A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar

This is a review of the first of three books in the Dictionary of Japanese Grammar series. You can see my review over the full series below.

2,110 Pages, No Word Wasted – A Dictionary of Japanese Grammar, Reviewed

Here, I will be reviewing, A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar.

INDEX

This book is 600 pages and contains around 200 entries of grammatical topics in Japanese. The authors wrote the book for beginners in Japanese. Each entry has an explanation along with several example sentences to fully explain the topic in each entry.

https://japaneseuniverse.com/2024/02/18/pac-man-in-japaneseconcepts-behind-development-to-global-icon/

What do I think about A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar?

I have to admit that I have a bias to wanting to learn about the Japanese language in Japanese. But, after hearing about this book I had to have it. I love how they use the grammatical terms in the beginning of the book to explain things. This allows them to pack in more information. Japanese is a different language from English. Lots of other books try to dumb things down to the point that they leave important information out. That leads to people being left with questions that are unanswered. If I had to summarize this book, they leave no questions unanswered.

Who is this for?

The authors state in the preface that A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar was written for beginners. This means Japanese learners in the first or second year of study.

But I believe this book will help people of all levels. The topics in the book are all common grammar topics you will come across all the time in Japanese. So nothing too exotic. However, the level of explanation goes beyond anything that I have seen elsewhere. This means that intermediate and even advanced learners can still learn something new.

You Must Enjoy Grammar

A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar is very concise. The authors do not shy away from using grammatical terms at all. This is why A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar is so concise. Instead of avoiding terms like other books this grammar dictionary uses the terms everywhere. This makes it easier to explain things and save space for examples. There is a whole section in the beginning though which tells you what all the terms mean so you don’t need to worry.

What’s in A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar?

You can break the book into four sections.

Grammatical Terms
Characteristics of Japanese
Main Entries
Appendixes

I will explain each section below.

Grammatical Terms

This section explains the grammar terms that are used in the book. It is about 15 pages which explain things such as:

Agent
Active Sentences
Embedded Sentences
Direct Object
I-type Adjectives
…etc.

Basically it uses the linguistic terms to explain the concepts in the Japanese language. Each explanation has example sentences also. The examples tell you what the terms refer to in Japanese. So, all the terms are relevant to helping you improve your Japanese language.

Characteristics of Japanese

Next this section is similar to the Grammar Terms section. But, it explains special topics in Japanese that are characteristic of Japanese. That would be, things in Japanese that are unique or new to Japanese learners. Topics hear include:

Topic Particle は
Ellipsis (leaving words out of sentences)
Personal Pronouns (わたし、あなた and so much more)
Passive sentences (ex: The Fish was eaten by the Cat)
Politeness
Sentence final particles (ね、よ)
Sound Symbolism
Viewpoint (too complex to explain here)

This section is about 40 pages. The topics discussed here are things if you understand well will make your Japanese learning journey a bit easier. For example, many learners get confused about the difference between は and が. The main reason I believe is because they don’t fully understand the idea of a topic particle. Also, unlike in English Japanese allows you to leave certain words at certain times out of the sentence. The problem here is that without understanding context in Japanese this leads to issues in conversation. You need to learn how the context dictates what you can and can not leave out. This section takes such topics that allude learners and demystifies them.

Main Entries

This section is the bulk of A Dictionary of Basic Japanese. There are 500 pages here with around 200 entries on various Japanese grammar topics. Each topic follows the same formula. You have first a short definition and English translations along with related words. Then you have some example sentences followed by explanation on the different forms of the word being introduced. After that you get more example sentences and even more in depth explanation about when and how to use the grammar concept or word.

The basics covered in a Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar would be things like the following.

Explanation of particles (で・が・は・を・の）
Verb and adjective forms (～たい・～ない、～て、～てもらう、…)
Some common phrases with grammatical meaning (と言えば、ことができる、…)
Specific words that have unique usage in Japanese (見える、分かる、ある、いる、知る、聞こえる、…)
Conjunctions, and other words that help sentence flow (後で、かもしれない、～ながら、それとも、…)

A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar goes beyond just presenting topics. Each entry presents the concept like a dictionary entry but with much more detail. It has examples sentences and notes on how to actually use the words. The thing I really liked about this book is how information is presented concisely. For example, the verb 知る is often translated as to know. However, this word does not translate exactly as to know in English. The context is important on what the word will mean in the right situation. The entry in the dictionary instead defines 知る as something closer to the original Japanese word. Which would be, get information from some outside source, or, to get to know. Then with a few more notes and example sentences this dictionary makes concepts make more sense.

Appendixes

Finally at the end of the books we have the Appendixes, or Appendices.

Basic Conjugation (書く・書かない・書きたい etc.)
Semantic Classification of Verbs (Stative, Continual verbs…)
Pairs of Intransitive and Transitive Verbs (落とす vs 落ちる)
Connection forms of Important Expressions (書く + ない → 書かない)
Ko-So-A-Do
Numerals and Counters
Improving Reading Skills by identifying an ‘Extended Sentential Unit’

This section basically has charts available for easy reference on the topics above. So, for example if you want to know the basic types of verbs in Japanese the Basic Conjugation section shows you an example verb for every type of verb along with the verb forms. The same goes for intransitive and transitive pairs and semantic classification of verbs. This is a nice section to have as everything is in one place. The information here is not anything that you would not be able to find online but having it accessible to review is convenient.

A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar – Reviewed