Hi everybody,
I am currently on level 8 and in a few more levels (probably around 15) I would like to start learning grammar as well, so my question is where do you go to learn Japanese grammar?
Half an hour on google amounted to basically text book recommendations en masse and it kind of confused me 
All help is appreciated! 
Check out the The Ultimate Additional Japanese Resources List!
There are a lot of resources there categorised and a lot of comments from people discussing them. It ultimately depends what kind of resource you want. There are basically three categories; apps, videos, and textbooks.
Bunpro.jp is probably the most popular website/app as it lets you learn grammar in an SRS system in much the same way WaniKani does. Thereâs also TaeKimâs Guide, which is a static web based textbook.
In terms of videos, the most popular series are probably Japanese Ammo and Cure Dolly. Really depends on how you get along with the person making the videos and the presentation style.
When it comes to textbooks, Genki is the most well recommended and widely used.
Cool!
I will take a look at the link, nice to know that there is an app for grammar that also applies an SRS system as it works very well with how I like to study.
Thank a lot for the help!
Iâm not irritated by this or anything â donât get me wrong â but thereâve been a ton of threads on the topic of âstarting to study grammarâ lately, at least one a week for the past month. (I log on almost every day, so I have a rough idea.) Granted, a lot of them were asking about âwhenâ people should start studying grammar, and not so much how, but you might want to try searching the forums with keywords like âstart study grammar whenâ and seeing what comes up. Perhaps some of the advice there will be helpful for you as well.
@Joeni recommended that list of resources, which is pretty great. If you asked me to cherry-pick the most popular grammar resources on that list for beginners, they would probably be:
If you asked me to pick one per category, I would recommend Maggie Sensei, Japanese Ammo and Genki. Hereâs a breakdown of why:
Tae Kimâs Guide contains a few errors and some controversial explanations that only he uses. That doesnât mean theyâre all bad, and I think his guide is probably the one thatâs the easiest to follow because itâs structured sequentially like a textbook, but Iâd rather learn things that allow me to move on to other resources if I need to. WasabiJPN offers very good explanations and has a very readable format, but I donât think theyâre as nuanced as Maggie Senseiâs. Maggie Senseiâs are the most detailed with the most examples, all written in simple (if sometimes slightly unnatural) English. However, Iâve heard complaints about her colour scheme and the structure of her articles being hard to follow. Iâll grant that thereâs sometimes a lot of clear organisation, but you need to bear in mind that she usually covers much more than other sites out there per structure, and that it can be hard to categorise all the different usages neatly.
Cure Dollyâs persona is an android who speaks rather slowly â too slowly for me â and some people find her voice grating. All aesthetic matters aside though, while some of her explanations are very intuitive and helpful, she also pushes a lot of controversial ideas, and likes to present herself as the authority on how Japanese should be taught while sensationalising her ideas as ânever before seen/taughtâ. The end result is that a lot of her hardcore fans, who often end up close-minded, attempt to discuss Japanese grammar using terms no one else uses, making them completely incapable of understanding other higher-level grammar resources that use standard explanations. This is not a necessary consequence of watching her videos â her explanation of ăăă, for instance, is much easier to understand than what most dictionaries present â but using nothing but Cure Dollyâs explanations without trying to see how they translate to other explanations is going to leave you trapped, in my opinion. Japanese Ammo with Misa generally has a much livelier conversational format, and contains plenty of personal anecdotes. I think the way Japanese is spoken there also sounds much more natural. Feel free to try them both â no need to throw the baby out with the bathwater â but Iâd recommend Misa over Cure Dolly any day.
