To quote Cure Dolly: 'anything contained in the は particle only 'flags' what the sentence is talking about, and is never part of the grammatical structure as a whole.'

[youtu.be]

Can be used like “Xは?: As for X?” Usually used when asking for opinion of someone or when a customer is asked what they would like. Very contextual can be used in many senses like “Where?” “What?” Or even complex sentences.

Other particles like も can be used similarly, but this particle directly uses the information from the conversation to ask about another thing/situation. Similar to “What about” in “Mom is at home.” “What about Dad?”.

Pronounced as "wa" (not "ha") when used as the topic-marking particle.

A very productive pattern:

最高 – best / awesome — 最上 – highest rank / finest
最近 – recently ———— 最短 – shortest (time/distance)
最後 – last / final ——— 最長 – longest
最大 – biggest ———— 最終 – final (stage, phase)
最初 – first ————— 最高峰 – highest peak / top level
最低 – worst ———— 最有力 – most promising / leading
最悪 – terrible ——— 最重要 – most important
最新 – latest ———— 最優先 – top priority
最小 – smallest ——— 最先端 – cutting-edge
最強 – strongest ——— 最適 – optimal

Although 先 is used especially in the abstract sense of a temporal "before" you still can say
駅の先コンビニがあります。= "Ahead of the station there is a convenience store."
Here you still refer to the spatial "in front of" but you mention it as if you would move towards the station and THEN see the convenience store. So you speak of the MOMENT you see the convenience store which makes it seem temporal.
先 can come in handy when speaking of directions and movement from one place to another (since movement is bound to time).

Using 前 (まえ) is also fine and would directly translate to "In front of the station" instead of "Ahead of the station".

Go AHEAD (さき) and pick the FIRST sake (さけ) we drink tonight.

The tip of that cat's paw looks like it's wearing a cute lil SOCKY さき

I SUCK-Y (さき) from the TIP, FIRST.

Who (Qui/KI) did I drink SAKE with some time ago?

When you put on your SAKI (socks) you put the tips of your toes in first.

BEFORE me (先) I SAW KEY さき with an especially pointy TIP

drink first from the pointier tip/end/nozzle of the {mispronounced} SAKI bottle before you go ahead with the rest of your story

BEFORE going AHEAD and drinking SAKI (さき) I remember my FORMER sober self.

Often implies that, not only is it the last, but it will never occur again. i.e. last and final

Difference between 最後 の and 最終

最後 の ー last number of the series (last page of book)

最終 ー more formal, used in formal documents. Means the very last one, for example, the very last train (there will be no more)

最後 semi-formal/casual, can be subjective

最終 formal, official

The American's were the LAST to leave Saigon

The saga has reached its saigo (end)

Saigo no getsuga tenshou (for the bleach fans)

Finally, the PSYCHO’s killing spree was at an END.

To differentiate 最初 and 最後, at the beginning you SHOW up and at the end you GO away.

The Kanji individually means “Upmost” and “back/behind”. The most Back, aka the last or end of the line!

始め: beggining, start
初め: for the first time

Oh, I worry (WARI) I'll fall asleep before the end of the movie

おわり sounds like "over", meaning end/conclusion

O WARIO TIME! um Wario... the party is over.

If you say that you have finished 終わり building houses but you have not even started. Then be ready to おわび

世界の終わり バンド

世界 - World
終わり - End

SEKAI NO OWARI band,
which literally means:
"End of the World"

Say kiddo (さいきどう) how do you *restart* one of these computers?

See also: 再始動, for restarting heavy machinery and sometimes large projects.

Various verbs for putting things on one's body (unrelated senses not mentioned):
- 着る: To wear upper body or full body clothing, usually through arm sleeves. It is used more generally when used with clothing in general e.g. 服を着る, when used in compounds such as 着こなす, 着込む, etc., in certain collocations, and other cases.
- 履く: To wear on the feet, such as shoes and socks.
- 穿く: To wear lower body clothing, such as pants and skirts. Usually kana.
- 掛ける: To hook/hang something on one's body, such as glasses, bags, pendants. Usually kana.
- 被る: To wear on/cover the head/face, such as hats and masks.
- 嵌める: To put on something that envelops, such as rings and gloves. Usually kana.
- 羽織る: To wear items not through sleeves, but e.g. by putting on one's shoulders and fastening buttons, such as coats and gowns. See 羽織.
- 着ける: To wear something, encompasses 着る, はく, etc. and includes accessories (glasses, necklaces, rings, etc.). Often in kana or as 付ける.
- 身に着ける: Essentially the same as 着ける. Often with つける in kana or with 付ける.
- 着する: Essentially the same as 着ける, though more formal.
- 着用(する): Essentially the same as 着ける, though more formal.
- する: To wear accessories (glasses, necklaces, rings, etc.), to be showing an expression, to have a certain quality, etc.
- 纏う: To wrap or wear something around the whole of or part of one's body. Usually kana.

Other verbs:
- 佩く: To affix to one's hip, such as a sword. Usually kana.
- 帯びる: To wear, to carry, usually of a sword on one's hip or an insignia.
- 提げる: To hang from the shoulder or waist or hold hanging from the hand. Also as 下げる.
- 突っかける: To slip on, to quickly wear shoes, slippers, etc.
- 召す: Honorific (尊敬語) form for 着る, e.g. 和服をお召しになる.

Sources:
- 使い方の分かる 類語例解辞典
- 大辞林
- 明鏡国語辞典
- Tofugu

"to cause to become", transitive counterpart to なる

行う is basically similar to する but 行う sounds more formal and stiff.
The more formal the situation is, the more likely 行う is chosen.
It can also be used in sentences where it usually sounds grandiose.
It can also appear in casual conversations.
There is also a verb 執り行う which sounds even stiffer and is only used with big ceremonies such as wedding ceremonies.

