A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Sentence Patterns (Kodansha Dictionary) [Paperback]

Naoko Chino (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 4770026080 | ISBN-13: 978-4770026088 | Publication Date: January 15, 2000 | Edition: 1st

A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Sentence Patterns is a fundamental learning tool for all students of the Japanese language, whether they be unblemished beginners or scarred veterans. With both types of struggling student, as well as for all the gradations that fall in between, there is a strong tendency, in the heat of battle, to lose sight of the essential nature of the Japanese sentence. It is for just such people that this dictionary has been created, to help them keep their eyes fixed firmly on the target and not be led astray.

The dictionary contains fifty of the most fundamental Japanese sentence patterns as well as sixty-nine variations. This number covers all the patterns that are needed for levels 3 and 4 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. Each pattern and variation is clearly defined by a formula given in Japanese, romanization, and English. Each is exemplified by sample sentences (both in single sentences and in dialogues), and each is represented in both polite and informal usage.

By means of this approach, the essential nature of the Japanese sentence is clarified, and once that has been done, the many patterns and variations fall easily into place. The simple, undisguised truth is that there are only three types of sentence in Japanese, and all of the convolutions and complications that distract and bemuse the student are nothing more than modifications of these three fundamental types. The study of the Japanese sentence need not be as difficult as it is seems.

A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Sentence Patterns may be used as a reference book to look up individual patterns for the purpose of learning, confirming, or reapproaching them, or it may be used as a textbook to be read from beginning to end, providing an overview of the Japanese sentence while buttressing the student's grasp of individual patterns.

Naoko Chino, the author of the best-selling All about Particles and Japanese Verbs at a Glance, has again presented one of the more forbidding aspects of the language in a way that is both approachable and eminently comprehensible.

Main Features
- Fifty of the Most Common Basic Patterns
- Sixty-nine Variations of the Basic Patterns
- Formulas Delineating Basic Pattern Structure
- Definitions of Terms Used in the Formulas
- Polite Example Sentences and Dialogues
- Informal Example Sentences and Dialogues
- Commentary on Individual Usages
- All the Basic Patterns Needed for Levels 3 & 4 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

NAOKO CHINO is a lecturer at Sophia University, Tokyo, and the author of All About Particles and Japanese Verbs at a Glance.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Preface [slightly abridged; X's represent Japanese script, and asterisks on either side of a word show it is underlined in the original]

The purpose of this dictionary is to help students gain a better grasp of the basic sentence patterns of the Japanese language, either by refreshing their knowledge of what has been learned in the past or by acquainting themselves with new patterns. The dictionary contains fifty basic patterns and explains and exemplifies them through example sentences. When there are variations on these basic patterns, they are also explained and exemplified. The book can be used purely for reference or it can be read profitably from beginning to end as a textbook. The latter method has the benefit of fixing the patterns in the student's mind by means of repetition.

There are three basic types of Japanese sentences that form the basis for the entire language; all the other sentence patterns and variations contained in this dictionary are based on one or another of these three. Once the student has become completely familiar with these patterns, the other patterns and variations based upon them should not be difficult to pick up. These three basic sentence patterns are as follows:

---The Three Basic Sentence Patterns

Noun Sentence

Adjective Sentence

Verb Sentence

In a noun sentence, it is the noun at the end of the sentence, followed by desu in polite usage, that provides information about the subject. In the following example, book tells you what this is; that is, book is acting as the predicate, providing information about the subject.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Kore wa *hon* desu.

This is a *book*.

In an adjective sentence, the part of the sentence providing information about the subject ("he") is an adjective (followed by desu in polite usage).

XXXXXXXXXXX

Kare wa *wakai* desu.

He is *young*.

In a verb sentence, the part of speech providing information about the subject ("she") is a verb.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Kanojo wa *tabemasu*.

She *eats*. / She will *eat*.

Noun and adjective sentences are dealt with in Part 1; verb sentences in Part 2. All patterns are exemplified in polite and informal usage, sometimes in language that is characteristic of either male or female speech. Using the sentences above, polite and formal usage might be exemplified as follows:

---Noun Sentence

- Polite

XXXXXXXXXXX

Kore wa hon desu.

- Informal

XXXXXXXXXXX

Kore wa hon (da).

In the case of informal adjective sentences, na-adjectives (see Basic Pattern 2) are optionally followed by da but i-adjectives, as in the following example, are not.

---Adjective Sentence

- Polite

XXXXXXXXXXX

Kare wa wakai desu.

- Informal

XXXXXXXXXXX

Kare wa wakai.

In a verb sentence, polite usage calls for the masu form of the verb, while informal usage calls for the plain form. (See the Verb Conjugation Chart at the back of the book for examples of both.)

---Verb Sentence

- Polite

XXXXXXXXXXX

Kanojo wa tabemasu.

- Informal

XXXXXXXXXXX

Kanojo wa taberu.

Informal usage is usually not given in books like the present one. By providing it as a point of reference, even though commentary is limited owing to space considerations, we hope that students who come in contact with it in daily life or in their reading will find its inclusion here of some help.

Another feature of this dictionary is the use of a "formula" to provide information on the structure of the basic pattern under consideration. For example, the formula of the sentence XXXXXXXXXXX (Kare wa Nihon-jin desu) would be appear as follows:

- Formula

*N1* wa *N2* desu.

N1 = a noun acting as a subject

N2 = a noun providing information about the subject

Students who have some familiarity with the basics of Japanese can refer to these formulas to reinforce their understanding or check areas they are unsure of. By inserting their own words in the underlined slots indicating parts of speech, students can expand their range of expression. For example, by placing watashi ("I") in the N1 slot and various other nouns concerning oneself in the N2 slot (e.g., name, nationality, occupation), students can easily create sentences that could serve as a self-introduction.

