Breakdown of watasi ha heddohon de ongaku wo kikinagara nihongo wo benkyousimasu.
Questions & Answers about watasi ha heddohon de ongaku wo kikinagara nihongo wo benkyousimasu.
は marks the topic of the sentence – what you’re talking about. Here, the overall topic is 私 (I).
が marks the subject in a more “who did it” or “what happened” sense, often introducing new or emphasized information.
- 私は日本語を勉強します。
→ Speaking about me, I study Japanese.
If you said 私が日本語を勉強します, it would sound like you’re emphasizing I (not someone else) am the one who studies Japanese. In a neutral “I do X” sentence, は is more natural.
で here shows the means or instrument used to perform an action.
- ヘッドホンで音楽を聞く
→ to listen to music *with/by using headphones*
So ヘッドホンで means “using headphones” / “with headphones.”
The particle で is commonly used for:
- バスで行く – go by bus
- 箸で食べる – eat with chopsticks
Same pattern: ヘッドホンで聞く – listen with headphones.
When you use ながら to mean “while doing X”, you attach it to the ます-stem (the stem used for the polite ます form) of the verb.
- 聞く (dictionary form) → 聞きます (polite)
→ 聞き is the ます-stem - 聞き + ながら → 聞きながら (while listening)
So the rule is:
ます-stem + ながら = “while doing ~”
Examples:
- 歩きながら話す – to talk while walking
- 食べながらテレビを見る – to watch TV while eating
That’s why it must be 聞きながら, not 聞くながら.
ながら expresses two actions happening at the same time.
In this sentence:
- Main action: 日本語を勉強します – study Japanese
- Secondary simultaneous action: 音楽を聞きながら – while listening to music
The nuance is: > I study Japanese, and at the same time I am (also) listening to music.
The action with ながら is usually the background action, and the final verb (here 勉強します) is the main focus.
Yes, it is perfectly fine to have multiple を in one sentence, as long as they belong to different verbs.
- 音楽を聞きながら
→ 音楽 is the direct object of 聞く (to listen) - 日本語を勉強します
→ 日本語 is the direct object of 勉強する (to study)
So the structure is basically:
(Object1 を Verb1-ながら) Object2 を Verb2
Each を marks the object of a different verb, so there’s no conflict.
Both can be read as きく, but they have a nuance difference:
- 聞く (聞きながら) – more general: to hear / listen / ask
- 聴く – specifically to listen carefully / appreciate (music, a speech, etc.)
In casual writing, especially for learners, 聞く is often used for music too, and it’s completely acceptable. Native materials may prefer 音楽を聴く to emphasize intentional listening.
So in this sentence, 音楽を聞きながら is fine and natural, but 音楽を聴きながら would also be very common, especially in more careful writing.
勉強する (to study) normally takes a direct object in Japanese, marked by を:
- 日本語を勉強する – study Japanese
- 数学を勉強する – study math
- 歴史を勉強する – study history
So 日本語を is just “Japanese (language) as the object of studying.” There is no need for another particle like に or で here.
Yes, that sentence is also grammatically correct, but the nuance changes slightly.
Original:
- ヘッドホンで音楽を聞きながら日本語を勉強します。
→ Main focus feels like studying Japanese, with “listening to music” as the background action.
Reversed:
- 日本語を勉強しながらヘッドホンで音楽を聞きます。
→ Main focus feels like listening to music, with “studying Japanese” in the background.
In Japanese, word order is fairly flexible, but the final verb phrase tends to carry the main focus. So both are grammatical; choose the one that matches what you want to emphasize.
No, ヘッドホンを聞く is unnatural. You don’t “listen to headphones”; you listen to something (音楽 / music) with headphones.
Correct patterns:
- 音楽をヘッドホンで聞く – listen to music with headphones
- ラジオをヘッドホンで聞く – listen to the radio with headphones
So:
- X ヘッドホンを聞く – wrong / unnatural
- ✓ ヘッドホンで音楽を聞く – natural
勉強します is the polite non-past form.
勉強する is the plain non-past form.
- Use 勉強します in polite situations: talking to teachers, strangers, in class, etc.
- Use 勉強する with friends, family, casual writing, or when you don’t need politeness.
The sentence as given is in polite style, so 勉強します matches that. If you made it casual, you’d say:
- ヘッドホンで音楽を聞きながら日本語を勉強する。
Japanese non-past form (～する / ～します) can mean:
- habitual / general: I study Japanese (regularly).
- future: I will study Japanese (later / from now on).
Context decides which is meant.
With no extra context, 勉強します here could be interpreted as:
- a general habit: I (usually) study Japanese while listening to music using headphones.
- or a near-future intention: I will (now / later) study Japanese while listening to music using headphones.
Japanese doesn’t grammatically force you to pick one; you infer it from the situation.
You can say 音楽を聞いて日本語を勉強します, and it’s grammatical, but the nuance changes:
- 聞きながら → strongly emphasizes simultaneity (do A while doing B at the same time).
- 聞いて (the ～て form) can mean:
- sequence (do A and then B), or
- result/circumstance (do B with A as a condition / background).
So:
音楽を聞きながら日本語を勉強します。
→ Very clearly: I study Japanese *while listening to music (simultaneously).*音楽を聞いて日本語を勉強します。
→ Could be understood as “I listen to music and (then/and) study Japanese,” though in context many people will still imagine overlap.
If you want to make the “at the same time” idea clear, ながら is the better choice.
Yes. In fact, this is very natural. Japanese often omits the subject when it is clear from context.
- (私は) ヘッドホンで音楽を聞きながら日本語を勉強します。
Both are correct. Including 私 is fine, especially for learners, but native speakers often drop it unless they need to contrast or emphasize I.
Japanese nouns generally don’t change form for singular/plural. ヘッドホン can mean:
- a headphone, a pair of headphones, headphones in general.
Context tells you which is meant. In English you’d naturally say:
- I study Japanese while listening to music *with headphones.*
Japanese doesn’t need to mark plural here; ヘッドホン works for all of these.