A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar

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Summary: they should call this Japanese For Dummies
Review: I bought this book in Japan, so I don't how how available it is in North America. This book has become a vital part of my Japanese language library, helping me in more ways than I can count. Along with my English to Japanese dictionary, verb ductionary, and my kanji dictionary, this helps me structure any sentence I've ever wanted. By memorizing a few formulas and understanding examples of grammar, I understand the language so much more, I can express most thoughts I want, and I'm a step ahead of most people in my Japanese class. This is the transition for a beginner student between simple and complex sentences.

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Summary: A serious grammatical foundation in learning Japanese.
Review: I have been studying the reading, writing and speaking of the Japanese language for several years. I acquired this book and its companion of Intermediate Japanese Grammar in my second year of college study of that language.

In my opinion, this book provides the necessary grammatical information to bind and tie together the parts of speech to form proper and adult sentences. Grammatical expressions are indexed as both English and romaji which is helpful for creating as well as translating sentences.

The actual examples of each expression are usually plentiful and are written in Japanese using kanji, romaji, with the English translation. Also examples of incorrect usage are frequently given along with explanations.

Although the title is "A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar", the book will probably best be used after the first year of instruction. This book has been an extremely valuable tool in my endeavour of learning the Japanese language and I doubt that I will part with it.

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Summary: ...I feel a little dumb.
Review: I reviewed the wrong book!! (I'll try to get rid of that other bad bad bad review of the wrong book when I can...)

This book is EXCELLENT...I have used it many times to figure out a confusing phrase or simply to learn what was meant by a particular word.

Just about everything a beginner could need is in this book. I would certainly recommend it.

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Summary: Simply awesome
Review: I used this extensively in Japan--the grammar is impecable

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Summary: Awesome as a reference book
Review: The book explains grammar matters very thourously, impeccably published and is really convenient to use (the things you might need had been sought after). It is, however, not a good way to bootstrap yourself into the language, so to speak, you probably need to have decent grammar knowledge to get the most out of it. Since you'll be there sometime, the book is worth to buy anyway ^_^

I haven't said something spectacular in my review, I mainly wrote it because the book is really good and you don't want to miss it.

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Summary: Very usefull and complete Japanese grammar dictionary
Review: The dicionary starts with a short section on basic Japanese grammar. Here, they explain the verb conjugations, and give some explanation about the characteristics of Japanese grammar. After this is done, the dictionary it self starts. The entries in the dictionary are alphabetically ordered. One of the things it contain are particles (of course). But besides particles it also contains entries on verb conjugations, different kinds of politeness, formation of irregular verbs, ... In short, I'd bet that almost every grammatical question you might have, could be answered by searching this dictionary.

Then about the entries themselves: every entry has the same layout. Each entry starts with the name of the entry (ex. mada) and states what kind of word(-part) it is (particle, adverb, conjugation, ...). Next, a simple explanation is given for the word, it's meaning or function. After this, you can find key sentences, formation-rules, examples, and possibly notes and related expressions. The examples are given in both japanese writing and romanji, together with their english translation.

I know this dictionary costs more than some of the other books on Japanese grammar that you might find, but I definitely recommend this one to all serious students of the Japanese language. If you are serious about learning Japanese, you'll definately appreciate this dictionary.

Rating:
Summary: Simply awesome
Review: This book is about as good as a language book can be. Ten years in Japan, I can still trace my fluency to what I read in this book. Concise, clear, relevant descriptions and examples. Arguably the most informative book written for any language.

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Summary: I cannot recommend this book enough.
Review: This book is great. It is as it says a dictionary of basic Japanese grammar.
This book explains grammar in a way that is very easy to understand. With this book and the "Dictionary of intermediate Japanese grammar", you will be set. I recommend all serious students of Japanese to get these two books. Then find a good Kanji study system, and follow that up with a good workbook, to enforce practice.


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Summary: The ultimate grammar resource
Review: This book simply has no peer. It is by far the clearest, most thorough, most concise and well-thought-out Japanese language resource out there. If you really want to understand Japanese and how it works, this is the tool for you.

You can use this book as a reference when you come across a new grammatical pattern, or systematically go through it to learn new ones. The book explains Japanese grammar points in clear English and gives many example sentences to cover the range of their uses.

People often ask me, "what's the best textbook for learning Japanese?" In my opinion, there are no good textbooks. What you need are good RESOURCES on certain areas, and this is the best for grammar. Unlike all the silly "Mr. Smith goes to Tokyo" textbooks, this book does not make you go through a pointless story from which you mine a few nuggets of information. A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar presents you with what you want to know, with no time wasted on anything else. This and a good Kanji-learning resource are what you need to begin your road to true profenciency in Japanese.


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Summary: The grail for Japanese grammar
Review: This is a dictionary I can safely say lives up to the promises it has on the back cover.

I have studied Japanese for 3 and 1/2 years and what frustrated me the most was the often vague and sometimes typo-ridden grammar lessons within standard college-level Japanese language textbooks, and they weren't helping my weak grammatical skills. I read about this book via the glowing reviews on-line and I agree with them. Concise, convenient, yet it still gives you all the vital information you need to know about the various grammatical phrases in Japanese that throws many people off.

I've learned some new helpful phrases with this book and reinforced ones I've previously learned. This book really makes me feel more confident about speaking in Japanese and allows me to write and read more fluently. I plan to buy the Intermediate book soon. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to become a serious Japanese speaker.