A Guide to Japanese Grammar

by Tae Kim

The best website for learning Japanese grammar is now in print! My website (www.guidetojapanese.org) has been helping people learn Japanese as it's really spoken in Japan for many years. If you find yourself frustrated that you can't understand Japanese movies or books despite having taken Japanese classes, then this book is for you. It will help you finally understand those pesky particles and break down grammatical concepts that will allow you to comprehend anything from simple to very complex sentences. You will also learn Japanese that's spoken by real people including casual speech patterns and slang, stuff that's often left out in most textbooks. Don't take my word for it, just check out my website and order this book to have it handy wherever you go.

Genres: Japanese Literature, Language, Nonfiction, Reference, Japan, Textbooks, Linguistics

462 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[yacoob · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can categorise this book in roughly three parts:

1/ Hey, I know this stuff! The way it's presented is interesting and new, so it's still useful.
2/ Ha, I'm learning about this right now! Oooh, good points there, useful stuff...
3/ Wow, I've heard this phrase/grammar before - interesting explanation, even if it's flying over my head for most of the time :D

In short: really really useful. Material is presented in logical order, and it's one of few books that actually talks about verb conjugation in right order. Another selling point for me was the fact that Tae Kim explains popular phrases (like いっらしゃいませ) by dismantling them down and showing exactly what's being said in each of the cases, and what kind of grammar rules are used.

It's probably not that good as a standalone manual - it's very dense with information. It's really good for an overview and comprehensive discussion of Japanese grammar.

Highly recommended for people thinking seriously about their Japanese learning.

[J.S. Laari · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extraordinarily well written introductory grammar book for non-linguists, i'd recommend this to anyone interested in the language. The grammar goes from the very beginnings of level N5 to as far as dipping your fingers under the surface of level N1, very useful to have, least as a reference book!

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has been a great addition to my studies. Whether you're self-taught or taking classes, I'd recommend picking up this book for assistance with grammar.

[Ethan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will definitely need to read it again but it's incredibly thorough and well organized. If you like the "why" in addition to the "how" a language works, this is a great one to read.

[asmaa☁️]

too confusing ?

[Daniel Evensen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks in large part to the internet, Tae Kim's approach to Japanese grammar is arguably the best known English work on Japanese grammar. There are good reasons for the fame of this work. Eschewing the standard Eurocentric approach to grammar, with its focus on teaching conversational language as quickly as possible regardless of the difficulty of the underlying grammatical concepts, Kim takes a more organic approach to the language.

Kim's grammar guide is logically constructed, building from simple concepts to more complicated ones in a very natural pattern. Of course, this means that the learner won't get to certain self-introductory phrases for dozens of lessons. Sentences such as 私は、アリスと言います。 are introduced much later here than in most conventional textbooks, precisely so that the learner will not be overwhelmed by having to memorize a set phrase before she is ready to learn the underlying grammar (in this case, embedded quotations). The strategy works extremely well. One wonders how long it will be before the larger language textbook companies catch on.

So why not give this book five stars? Two fatal flaws prevent me from rating this book higher.

First, this book simply does not contain enough example sentences. Two to three example sentences for each grammatical pattern is nowhere near comprehensive enough for a new learner. The paucity of examples requires learners at any level to consult other works to get a better overall picture of how certain grammatical patterns work. In that sense, this book seems to be a better reference than an actual grammatical instruction book - but it pales in comparison with the Dictionary of Japanese Grammar series.

Second, the book really needs editing by a native speaker of English. Foreign language learning is a difficult task, and is best accomplished by one who is able to use language in a concise, precise manner. Many of the sample sentence English translations are difficult to understand. Kim explains that the poor syntax of the example sentence English is intended to help the reader think in terms of Japanese rather than English; however, my experience is that it only distracts my attention away from the Japanese.

Kim also can't make up his mind on whether he should use linguistic terms or not: the reader encounters technical terms such as "volitional tense," "resultant state-of-being" and "potential form" alongside extremely casual explanations such as "describes something that applies to the whole thing." I realize that this is intended to be a free web guide and not a professional book; however, I maintain that this work could be improved with some simple editing and some professional linguistic oversight.

Overall, it's worth using, but it's also just another hammer in the tool shed.

