If you review the questions you get wrong on a JFT-Basic mock, a striking number will turn on a two-character particle rather than on a word you did not know.
Time expressions are the worst offenders, and they are learnable in an afternoon.
The four that matter most
| Expression | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ～から | from | 9時から はたらきます |
| ～まで | until | 5時まで はたらきます |
| ～までに | by (a deadline) | 5時までに 出して ください |
| ～ごとに | every (interval) | 2時間ごとに 休みます |
まで and までに are not the same. まで means the action continues until that time. までに means it must be finished before that time. An enormous share of reading questions hinge on exactly this pair, because a workplace notice is full of deadlines.
Relative time
きょう、あした、あさって (the day after tomorrow), きのう、おととい (the day before yesterday), こんしゅう / らいしゅう / せんしゅう, こんげつ / らいげつ / せんげつ.
And the ones learners meet later but the exam uses freely: ～まえに (before), ～あとで (after), ～とき (when), ～あいだに (while).
Frequency
まいにち (every day), まいしゅう, まいあさ, ときどき (sometimes), よく (often), たいてい (usually), ぜんぜん～ません (never).
Frequency words are common in listening clips about shifts and routines, and they are usually the answer rather than the setting.
The trap: two times in one sentence
This is the exam’s standard construction, and it appears in both Listening and Reading:
明日の しごとは 9時からですが、あめの ときは 10時に なります。
Two times, one が, and a condition. The question will ask about the rainy day. The candidate who hears “9時” first and stops listening gets it wrong.
Wait for the whole sentence. The exception usually comes after が or でも, and the exception is usually what is being asked about.
How to drill it
Write your own week out in Japanese - actual times, actual shifts:
月曜日は 8時から 5時まで はたらきます。金曜日は 4時までに 帰らなければなりません。
Producing the forms about your own life fixes them far faster than recognising them in exercises. Add the numbers themselves if they are not automatic yet: Japanese numbers and time, and dates and days of the week.
Then test under pressure. The free exam demo runs a full listening section where several clips are built on exactly this two-times construction, and there is no replay.