Contrast two languages
Pick any two of 581 languages and see, feature by feature, where their grammars match and where they part.
English and Japanese are both coded for 136 features and share the same value on 57 of them (42%). A typical pair of languages in this tool agrees on 43%. Of the 408 languages that share at least 40 coded features with English, Japanese ranks 216 by agreement.
Sounds
| Feature | English | Japanese |
|---|---|---|
| Consonant Inventories | Average | Moderately small |
| Vowel Quality Inventories | Large vowel inventory (7-14) | Average vowel inventory (5-6) |
| Consonant-Vowel Ratio | Low | Average |
| Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives | Voicing contrast in both plosives and fricatives | same |
| Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems | /p t k b d g/ | same |
| Uvular Consonants | No uvulars | Uvular continuants only |
| Glottalized Consonants | No glottalized consonants | same |
| Lateral Consonants | /l/, no obstruent laterals | No laterals |
| The Velar Nasal | Velar nasal, but not initially | No velar nasal |
| Vowel Nasalization | Contrastive nasal vowels absent | same |
| Front Rounded Vowels | None | same |
| Syllable Structure | Complex syllable structure | Moderately complex syllable structure |
| Tone | No tones | Simple tone system |
| Absence of Common Consonants | All present | same |
| Presence of Uncommon Consonants | 'Th' sounds | None |
Word structure
| Feature | English | Japanese |
|---|---|---|
| Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives | Exclusively concatenative | same |
| Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives | No case | Monoexponential case |
| Exponence of Tense-Aspect-Mood Inflection | monoexponential TAM | same |
| Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb | 2-3 categories per word | 4-5 categories per word |
| Locus of Marking in the Clause | P is dependent-marked | same |
| Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases | Possessor is dependent-marked | same |
| Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology | Consistently dependent-marking | same |
| Zero Marking of A and P Arguments | Non-zero marking | same |
| Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology | Predominantly suffixing | same |
| Reduplication | No productive reduplication | Full reduplication only |
| Case Syncretism | Inflectional case marking is syncretic for core cases only | Inflectional case marking is absent or minimal |
| Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking | Subject person/number marking is syncretic | No subject person/number marking |
Nouns and pronouns
| Feature | English | Japanese |
|---|---|---|
| Coding of Nominal Plurality | Plural suffix | same |
| Occurrence of Nominal Plurality | Plural in all nouns, always obligatory | Plural only in human nouns, optional |
| Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns | Person-number stem | Person stem with a nominal plural affix |
| The Associative Plural | Associative plural absent | Associative plural marker also used for additive plurals |
| Definite Articles | Definite word distinct from demonstrative | No definite article but indefinite article |
| Indefinite Articles | Indefinite word distinct from numeral for 'one' | same |
| Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns | No inclusive/exclusive opposition | same |
| Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection | 'We' and 'I' identical | No person marking at all |
| Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives | Two-way contrast | Three-way contrast |
| Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives | Same forms | Different inflectional features |
| Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives | Related for all demonstratives | Unrelated |
| Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns | Gender distinctions in 3rd person singular only | 3rd person only, but also non-singular |
| Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns | Second person pronouns encode no politeness distinction | Pronouns avoided for politeness |
| Indefinite Pronouns | Generic-noun-based indefinites | Interrogative-based indefinites |
| Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns | Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally identical | same |
| Person Marking on Adpositions | Adpositions without person marking | same |
| Number of Cases | 2 case categories | 8-9 case categories |
| Asymmetrical Case-Marking | Additive-quantitatively asymmetrical case-marking | Symmetrical case-marking |
| Position of Case Affixes | Neither case affixes nor adpositional clitics | Postpositional clitics |
