The Handbook of Japanese Adjectives and Adverbs

by Taeko Kamiya

For any beginner of Japanese, adjectives and adverbs are bound to present a challenge. Unlike English adjectives, Japanese ones conjugate, meaning that you must memorize their various forms before being able to build sentences of any complexity. Adverbs do not conjugate, but make use of
particles to show their grammatical relationship to other words, and some have very subtle shades of meaning that are difficult to grasp. Moreover, many do not translate into adverbs in English.

The role these parts of speech play in adding flavor to the Japanese language is invaluable. This handy reference manual introduces the basic (and basics of) adjectives and adverbs in a clear and sensible way, enabling students not only to speak Japanese but to do it with pizzazz.

The book is divided roughly in half, the first half dealing with adjectives, the second with adverbs. Each is prefaced by a short introduction that serves as an overview of the material introduced. The section on adjectives is divided into two Part 1 covers the conjugations of i- and
na-adjectives and some basic auxiliary adjectives, and Part 2 presents common sentence patterns in which adjectives appear.

The adverb section is arranged by topic. Among the types of adverbs explained here are those used to express time, quantity, degree, circumstance, and natural sounds or actions (the ubiquitous onomatopoeic adverbs).

Each entry in this book is given a simple, concise English explanation and two or more example sentences to illustrate its usage. Exercises every few pages enable students to measure their understanding. Finally, a number of quick-reference lists in the appendixes provide a convenient means of
recalling and building vocabulary.

Together with its sister publication, The Handbook of Japanese Verbs , this unique manual is certain to provide years of friendly guidance.

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

326 pages, Paperback

First published November 15, 2002

About the author

Taeko Kamiya is a internationally recognized linguist, teacher and author. She studied at Doshisha Women's College (Kyoto) before receiving Masters degrees from the University of San Francisco in education and from Monterey Institute of International Studies in linguistics. She taught Japanese for twenty-five years at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, and has written several critically acclaimed books about the Japanese Language.

Reviews

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great for helping make your Japanese a little more lively by adding a few well-placed adjectives and adverbs. Just remember these parts of speech are the devil when writing Western fiction ;)