To wear small items (necktie, watch etc.)

する is one of the two irregular verb conjugations. To conjugate into this present form you would use します.

I have things suru(to do).

Monkey (さる) see, monkey do (する)

Mr. Sulu has a lot To Do on board the Enterprise.

Suru sounds like sudo, a Linux codeword that means "Super User DO."

To conjugate する, I like to think that it’s a godan and an ichidan verb at the same time. So to conjugate the stem the ichidan would do する -> す and the godan would do す -> し. Then I know that the stem of する is し.

Consists of

(こうせい > Kousei > Cosy)

The material Composition of any substance is made up of Atoms getting COSY with eachother.

When the COmponents are SEt up you get a solid structure.

This (kou)rse (sei)ys it's all about COMPOSITIONS AND CONSTRUCTION.

Co (こう) mpo si (せい) tion

Sense 2. "to start up (a business..." is referring to this 創める (はじめる) — to start something in the sense of creating or founding it. E.g. opening a new store or business.
Note: It's quite uncommon in modern Japanese.

始める is used to start something (i.e. “Let’s start the movie.”).
始まる is when something starts on its own (i.e. “The meeting begins.”).

(verb い-stem) + はじめる conveys the beginning of an action.

It can be used to convey future plans. E.g.: コインをあつめはじめようとおもう = "I think I will begin collecting coins."

It can also be used to convey the beginning of an action in the past (by converting はじめる into its past tense). E.g.: ろくさいのときにうまにのりはじめた = "I started riding horses when I was 6."

Similar to おわる, you can't use はじめる to describe actions out of your control. E.g. (X) 電話が突然鳴りはじめた (X) --> 電話が突然鳴りだした。

Related terms.

はじめまして is what you say when you start a new relationship or initiate a conversation with someone new.

If you はじめる (start/initiate) a conversation with someone new, you say はじめまして, "nice to meet you (for the first time)."

The kanji looks like a woman arriving at a house. 始. When she arrives, you greet her はじめまして to start a conversation.

He has forgotten his pistol to start the men's-sprinting event. So his idea was to start it by sneezing. So he went はじ and the めn started to るn.

To remember that 始める is transitive while 始まる is intransitive, if you see め you have to MEntion what it is that's starting.

The writing (kaku) man (nin) checked my visa.

"How are the caterpillars doing?"

"I have to CONFIRM, but I think they're still COCOON-INg."

"Don't you mean 'pupating'?"

"Naw, man, that wouldn't work as a mnemonic."

To verify you are a human,
Write (かく) that you are a human (にん)

the 描く 人 drew a check mark on my document to CONFIRM that it was VERIFIED

Salt 塩 is the foundation 基 of a dish. Many recipe's are based on this idea. Like the ENglish KItchen.

Let’s go! Into the line!

The RETSU (rest of) you chumps can wait in a queue, I’m buying online.

Oh cool! (おく) I won a hundred million dollars!

I put (置く・おく) this one hundred million yen here, don't you dare to take when I go out?

I put (おく) 100,000,000 (おく) yen way in the back (おく) of a drawer in my house (おく).

一千 (いっせん) can show up, usually in formal or written contexts, but normally you'd simply say 千 (せん).
十千 (じゅっせん) is not used at all. You just go up to 万 and say 一万 (いちまん).

PS: For units past 1000, you need to put a 1 (一) in front. E.g. 一万、 一億.

千 looks a bit like "T" in Thousand, with a painful 一 stuck in it.
In other words, it's a "T-OW-{sen}".

*Sen*kyuu (Thank you) for the thousand dollars!

I remember it based on popular words:

Sengoku period = Age(1000 years) of War (Not actual translation)

Senbonzakura = Thousand Cherry Blossoms

凄まじい is derived from 荒む.

Also written as: 凜まじい

In casual speech, だ is often dropped, but だ is not dropped in だよ and だね. (Genki II)

Can also function as the word 'because' when it is put at the end of the first, or last clause, that provides the reason or explanation to the other clause.
Example:
肉の産物を売りすぎていくから、あの食料品店にもう買い物して行かない。
or
あの食料品店にもう買い物して行かないのは、肉の産物を売りすぎていくから。
"I don't shop at that grocery store anymore because they started to sell too many meat products there."

Punctuation when used as ‘because’:
cause から、result。
result。cause から。

から and ので / なので both mean "because". However:

から attaches to subjective explanations (i.e. personal desires, intentions, and opinions). Also, with nouns/adjectival nouns (な-adjectives), you need to use the connector だ --> (noun/な-adjective) + だから.

ので attaches to objective explanations (i.e. generally accepted facts/info). Also, with nouns/adjectival nouns (な-adjectives), you need to use the connector な --> (noun/な-adjective) + なので.
E.g. It would be inappropriate to say "日本に行くので日本語を勉強した" since "日本に行く" expresses a personal desire/intention.

where are you from? KARAfornia!

Kara is from k(c)anada

中央 and 地方 are opposed in meaning for their second definitions as in the "capital" vs the "country side"

真ん中 - Exact center/middle.
中央 - Physical center, most important part of organization (e.g. government).
中心 - Physical and abstract center, e.g. heart of a place, focus of an idea.

[japanese.stackexchange.com]

中央 (chuuou) is focused on the physical or organizational center of something.

Chūō is the *central* ward (中央区) of Tokyo, as well as the name of the only JR line (中央線) to cross the Yamanote line, cutting through the *center* of Tokyo.