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Japanese Grammar (Barron's Grammar) Vinyl Bound – December 9, 2001

by Carol Akiyama (Author),
Nobuo Akiyama (Author)
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Nobuo Akiyama (Author)
ISBN-13: 978-0764120619 ISBN-10: 0764120611 Edition: 2nd
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Product Details

  • Series: Barron's Grammar
  • Vinyl Bound: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Barron's Educational Series; 2 edition (December 9, 2001)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0764120611
  • ISBN-13: 978-0764120619
  • Product Dimensions: 6 x 4.1 x 0.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (61 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #910,954 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

A methodical presentation of the elements of Japanese grammar, and usage make this book ideal for both those beginning their language study and those reviewing the Japanese they?ve already learned. Pronunciation, word order, sentence structure, and parts of speech are reviewed; idiomatic phrases, numbers, days, months, lists of synonyms and antonyms, and verb charts are included.

Customer Reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
5 star
33
4 star
16
3 star
6
2 star
3
1 star
3
See all 61 customer reviews
Its small size makes it easy to tote around in a coat pocket.
Jeff
This book would be an absolutely fantastic grammar except for one major problem- all of the Japanese text is written in Romaji (i.e. the Latin alphabet).
DrCruse
My Japanese friend doesn't really want to teach Japanese, so... XP ) I highly recommend this book, if you really want to learn Japanese.
D. D. Cannon

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

68 of 74 people found the following review helpful
Nice little Japanese grammar, and the price is right
By Magellan HALL OF FAMETOP 1000 REVIEWER on December 9, 2003
Format: Vinyl Bound
Considering this book is over 240 pages long despite it's small size, and does a very nice job with the grammar, and is only 7 bucks to boot, it's a pretty good deal. It's small size makes it very portable and it would practically fit in your pocket.
The author includes separate chapters on all the parts of speech, nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and so on, and most of the book is taken up by those aspects of the grammar.
At the back of the book there is a Special Topics section. These include chapters or sections on Numbers, Telling Time, Classifiers, Days, Months, Seasons, and the Weather, Family Relationships, Useful Phrases, Borrowed Words (mainly from Chinese), Synonyms, Antonyms, Short and Long Vowels, Double Consonants, Same Pronunciation but Different Meaning (for 25 words), Different Pitch, Different Meaning (for 16 words), and a 250-word vocabulary list at the very back.
The beginning of the book has chapters on pronunciation and phonetics, word order, and the Japanese writing system. The font is color-coded for certain things, which some people may find easier on the eye. I sort of wish language books, like the 501 Verbs books that are so well-known, wouldn't do this, but it's probably okay for most people.
Japanese has one great advantage over the typical Indo-European language in that it has almost 100% regular verbs. There are only two that are irregular. (Turkish is one of the few languages I've seen with no irregular verbs). It lacks many of the tenses European and other languages have, and it lacks a true future tense. There is no case system such as in German, Russian, Latin, and Greek.Read more ›
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48 of 51 people found the following review helpful
Pretty good
By Zachary Turner on December 26, 2001
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
This book is pretty good. I like the fact you can stick it in your pocket. One thing I can't stand is books that are loaded with a bunch of "filler" space just to make it look like it contains alot of information. I think alot of authors could learn something from reading this book: That it doesn't have to be big to be complete. The material is presented immediately and in a clear fashion. It's hard to NOT understand the usage of all the different particles, pronoun usage, wa vs. ga, etc after reading this book.
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36 of 38 people found the following review helpful
Beginners only
By John Rayner on April 5, 2000
Format: Paperback
This book provides a good introduction to Japanese grammar for the beginner and there are plenty of usage examples. However, due to its small size some points are not explained in enough detail and in other areas you are expected to understand the grammar points through examples alone. I would not recommend this to intermediate or advanced level students, but for the beginner it provides a very good starting point due to its clear layout and uncomplicated explanations.
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26 of 29 people found the following review helpful
good resource, bad romaji
By nm156 on June 4, 2004
Format: Vinyl Bound
Overall, this book is a very good resource for beginning or intermediate students. It begins by explaining some of the very basic differences between English and Japanese (word order, verbs, etc) and moves on to some basic Japanese particles and their usage. The particles all have example sentences to show how they are used.
The main part of the text is a section showing different conjugations of verbs, all complete with example sentences. Verb conjugations include plain and proper forms, gerund, some conditional and imperative forms, honorific, and maybe a couple others. Actually I have yet to study some of the verb forms but there is a nice section showing in a chart form about 10 verbs with different conjugations.
Near the end of the book you get various little sections which cover topics such as counting numbers, calendar dates, suffixes for counting items, helpful Japanese phrases, and some others too; I can't remember all of them. At the end of the book is a glossary of different words that were used in the book. A very good overall resource...
So why the 3 star rating? The answer is simple. All romaji and absolutely no Japanese script. Actually I take that back. At the beginning of the book there are 3 or 4 pages explaining what a kanji is and where it is from. You will see the kanji for mountain, person, and Japan. Included in this 3 or 4 pages is a chart of both the katakana and the hiragana. After this point you will see no Japanese script at all.... very annoying. If you despise romaji, do not get this book. Otherwise you can do like I do, you can write all example sentences and words in Japanese (there is usually some white space) and then proceed to cross out all romaji so you do not have to read it; then you will also have some practice with writing.Read more ›
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Good Book, But Lack of Kana Has Me Wondering....
By Brian Griffith on October 13, 2004
Format: Vinyl Bound
Personally, I think this is a great book. It explains verbs and sentence structure in a clear and concise form, and it gets straight to the point, and I like how it is small and fits into my pocket, but it only gets 4 stars because of no kana
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Perfect content, bad format
By Michigoon VINE VOICE on September 21, 2009
Format: Vinyl Bound
This book is an excellent commentary on the majority of Japanese learning aids in the Western world. The content is exceptional, and yet the book is almost entirely worthless because of some ridiculous shortcomings.

