N2
Upper intermediate
The grammar gets finer: expressions that carry a stance — regret, limitation, emphasis — and the written language of newspapers and official notices.
Conversations at work and reports on society, business and culture become understandable, and one idea now has several phrasings that differ in how polite and how formal they sound.
Register and expressions21
Politeness
1Expressions (N2)
16N2にもかかわらず: despite the factsA formal "despite": something should have stopped the result, and it did not.N2にもとづいて: based onAn action that follows a law, a set of data or an experience, and does not depart from it.N2にたいして: towards, whereas, perOne phrase that aims an attitude at a target, sets two facts against each other, or gives a ratio.N2をはじめ: with this one firstName the best-known member of a group, then the group itself.N2ものの: true, butGrant the first fact in full, then admit that it did not lead where it should have.N2わけにはいかない: cannot in good conscienceNot "cannot" for lack of ability, but "cannot" because it would not be right.N2ざるをえない: no choice but toA formal "I have no choice": circumstances force an action the speaker would rather avoid.N2ばかりか and ばかりでなく: not onlyName one thing, then add a second that goes further.N2いっぽう: on the other hand, and more and moreOne word with three jobs: a contrast inside a sentence, a change of subject between sentences, and a trend that only goes one way.N2からこそ: precisely becausePut a reason in the spotlight: this, and nothing else, is why.N2うちに: while the window is openDo something inside a window of time before it closes — or notice what changed while you were inside it.N2にかぎらず and にかぎる: not only, nothing beatsOne verb, "to limit", in three phrases: not limited to, limited to, and the best there is.N2とともに: together with, and in step withA formal "with": beside a companion, in step with a change, or at the same moment as another action.N2しだい: depending on, and as soon asWhat a result depends on, and what will happen the moment something is done.N2うえで: after, and in doingAfter a た-form: do this first, then the next thing on that basis. After a dictionary form: in the course of doing something.N2つつ and つつある: while, and under wayA written ながら, a concessive "even while", and a change that is under way.
Written Japanese
4N2The である styleThe voice of essays, reports and newspapers: plain verbs, and である where speech has だ or です.N2Linking without てIn writing, a clause often ends on the bare stem and a comma, where speech would use the te-form.N2ず and ずに in written JapaneseAn old negative that writing still uses: "did not …, and" and "without doing".N2Written connectivesSix words that open a sentence and tell the reader how it stands to the one before.