Japanese Ni vs De Explained Exercises
Practise ni vs de with quick prompts before moving into the free interactive game.
About the author
Luke McLaughlin created Constructing Language after living in Japan and later learning Mandarin Chinese from scratch. The lessons, games, and guides are built from that first-hand learner experience and checked against native-speaker course work with Hiro for Japanese and Xiang for Mandarin Chinese.
- Lived in Japan and studied Japanese through immersion and structured self-study.
- Learned Mandarin Chinese from scratch as an adult learner.
- Created the Construction Method: audio-first sentence building, grammar graphics, and active recall.
- Built Japanese course material with Hiro and Mandarin course material with Xiang, both native-speaker collaborators.
What this exercise trains
Ni often marks a destination, time point, or place of existence. De marks the location where an action is performed. The easiest beginner test is movement or existence versus action location.
- Use ni with destinations: school ni ikimasu.
- Use ni with existence: heya ni neko ga imasu.
- Use de with action locations: toshokan de benkyou shimasu.
Practice sequence
Answer the sample prompt, explain the grammar role in your own words, then repeat the pattern with a new noun, verb, time word, or location.