Skip to main content

All About Particles

Note: Last Monday was Halloween, and I meant to do a horror film review, but didn't get it done in time, so I might still post that up.

Japanese is an extremely interesting language, as anyone learning it can tell you, but it can also be very frustrating at times, especially when it comes to verbs and particles. Now, when it comes to the former, I'm afraid I don't have any neat tips or tricks (at least not yet), but there's an amazing reference book out there that makes learning particles amazingly easy! I already mentioned it in my post about reading in Japanese, and I keep this book by my side as I read, so when I get stumped, I can just look up the particles in question. So, allow me to introduce, All About Particles.

This is a great book that covers every single particle, , adn every last way to use them. For each particle, a description is given for each of its various usages, followed by several example sentences for each usage. It's very brief, but very clear as the thumbnail below shows.



As I've already said, this is a reference book, so trying to study it or memorize it is both unproductive and headache inducing. As you reference it while doing somethat that is productive, like reading, you will eventually learn them through repitition.

I also wouldn't use the example sentences for sentence mining, as they're boring. I tried this and wound up deleting that Anki deck a month later because the sentences got too redundant.

So, here's how I use it. Firstly, I grab a book. Second, I start reading, looking up the particles that trip me up. Thirdly, the particles slowly become like second nature to me. I also reference it as I write journal entires on Lang-8.

I recommend this book to everyone learning Japanese, regardless of your chosen method for learning. In fact, out of every book I've referenced on this site, this is what I recommend the most. It just makes dealing with those frustrating, confusing particles that much easier, and since it's only around $11, it's not like it takes a huge financial commitment, unlike a $40 textbook.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Dragonball Evolution - Ugh!

I'm sure many of you have probably already seen the trailer, but in case you haven't, here it is: I was inspired to do this by the live-action Avatar movie coming out. Like pretty much every animated show to get the live-action treatment, Dragonball doesn't look so great. Now, I'm going to admit that I'm not the franchise's biggest fan, but after years of being forced to suffer through episode after episode, I can safely say that I'd rather watch any episode of Dragonball, Dragonball Z, or Dragonball GT rather than this movie. First of all, it looks like it's going to utterly kill the story, and there wasn't too much of that to begin with. In fact, this looks like it's going to be a coming-of-age, keep your teenage sons busy for a night kind of movie. As far as Goku goes, well, he probably shouldn't look like a little skinny guy. He's a big, buff fighting dude whose hair turns blonde when he gets all pumped up. I mean, even those Ember

Valentine's Day in Japan!

It's a holiday, and I'm taking a break from an article I've been working on for my other blogs in order to have some fun. It's Valentine's Day, and I thought I'd let everyone know how it works in Japan, because it's not like it is here in America. Firstly, only women give chocolates in Japan. Traditionally speaking, women were supposed to be shy and all around not very good at communicating their feelings, thus Valentine's Day was a perfect way to help them out. Women give out chocolates on Valentine's Day not only to their friends and lover, but also to pretty much any man they know. When the giving of chocolate is obligatory, as is the case when a woman gives chocolates to her boss, coworker, etc., it is called giri-choko (ぎりーちょこ). This means that if you're visiting Japan and a girl you may kind of sort of know gives you some chocolate, don't think it means your advances have worked! She might just feel obligated to do so. The Japanese feel

Review for Rosetta Stone

I told you I wasn’t gone for good! Today I’m going to be mostly bashing Rosetta Stone’s language learning software. This review goes for Rosetta Stone whether you’re learning Japanese or any other language that this software purports to teach. It purports to teach because Rosetta Stone is particularly bad at teaching anything, except how to look at pictures and repeat words. It’s aimed mostly for travelers, but doesn’t really get you conversing, and it’s expensive to boot. Really, there’s only a couple things it does well, but this isn’t enough to make up for all the failing this software does. If anyone from Rosetta Stone actually reads this, please use the criticism to improve your software! You probably already know that Rosetta Stone teaches you language easily, right? I mean, that’s what the advertisements always tell us! What Rosetta Stone tells us and what it actually does are like night and day, but if you really don’t know much about Rosetta Stone, here’s what allegedl