Notes for level 4 of the japanese language proficiency test
Ghislaine Labouret — December 1997 | 
Version en français
Beware: contents no longer updated and only kept online as archives.
The content of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) changed in 2010. Level 4 from the previous version corresponds to level N5 in the 2010 version. The kanji, vocabulary and grammar lists required for the various levels are no longer published (see this FAQ).
Kanji
A list of basic kanji, with various pronunciations and examples of words using those kanji.
This list contains the 80 kanji given as compulsory for the level 4 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test in the book “Japanese Language Proficiency Test: Test Content Specifications” by The Japan Foundation (ISBN 4-89358-281-X, available from amazon). To take level 4, one had to know approximatively 100 kanji. The remaining 20 others being chosen freely, it is in fact necessary to know more than 100 kanji! So I added to this list of kanji some additional ones (often taken from the official list for level 3) which appeared in previous years tests or seemed important enough to risk being selected by the people who design the test. Please note: learning all the pronunciations for each kanji is not sufficient, you need to know its prononciation depending on the context. It is thus more important to learn words using that kanji.
The number in to upper-left of each kanji is the index of this kanji in “Essential Kanji” by P. G. O’Neill (ISBN 0-8348-0222-8, available from amazon). A part of the information in that page comes from that book, which I greatly recommand.
Vocabulary
A basic vocabulary list with kanji and translation.
This list contains the 679 words given as compulsory for the level 4 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test by the The Japan Foundation in the book called “Japanese Language Proficiency Test: Test Content Specifications” (ISBN 4-89358-281-X, available from amazon). To take level 4, one had to know approximatively 800 words, so I added other words (mainly form the official list for level 3) which appeared in previous tests or seemed important enough to risk being used by the people who design the test.
Japanese forms usage
This is a list of basic constructions such as “te form + kudasai”, with their signification and usage examples.
The informations present in that page are mainly taken from the book series called “Shin nihongo no kiso”. The entries such as [ADoBJG page __ ( __ )] indicate the corresponding page in the book “A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar” (ISBN 4-7890-0454-6, available from amazon).