there are three engines: verb, adjective, and noun + copula
there are various carriages: nouns and their logical particles
these can be mostly pared down to three types of words: い engine (adjectives), う engine (verbs), and noun (noun + copula engine and noun + particle carriage)
adverbs are almost always a noun or adjective variant
most words that are not adjectives or verbs are nouns
する verbs
noun + 「する」
ex: 「勉強」 means “the act of studying”, 「勉強をする」 means “to do the act of studying”, and 「勉強する」 means “to study”
adjectival nouns
usually called “な adjectives” even though they never stop being nouns
ex: 「綺麗」 can be used as 「綺麗だ」 or as 「綺麗な」 (with 「な」 being the connective form of 「だ」) to describe something
some nouns (like 「綺麗」) are almost always used as adjectives and others (like 「元気」) are used as nouns and adjectives with similar frequency
non-adjectival nouns
regular nouns can still be used descriptively
ex: 「魔法の帽子」 means “magic hat”
「魔法」 is not an adjectival noun, but it can be used to a similar effect
な vs. の
「不思議な国」 means “mysterious country” (descriptive) while 「不思議の国」 means “country of wonder” (attributive)
なる nouns
contraction of 「のある」 where 「の」 is taking the place of 「が」
「華麗なる探偵」
「華麗のある探偵」
「華麗がある探偵」
which means “detectives possessing splendor”
can sound a bit more old-fashioned
「XなるY] means “a Y possessing X”
たる nouns
contraction of 「とある」
the thing being described exists in a way implied by the noun
「XたるY] means “Y existing in an X-like way”
groups of kanji
kanji can be used descriptively without any of the mentioned connectors