The Handbook of Japanese Verbs

I got this book about 3 days ago and I already finished it. I took Japanese in college (it was my major in undergrad). Looking back, this book would have come in handy. I’ve used multiple Japanese language programs and textbooks such as Genki, Tobira, Situational Functional Japanese (while studying abroad) as well as commercial programs such as Berlitz and many others. I’ve been studying Japanese informally since graduating so it could be that I’ve had time for some of those grammar concepts I learned to marinate, but I’m pretty confident that this verb book is just really good. (It is for those of us who are ‘verb-challenged,’ the book’s words, not mine.) This is one of those books that you can repeatedly refer back to and use as you learn more Japanese (if you’re a beginner or if you just want to review). While a lot of the forms and terms may seem confusing to a beginner, beginners should keep in mind that a book like this can be used over a long period of time. The verbs covered in this book are basically what you’ll find in Genki 1 & 2. For some reason, I found the explanations and example sentences in this book much more thorough than previous textbooks. But that could be that all the material was review for me. Either way, I wish I would have purchased this a long time ago. One thing I noticed missing from this book was the じゃない (ja nai) conjugations that Genki uses (this book only provided ではdewa)). This book uses a mix of romaji (in really huge letters) and Japanese (kanji and kana-hiragana and katakana) all together. I’m not anti-romaji (anymore) so that didn’t bother me, but I do prefer the Japanese characters. I think the inclusion of both is a good approach. The title of this book is a little misleading. This isn’t simply a dictionary (if it was, I probably wouldn’t have read it all); it’s more of a reference book with exercises for you to practice. It gives you a little bit of time to practice each concept after seeing it in a few sentences, so it’s not an extensive workbook. It is very concise and well organized, which I appreciated. One thing I really (really) liked were the English translations next to the Japanese inside the conjugation charts. The charts demonstrate the あいうえお aiueo conjugations, which include most of the basic conjugations (minus the the more complex tenses such as causative and causative-passive). Passive and potential are basically grouped together. But causative and passive have their own conjugation charts. Honorific/Humble/Respectful language is mentioned here and there, but I don’t believe there is a set section for it. (I think Genki does a better job just because it has charts for respectful language.) The introduction and first part of the book tell you what you will learn in the book (conjugation-wise) and the second part of the book is for different grammar points associated with each conjugation. I really like how this is organized as you can focus on learning one conjugation and what it can be used for instead of jumping around from tense or conjugation to conjugation learning one use here and there only to have to go back and learn a new use for an old conjugation form from a few chapters ago (Genki cough cough). Not that there isn’t merit to the other way, but this way is better for focusing on grammar. Each usage has about 3 examples each and after being introduced to a few different grammar points associated with the conjugation, there’s a short fill-in-the-blank activity where you’ll have to write in the correct conjugation/usage based on the English translation and Japanese sentence (available in romaji and Japanese characters). This is basically the formula for the rest of the book. In the back are the answers to all the exercises and a few indexes. One index is by Japanese sentence patterns (with English translations! for quick searches), one is for basic Japanese verbs (regular I verbs aka う -u verbs, then regular II verbs aka る -ru verbs, then irregular verbs aka する -suru and くる -kuru) and an English index for Japanese verbs found throughout this book (verbs by their English translations). As most if not all kodansha books, there’s also a list of other books you may want to purchase at the end of the book. Overall, I would highly recommend this book as a supplement to whatever program, course or series you are using to learn Japanese.

I love this book. I will learn in depth how to handle Japanese verbs correctly. I also have Japanese Verbs at A Glance. Both books are super charged with information. The only problem is that I can't decide which one I should use first. I ask you Japanese learners for your suggestions. Thank you.

I had a couple of years classroom study in Japanese, many years ago, and have been learning on my own for the last year. This book, and Kamiya's other manual on pattern sentences, have been useful especially as integrative works that bring together lots of scattered information approached differently in textbooks. I think it would be less successful as a first-learning tool, but I'm not in a position to judge. The verb handbook is a very nice reference and summary of verb groups and conjugations, and clarifies the systems by which the various forms are derived. Short exercises with answers let you know whether you've really "got it".

