文法Grammar Point
で at / by means of: Meaning & Examples
de · JLPT N5
で means “at / by means of”. It is a JLPT N5 pattern, shown below in the sentences where real Japanese writers use it, with furigana on every word.
で (at / by means of) in real sentences
Each one is quoted from a published Japanese text in this library and links to the story it came from. Some use older spellings, or break off where the sentence carried on. They are transcribed exactly as their authors wrote them.
で after a noun marks the means or the manner: the thing you do it with, or the way you do it. Here it is the size of the voice he speaks in.
じはんきでジュースをかいました。
— from A Lucky Vending Machine (Beginner)
わたしは、タオルで犬をふいた。
— from Every Morning at the River (N5)
ストーブの前で、先生は紙を一まい出した。
— from One Line of Boot Prints (N5)
たきの音で、大石さんの声は聞こえません。
— from The Room on the Mountain (N5)
Appears in 6 of 379 texts in our library.
蔵書The texts
6 texts in the library use で
Free to read in full. Furigana over every kanji, a dictionary on any word you tap, and an English breakdown of each sentence.
解説Background
Where this で explanation comes from
で sits at JLPT N5 in the 302-point taxonomy every text in this library is tagged against. Each text is read for the patterns it contains, which is what lets this page list every text that uses で and pull its example sentences out of them.
The example sentences were not written to demonstrate the rule. They are quoted from published Japanese texts in this library (A Lucky Vending Machine and Every Morning at the River among them), and each one links back to the story it came from, so you can read the sentence where it actually happened.
質問Questions
で: questions & answers
What does で mean?
で means “at / by means of”. It is a JLPT N5 pattern, and the example sentences on this page show it doing that job in published Japanese rather than in a constructed example.
What JLPT level is で?
で is normally introduced around JLPT N5. The texts listed on this page span several levels, because a pattern taught at N5 keeps turning up in writing well above and below it.
How do I get で to stick?
Read it rather than review it. Meeting で in 6 different stories attaches it to 6 contexts you remember, where reviewing the rule 6 times attaches it to nothing. Every text listed here is free to read in full.
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