[.ca] A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Sentence Patterns (ISBN 4770026080)

Excellent supplement:
I'd highly recommend this book to beginning / intermediate students of Japanese. Although it's not suitable as a stand-alone introduction to Japanese, it's an excellent supplement to whatever text or course you're using (I'm using Jorden's Japanese - The Spoken Language). It recognizes that there are only 3 basic sentence types in Japanese (Nominal, Adjectival, and Verbal), and even the most complex sentences are just an elaboration of one or another of these sentence types. The author presents 50 sentence patterns, with over 60 variations. Each pattern and variation is explained (in English!), and for each pattern, there are a number of sample sentences in Japanese script, romanization (Hepburn), and an English translation. Included in these representative sentences are many short dialogues, as well. The majority use the distal-style, but there are a good number illustrating the plain / direct style as well. By internalizing these basic patterns, I think the learner will develop a sound basis for continued progress in Japanese. I'm glad I bought it.

Great easy to understand book:
This book is really to understand with detail explaination in English. This book is great for intermediat learner

Excellent!:
This book helps you pick apart and interpret the Jpanese sentences better! I don't know what I would have done without it! It's really easy to understand and goes into great detail to help you learn1 I highly reccomend!

Excellent book on topic:
In addition to its extensive lexicon of so-called particles, word order is another thing that differs in Japanese from English, and this book will help you master this important aspect of Japanese grammar. Supposedly, English has only 20 basic sentence patterns because of its fairly regular word order, and according to the author, there are only really 3 in Japanese--Noun, Verb, and Adjective sentences. This book covers 50 basic patterns and 69 variations. The variations are set off by little text boxes throughout the book in which the pattern is illustrated, and then it is discussed in more detail in the text. Polite and informal patterns are shown along with discussions of various issues. The similarities and differences from other patterns are discussed. The intro says the book contains all the patterns needed for the Levels 3 and 4 Japanese Language Proficiency Test. In addition, there is a brief section where terms are defined, and also there is an appendix convering conjugation patterns of 103 verbs. There is a similar chart showing inflections for dozens of adjectives and also "na" adjectives. Adjectives are another major area where Japanese differs from English, and adjectives are conjugated to agree with verbs, rather than declined to agree with nouns as in most Indo-European languages. Here are some examples of what some of the patterns look like, ranging from easy to complex: 1) Noun sentences with N2 mo as predicate 2) Negative verbs of existence with mo after the subject 3) Adjective sentence with topic wa and subject ga 4) The subjunctive with V-tara, as in: (Moshi) N1 ga V1-tara (N2 wa) N3 desu/V2-masu 5) Indicating habitual action with V koto ga/mo arimasu 6) Indirect passive: N ni \ointrasitive\c / V \opassive\c - masu The book is over 300 pages and so should contain considerable material for even the intermediate and advanced student of Japanese. Overall, this is an excellent grammar on Japanese syntax that should help you with this important aspect of the language.

Always on my nightstand:
Being determined to learn Japanese on my own, I find this book on sentence patterns invaluable. I like the easy lookup, and I use it contantly when trying to hold a conversation with Japanese friends online! If you are learning Japanese, I think this book is an excellent help!