LEARN + JAPANESE / Note 60 JLPT N5

By, At, With (で)

で marks the means something happens by, the tool, the material, or the method. English splits this across “by,” “with,” and “in,” Japanese just uses で for all of it.

In Real Life
で covers the physical tool doing the cutting (ハサミで) and the transport getting you home (自転車で) with the exact same particle. English needs “with” for one and “by” for the other; Japanese doesn’t bother making the distinction.
In Real Life
で also marks the language something is done in (日本語で書く) and the venue or platform something happens on (ネットオークションで買う). If you can rephrase the English as “by means of X,” で is almost always the particle you want.

Vocabulary

JapaneseEnglish