What's new

Vocabulary or word order first?

Which one first?

  • Word order

    Votes: 1 100.0%
  • Vocabulary

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    1

AlexThJester

後輩
17 Sep 2016
13
5
14
So I've been teaching myself japanese and so far have gotten Hiragana and somewhat katakana mostly down so I decided to learn words. But I have no idea how to make sentences. Should I learn related words or words and particles I would want in a sentence first, or should I learn word order first, then the particles, then vocabulary? It seems difficult to do it either way...
 
The word order is not so important in Japanese comparing to English, since particles indicate the case/function of the noun, not the word order. You should learn the grammar first, I believe.
 
Get a proper textbook. The Genki series is widely used and recommended.
 
Get a proper textbook. The Genki series is widely used and recommended.
I don't have money to spend, literally. I make just enough to buy necessities, not even enough to afford my own place so text books are right out. I can only use free, online resources...
 
I don't have money to spend, literally. I make just enough to buy necessities, not even enough to afford my own place so text books are right out. I can only use free, online resources...

I am glad to hear you are not one of the unscrupulous people who think to do a google search for pdf versions other unscrupulous people have made available online illegally.
 
I don't have money to spend, literally. I make just enough to buy necessities, not even enough to afford my own place so text books are right out. I can only use free, online resources...
If you're living at someone's house who is footing the bills and you have a job, how could you possibly not make enough to buy a textbook?
 
If you're living at someone's house who is footing the bills and you have a job, how could you possibly not make enough to buy a textbook?
I don't have a job, I donate Plasma. It pays about 250 a month IF I'm able to every time, and that's mainly for food.
 
Adults in USA can have plenty of complicated issues preventing them from working. You probably shouldn't be making assumptions.
I'll assume that adults perform like contributing adults since it is the typical pattern.

I'm not sure why you're annoyed. As a person who has a serious disability preventing you from working even a part time job, there's no reason to be defensive.

My brother, who has significant, lifelong disabilities (both physical and mental) from complications at birth does not get defensive about the fact that he cannot work more than three half days a week, he's just proud to help support himself and the rest of the family is glad to pitch in since he's showing admirable effort.

I'm sure you're doing everything you can, keep moving forward.
 
I don't have money to spend, literally. I make just enough to buy necessities, not even enough to afford my own place so text books are right out. I can only use free, online resources...

I'm a little confused. In an earlier thread you gave an indication that you have access to textbooks and are using them:

I'm really worried that I'm learning to write all wrong because I only have textbooks to go off of

Do you or do you not have a textbook?
 
I'm a little confused. In an earlier thread you gave an indication that you have access to textbooks and are using them:



Do you or do you not have a textbook?
I have one text book that was supposed to be used with an online lesson thing so basically a bit of vocab and the kana are all that are useful to me. It was a hand me down from my sister who took a class in college.
 
You learn vocabulary as you learn grammar.
Otherwise, you are just accumulating a list of Japanese words. A shopping list of items that only allows you to go around pointing out things that Japanese already know:

Of course it is inevitable that your first sentences will be very simple, using simple grammar and simple nouns and adjectives, but nobody starts off discussing particle physics. If you have decent texts or other resources, your progress will be much smoother, and you will eventually look back and wonder why you even asked this question in the first place. Good Luck!
 
As Majestic said, it's not one over another it's something you progressively learn together. There are many words you can learn on its own without the need for grammar but if you study it as a course, learning new words will make more sense. Start slow, it's like math. If all you do is rush through it and memorize things without taking the time to understand how it works, your just going to end up in a position where you're taking more time to learn new things while not "getting it". A strong foundation is the most important thing in just about anything, really.
 
You really want to work on both at the same time. Mostly that's why you do want some kind of working text as they introduce grammar along with new vocabulary. Grammar is most important though as you learn words you can substitute a similar word or words to learn new ones. Like instead of saying "Landlord" you can say "the person you rent from". Therefore learning new grammar while speaking the language.
 
Back
Top Bottom