Particle Man doing the things a particle can

November 6, 2007 12:20 PM

Guides for Learning Japanese Particles

Based on the fantastic advice I received previously on AskMe; my sisters and I signed up for Japanese classes at the Japan Society. So far all is going well, but I have one huge stumbling block. I find the proper use of particles deeply confusing.

I am running this by my sensei tonight, but I thought I'd query here as well. Any suggestions for books, websites, etc. that were helpful to you when learning particles? Thanks!

posted by Julnyes to writing & language (9 comments total)

This is great. You want this part.

Japanese particles aren't something you're going to understand right away, so don't worry. They're used in a frustratingly large array of manners, and I've heard rumors that there have been linguistic dissertations written on the difference between は and　が.
posted by borkingchikapa at 12:32 PM on November 6, 2007

Wikipedia to the rescue. The article is quite good, albeit very academic in tone.

Particles play a role somewhat similar to prepositions in English in that they show how different parts of the sentence relate to each other—except that while we have an array of prepositions to explain different physical relationships (above, about, around, below, beside, between…), Japanese has relatively few. And it has other particles showing the grammatical relationship of the elements (direct object, subject, etc). And some of this stuff you just need to learn through repetition and osmosis.
posted by adamrice at 12:43 PM on November 6, 2007

It took me three years to figure out the proper particle to use and I still got it wrong some of the time. It's one of those things that will take strict memorization until one day it'll just click and everything will just sound wrong if you try the wrong one. Don't worry about it too much, just try to get it right and eventually it'll all work out.

For what it's worth, it's ok to use the wrong ones. Especially with wa and ga; as a gaijin you're expected to get those wrong every once in a while.
posted by pwb503 at 12:58 PM on November 6, 2007

Here's one.

Unfortunately, it may be the case that you have to grow up in the language to really understand the fine points. Entire books have been written just about how ga and wa are used.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 1:48 PM on November 6, 2007

What Adam Rice says is only part of the story. It's true that some particles (e.g. "no") have a function similar to English prepositions. It's true that some (e.g. "o") function to label parts of speech.

But they do a lot of other things. Some of them are tied up in keigo. Some are used differently depending on whether you're male or female, young or old.

Attaching the -me particle to someone's name is fighting words. Using terminal wa on your sentences is feminine. The -sa particle means something entirely different when a man uses it compared to when a girl uses it. Particles are bewilderingly complex. They're a lot of fun, but they're also infuriatingly confusing to a gaijin.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 1:56 PM on November 6, 2007

As others have said, a basic feeling for particles is something that sort of comes by osmosis. Even then, you might get it wrong sometimes. There are a few books that helped me with it, though:

The Japanese Particle Workbook is great -- if you do all the exercises in this, your particle usage will definitely improve. This book might be a little hard for someone just starting out, but it sticks to basic vocab, so it should be do-able.

All About Particles -- This book is not as good as the Particle Workbook (IMHO working through tons of examples is essential, and this book doesn't have any), but it is small and does a good job of listing the most common particles. Note that you might have trouble with the vocab and kanji in this one.

Unicom's JLPT Level 2 Grammar & Vocab -- This book is advanced (no English or romaji, and not much furigana), but when you get to JLPT level 2 or so, check it out. This is one of the few books I've seen that actually lays out specific rules, and then uses them to explain why certain particles and conjugations are correct in each example. Check the image for a good example of how they explain the difference between the "to" and "ba" conditionals.
posted by vorfeed at 2:03 PM on November 6, 2007

er, I meant that working through tons of exercises is important, not examples. That is to say, you should try to do as many fill-in-the-blank questions as you can find, and then ask your teacher to explain the ones you got wrong.
posted by vorfeed at 2:08 PM on November 6, 2007

The above suggestions are all great, as is the advice to keep plugging away at examples and practice until it starts to feel natural and/or you have an epiphany. These books also contain a lot of useful information about particles (and everything else), but in a fairly technical format.

Also, don't despair. It's true that dissertations are written about the difference between wa and ga (and ga and no, etc.), but people write dissertations about the finer details of English too and we non-dissertators mostly seem to get along fine anyway. Even if you never eliminate that final 2% of non-native speaker error, that still means that only 1 out of 50 people you talk to will notice it. (Assuming you speak to every person for a uniform length of time and mistakes are evenly distributed etc. You get the idea.)
posted by No-sword at 3:47 PM on November 6, 2007

Thanks for the books and websites. I think multiple modes or attack are necessary.

Side note - the thing that scared me most about Japanese was learning the characters and honestly that has been way easier to learn then grammar. That surprised me.
posted by Julnyes at 8:03 PM on November 6, 2007