All About Particles: A Handbook of Japanese Function Words

Everything you could want! For someone learning Japanese this book is extremely useful when you forget and helps you remember the basics. It’s exactly what I was expecting and I highly recommend it to anyone serious about learning Japanese!

Before describing the book, a word or two has to be mentioned regarding the publisher, Kodansha International. I don't know if it's because of the policy within Kodansha, or the Japanese culture in general, but you can feel the tidiness, accuracy, and meticulous nature of each author, and the effort expended in order to convey information to the reader the best possible way. When first starting to learn Japanese on my own, I had tried grammar texts and dictionaries from two other publishers. I found out after a couple of months, that they only cause the reader great confusion, lack a lot of important concepts, the print is often ineligible, and the sentences are in Romaji and not in the native alphabet (Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji), which is so necessary in order to learn the language properly. Other Kodansha publications which I found useful for learning Japanese are Kodanshas Essential Kanji Dictionary (Japanese for Busy People) The Kodansha Kanji Learners Dictionary (Japanese for Busy People) Kodansha's Furigana Japanese Dictionary: Japanese-English English-Japanese Japanese Verbs at a Glance (Power Japanese Series) (Kodansha's Children's Classics) The Handbook of Japanese Adjectives and Adverbs (Kodansha's Children's Classics) The material is divided into groups of particles. The most common particles are presented first. The description for each particle is divided into sections. Each section discusses a different meaning and use of the particle. The particle "de" for example, means "a place where an action takes place", "the means by which the action is performed", as well as "the reason of the action". Each section includes a heading, which describes the particular meaning associated with the particle, and then follows with three sentences each in Japanese, Romaji, and English, where this particle is used. Where appropriate, a cross reference is given, regarding the use of different particles for the same situation. For example, "ni" indicates the location of a short term action, whereas "de" indicates the location of a long term action. The particles in each Japanese and English sentence are highlighted in bold, making it easier for the reader to pinpoint it. The index is in English. Sometimes the English translation isn't the way it is spoken in the US, but I don't see it as a major drawback. In short, I recommend it for every English speaking Japanese student learning on his or her own, or even as supplementary material at college. Among grammar items of Japanese, particles are the most critical in comprehension of the written text. A few are connotated highly diverse seemigly uncorrelated meanings, which a mere misunderstanding of the meaning at hand, can make the entire statement completely incomprehensible. These are a handful, the most diverse ones, 3 or at most 5. The rest are quite straight forward, and more or less, attributed one or at most four definitions. Noticing the position of the particle in the sentence, is of no less importance. It can make the difference between a notificatory statement and an interrogative one. The only way to get over, as a novice, who is not born as a native, is to try all possible cases for a particle at hand, until the sentence makes sense. This is requires quite hardship, but gradually one can crack down a new sentence more or less without resort to the particle list. The textbook provides the best possible support, to make the task easy to handle. The index for example, though short, is very correct and right to the point. Cross references, furthermore, provided at almost all particles, are an added benefit, a very indispensible one. Most notably, are ample statements to demonstrate the use of the particle in different instances. A Kana statement-Japanese version, is followed by a Ramaji-Transliteration in English, and an English translation of the sentence itself. At the heading of the case, the particle is consicely, accurately described, including general usages, and similar paticles which are used interchangeably. Many are seldom encountered in general daily read, but confronting particles in specialty fields, almost highly remote fields, are ready at hand.

Very helpful for understanding the nuances of Japanese particles

I am always cautious about grammar books in regards to Japanese, particularly particles, but was pleasantly surprised. This book contains all of the common particles you'll encounter in basic Japanese. There are a lot of particles in Japanese, and this covers the most common ones. It gives multiple examples, as well as examples of their different uses. The book does a good job of explaining how a particle can be used in different ways, whereas many other texts focus on the primary usage. This is great as a supplementary or even primary source of particle study in my opinion. Honestly for me it has helped me greatly as a supplementary that gives me more understandable examples.

This book Is a good supplementary handbook If you're having trouble grasping the particles in Japanese. With that in mind, you should understand It's best used as a reference instead of a primary source of learning. There are several other facets to learning Japanese, for Kanji I would recommend James W. Hesig's "Remembering the Kanji 1-3", they are very informative books that break the Kanji down to their simplest elements and show you how to build new Kanji with those elements or primitives. I would recommend the Youtube channel "Japanese Ammo with Misa" as either a primary source or a good supplementary source alongside a textbook like Genki. Though this handbook goes over a great deal of information, so whatever route you take to learning the language, this seems like a useful tool to guide you to better understanding simple and complex particles and all of their uses in the language.

Every Japanese learner struggles with particles. Organizing particles is one of the most difficult part of the language, and there are few good resources to help you out. "All About Particles: A Handbook of Japanese Function Words" is the single most useful book I have found on the topic. This is a true reference book. Although it can be read straight through (and I recommend this at least once), it is most useful for looking up difficult particles as you discover them. Placing them in context will help the learning process. Read all in one sitting it is a little overwhelming, but good for an overview of all 70 plus particles. One of the advantages of "All About Particles" is that the examples use various forms of politeness. It also demonstrates interchangeable particles, and which expressions are more daily-use. The text itself is very compact, and travels well. I would recommend this book to any Japanese learner looking to bridge the gap from Advanced Beginner to Intermediate.

this book has served me well so far. in my studies of japanese, i often come across particles i'm not familiar with, and this book explains them. (my studies include breaking down japanese song lyrics and reading manga in japanese, the only thing i can read in japanese. three cheers for kanji.) before i purchased this book, i read some of the reviews about it, and i have a comment on one of them. this comment complained that this book doesn't seem to have any order to the particles. had that reviewer read the preface, they would have learned that the particles are put in order of frequency. that reader should also have explored the entirety of this book, including the alphabetical index at the back. inside this great reference book, you'll find 69 particles defined. many particles have multiple uses, which are explained. each explanation i've looked at includes at least two examples. you'll find no exercises, though. if you want exercises for particles, you'll just have to come up with your own sentences, which is what you do when you speak a language anyway.

Just starting, but so far it explains the particles clearly! It is a HANDBOOK as it says in the title. Smaller than usually books. Recommend this books for Japanese particles!!!!!! Will do a longer review once I am done with it!

I’ve just started to learn Japanese with an app that‘s essentially drilling and no grammar. This book is proving to be a very useful companion to the app, with accessible descriptions of these ‘exotic’ grammatical elements that are the Japanese particles.

Adoro esses livros de referência da Kodansha. Fácil de entender, com bons exemplos...

Es muy práctico para entender de mejor manera el funcionamiento de las partículas, los ejemplos son simples y fáciles de comprender. El libro viene en inglés por si alguien pregunta, además tiene los ejemplos en japonés con Kanji, Hiragana, Katakana y Romaji (que este último es muy útil en caso que no recuerdes bien la lectura de los Kanji).

There isn't a thing about this book I don't like. It's set out exactly how I would want it to be; with easy look up directory and good example sentences that aren't painfully dumbed down or too short. If you're an absolute beginner this will probably be slightly daunting however with the translations I have picked up additional vocabulary from this too. The size of the book itself is a bonus it's not miniscule like some travel dictionaries but just the right size for putting in you bag or back pocket.

There is many many explanations in this book for each grammar use of the particles. The only problem is even though they explain it thoroughly, the overall explanations can be very confusing as it uses a lot of language lingo, and even after reading the explanation it still doesn't really help unless you know the explanation type your looking for.