N5 to N1: what each JLPT level asks of you

The five levels

The JLPT numbers run backwards: N5 is the easiest, N1 the hardest. What nobody says up front is that the gaps are uneven — N5 to N4 is one step, N3 to N2 is a much bigger one.

N5 — the foundation

Around 800 words and 100 kanji. Enough to read signs, introduce yourself and ask a price. The grammar is です / ます, the basic particles, and verbs in their polite form.

This is the level to type the most at. N5 words reappear at every level above, so getting them into your fingers here saves a great deal later.

N4 — sentences join up

Around 1,500 words and 300 kanji. The plain form arrives, the て form, and sentences with two clauses. Children's manga and simple messages become readable.

N3 — the hard step

Around 3,700 words and 650 kanji. This is where people stall, for two reasons: the vocabulary more than doubles from N4, and the Japanese starts using native structures rather than textbook ones.

N3 is also the level with no clear textbook path the way N5 and N4 have. Getting through it usually means a lot of reading and listening rather than finishing one book.

N2 — usable at work

Around 6,000 words and 1,000 kanji. This is the level most Japanese employers ask for. Newspapers become readable with a dictionary, and you can follow a meeting.

N1 — formal and written

Around 10,000 words and 2,000 kanji. Much of N1 is formal written Japanese — official documents, academic articles — rather than the spoken language. Fluent speakers fail N1, and people who pass it can still stumble in conversation.

When to move up

Not when you recognise the words, but when you can recall them. Recognition is seeing 病院 and knowing it is a hospital. Recall is thinking of a hospital and typing びょういん without stopping.

Typing demands recall, which makes it a blunter test than reading. If you hesitate through an N5 lesson, that level is not finished — however easy it looks when you read it.