XXXXXXXXXXX

*Watashi* wa *Tanaka* desu.

I'm Mr. Tanaka.

XXXXXXXXXXX

*Watashi* wa *Amerika-jin* desu.

I'm an American.

XXXXXXXXXXX

*Watashi* wa *ginko-in* desu.

I'm a bank employee.

Students who are just starting out in their study of Japanese might try the following: find in this dictionary the basic sentence you are studying in your school textbook, read the explanation, and then substitute words for the underlined elements so that you create a sentence that expresses what you wish to say. By using even one basic pattern, you can create a variety of sentences.

The conjugation of verbs has not been discussed in this book because that topic would take up entirely too much space. However, I have covered verbs in my Japanese Verbs at a Glance. Please refer to that book if you need help with conjugation. This dictionary does contain, however, charts at the end to be used as quick-reference guides to verb conjugation and adjective inflection. Students who need help with particles might refer to my All about Particles.

While the basic patterns in this book are not comprehensive in their coverage, they do represent many of the most common patterns. In fact, all of the patterns needed for passing levels 3 and 4 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test are included. Moreover, many of the basic patterns have variations that also receive individual treatment in this dictionary. Among the patterns not included, such as past tense variations, some have been intentionally excluded because they can be easily surmised from the given patterns.

Finally, the student should check the section entitled "Abbreviations and Definitions" before proceeding to the main text....

Product Details

• Paperback: 324 pages
• Publisher: Kodansha USA; 1st edition (January 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 4770026080
• ISBN-13: 978-4770026088
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #420,730 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

62 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent supplement, August 9, 2002

By 

Richard A. Weaver (lawrenceville, GA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Sentence Patterns (Kodansha Dictionary) (Paperback)

I'd highly recommend this book to beginning / intermediate students of Japanese. Although it's not suitable as a stand-alone introduction to Japanese, it's an excellent supplement to whatever text or course you're using (I'm using Jorden's Japanese - The Spoken Language).

It recognizes that there are only 3 basic sentence types in Japanese (Nominal, Adjectival, and Verbal), and even the most complex sentences are just an elaboration of one or another of these sentence types. The author presents 50 sentence patterns, with over 60 variations. Each pattern and variation is explained (in English!), and for each pattern, there are a number of sample sentences in Japanese script, romanization (Hepburn), and an English translation. Included in these representative sentences are many short dialogues, as well. The majority use the distal-style, but there are a good number illustrating the plain / direct style as well.

By internalizing these basic patterns, I think the learner will develop a sound basis for continued progress in Japanese. I'm glad I bought it.

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A solid reference book for beginning/intermediate students, September 5, 2004

By 

Zack Davisson "japanreviewed" (Seattle, WA, USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Sentence Patterns (Kodansha Dictionary) (Paperback)

This book is exactly what it says it is, "A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Sentence Patterns." Like all dictionaries, it is a reference book designed to supplement other methods of language learning, rather than being a text book on its own. After all, you don't learn English by reading the Dictionary!

As a reference book, it is excellent. It breaks down the Japanese language into 3 basic sentence patterns (Nominal, Adjectival, and Verbal), then shows possible variations. As it is a grammar reference, the book assumes that one is fluent in grammatical English as well, and that the readers know a participle from a predicate. Along with the basic patterns, the book demonstrates how formality/informality and men's/women's languages can influence the shape of a Japanese sentence. There are many example dialogs, showing the same conversation from a few viewpoints.

As with all decent Japanese texts, it uses Japanese kana, in this case complete kanji, when writing Japanese, then provides a romaji translation. I don't think that this is a good reference for learning new vocabulary, but a few words might be picked up here and there.

All in all, "A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Sentence Patterns" provides a good resource for what can be a confusing element of the Japanese language. Sometimes having something explained in a different manner can help it to click, and even when deciphering longer sentences, it is good to know that they will fit the variation of one of the three patterns.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book on topic, December 21, 2003

By 

magellan (Santa Clara, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Sentence Patterns (Kodansha Dictionary) (Paperback)

In addition to its extensive lexicon of so-called particles, word order is another thing that differs in Japanese from English, and this book will help you master this important aspect of Japanese grammar. Supposedly, English has only 20 basic sentence patterns because of its fairly regular word order, and according to the author, there are only really 3 in Japanese--Noun, Verb, and Adjective sentences. This book covers 50 basic patterns and 69 variations. The variations are set off by little text boxes throughout the book in which the pattern is illustrated, and then it is discussed in more detail in the text. Polite and informal patterns are shown along with discussions of various issues. The similarities and differences from other patterns are discussed.

The intro says the book contains all the patterns needed for the Levels 3 and 4 Japanese Language Proficiency Test. In addition, there is a brief section where terms are defined, and also there is an appendix convering conjugation patterns of 103 verbs. There is a similar chart showing inflections for dozens of adjectives and also "na" adjectives. Adjectives are another major area where Japanese differs from English, and adjectives are conjugated to agree with verbs, rather than declined to agree with nouns as in most Indo-European languages.

Here are some examples of what some of the patterns look like, ranging from easy to complex:

1) Noun sentences with N2 mo as predicate

2) Negative verbs of existence with mo after the subject

3) Adjective sentence with topic wa and subject ga

4) The subjunctive with V-tara, as in: (Moshi) N1 ga V1-tara (N2 wa) N3 desu/V2-masu

5) Indicating habitual action with V koto ga/mo arimasu

6) Indirect passive: N ni [intrasitive] / V [passive] - masu

The book is over 300 pages and so should contain considerable material for even the intermediate and advanced student of Japanese. Overall, this is an excellent grammar on Japanese syntax that should help you with this important aspect of the language.