[Saya · Rating 3 out of 5]

He usado la app versión 3.0 disponible en la App Store. Por dar algo de contexto, mi relación con el idioma japonés ha sido bastante intermitente; me saqué el antiguo N4 en 2001 y el nuevo N4 en 2014. Por eso me pareció interesante esta guía, que se suele recomendar muchísimo. Ojo, no la he usado para estudiar. Digamos que simplemente me la he leído, intentando enteder aquellos puntos que fuesen nuevos para mí. No he pretendido memorizar ni aprender nada, sino simplemente conocer mejor esta guía y sopesar si vale la pena para "tomársela más en serio". ¿La respuesta? Pues no lo tengo muy claro.

Quiero decir, la idea no está mal: en vez de empezar soltando ya frases de presentación, el autor prefiere empezar explicando las reglas más simples y básicas para pasar luego a las frases subordinadas, por ejemplo, y así ir subiendo el nivel de dificultad. Esto es interesante porque permite desmenuzar mejor el idioma, de manera que según que expresiones muy comunes (del estilo "me llamo tal") se puedan entender por completo. Por eso mismo me he topado con explicaciones más que útiles para mí pero que no me habían enseñado nunca (por ejemplo, でしょう y だろう son lo mismo) en medio de otras gramáticas que conozco bien. Pero por otro lado he echado en falta más ejemplos (dos o tres por gramática me han resultado escasos para según que casos), y en la parte más avanzada (interesante para la gente que quiera sacarse el N1) las explicaciones son demasiado básicas y la lectura de los kanji desaparece (puedo entenderlo porque como digo va dirigido al N1, pero aun así, siendo una guía al alzance de cualquiera, no estaría de más facilitar un poquito el trabajo a aquellos que queramos "chafardear" ese nivel). También hay ciertos enlaces a páginas web que no funcionan (¿no se ha comprobado si siguen activos?), además de que en algunas gramáticas más complejas la explicación se queda en parte en un simple "no sé si A está relacionado con B, pero tú tampoco necesitas saberlo" o un "búscalo tú mismo en Google". Y, bueno, por último debo mencionar que algunas frases de ejemplo han envejecido mal y deberían revisarse, básicamente en lo referente a la figura de la mujer.

A ver, que no se me malinterprete. Sinceramente, creo que esta obra, siendo gratuita, es una muy buena guía rápida de referencia a la que recurrir para recordar el significado de las gramáticas más comunes, por lo resumida y bien estructurada que está, pero se queda corta como obra completa. Es necesario ampliarla con otras obras muy conocidas e imprescindibles, como los tres tomos de A Dictionary of Japanese Grammar (Basic, Intermediate y Advanced). Por lo tanto, la app de momento se quedará en mi móvil, ya que me resultará útil para recordar ciertos casos con los que siempre tengo dudas, pero definitivamente si me apetece volver a estudiar elegiré otras obras.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

The root of [the] problem lies in the fact that these textbooks try to teach you Japanese with English. They want to teach you on the first page how to say, “Hi, my name is Smith,” but they don’t tell you about all the arbitrary decisions that were made behind your back. [...] In fact, the most common way to say something like “My name is Smith” in Japanese is to say “Smith”.

[...] this guide does not seek to forcibly create artificial ties between English and Japanese by presenting the material in a way that makes sense in English. Instead, examples with translations will show how ideas are expressed in Japanese resulting in simpler explanations that are easier to understand.

*Side note: if you use the online textbook, he provides a couple practice exercises with answers, as well as with a few video explanations to go along with the text.

Reading through this book, it's quite clear to see why it's so popular. The quality is great and the break down of the rules is so helpful. Especially after going through Genki again recently, I think this really helps push in the rules and works for a great reminder. On it's own, as a first read through, it might be a bit more difficult, and I think that's mostly due to when comparing it to Genki, it does lack a lot of exercises, practice problems, break downs of kanji, etc. A revised edition, expanding even more on these aspects would be great to see. So it's not 100% perfect, but no singular source is. Using this book alongside of Genki, or another great resource, would be fantastic.

