文法Grammar Point
Dictionary form+と whenever / if: Meaning & Examples
dictionary form to · JLPT N4
Dictionary form+と means “whenever / if”. It is a JLPT N4 pattern, shown below in the sentences where real Japanese writers use it, with furigana on every word.
Dictionary form+と (whenever / if) 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.
Verb + と links two things that always go together: when the first happens, the second is simply there. Here the teacher arrives and the snow is already outside.
うちに帰ると、七時をすぎていた。
— from Every Morning at the River (N5)
よるになると、人のうちに入ります。
— from The Gap on the Shelf (N5)
森先生が学校に来ると、外はゆうべの雪で白かった。
— from One Line of Boot Prints (N5)
上に出ると、しらないお寺の門がありました。
— 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 Dictionary form+と
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 Dictionary form+と explanation comes from
Dictionary form+と sits at JLPT N4 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 Dictionary form+と 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 (Every Morning at the River and The Gap on the Shelf 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
Dictionary form+と: questions & answers
What does Dictionary form+と mean?
Dictionary form+と means “whenever / if”. It is a JLPT N4 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 Dictionary form+と?
Dictionary form+と is normally introduced around JLPT N4. The texts listed on this page span several levels, because a pattern taught at N4 keeps turning up in writing well above and below it.
How do I get Dictionary form+と to stick?
Read it rather than review it. Meeting Dictionary form+と 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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