Japanese Grammar

“The Japanese language has a regular agglutinative verb morphology, with both productive and fixed elements. In language typology, it has many features divergent from most European languages. Its phrases are exclusively head-final and compound sentences are exclusively left-branching. There are many such languages, but few in Europe. It is a topic-prominent language.” –Wikipedia

Unless your Japanese is at the Upper – Advanced level you should go and master Tae Kim’s Guide to Japanese Grammar. Basically, it will cover about 2 years of college level grammar in a month or two. You will need another month of reviews using Anki (SRS) to reinforce each point.

“This guide was created as a resource for those who want to learn Japanese grammar in a rational, intuitive way that makes sense in Japanese. The explanations are focused on how to make sense of the grammar not from English but from a Japanese point of view.”

This is simply the most useful grammar guides for non-advanced students that I have ever seen. It is structured perfectly, and each lesson builds on previous lessons. It does not cover everything, but together with a good vocabulary you will be able to understand virtually every type of structure within a large variety of contexts.

How to Use:

• STEP 1: See my Beginner – Intermediate Overview.
• STEP 2: Get a SRS program such as Anki.
• STEP 3: Use Anki to review the example sentences from Tae Kim’s Guide.
  see How to Review Kanji & Sentences in Anki

Simple right…. Right!

Note-Worthy Notes:

1. MAKE YOUR OWN CARDS IF YOU WANT TO LEARN. Do not download premade decks. Besides, you will need to read each explanation in order to understand each point.
2. See Configuring Anki for RtK and activate automatic reading generation.
3. If some compound kanji are to difficult replace them kana, but keep the compound saved in the meaning field from when you are ready for it.
4. Try to understand each sentence without translating it.
5. Avoid studying the grammar directly when reviewing, use it to confirm that you understand each sentence correctly.

Guide-Worthy Guide:

• Keep your cards simple. I use 4 fields (including the tag field).

Expression	先週に図書館に行った
Meaning	Went to library last week. 「に」=target particle 行く (present) = 行った (past) *non-typical conjugation
Reading	せんしゅうにとしょかんにいった
Tags	Sentences, TaeKim

• Make sure to explain each grammar point using the ‘Meaning’ field (if you need to). Do not think that you will remember each grammar point for every sentence from memory, taken out of context, two weeks later. Besides, many sentences are very similar, yet have opposite meaning.

たくさん食べな	please eat a lot
たくさん食べるな	DO NOT eat a lot

• You do not have to make 1 card for each sentence. In a few cases, cards like the following illustrate the point just as well, if not better.

Expression	あ）毎日学校に行かなくてはなりません い）毎日学校に行かないと駄目です う）毎日学校に行かなければいけません
Meaning	must go to school everyday
Reading	あ） まいにちがっこうにいかなくてはなりません い） まいにちがっこうにいかないとだめです う） まいにちがっこうにいかなければいけません
Tags	Sentences, TaeKim

• Make your sentences correctly, study them correctly, understand them correctly.
• Remember that it is all harder to unlearn something, instead of learning it correctly in the first place.

FURTHER READING The Japanese Language Method Overview Spaced Repetition Software Sentence Method Beginner – Intermediate Overview more to be added

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