A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar

(I am still learning beginning Japanese--I know enough to be dangerous, but am not even at JLPT5 yet, I suspect--so take this review with a grain of salt.) Calling this book a dictionary is very appropriate, because that's exactly what it is. Having it at your side to look up grammar points (either what something means or how to say something) is invaluable. The explanations are clear and easy to understand, and the example sentences with translations help to solidify and further clarify the meanings of the grammar points and how to use them. There are many times when the explanations in my primary learning sources were confusing or ambiguous, and looking up those grammar points in this book has so far always cleared things up for me. This book won't guide you through learning Japanese, but it doesn't claim to. It does exactly what it says on the cover, and does an outstanding job of it. I absolutely recommend it as a reference to have on hand while learning Japanese. As I advance in my Japanese, I definitely plan to buy the next books in the series as well.

This book is an absolute life-changer. I have been studying Japanese for two years and learned from the Nakama series. This book explains a lot of questions we often asked in class with little to no explanation. This is by far the best supplemental material I've found that explains everything in a brief, but clear, manner. It also explains how similar grammar points are related and has different examples and explains how each example might be slightly different. I suggested it to several class mates and they immediately were raving on how this book explained things so easily and thoroughly.

I've been studying Japanese for 3 years now (I'm somewhere around JLPT N3 level), and thought I wouldn't get much out of this book that I already knew. I initially bought it as a reference, but then wound up just reading it straight through. I'm about halfway through it now. It's true that a lot of what I'm reading is review, but it has really been filling in a lot of gaps, clarifying things I've only learned through context, and is also covering grammar I'm not familiar with. "Basic" is not necessarily "Beginner." I never expected a grammar book to be so engaging, but I learn something every time I open it. Unless you're a native Japanese speaker, I can't think of any situation where buying this book would be regretted.

The Dictionary of Japanese Grammar series is simply the best grammar series I've ever come across in any language. The authors do an excellent job of combining complicated linguistic explanations replete with examples of both correct and incorrect sentences. Everything is easy to handle, even for beginners. Japanese grammar does not seem as foreboding and complicated with this excellent book at hand. The only real criticism I have is that some of the English language explanations aren't as clear as they could be. However, this book more than makes up for those occasional dictionaries through its extensive use of examples. Fortunately, the vocabulary used in this book is quite simple and easy to understand. That point alone sets this book apart from most textbook explanations of grammar, in which the authors usually feel the need to use whatever vocabulary was most recently introduced. Here the vocabulary words are simple and at an easy beginner level, allowing the student to focus on the grammar and not on the vocabulary. Seriously - this is the best you'll find in any language. I wish that this series existed for other languages. The key to effective grammar teaching is repetition and extensive full-sentence examples. Others should take note.

This book is a great reference for Japanese grammar. You can use it when you're reading a Japanese text to look up grammatical patterns you're not familiar with, and you can also read it straight through to learn a lot of Japanese grammar. I think it would also be a good supplement to a textbook that isn't really organized around grammatical features, and may not have a good index to look up grammar points. Each entry includes a brief description of the grammatical feature being described, plus example sentences, formation rules, and more detailed notes. The notes often include comparisons to other related expressions, highlighting the similarities and distinctions between them. In addition to the main entries, the book also has some useful introductory material on Japanese grammar at the beginning, and several useful appendixes at the end. I think this is a must-have book for students of Japanese. And as you progress in your studies, you can also move on to its Intermediate and Advanced companion volumes.

This is purely for the "Basic" Japanese grammar dictionary, I'm hoping the Intermediate leaves the romaji behind entirely. This is not a textbook, most of the bad reviews were people looking for textbooks and being confused. This is the book to get when you find your textbooks unhelpful about a grammar point. For example, the Genki and Minna No Nihongo series both do a really good job of explaining the simplest grammar forms. But they don't do a good job of preparing people for the JLPT tests (except N5). So if you're independently studying and trying to follow the JLPT levels as a development goal, and you are trying to follow any kind of linear study path for grammar, you'll find a dearth of books - text or work - out there to help you. That's where this book comes in, to help with plenty of examples and excellent deconstruction of each grammatical usage. This, combined with a single grammar workbook, will get me through the grammar for the next levels with adequate examples and explanations in English (something the textbook I'm using pretends to have but doesn't). Once I have the grammar down, I'll then move to the vocabulary and reading workbooks that otherwise are non-linear and best used for review. If you don't need a linear path for grammar study independent of the classic textbooks (Minna No Nihongo and Genki), you might not actually need this book. But otherwise... it's fairly necessary. Only nit to pick is the romaji, which is honestly a huge nit to pick. Anybody who has studied Japanese with actual intent for longer than two weeks needs to ditch the romaji and you don't need even the basic grammar book in your first two weeks. Hiragana could have been used instead. Furigana could have been used instead. Seriously, romaji is usually a disqualifier for me in any text as it implies that one can possibly learn Japanese using it - you can't. It's not necessary and is usually harmful. It has no place in a serious JSL text, this included. I hope in later editions they learn their lesson. It also means you can organize the text not according to the English alphabet, which makes no sense, but according to the leading hiragana, which makes way more sense especially since grammar forms are usually in hiragana anyway. TL/DR: This isn't a textbook, don't use it like one. If you need more/different grammar than your texts, get this, it's fantastic for that. Romaji is obnoxiously pervasive in the Basic book.

I bought the 3 books of this series at the same time to have them as a reference, so I didn't read them from the beginning to the end. I have however checked multiples entries and the grammar is clearly and methodically explained every single time. Each time I use it I feel satisfied with the responses I find to my queries, learn something new, and am happy I bought these books.

This book is extraordinary! Words cannot describe the depth in which this book goes. If you’re looking for a deeper understanding of the nuances of the Japanese language get this book as well as the other two (intermediate and advanced)