JLPT N5 study guide
JLPT N5 · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The Japanese-Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) is a Japanese-language proficiency test with five levels, N1 through N5. N5 is the easiest and N1 the most difficult. The official level summary defines N5 as “the ability to understand some basic Japanese”: reading typical expressions and sentences written in hiragana, katakana, and basic kanji, and listening to short conversations about regularly encountered everyday and classroom topics, spoken slowly, to pick up necessary information. N4 and N5 measure basic Japanese mainly learned in class, so N5 is a sensible checkpoint for learners who have completed an introductory course. The JLPT N5 study guide has 3 sections and about 993 words.
01Vocabulary: Words in Context
N5 covers roughly eight hundred words and one hundred kanji, but the paper never asks for a bare definition. Each question puts a word in a sentence and asks which option fits, which reading is correct, or which option means the same as the underlined word.
354 words, about 2 min02Grammar and Reading: Particles, Forms and Short Passages
N5 grammar is small but precise. Know what each particle does before you memorise forms: は marks the topic, が marks the subject or new information, を marks a direct object, に marks time, destination or existence, で marks place of action or means, へ marks direction, と marks a companion or quotation, も marks also, の marks possession or noun modification, and から and まで mark start and end.
327 words, about 2 min03Listening: Numbers, Positions and Decisions
N5 listening has four task types: task comprehension, where you hear a situation and choose from printed options; point comprehension, where one detail decides the answer; utterance expression, where you choose the phrase a person should say; and immediate response, where a short line must be answered in a few seconds. Options are printed for the first two types and shown as pictures for the last two, so you can predict vocabulary before the audio starts.
312 words, about 2 min