Customer Reviews

A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Sentence Patterns (Kodansha Dictionary)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

A basic dictionary is right. This book can be used to help one deconstruct simple sentences, but any complex structures involving one or more patterns just isn't there. You won't be able to learn Japanese from this book, nor construct more realistic, complex sentences.

The book spends too much time with routine analysis of each sentence pattern and not enough really useful, complex examples that use one or more patterns together. Most of the examples for the polite speech are fairly routine and what one would expect in a text book. However the casual sentence patterns that are also provided give a more detailed look at real conversation. But these complex examples are few and far between, and sometimes quite complex to understand.

I also found the reference section of verbs and adjectives at the back lacking in detail. There were many verbs used in the book that just weren't there.

So, in all, I read it. It was okay. I wouldn't buy my own copy if I had borrowed it from someone else.

I was a little disappointed when my copy of "Basic Japanese Sentence Patterns" arrived in the mail. I am a 2nd year student of Japanese and thought the book could help me develope my Japanese proficiency by disecting Japanese sentences. Unfortunately, I found the bood to be a little too basic. The author concentrates on very simple sentence patterns (noun+verb or noun+adverb+verb etc.) This is fine for beginners, but for someone like myself who has more or less mastered these basic patterns and was hoping to use the book to learn how to construct more complex, longer sentences, it isn't much help. The verb congegations in the back are useful though.

Being determined to learn Japanese on my own, I find this book on sentence patterns invaluable. I like the easy lookup, and I use it contantly when trying to hold a conversation with Japanese friends online! If you are learning Japanese, I think this book is an excellent help!

If you buy this book I would also recommend the (VocabuLearn Instant Vocabulary!)with these tapes you can format sentences that Japanese can easly understand.A subtle change in word sounds can change your sentence meaning completly.This book will help you avoid this problem.Overall this is a very good book.

Since a search that brought up this book probably also brought up Japanese Sentence Patterns for Effective Communication: A Self-Study Course and Reference (same publisher) and at first glance one might be tempted to just buy whichever is cheapest at the time. It's worth noting that they are very different books.

A Dictionary... is indexed for a reader that encounters a strange construction. It is formatted in a way to facilitate looking-up strange new sentences. Japanese Sentence Patterns is indexed for someone that wants to say something in Japanese.

Thus, If you want to tell someone in Japanese that one thing would be better to do than another, Japanese Sentence Patterns will tell you how to say it. On the other hand, if you see or hear "Yukkuri tabeta hou ga kenkou ni ii yo." Then A dictionary... is better for figuring out what the person meant.

In all, both books are very much worth getting. Both serve completely different needs, they are definitely not duplicates of the same book. I gave a 3 star because I find the indexing system a bit unwieldy, not for lack of content.

This book helps you pick apart and interpret the Jpanese sentences better! I don't know what I would have done without it! It's really easy to understand and goes into great detail to help you learn1 I highly reccomend!

This book presents something like 50 sentence patterns. This makes things overly complex since (naturally) many of them will be related and just minor variation. To complicate things further, the author also introduces what she calls variations to the basic sentence patterns. This endless variation without a clear structure is annoying. However, you can naturally copy down all the structures and create a diagram of how they are all related by yourself. Paradoxically this will probably improve your learning, but shouldn't the book really do this?

Calling it a dictionary is slightly dishonest. It is a learner's dictionary of very simple sentence patterns. Just so you know what you're getting