N5 · UNIT 9

Permission & Rules

Ask before you act, てもいいですか opens doors, てはいけません marks the ones that stay closed, and だめ is the word on every sign in between.

About this unit

Japan runs on unspoken rules, and this unit teaches you to navigate them out loud: てもいいですか to ask permission, てはいけません for the hard rules, and だめ, the word on every sign. The setting is dinner at the Tanaka family home, genkan etiquette included.

語彙 · Vocabulary 42 words · 10 kanji

1

Read the words

Read straight down the list once, out loud if you can. Don't grind them here, the Anki deck at the bottom does the memorizing. Right now you only want the shapes and sounds to feel familiar.

WordReadingMeaning
family
parents
father
mother
older brother
older sister
younger brother
younger sister
child
man
woman
boy
girl
friend
dog
house
home; my place
entryway (of a home)
room
window
garden; yard
bath
toilet; bathroom
shoes
slippers
photo; photograph
tobacco; cigarette
trash; garbage
to meet
to wash
to touch
to take off (shoes, clothes)
to put on (footwear, pants)
to take (a photo)
to smoke; to inhale
to use
to open
to close
to throw away
pardon the intrusion (said when entering someone's home)
no good; not allowed
of course
2

Learn the kanji

The 10 kanji for this unit. Tap any card to flip between its meaning and its readings, and say the reading aloud as it flips.

friend
house; home
father
mother
child
man
woman
meet
outside
dog
3

Read it in context

Everything above, working together. Read the conversation top to bottom, out loud. Every line is built only from words and kanji you have already met, so resist the English, tap a word only if you are truly stuck.

Show English

Mr. Tanaka invites Maria to dinner at his family's home. The moment she steps into the genkan, Japan's unwritten rulebook opens, and Maria has one polite question after another. May I…?

マリア
Good evening. Thank you for having me today. Um, do I take my shoes off here?
たなか
Yes, please take them off in the genkan. Then put on these slippers.
マリア
Pardon the intrusion! Oh, you have a dog! May I pet him?
母
Go ahead. Pochi is a sweetheart. Now, come on in.
マリア
Excuse me, may I take photos inside the house? The garden is so beautiful.
母
Of course you may. Take lots!
たなか
Maria, please sit here. My mother's cooking is delicious.
マリア
Itadakimasu! ...It's delicious! Um, may I wash the dishes?
母
No, no, it's fine. Today, please just relax.
たなか
My father is outside right now, walking the dog. He'll join us later.
マリア
I see. Then after dinner, shall we all take a photo together?
母
That sounds lovely. Let's take one!
Notice: Maria never says “Can I?”, she asks さわってもいいですか、とってもいいですか、あらってもいいですか. Unit 8's て-form plus もいいですか is THE polite way to ask permission, and it just paid for itself three times. And hear the refusal: not だめ！ but a gentle いいえ、だいじょうぶですよ.
Stop, learn the vocabulary before the grammar

These units are short on purpose. The grammar only clicks when the words are already automatic, so front-load the deck here, and let spaced repetition do the memorizing while the lesson does the teaching.

  1. Import this unit's deck. Generate it with npm run content:deck, then import n5-unit9-deck.apkg into Anki or Migaku. (SRS connection status lives on your dashboard.)
  2. Learn all 42 words as new cards. Get through the whole deck in a sitting or two, you're aiming for recognition, not mastery yet.
  3. Review daily until every card reaches a 3–5 day interval. When the whole deck has settled at that spacing, the words are holding on their own and won't fight you during the grammar.
  4. Then come back. You'll read the patterns instead of decoding the words, and that's when a "small" unit actually soaks in.
Anki open with AnkiConnect? I can confirm the deck for you.

Tick the box above once the deck is soaking in, then the grammar unlocks.

文法 · Grammar 4 patterns

Take one pattern at a time. Read the rule, then read each example out loud until the shape feels obvious. The words should already be automatic from your deck, so all you are learning here is how they lock together.

Quick suggestion: write these patterns down by hand as you read them. It is the one habit that textbook learners and self-taught immersion learners both swear by, and a notebook is the cheapest memory upgrade there is. Not required, just recommended.
て-form ＋ もいいです = "you may ~." Add か and it becomes the all-purpose way to ask permission, "may I ~?"
May I sit here?
“May I open the window?” “Yes, go ahead.”
Note: Grant permission warmly: はい、どうぞ or はい、いいですよ. In casual speech the です drops, さわってもいい？ Asking first is a small act of politeness Japan notices every time.
て-form ＋ はいけません = "you must not ~." The firm, rule-book prohibition, what signs, teachers, and parents use.
You must not smoke here.
You must not talk in the library.
Note: This is strong, save it for stating rules, not for refusing a friend. When someone asks permission and the answer is no, soften it: すみません、ちょっと…. The trailing ちょっと says everything.
The everyday "no good / not allowed / no way." A na-adjective that covers broken things, bad ideas, and forbidden acts alike.
“May I take photos here?” “I'm sorry, not here.”
Ah, you can't do that!
Note: だめ is direct, fine for signs, kids, and close friends, blunt with strangers. You'll see it everywhere: 立入りだめ on fences, ここはだめ from station staff. Understand it always; use it carefully.
て-form ＋ から = "after doing ~." Fixes the order of two actions, the てから clause happens first, no exceptions.
I wash my hands, and then eat.
You take your shoes off, and then step into the house.
Note: Different from plain て-linking (Unit 8): 食べて、行きます just lists actions, but 食べてから、行きます insists on the order, eating comes first. Perfect for rules and routines.

文化 · Culture note

A short read on the world these words live in. Nothing to drill here, just the context that makes the grammar feel like something people actually say.

The Genkan Line

Every Japanese home begins with a genkan, a sunken entryway one step below the floor of the house. That step is a border. Outside shoes stop there, always, pointed neatly toward the door for when you leave; house slippers wait on the raised side. The rule has no exceptions and no age limit, delivery workers, guests, even paramedics mind the line. Step up in your shoes just once and it will be remembered for years.

Visiting a home comes with a small script, and this unit's dialogue follows it beat for beat. At the threshold you say おじゃまします, literally “I'm intruding”, and it isn't an apology so much as a password. Guests bring a small gift called a てみやげ, usually sweets or fruit from a shop near home, handed over with the words つまらないものですが (“it's nothing special…”). Refusing to let a guest help with dishes, as Mother does with Maria, is part of the script too: guests are guests.

Slippers have their own grammar. House slippers never enter tatami rooms, socks only on the woven floor. At the toilet door you swap into a separate pair of toilet slippers, and the classic visitor blunder is wearing those back out to the dinner table. Nobody will say てはいけません out loud; the rules live in the architecture, and the polite question, いいですか？, is always welcome when you're unsure.

Try it: At any threshold in Japan, a home, a fitting room, a temple hall, glance down. If you see a step and a rack of slippers, shoes come off. When in doubt, point at your feet and ask: くつは、いいですか。

練習 · Worksheet 8 exercises

Convert each verb to the form the sentence needs and type it in hiragana, then check your answers.

Check your answers to continue, it doesn't matter how many you miss.

Unit Quiz JLPT FORMAT

Pass mark 80% · instant explanations · passing unlocks the next unit