Confused by small words

[WCR91]

Hello, everyone. I have a question. I found Japanesepod101 back in July, and I'm trying to catch up with all of the lessons. Things have been going really well, with a few exceptions. I'm really perplexed about little words, like "wa, ga, ni, o, de, etc.". Can you offer me any help?

[tiroth2]

These are probably the most important words in the language -- and a common source of confusion among beginners. (and even intermediate students often have trouble with wa and ga!)

Do a search on "particles" or consult a good grammar text. And/or, go back and review carefully the lessons the particles are discussed in.

[WCR91]

Arigatou, Tiroth-san! I will definitely be on the lookout. Any other tips?

[seanolan]

My suggestion is don't try to learn these words by translation, but rather by function. For instance, many Japanese textbooks will, for convenience sake, translate "ni" as "at, on, to, in"...this obviously doesn't help you, as "de" can be translated as "at, on, in, by" and suddenly you have no clue what the difference between "de" and "ni" is. Also, there are tons of particles that can mean "and". If you can find a book that explains the particles in term of function, rather than English translation, you will be a lot better off. To this day, because I first learned from a Japanese textbook that translated rather than explained, I still say things like "resutoran ni tabemasu" instead of the correct "resutoran de tabemasu" for instance. See if you can avoid my bad habits this way!

Sean

[WCR91]

Are there any grammar websites that might help? Of if a book is the best route, which should I buy?

[Solvi]

I found a book at my University's library called "All About Particles", a cute little pink book that was very helpful to me. It does one particle at a time, listing ways to use it, and provides examples (both roumaji and kanji/kana). I don't know how expensive it is, but it's a small paperback so it can't be too bad...

[Harv]

http://www.guidetojapanese.org/

This website has some good descriptions of the use of particles.

[Bueller_007]

I found a book at my University's library called "All About Particles", a cute little pink book that was very helpful to me. It does one particle at a time, listing ways to use it, and provides examples (both roumaji and kanji/kana). I don't know how expensive it is, but it's a small paperback so it can't be too bad...

That's an excellent reference book, but I don't know how much use it would be to a beginning learner.

Just pick up a copy of Minna no Nihongo or some other Japanese-only book. The context in which they are used should make their meanings abundantly clear.

[Karen]

I agree with seanolan-san -- the only way particles stay in my head is if I hear them used in context.

One resource I've found very helpful (and not just for particles) is the example function on http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin/wwwjdic.cgi?1C. Some words have a clickable [Ex] next to the dictionary entry that gives some sample sentences.

So if I wanted to know which particle to use to say "under alias" or "going by an alias," I'd look up the word for "alias" and check the example sentences for something similar (the example says it's 'gimei de'). The examples aren't vetted so they may contain errors, but I think they're useful anyway.