Japanese Sentence Patterns for Effective Communication: A Self-Study Course and Reference

Many books deal with Japanese grammar somewhat in a vacuum, whereas this book provides an index of different English meanings, ideas, and sentence structures, and explains how the same (or a similar) idea would be conveyed in Japanese. The book is very well structured, with the index in the front of the book grouped by broad categories (describing actions, making comparisons, explaining causes and reasons, etc.), and each individual concept is listed with one or more pairs of English sentences and corresponding Japanese translations, as well as the page number for the detailed lesson. In many cases, simply looking at this index may be enough to jog your memory, but if not, every lesson is presented in detail with example sentences, one or more paragraphs of explanation, and several practice exercises where you are given an English sentence, and asked to translate the statement to Japanese using the concepts provided in the lesson. I recommend using a highlighter, and going through the index highlighting the relevant word/particle/structure for each Japanese example, as this will make it even easier to find what you're looking for. This book is an easy recommendation for anybody studying Japanese.

This book is designed for upper-beginner learners of Japanese. I say this because if you've studied Genki 1, you'll pretty much know how to do everything in this book. However, even if you have studied Genki 1, this is a great book to use for additional practice and will teach you more sentence structures then Genki 1.The examples are written in natural Japanese (Kanji + hiragana/katakana) and then written again in romanji. This means you don't need to know how to read Japanese to use this book. However, if you're a serious learner of Japanese, I'd highly highly recommend learning to read being the first thing you do. Losing the crutch of romanji is one of the best things you can do the first day you start learning. Learn Hiragana and Katakana first. Kanji is takes longer to learn but it's not hard, just tedious. The book does not provide furigana (kana above the kanji), but this is not needed because if you know how to read Japanese, it's extremely easy to spot the reading of the kanji in the romanji text.This book has one main goal in mind. That goal is to teach you tons of different sentence structures which is essential to know in pretty much every language. If you're a upper beginner, you most likely will not know all the vocab, but you will learn how to use most vocab once you've learn them. After mastering this book, you'll be able to express yourself in various different ways and structures.This book would work best if you're already an upper-beginner with a decent amount of vocabulary in your grasp. The best way to practice would be to study each section, then try to make as many sentences with the structures you've learn using the vocab you already know. Since this book does start off slow, I'd recommend it to a beginner of any level. Also to any lower intermediates who want to refreshen up on their sentence structures.

This is book is simply amazing.Grammatical coverage is methodical and logically ordered.Plenty of example sentences are offered in both kanji and romaji. I would have liked kana/furigana as well, but the scheme the author chose works well and is nice for reading practice. The romaji is printed under the kanji examples; so it is easily covered with the included bookmark if you want to test yourself.The book is organized by grammar point. There are 142 grammar points in all.Each grammar point consists of:1) A simple demonstrative example in large print2) A short paragraph explaining the usage of the grammar point3) Three to five additional example sentences to shown usage variations4) A small translation quiz consisting of 3 English sentences that require the grammar point (answers provided)Also included is 45 pages of appendix material, which provides charts/tables covering:* Numerals - Cardinal and ordinal numbers* Counters (measure words)* Adjective inflection for common I- and Na- adjectives* Verb conjugation for common verbsI study vocabulary ordered by common usage frequency using iKnow -- words are introduced (with audio) along with an example sentence (also with audio). This book helps in understanding some of the more complex example sentences. Conversely, the vocabulary gained through iKnow makes reading this grammar book much easier and natural.In short, if you have an external regimented vocabulary study program, this book might very well be the only textbook you need as you progress into upper-intermediate territory.

This book gives examples of sentence structures in every shape and form. Its useful for looking up structures for speaking and writing. One thing that I must point out; it contains a lot of Kanji without furigana. But don't be afraid because all examples are also written in romanji. Another point that I'd like to stress to any beginner is that you MUST learn the Kana's very early in your studies. Also, every book, dictionary, workbook, or program that you are interested in assumes that you have a solid grasp on English Grammar. When I say English Grammar, I'm not talking about your conversation skills; I'm talking about the elements of the English language. Do you know the difference between a transistive and intransistive verb? Or what about nouns, pronouns, adverbs, adjectives, subjects, objects, synonym's, or antonym,s? I couldn't remember all that junk from school so I had to buy a little grammar book to learn English before I could really begin Japanese. Oh well, to make a long story short; get this book because it really helps. It's easy to read, has lots of practice excersises and has tons of info in the back. Have Fun Gang!!!

Good book for beginners, provides a nice series of situations where one can learn how to make sentences and express out thoughts in japanese

Estou estudando japonês e estou com várias dúvidas. Depois de ler vários comentários sobre o livro, decidi comprá-lo. À princípio, admito que fiquei decepcionado com as dimensões do livro - cheque as dimensões 18 x 2,5 x 13 cm, coisa de americano, hehehehe... Estamos acostumados com livros no tamanho de folha A4. Mas agora que estou usando, vejo que o conteúdo extrapola as dimensões e realmente valeu a pena.Para quem está com muitas dúvidas, como eu, tem muitos padrões de frases, principalmente sobre o uso adequado de partículas. No final do livro, tem os apêndices com numerais, contadores, adjetivos (com as formas, polida e simples, por exemplo) e com verbos (não todos) regulares e irregulares conjugados.Uma característica que achei ótima para meu aprendizado, é que tem uma mini prática - logo depois das explicações, com duas, três ou quatro frases (depende do assunto) que você já pode praticar. São do tipo "diga o seguinte em japonês", aí você monta a sua frase, e já corrige a seguir, pois logo abaixo estão as respostas. E, geralmente, as principais palavras que você usa nas frases estão logo acima, tornando muito fácil o aprendizado.A única desvantagem é para quem não entende nada de inglês, pois o livro é todo em inglês (mas acredito que isso não seja problema para a maioria que está estudando japonês).Eu realmente gostei e recomendo. Valeu o investimento.

Simplified Japanese at your fingertips. Best for beginners.

Very useful book for self study

(Please, bear with my English, I am not a native speaker) Being really interested in learning Japanese, being very serious about it, but having almost no spare time to study, I became a kind of specialist of the resources you can use in a metro. And I may say that this book is one of the most valuable investment I have made so far. It will of course depend on your learning style, but being a teacher myself, I can't find a lot of reasons for which this book wouldn't help you to improve your Japanese. It basically works like a sentence structures dictionary that you can read from the first to the last page (using it a little bit like a textbook) or you can look up in whenever you need to use, learn or review a pattern. As usual with Kodansha, no kana, no furigana (but the sentence in Japanese, with its transcription in romaji and the translation). It is almost a signature and I really share the incomprehension of the vast majority of the Japanese learners and teachers community who keeps complaining about that again and again with no sign of a change from the publisher.Aside this inconvenience, it is a very good and useful book in my humble opinon.