Kodansha's Effective Japanese Usage Dictionary: A Concise Explanation of Frequently Confused Words and Phrases (Paperback)

by Masayoshi Hirose (Author), Kakuko Shoji (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
One of the principal reasons for the difficulty foreign students have in mastering Japanese is the language's extensive use of words that seem similar in meaning, but are used very differently in practice. This 768-page dictionary both explains the differences between hundreds of words and provides examples of how they are used in conversational Japanese.

Explanations are given in Japanese with English translations; sample sentences are written in Japanese and Roman characters, with accompanying English translations. To further aid understanding, the book includes 27 short narratives or dialogues that indicate how word usage is affected by context, helping students to distinguish some of the language's subtleties. With its clarification of often confused vocabulary, this book is an essential tool for serious students of Japanese.

*768-page dictionary includes 302 comparisons of 708 synonymous terms.
*Explains words and phrases that seem similar, but have very different uses.
*Sample sentences in romanized and standard Japanese script with furigana, followed by the English translation.
*Three easy-to-use indexes in romanized alphabetical order, Japanese order, and by category.

From the Publisher
See "Look inside this book" for scans of pages from the dictionary. The two pages shown there deal with the differences between iremono, utsuwa, and yooki, when they mean container or receptacle. The discussion of yooki carries on to a third page, which is not shown.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 753 pages
• Publisher: Kodansha International (September 4, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 4770028504
• ISBN-13: 978-4770028501
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 5.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #865,964 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Dictionary of the Subtle Nuances of Japanese Words, August 7, 2001

By	Elijah Zupancic (Kawasaki, Japan) - See all my reviews

When I stumbled across this book in a bookstore in Japan I was pleasantly surprised. Up till that point, everyday I struggled to answer my questions regarding words with similar meanings in Japanese. This book helped to answer many of my questions by grouping those words with related meanings into different sections and by providing detailed explanation about how the various words�f meanings differ. For example, this book groups the words like �gsamui,�h �gtsumetai,�h and �gsuzushii�h into a single section, and then gives you examples for the correct usage of each word. Also, in my opinion the words and grammar contained in this book are not for beginners, but rather for intermediate to advanced students who are struggling with the subtleties of the language. Furthermore, it should be mentioned that this book is bilingual; all text has equivalent Japanese and English copies, so this book is good for Japanese native speakers as well. Overall, I have no complaints about this book (except that I wish it was published earlier when I started studying Japanese).

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars needs revision, March 5, 2003

By	sub8hr (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This has the beginnings of a great usage dictionary, but a lot of the differences among the words are very much not clear. It would have been nice if it gave more attention to detailing precisely why and how certain terms differ instead of merely giving definitions of words and example usages, but leaving it up to the reader to try and figure out what makes the words different. You will likely still wind up consulting another dictionary or your local Nihonjin for a clarification on some of the more poorly differentiated terms.

Bottom line: Not stellar. But all things considered, probably still worth a read.