Fans often say that she shares many of the ideas of Dr Jay Rubin, who translates Murakamiâs works, concluding that since they are supported by an eminent translator, they are credible. All I can say is that I strongly doubt that his ideas are widely accepted among the Japanese linguistics academic community, or they would probably turn up a lot more in textbooks, be they for natives or for foreign students. For example, I donât care if the ânull subjectâ idea â that one should add a ă-marked word to sentences like this: ăăăăŻïŒăăăăïŒăżăăăźăżăŸă â works as an explanation for what happens when 㯠is used alone with a person and a verb: if Japanese people donât understand their language that way, then weâre introducing pointless nonsense that canât even translate into sentences that will be accepted by natives. Also, as another example, blaming Japanese teaching methods for creating confusion between 㯠and ă just completely disregards the fact that it is a complex subject, and that Japanese people only use them with such ease because they use them all the time and can simply develop an intuitive feel. If it were that easy to explain, Noda Hisashi wouldnât have written an entire freaking 331-page book in 1996 entitled âWa and Gaâ in Japanese!!!
At the end of the day, these are just my preferences, so you should look for samples and choose based on what helps you most. I will not look down on you if, for example, you decide you love Cure Dolly or Tae Kimâs Guide. Just please donât become a close-minded person whoâs unable to handle any other explanations if you choose those routes. Some people on the forums have used them for study and are doing just fine, so again, what matters most is what helps you learn best.
Jonapedia San has already mentioned everything of importance but there is one thing I want to add Japanese Ammo with Misa for a specific grammar part or for a brief course on a particular JLPT level.
Thank you very much!
I really appreciate the detailed explanations you provide, I will do my best to gain a full understanding of the language and not get stuck in singular explanations
Could you elaborate a little? I also mentioned Misa, but I donât really know her channel that well. You mean that she tackles specific grammar points and specific JLPT levels as well?
I know people mention Misa from Japanese Ammo a lot, but I much prefer Real Japanese with Miku. The lessons there are much more concise and entertaining.
I think Misaâs videos are very in depth but watching each lesson takes so much time because theyâre mostly 20 minutes or longer.
I would recommend Japanese From Zero
I actually started with Tae Kimâs guide and did most of it, and in terms of pure grammar points, itâs a good resource, but he (Tae Kim) often misses a ton of nuances which for instance Genki covers, like the various uses of æč in comparisons and giving suggestions. Iâm not sure which of his explanations are controversial specifically, but some were incorrect either through omission or just wrong. Thankfully, Genki managed to straighten those up already .
I havenât seen any pitch accent guides in Genki so far (at chapter 15/23, currently), but either the books come with CDs with dialogues or the tracks can be downloaded from Genkiâs website. My copies didnât have CDs with them, but links were mentioned in the initial sections of book 1. Other than that, I think Genki is a great resource, because apart from grammar it covers useful day-to-day topics, cultural elements, etc.
@Alexander_Staus I think as a general rule itâs good to rely on resources made/written by Japanese people. They arenât always perfect, but at least you get a grasp of how they use their language. And the more different ones, the better so you get a broader perspective.
Finally, itâs never too early to start with grammar. If you have the time, itâs good to do it already .
Oh yeah, Mikuâs channel is good too! I forgot to mention it. I believe sheâs from Osaka, but what she teaches and speaks on her channel is standard Japanese. She also did a little episode comparing Kansai-ben and Tokyo Japanese, which was pretty interesting.
@AndyMender Here you go. I donât know if theyâre still relevant to the current editions though, and I donât know if theyâve been updated since they were uploaded.
Ah, perfect! Thank you so much! Mustâve been part of the âdownloadable contentâ deal in that case. I completely missed them!
There are playlists in her channel and each video covers a different grammar point. Like there is #1 for people who are absolute beginners and have no knowledge of grammar then at around #20 the playlist changes to Upper Beginner and so on. There are also playlists for people preparing for JLPT though they are not that detailed. She only does till N3 which is understandable.
Yeah, she actually provides lots of examples sometimes more than necessary but that does ensure that you remember the points.
Well, itâs good to hear that she organises things in a way thatâs easy to follow. One of my favourite resources, Maggie Senseiâs site, probably doesnât have a recommended order for lessons, even if lessons are organised by JLPT level. That might be a bit disorienting for beginners. I only use it for looking up grammar points though, so that doesnât affect me.
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