I would actually advise doing the opposite. Get an idea how the particle works and then whenever you see it being used with a grammar pattern, learn it in context with that same grammar concept.
I can’t really help you, I don’t even feel in place to advise, but I hope me saying this soothes your pain a little: I know. I feel you. It’s the most difficult particle. I’ve read a thousand articles on it, written my own notes, yet its presence still manages to wreck my understanding of a sentence.
On the brighter side, I think the basics are the hardest part. Once you’ve got a good grasp on them, you’ll progress more smoothly.
I didn’t advise you to do that. That article is a good one indeed, but I’m not sure where you are in terms of grammatical knowledge. Reading that summary can easily become overwhelming if you don’t know the grammar rules where に is being used in. But I’d definitely agree that it serves as a great complementary tool. Just not your main one.
True, I think it’s all fine and well to learn grammar rules and patterns. But on the other hand, that’s not the only way - and probably not the best one either. I doubt you’re actually using all the grammar points of your native language consciously - you’ve developed a ‘feel’ for the language through constant exposure. That works for foreign languages as well.
… which doesn’t mean that grammar shouldn’t be studied in some form, obviously
That’s… not a bad guide, but it does have some issues. For example:
How’s this for a clear definition: を marks the direct object (the thing that has the verb done to it) while に marks the indirect object (the thing that benefits from the verb being done).
Also it’s missing the following functions of に:
Marks purpose of motion (e.g. 買いに行く go (for the purpose of) shopping)
Marks agent of passive or causative verbs (which is to say, the doer of the action)
Marks the surface on which action directly takes place (e.g. 紙に書く write on paper)
I know but a lot of people say get exposure/read sentence and try to understand them by yourself which is a valid point and I do that already as much as I can, I have read a lot of stuff so far and can confirm that each time I see this particle and don’t understand the usage, I try to make sense of it, see how it’s used and I just cannot understand.
I’m at a point where I need to see the grammatical rules like using it in this condition or something that explain to me why it’s used like that because I am not making any progress with this particle.
I know some grammar, enough to understand a lot of text and article in Japanese my biggest issue right now is Kanji and vocabulary which I don’t know enough.
But that’s not the best advice in my opinion and it certainly isn’t what I recommended you to do So I don’t understand the connection here.
The trick with particles is seeing them being used with grammar structures. When I mean by this is study the grammar points and then focus on the function of に in those exact structures. Go from broad to specific, not from specific to broad. In a more extreme example, you could force yourself to try and understand が vs は, but that would lead you nowhere. The trick is knowing how they change the nuance in the grammar structures.
Sorry I misunderstood your first reply I just read it again and my bad, I totally misread
As for your tip on how I should study it, my issues are I lack methods or knowledge on how I should proceed on my own so I do my best but I’m clearly not doing this right
How could I focus on one grammar point when everything I found is 2-3 examples here and there.
I need to find materials where I can practice with this particle.
If I read articles/text in Japanese they don’t necerraly have only sentences with に.
I feel so lost lol.
I find this grammar guide helpful for a lot of difficult Japanese language concepts. Scroll down to the Particle section for に to get a breakdown of its various uses. I would also recommend doing a word search for all the instances of に in this document, which should give you many more examples. This is definitely one of the trickier particles to grasp, since it has both direct and abstract uses.
The problem with this article is that it explains all the easy cases and for the hard case (object of verbs) is says:
“に, を and と can express object of verb. The difference between に and を cannot be defined clearly.”
Edit:
The information in DBJG is pretty comprehensive. But i think the problem you are having (that we all are having) is that knowing the 12 different uses for に doesn’t help us when we come across a specific usage.
What i think was being recommended above is that you need to learn how に works in relation to specific verbs, not just specific “grammar patterns”. I don’t know of a shortcut to figuring that out.
If you want more info, look up the wiki article on verb valence, that can give you a starting point to think about this stuff.