| Comitatives and Instrumentals | Identity | Differentiation |
| Ordinal Numerals | First, second, three-th | One-th, two-th, three-th |
| Distributive Numerals | No distributive numerals | Marked by suffix |
| Numeral Classifiers | Numeral classifiers are absent | Numeral classifiers are obligatory |
| Conjunctions and Universal Quantifiers | Formally similar, not involving interrogative expression | Formally similar, involving interrogative expression |
| Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes | No possessive affixes | same |
Noun phrases
| Feature | English | Japanese |
|---|---|---|
| Obligatory Possessive Inflection | No obligatorily possessed nouns | same |
| Number of Possessive Nouns | None reported | same |
| Possessive Classification | No possessive classification | same |
| Genitives, Adjectives and Relative Clauses | Highly differentiated | Genitives and adjectives collapsed |
| Adjectives without Nouns | Marked by following word | Marked by mixed or other strategies |
| Action Nominal Constructions | Mixed: Several patterns in the same language | Double-Possessive: All major arguments treated as possessors |
| Noun Phrase Conjunction | AND-languages: 'and' and 'with' are not identical | WITH-languages: 'and' and 'with' are identical |
| Nominal and Verbal Conjunction | Nominal and verbal conjunction are largely identical | Nominal and verbal conjunction are different |
Verbs: tense, mood, evidence
| Feature | English | Japanese |
|---|---|---|
| Perfective/Imperfective Aspect | No grammatical marking of perfective/imperfective distinction | same |
| The Past Tense | Past/non-past distinction marked; no remoteness distinction | same |
| The Future Tense | No inflectional marking of future/non-future distinction | same |
| The Perfect | From possessive | No perfect |
| Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes | Tense-aspect suffixes | same |
| The Morphological Imperative | No second-person imperatives | Second person number-neutral |
| The Prohibitive | Normal imperative + normal negative | Normal imperative + special negative |
| Imperative-Hortative Systems | The language has neither a maximal nor a minimal system | same |
| The Optative | Inflectional optative absent | same |
| Situational Possibility | Verbal constructions | Affixes on verbs |
| Epistemic Possibility | Verbal constructions | Other |
| Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking | Overlap for both possibility and necessity | Overlap for either possibility or necessity |
| Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality | No grammatical evidentials | Only indirect evidentials |
| Coding of Evidentiality | No grammatical evidentials | Verbal affix or clitic |
| Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect | Suppletion according to tense | No suppletion in tense or aspect |
| Suppletion in Imperatives and Hortatives | None (= no suppletive imperatives reported in the reference material) | same |
| Verbal Number and Suppletion | No singular-(dual)-plural pairs/triples | same |
Word order
| Feature | English | Japanese |
|---|---|---|
| Order of Subject, Object and Verb | Subject-verb-object (SVO) | Subject-object-verb (SOV) |
| Order of Subject and Verb | Subject precedes verb (SV) | same |
| Order of Object and Verb | Object follows verb (VO) | Object precedes verb (OV) |
| Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb | Verb-object-oblique (VOX) | Oblique-object-verb (XOV) |
| Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase | Prepositions | Postpositions |
| Order of Genitive and Noun | Both orders occur with neither order dominant | Genitive-noun (GenN) |
| Order of Adjective and Noun | Modifying adjective precedes noun (AdjN) | same |
| Order of Demonstrative and Noun | Demonstrative word precedes noun (DemN) | same |
| Order of Numeral and Noun | Numeral precedes noun (NumN) | same |
| Order of Relative Clause and Noun | Relative clause follows noun (NRel) | Relative clause precedes noun (RelN) |
| Order of Degree Word and Adjective | Degree word precedes adjective (DegAdj) | same |
| Position of Polar Question Particles | No question particle | Question particle at end of sentence |
| Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions | Interrogative phrases obligatorily initial | Interrogative phrases not obligatorily initial |
| Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause | Initial subordinator word | Final subordinator word |
Simple clauses
| Feature | English | Japanese |
|---|---|---|
| Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases | Neutral | Nominative - accusative (standard) |
| Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns | Nominative - accusative (standard) | same |
| Alignment of Verbal Person Marking | Accusative alignment | Neutral alignment (no verbal person marking) |
| Expression of Pronominal Subjects | Obligatory pronouns in subject position | Optional pronouns in subject position |
| Verbal Person Marking | Person marking of only the A argument | No person marking of any argument |
| Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking | No zero realization of third person S forms | No person marking of the S |
| Order of Person Markers on the Verb | A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb | same |
| Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give' | Mixed | Indirect-object construction |
| Reciprocal Constructions | Distinct from reflexive | same |
| Passive Constructions | There is a passive construction | same |
| Antipassive Constructions | No antipassive | same |
| Productivity of the Antipassive Construction | no antipassive | same |
| Applicative Constructions | No applicative construction | same |
| Other Roles of Applied Objects | No applicative construction | same |
| Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions | Morphological type but no compound type | same |
| Negative Morphemes | Negative particle | Negative affix |
| Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation | Symmetric and asymmetric standard negation: Type SymAsy | Asymmetric standard negation only: Type Asy |
| Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation | In other grammatical categories: Subtype A/Cat | A/Fin and A/Cat |
| Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation | Negative indefinites show mixed behaviour | Negative indefinites co-occur with predicate negation |
| Polar Questions | Interrogative word order | Question particle |
| Predicative Possession | Have-Possessive | Locational Possessive |
| Predicative Adjectives | Predicative adjectives have nonverbal encoding | Predicative adjectives have mixed encoding |
| Nominal and Locational Predication | Identical | Different |
| Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals | Zero copula is impossible | same |
| Comparative Constructions | Particle Comparative | Locational Comparative |
Complex sentences
| Feature | English | Japanese |
|---|---|---|
| Relativization on Subjects | Relative pronoun | Gap |
| Relativization on Obliques | Relative Pronoun Strategy | Gap Strategy |
| 'Want' Complement Subjects | The complement subject is left implicit | 'Want' is expressed as a desiderative verbal affix |
| Purpose Clauses | Balanced/deranked | same |
| 'When' Clauses | Balanced/deranked | same |
| Reason Clauses | Balanced/deranked | Balanced |
| Utterance Complement Clauses | Balanced | same |
Vocabulary
| Feature | English | Japanese |
|---|---|---|
| Hand and Arm | Different | Identity: a single word denotes both 'hand' and 'arm' |
| Finger and Hand | Different | same |
| Numeral Bases | Decimal | same |
| Number of Non-Derived Basic Colour Categories | 6 categories | same |
| Number of Basic Colour Categories | More than 10 categories | same |
| Green and Blue | Green and blue | same |
| Red and Yellow | Red and yellow | same |
| M-T Pronouns | No M-T pronouns | same |
| M in First Person Singular | m in first person singular | No m in first person singular |
| N-M Pronouns | No N-M pronouns | same |
| M in Second Person Singular | No m in second person singular | m in second person singular |
| Tea | Words derived from Min Nan Chinese te | Words derived from Sinitic cha |
Other
| Feature | English | Japanese |
|---|---|---|
| Para-Linguistic Usages of Clicks | Clicks may express affective but not logical meanings | same |
How to use it
Choose two languages and press Contrast. The table lists every feature that WALS has coded for both, grouped by topic, with each language’s value. Rows marked with a dot differ. The link at the top of the page changes with your choice, so a comparison can be bookmarked or shared.
The percentage counts identical values among the shared features only. Languages that WALS has coded for few features share fewer rows, so their percentage rests on less evidence; the rank compares the second language with every other language that shares at least 40 coded features with the first. The 43% benchmark is the median over all 43,262 pairs in the tool that meet that threshold.
A match means the two languages fall into the same WALS category, not that they use the same words or sounds. Matching values say nothing about shared ancestry: unrelated languages often agree by chance or through contact. The tool counts; it does not judge how close two languages are to learn. Data: WALS Online, CC BY 4.0.