In Japanese, the word for “particles” is “joshi” (助詞).
(eg.,) を、に、が、と、で、へ、より、から、まで…
Particles are an important aspect of Japanese grammar and indicate the relationships and grammatical roles between words in a sentence.
They are written in hiragana, and some are specially pronounced (i.e., へ as /e/ (not /he/), は as /wa/, を as /o/)
Here’s an example,
(1) わたしはりんごをたべます
– I eat apples.
In (1), わたし[は] indicates わたし as the subject of the sentence.
Then, the particle [を] (o) is used to mark the direct object of a sentence.
Although there are differences between grammar books, the general classification is as follows.
Case markers (格助詞, kaku-joshi)
が, の, を, に, へ, と, で, から, より, まで
Parallel markers (並列助詞, heiretsu-joshi)
か, の, や, に, と, やら, なり, だの
（雨や風が強いです）
Sentence ending particles (終助詞, shū-joshi)
か, の, や, な, わ, とも, かしら, さ, よ, ね
（雨がふるかしら？）
Focus particle （取り立て助詞, toritate-joshi） also known as Adverbial particles (副助詞, fuku-joshi)
ばかり, まで, だけ, ほど, くらい, など, なり, やら
（6月は雨がふってばかりだ）
Conjunctive particles (接続助詞, setsuzoku-joshi)
ば, や, が, て, のに, ので, から, ところが, けれども, くせに
（雨がふれば、寒くなる -If it rains, it gets colder）
Phrasal particles (準体助詞, juntai-joshi)
の, から
（僕のは新しい – Mine is new.）It means 僕のものは新しい.
Learning how to use particles correctly is essential for mastering Japanese grammar and communication.