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There are a plethora of connectives in the Japanese language, meant to either connect full sentence in some way, or embed smaller sentences into larges ones in some way. In this chapter we'll look at regular conjunctives and interjections, special conjunctives consisting of the particle に plus the て forms of several specific verbs, as well as the nominalising 'particles', which allow us to embed phrases in larger sentences.

First up, the conjunctives. In English we know these as the words “and”, “however”, “therefore”, “that not withstanding”, and many more. All of these have as role to join up sentences, to act as glue in a sentence to hold two (or more) distinct parts together or even to connect a sentence to a conversation that's being held. Interjections do something similar, interrupting someone while they're speaking (although you can always wait for them to finish their sentence) and then getting your own words in. This list consists of three parts; one part with general conjunctions and interjections, one part focussing on a small number of copula conjunctions and interjections, and a somewhat more substantial part consisting of conjunctions and interjections that start with the こそあど prefix そ, and then mostly involving それ.

This conjunctive is a composite of the 連用形(れんようけい) of 或る, 或り, paired with the particle い – a classical particle that emphasises a subject in a clause – and the disambiguating particle は. It is comparable in function to または and もしくは in that it presents alternatives in a analysis of some situation. For instance:

曇(くも)りあるいは雨(あめ)でしょう。
"I'll probably get cloudy, or (even) rain."

It can also be used in a double sentence pattern, where it expressing something similar to the English “on the one hand …, on the other hand …”:

あるいは休(やす)みをのんびりして過(す)ごし、あるいはまじめに勉強(べんきょう)する者(もの)もいます。
"On the one hand we have those who spend their vacation relaxing, on the other we also have people who (spend it) study(ing)."

あるいは follows verbals in 連用形, nouns directly, and can be used whenever one might use a comma.

Composed of また, “again”, and the disambiguating particle は, this conjunctive is comparable to あるいは and もしくは in that it offers an alternative in an analysis of some situation.

鉛筆(えんぴつ)で、またはボールペンで書(か)くんだ。
"(You can) write (it) either with a pencil or a ballpoint."

Unlike あるいは, または does not have a double sentence pattern associated with it.

This conjunctive is the literary, or formal, counterpart to または.

This is a combination of お負(ま)け, which means 'bonus', 'extra', or 'an additional', and the particle に, to mean pretty much the obvious:

彼氏(かれし)に振(ふ)られて、おまけに友達(ともだち)に叱られた。
"(I) was dumped by (my) boyfriend, and to top it off (my) friends (then) scolded me (over it)."

There are a number of particular combinations of the particle に and verbs in て form which are used idiomatically in the Japanese language, meaning that their meaning that as expression they mean something different from what the verbs would normally mean. An example of idiomatic use of a verb in English is the phrase “take a chair”, where rather than meaning for someone to literally pick up a chair and consider it theirs, this combination of three words actually means the same as “sit down”. The following list consists of twelve similar idioomatic expressions for Japanese.

This is technically a combination of に and the て form of 取(と)る, meaning 'to take' or 'pick up'.

This is technically a combination of に and the て form of 付(つ)く, meaning 'to be attached' or 'to follow'.

This is technically a combination of に and the て form of 掛(か)ける, meaning 'to cover' or 'to turn on' or 'being to'.

This is technically a combination of に and the て form of 置(お)く, meaning 'to place' or 'to do (now, rather than later)'.

This is technically a combination of に and the て form of 因(よ)る, meaning 'to depend on' or 'be based on'.

This is technically a combination of に and the て form of 連(つ)れる, meaning 'to lead' or 'to take (a person somewhere)'.

This is technically a combination of に and the て form of 対(たい)する, meaning 'to oppose' or 'to stand against'.

This is technically a combination of に and the て form of 関(かん)する, meaning 'to relate to'.

This is technically a combination of に and the て form of 従(したが)う, meaning 'to obey' or 'to follow'.

This is technically a combination of に and the て form of 際(さい)する, meaning 'to arrive' or 'to come by'.

This is technically a combination of に and the て form of 当(あ)たる, meaning 'to be applicable'.

This is technically a combination of に and the て form of 亙(わた)る, or 亘(わた)る, meaning 'to extend'.