「その」 is an abbreviation of 「それ+の」

So many years into my Japanese learning, and I NEVER KNEW THIS MY MIND IS BLOWN. This is seriously why I love Tae Kim's book. He explains WHY things are the way they are, which gives things more context to aid in your understanding. All other textbooks/guides I've seen just say "this is this because that's the way it is." There is a reason and a history as to how and why languages evolved into what they are now, and knowing that makes a huge difference! I wish more places taught like this (in all subjects).

For those curious, this book covers N5, seemingly all N4, and a handful of other scattered JLPT grammar. Almost no vocabulary though. As the title would imply, this book's focus is 100% grammar.

All in all, this book covers a lot in a very logical way. I love to see the sentences build up in complexity as you progress. He mixes in various grammar points so you can see how they interact. The explanations are clear and easy to understand, just like I said, more examples or exercises I think would drill things in a lot more strongly.

Very much recommended to any Japanese learner! :)

[gkinyon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best foreign language grammar book ever. Period.

Tae Kim's book on Japanese grammar is unequaled in foreign language learning for one reason: It teaches the foreign language from the perspective of the foreign language. Sounds intuitive, but it's incredibly rare.

Too many textbooks try to teach a foreign language while still holding on to the foundations of the student's first language. They try to teach you Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, etc. through the eyes of an English speaker. With Class 1 languages like Spanish, French, Dutch, etc., these anglicized language guides can get away with this. With Class 3 languages like Chinese, or even worse, Class 4 languages like Japanese, the approach falls apart.

The most important part of learning a foreign language is to completely forget your first language. Don't bring or borrow anything. Especially with Japanese, it is fundamental to spurn your English thoughts and adopt the Japanese style of thinking. Kim's book is the only textbook I have ever found that employs this approach. It is a straight-forward, no-English-bs approach. The best approach.

Kim writes this book for intermediate-to-advanced Japanese learners sick of bs textbooks. He uses kanji with furigana, but I do recommend coming into this book with at least 100-200 memorized, or else it will likely be a struggle.

Five stars all the way.

[Paste · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely helpful for learning Japanese grammar, in my experience. I used the website primarily. The sentences are very useful when combined with Anki.

[La_dama_de_Ise · Rating 4 out of 5]

THE GOOD: does what it advertises

THE BAD: lacks exercises and does not point to where to find to them

ANYTHING ELSE: apparently Imabi is better, specially after already going through Tae Kim's

[Nicolas · Rating 3 out of 5]

When providing ressources to learn grammar one could strive to accomplish 3 goals:

1. Explain new grammar points
2. Provide resources for practicing & remembering these points
3. Make it easy to look up grammar points later if they need to be reviewed

Tae Kims Guide to Grammar has its main strength in the first goal. The way he explains the grammar points is easy to understand and his concept not to try to think them from an english point of view really works in my opinion.

However in the other two goals he is far behind other ressources. Apart from a few example sentences there is no real material to practice what you have read (though this can be mitigated to some extend using additional ressources such as this anki deck), giving it a high chance, that you will need to look it up again once you encounter it.
Unfortunatelly in this area the book is even worse. The benefit of ordering the grammar to make it easier to understand becomes a problem when you try to find it later again. What is really wierd is, that even the website doesn't contain a search function - though you can use google instead obviously.

This is a problem, as while the 2. & 3. goal are worth pursuing on their own the first one is not in my opinion.

So while I can recommend this book (or the website) as a first read to get a birds eye view of the grammar I personally found it hard to remember most grammar without practicing and found other ressources way better for looking up grammar again.

[Nickvisel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book that covers the essential grammatical concepts of Japanese.

The thing with the book is, the focus is grammar and not vocabulary, and therefore the vocabulary used is pretty minimal. However, the upside is you'll get plenty of practice with certain words, which will help strengthen your use of those words in conversation. Can't really complain here.

Tae Kim also writes with a slightly sarcastic wit, which brings the level of the book down to the average adult reader trying to learn a new language. It's less academic and more conversational. And because of that, I find it rather inviting and helpful.

One fair critique of the book is that from a technical standpoint, not all grammar is explained correctly. However, the book isn't really about the technical details, and instead just about how the grammar works. Tae Kim takes Japanese as he perceives it and shares his thoughts and to be honest it's pretty good. Do I prefer some explanations by others more? Particularly on the concept of the null subject (or "zero-ga pronoun") in Japanese, yes (for instance, Cure Dolly on YouTube is really helpful on this). But is it really a problem? Not at all. There's so much here that it probably could be a one-stop-shop for getting some pretty advanced grammar under your belt regardless. The end result of how you speak Japanese is probably going to be the same too.