So first, the positive. This book, though pretty abbreviated due to the small format, nonetheless manages to weigh in at a respectable 270 pages absolutely loaded with useful grammar tips. Don't quite remember the rules for conjugation? Need some help with particles? It's all here, and it's all very easy to learn or to read in its summarized form to get you back up to speed. The content is very accurate, and presented well. Many portions are overly concise- you might for example only get two or three examples of irregular conjugations instead of a fuller or comprehensive list. The brevity makes this a "pocket guide" instead of a desktop reference- but assuming this book is part of a larger language class, that's not a big issue, and the book serves the role of a pocket reference very well. Theoretically.

But this book does not contain a single character of written Japanese. Front to back, it's all in romaji (English spellings). It isn't just that certain exercises are in Japanese, or that certain examples are in Japanese. If you're not advanced enough to read Japanese text at all, you're probably learning Japanese from another book and owning this book is just a redundancy. If you're an advanced enough student to be using this book as a quick reference, you need Japanese text to reinforce the language instead of relying on romaji crib notes.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

Five Stars

Arrived in excellent condition!

Published 17 days ago by G.E. Saugstad
Great "unobtrusive" reference for beginners or intermediate level...

Highly recommended because of the definitions provided, color coding throughout, and examples. Handy size adds to its appeal! The authors know where the trouble spots are . . .

Published 1 month ago by Amazon Customer
Great little book to keep your mind focused on learning japanese

This book breaks down the subject matter so that its easy to understand but not dumbed down that it makes you sound like you Just learned Japanese. Read more

Published 5 months ago by omniemon
Extremely helpful

I bought this product because I was trying to learn Japanese on my own. It came in handy as it help break down some of the words that were conjugated

Published 5 months ago by Shanna Shirley Smith Chow
5 Stars!

This book is totally awesome!! everything is simplified and easy to understand, its easy to follow and the way each sections are crafted is just great! Read more

Published 10 months ago by k123
download was damaged

the copy on the cloud does not work properly and causes kindle to stop. tried reloading from cloud to device.

Published 14 months ago by david poling
Intresting

I thouth this grammar book was more complete. I had more expections! I didn't realize that it was a pocket book.

Published 18 months ago by Maria de la Luz Munguia
This product has been what I expected it to be and and it has been...

This product has been what I expected it to be and and it has been very useful for its purpose

Published 19 months ago by Travis J Whalen
Great for Beginners and Remembering

I had Japanese in college for two years but that was a decade ago. This book is very helpful in helping me remember and takes a different process to make that happen. Read more

Published 20 months ago by R. W. Kooyer
Easily read and understood

Some Japanese grammar books leaving me frustrated wondering what the heck they are talking about? This is readily understood with clear examples and common sense explanations. Read more

Published 20 months ago by R. H. Curtis

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