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A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar

The7thSamurai

Master of the Universe
4 Feb 2005
765
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I've been using the beginner version of this book for the past 18 months or so, and I guess I understand about 70% of what's in it, so today I decided to buy the intermediate version, and all I can say is WOW! This book is so indepth and has all sorts of useful information such as:

- details on Japanese story telling style (tense switching)
- how to naturally switch styles (casual vs formal styles)
- newspaper Japanese, including how headlines are created, abbreviations for countries and verbs, words that are often dropped from the main newspaper article
- conversation strategies (how to naturally circumlocute, different filler words to use)
- tips of speaking indirectly (a very important part of Japanese communication)
- how to better analyse sentences to understand the semantics

All that is in the first 77 pages, and there are over 700 pages all up.

The main body is, of course, grammatical terms with detailed explanations.

The last part looks at how katakana words are created, how to better understand compound verbs (two verbs in one), as well as a comprehensive listing of counters.

This book is so detailed it'll probably take about three years or so to properly digest it all.

For some reason they call it "intermediate", yet there's no advanced guide.

Anyway, for anyone who's at an upper beginner/lower intermediate level I highly recommend it.
 
Yeah I bough tthat last year. Definately a good read. I should dust it off. And try to put it to use. again. Been slacking alot on my studies.
 
I contacted the authors to thank them about it and they replied saying that A Dictionary of Advanced Japanese Grammar will be released later this year.
 
Do you guys have any Amazon/etc links for this? I'm always interested in finding good grammar books, or Japanese language books in general... Who is the publisher, author(s)?

Ps. Ara--- Of course, google finds it even though Amazon's search engine can't find the exact match of the particular book.

Intermediate: here

Basic: here.
 
It is unfortunately a painfully expensive book outside of Japan. AFAIK, the japanese retail price is 3000 yen or so, and you can readily pick it up at Kinokuniya. It's somewhat heavy though. I recall a Japanese bookstore in Hawaii having it for $60 USD.
 
They're coming out with an advanced version?! It's about friggin' time! I've been waiting for that for years (well, I had been, but it'd still be worth checking out, methinks)! Bucko, did they have any idea when this year? It'd be nice if it's before August.
 
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