· 10 lists · 401 words

Nature, weather and environment

Weather, seasons, animals, plants, landscape, disasters.

What holds these lists together

Weather opens most conversations in Japanese as it does in English, but with an ending English has no equivalent for: 暑(あつ)いですね invites agreement rather than giving information, and the expected answer is そうですね. The seasons organise more of the vocabulary than they do in English; the rainy season, 梅雨(つゆ), has its own name, and its beginning and end are announced on the news. Natural hazards are everyday words here rather than specialist ones: 地震(じしん), 台風(たいふう) and 避難(ひなん), evacuation, appear on notices at school, at work and in the street, which is why the lists go from the forecast to preparing for a disaster and rebuilding after it.

The ten lists

N5Weather and seasonsRain, sun, heat and cold, and the four seasons of the year.40 words N4Nature and animalsMountains, rivers and forests, the animals in them and the plants that grow there.40 words N4Weather and natural hazardsThe forecast, temperatures, storms, typhoons, earthquakes and power cuts.40 words N3The environmentPollution, resources, recycling and the climate, and what people do about them.40 words N3Landscape and geographyIslands, coasts, valleys, regions and the words for the land around you.40 words N2Disasters and safetyPreparing for a disaster, getting through it and rebuilding afterwards.41 words N3Weather and climateForecast words, the rainy season, heat, cold and the sky between them.40 words N3Animals and plantsMore animals, the parts of a plant, and what living things do.40 words N2Nature and the environmentEcology, pollution and conservation: the words of environmental reports and the news.40 words N2Landforms, the globe and climateThe words of maps, geography lessons and the weather report on the news.40 words

Spread across the levels

The category runs across the levels — it is an area, not a difficulty. If you practise it, you can also choose a level at the top of the practice page and then get only the part that sits there.

Level	Words	Share
N5	32	8 %
N4	65	16 %
N3	169	42 %
N2	135	34 %

Practise this category

Multiple choice and gaps, across all ten lists and all 401 words. Whatever you get wrong comes back tomorrow.