The organization in this is superb, it splits it up by forms/sentence patterns for the most part, so there's a section on negative verb form and their sentence patterns, dictionary form, 「て」 te form, etc, and then lists the grammer/conjugation forms that can be attached. There's about 3 examples for each form, depending on how many variations there are, and it does a good job of showing all the small parts (like how to end in polite form or not for the ending conjugation, how to conjugate a go-dan versus ichidan verb). Every part is well explained and succinct while also being able to capture the nuances of each one. And there's some nice intro pages that help you to understand verbs better before diving in. The only thing I don't like, is that each and every example in Japanese has romaji right above the example sentence, and the English translation right below. Which is always hit or miss for learning, since it's tempting, and often your eye/brain read that line first, meaning you don't read the example sentence purely in Japanese to challenge yourself. There's also practice exercises which are nice and answers in the appendix. Again though, every question has romaji and English translations around the Japanese written part. This has been a great tool for my learning and I'm on my second read through (first time I just skimmed over the practice questions). It is also so easy to quickly reference and look up a particular topic thanks to the appendix and an entire list of the sentence patterns organized by the verb forms. I would also highly recommend you know at least some Japanese and not are a complete beginner, mainly a good amount of common verbs and words so you can follow the Japanese examples. It helps that almost every Japanese part is also written in Engligh/Romaji, but that doesn't help for learning/retention. That's the only reason I have to take off a star. It would be better if the translations/Romaji were on a different page or something, or there was a page for vocabulary first, and then the example sentences only in Japanese.

Great book! I wish there was a kindle version too! I would totally buy it! One with OCR so I can search the books for words while I am practicing grammar in daily life. Until then, I'm going to buy my own scanner so I can scan all of my grammar books for various languages and have them all with me and searchable when I am out in the field practicing these languages. Love this book! Thank you! :) I have too many books to carry with me! GET KINDLE! :) Until then I'll scan it myself! THANKS!

Un des Kodansha que j'ai trouvés les plus utiles, ce qui est peu dire, vu la qualité des ouvrages de cet éditeur ! Outre une intro générale (10 pages) sur les temps, les niveaux de langage, et une première partie (32 pages) sur les conjugaisons , ce qui m'a le plus intéressée est la deuxième partie (160 pages) qui passe en revue une à une les structures verbales, d'abord celles construites sur la "forme conjonctive", puis sur la "forme du dictionnaire", puis sur "forme négative", puis sur la "forme conditionnelle", puis sur la "forme impérative", puis sur la "forme volitive", puis sur la "forme en て" puis sur la "forme en た" puis sur la 'forme en たら", puis sur la "forme en たり". Chaque structure est illustrée de 3 phrases types, et des exercices d'application (corrections en annexe) reprennent les structures par groupe de 3. Ces exercices ont l'avantage d'être des exercices à trous, ce qui évite les problèmes de vocabulaire (toujours basique de toute façon). Je me sers donc de cet ouvrage à la fois pour un apprentissage systématique, et comme ouvrage de référence lorsque je trouve une structure dans un texte et que je veux en vérifier le sens, car sa consultation est très facile. A noter que toutes les explications sont en anglais, ainsi que la traduction des phrases types et des exercices. Toutes les phrases en japonais sont données intégralement en romaji et en kana et kanji de façon très lisible (pas besoin de loupe pour les kanji qu'on connait mal).

Lo compré para regalar y, tras hojearlo, me parece uno de los mejores libros sobre verbos japoneses para estudiantes. Claro y conciso. Perfecto tanto para los que se inician en el estudio del japonés como para repaso para aquellos que ya tienen cierto nivel. Otra gran publicación de Kodansha.

Japanese is relatively difficult to start learning and the more you learn the more you can learn. This book if you dip into it when you are first starting will seem hard, however as you progress the book becomes more useful. A book alone cannot teach you. It can help you but you have to search out a Japanese course websites other books and of course Japanese people. I have done all of the above and this book is making more and more valuable contributions to my learning. good luck with your study.

All you need to know about Japanese verbs is here! Everything! From tenses to auxiliaries, to transitives and even to collocations!

Didático.