Anyway, great resource, pick it up, look up the thing you want to learn about. Read it a few times over. Park the book on your shelf. Come back to it the next time you have a question. It'll be very useful.

[Lewis Kilkolly]

Finally finished Tae Kim's after 2 (maybe 2.5) years off cycling on and off between juggling life, anki streaks and dips in motivation. After every 'on' cycle I could feel my japanese getting better and better so the book obviously helped, I've just finished it after having a big burst of energy for the last 3 weeks, the 'before and after' of that burst are night and day, I feel way more comfortable in my comprehension.

That being said, I don't want to give this a star rating, I don't have anything to compare this resource to, so in this case it makes more sense to use words. Tae Kim's works wonders for me.

Here's a link to a forum post, the thread below it makes what might be good points against Tae Kim's, I'm pretty sure these guys are just assholes or contrarians or something
https://community.wanikani.com/t/a-sm...

[Hiếu Thi · Rating 4 out of 5]

It looks like a short book but it took me a lot of time to finish. I will not recommend this for anyone who just start learning Japanese. It is a good book for review grammar and have a "second opinion" about what certain grammar points are all about.

It would be best to read after you finished Genki II (JLPT N4) or at least after Genki I (N5). I read it while studying Genki II and quite struggle with it.

Don't study this book just read it casually from time to time.

[Wayne Marsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the absolute best Japanese grammar learning resource available. Perfectly accessible to the beginner, it will fill you in at a rapid pace with no filler. Far superior to books like Genki which open by teaching you the kind of phrases you'll need for travel etc., instead of giving you a foundation in grammar that you can generalize.

[Eva · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best resource I have found for Japanese grammar. Everything is laid out very clearly and concisely, with lots of great examples and applications. This is always the first place I point people towards when I am asked about grammar. I think everyone learning Japanese should give this book a try.

[Stephen Simpson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really strong, solid grammar book. The organization is a little unusual if you've read a lot of "traditional" foreign language grammar book, but the organization actually makes a lot of sense as you get used to it.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the better language-learning resources I have ever used. Approachable, clear, and to-the-point, and well-organized overall. I suppose individual mileage may vary depending on how much prior learning one has had, but I certainly wish I had known about this book earlier.

[Kaslin Fields · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! Tae Kim really does a fantastic job of explaining Japanese grammar concepts. The way he introduces all vocab at the beginning of a section and then uses the kanji without furigana also encourages kanji learning. I finished it wanting more!

[Benjamin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rather simple book depicting the connection between elements (as in Mendeleiev's table) are found everywhere in our everyday life. Nicely written but there are more insightful books around that premise, like Vaclav Smil and others.

[Helen Ni · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best book on Japanese Grammar (that doubles as Korean Grammar as well). If you are learning Japanese, please do get this book. It will save you a lot of time.

[Kevin Adu-Sarkodie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hands down the best guide to Japanese Grammar

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nunca lo marqué como leído jajaja Fue súper útil para mis clases. Las complementó muy bien.

[FR Noor · Rating 5 out of 5]

best book you can start off with for learning japanese

[oni · Rating 5 out of 5]

MY KING

[Wilde Luo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great guidance for Japanese grammar, very interesting and enlightening.

[Paula B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finished this on the day 1000 since i started learning Japanese, at 1:43
Great.

[Dan Xia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read for anyone serious about learning Japanese. While not the most page-turning book in the world, it is definitely a very comprehensive grammar, starting with the very basics of Japanese all the way to N1-level grammar concepts. Excellent resource to have. In fact, I'm going to go through it again very soon just to brush up on some of the earlier concepts.

[Siraj · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very detailed and thorough. But in the end it's just a guide, a reference book, more than a teaching book. I find myself more confused than enlightened about new concepts, but at the same time when reading about concepts I thought I had already learned, I find that I understand them in much more depth. I wouldn't recommend using this for people learning for the first time. It's better to have at least an idea about the grammar beforehand in my opinion.