Learning grammar?

Japanese Language
#1

I have to say, WaniKani has been great for learning kanji and vocabulary. But when it comes to speaking Japanese, how do I go about learning sentence structure and grammar?

I’ve heard わ／は(wa/ha) and が(ga) used in sentences like these, from a “How to speak Japanese” 8-CD set I have lying around - but haven’t touched in a while ^_^;

日本ごが少しわかでます (“I know a little Japanese”, a statement that rings true for me)
and
わたしわアメリカ人 (“I am American”)

Has me wondering if there are other kana characters used in sentences and how to make sentences/phrases.

#2

Those are called particles, and they are the backbone of Japanese grammar. ^^

Cure Dolly has a really good playlist called Japanese from Scratch.

She doesn’t necessarily follow any JLPT structure. She covers some fundamentals, and then moves into covering pages from a simple book, so that you are taught the things you’ll encounter when starting to read simple things.

For me, it opened up Japanese a whole lot more than any resource that follows the JLPT structure.

I also used BunPro for a long time to SRS grammar structures that I had learned, and it helped a great deal! BunPro plus Cure Dolly got me to the point of reading native content.

There are a lot of methods and resources out there, and I’m sure others will have some great things for you to try until you find something that fits.

Also, as a side note: the topic particle that is often romanised as “wa” is acutally は. Whenever in its function as a grammatical particle, the pronunciation switches from ha to wa, which is why it is spelled like that by resources that don’t use kanji.

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#3

A quick crash course about the Japanese grammar that I loved is called Human Japanese (it is an app). It is very motivational and has practice exercises. After Human Japanese, I used textbooks (Genki 1 and 2). People like the Tae Kim’s guide (of Japanese grammar) but since it does not have exercises for the majority of items, you will be better using a Grammar dictionary (I started using one when I started Genki 2).

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#4

I recommend you to see tae kim’s guide grammar for some basic points and a SRS for free (so far) for grammar as well: shirimono

I am doing this for 2 months now and I got an idea about language expressions mostly. But I still need a lot more practice to stick to my mind, I keep confusing try to with become to and all those have to and must not do etc

it is all very confusing when you get many grammar particles. ‘Although’ and ‘after’ are a semi nightmare so far lmao

#5

Genki 1 feels like a fairly gentle introduction to Japanese. It also has a ton of exercises. I did Genki 1 and 2 after dabbling a lot in other resources, including the JapanesePod101 courses (also fairly decent as a starting point, because they’re quite slow-paced and fun).

Tae Kim’s guide is good, but kind of assumes one has some basics, because it tends to be technical at times: http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/

If you have questions regarding grammar or vocab, feel free to check these threads:

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#6

oh cool! I will definitely check “Human Japanese” out! I"m using Bunpro and its very impersonal.

#7

I also use Bunpro (now almost everyday) - I think it is an amazing tool to practice the grammar one learn but I don’t think it is a tool tailored for learning grammar. You can finish Human Japanese very fast and it gives you panoramic view of Japanese grammar but then later you will want to cover the topics you saw in HJ with some deeper source.

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#8

It’s は, typed as “ha” but pronounced “wa” for etymological reasons.

わ as a particle has a completely different use and function.

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