I can't figure out how to use my Japanese-English Dictionary

[Mr Srippery]

Greetings,

I recently purchased a Japanese-English dictionary, and I find it embarassing to admit, but I'm having trouble figuring out how to use it >_<

How in the world are the Japanese-word entries organized? Naturally, there must be some order. One particular section will be filled with words beginning with "so" (for example) and then another section for words beginning with "ma," and so on. However, I'm unable to find a word within these sections.

I was trying to look up the word "sotsu," and the only thing I could think to do was to find the "so" section, and just look at each word down the line until I found it. I gave up after a bit and never found it

Can anyone help me, or try to explain to me how the words are organized? Thanks.

[beata]

Isn't it

a-i-u-e-o
ka-ki-ku-ke-ko
etc. ?

[Psy]

We need more information about your dictionary, since depending on the one you have the organization could be done in different ways. Normal Japanese-Japanese dictionaries are put in the order of the kana alphabet, but learners ones are often adapted for the roman alphabet to be easier for the student. Let us know what you have and someone here will surely help you.

[Javizy]

You're the guy who bought Kodansha's Furigana dictionary aren't you? The dictionary is organised in the standard kana chart order, that you can see here if you're not sure. Think of this as alphabetical order in Japanese. For example, ka-words will come before ki-words, and kaimono will come before kau because i comes before u, and so on.

Be aware that voiced consonants (marked with dakuten ( ゛)) such as ga or za will be mixed in with their unvoiced counterparts ka and sa, although they take second priority. Katakana doesn't affect the ordering system at all. Also, sokuon (small tsu っ) within words are ordered the same as regular sized tsu, e.g. shitto comes straight before shitsudo.

After all that, I can tell you that 'sotsu' doesn't appear in the dictionary. As I said in your other thread, the only problem with the dictionary is that it only has 16,000 entries or so. I used to write these sort of words down and look them up with Wakan or online afterwards. Try this link.

[Mr Srippery]

[quote="Javizy"]You're the guy who bought Kodansha's Furigana dictionary aren't you? The dictionary is organised in the standard kana chart order, that you can see here if you're not sure. Think of this as alphabetical order in Japanese. For example, ka-words will come before ki-words, and kaimono will come before kau because i comes before u, and so on. [quote]

Yeah, you're right. I did order that dictionary. I suppose I will need to find a more comprehensive one in the near future. And thank you for the detailed post. As far as your link, it seems to be broken, however, or not working at the moment.

[beata]

As far as your link, it seems to be broken, however, or not working at the moment.

Just delete that ?1E at the end, then it works