLPT Level N5 words list.
Now in those words, let us break into words formed by Katakana and words formed by Hiragana separately.
We know that Katakana words are foreign words or words borrowed from other languages like English, German, French etc...
Let us learn these words first. Because there is a chance that we know those words already in English or in other languages and only thing we have to do is to understand how to pronounce them in Katakana.
There are only 17 words (like Shirt, Guitar, Apartment etc...) in the Katakana words list. Learn the JLPT Level N5 words that are formed only with Katakana.
This is only a suggestion. This 17 words could be your first milestone in preparing for JLPT Level N5. Your first step or a "small success" to reach the goal. Your milestone (small success) could be learning days of week or numbers from 1 to 10 or Calendar months or any set of words to start with.
Check out different groupings here.
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A note on the list of JLPT Vocabs and Kanji:
As of 2010, there is no official vocabulary list or kanji publised by JLPT organizers. This list is an approximate guide based on past exams.
In old test, there were 4 levels. Find below the number of words and kanji you are expected to know as per the old test pattern.
Level 4: 800 words and 100 Kanji
Level 3: 1,500 words and 300 Kanji
Level 2: 6,000 words and 1,000 Kanji
Level 1: 10,000 words and 2,000 Kanji
Since there is a huge gap between Level 3 and Level 2, the new N1 to N5 level is introduced.