Thank god that’s over.
And I mean both Christmas and learning 2042 squigglerly wiggerly scribbles (otherwise known as kanji) found in ‘Remembering the Kanji’.
After much self adulation and back slapping, it quickly dawned on me that the ‘journey’ had just begun, the actual learning Japanese part starts here. To be exact, the learning of Japanese sentences starts here.
By all accounts it seems that the most difficult part of the sentence phase of learning is getting started. If you lurk around various forums you will quickly realize that there are a hundred and one ways to start sentences, all of them being the best way of course.
So how will I approach the infamous sentence learning method? Well, as a beginner it is pretty difficult to mine from real, bonafide, Japanese media, so to start with it seems sensible to me to pull sentences from grammar books and dictionary’s. But which sentences? On the recommendations of alljapaneseallthetime my approach is to source sentences which incorporate the following vocabulary:
Demonstrative Pronouns
This
That
Here
There
Which
Interrogative Pronouns
Who
What
Where
When
Why
Indefinite Pronouns
Somewhere
Someone
Something
Many
Anything
Everything
Everyone
Nothing
Prepositions (Postpositions) Particles
In
On
To
From
At
Conjunctions (Particles)
And
With
But
Or
Action Verbs - Native Japanese words
Come
Go
Eat
Drink
Work
Buy
Sell
Sleep
Play
Give
Take
Think
Believe
Read
Write
See
Watch
Look
Hear
Listen
Smell
Touch
Make
Do
Taste
Have
Need
Want
Cost
Break
Learn
Study
Teach
Ask
Answer
Repair
Fix
Wash
Clean
Put
Choose
Happen
Live
Die
Find
Lose
Rest
Drive
Fly
Sail
Walk
Run
Ride
Stop
Stay
Hurry
Understand
Worry
Fear
Fall
Get up
Burn
Hit
Hide
Find
Enter
Exit
Send
Receive
Win
Cost
Try
Join
Gather
Decide
Desire
Borrow
Lend
Owe
Promise
Rent
Use
Laugh
Cry
Dream
Conditional/hypothetical
Here is a small selection of conditional sentences taken from Giles Murray’s excellent, ‘13 Secrets to Fluent Japanese’.
Q:あなたが日本に来なければよかった…
A: あなった が にほん に こんなければ よかった
If only you had never come to Japan…
Q: 彼がまだ私のそばにいてくれたら、どんあにしあわせでしょう。
A:かれ が まだ わたし の そば に いて くれたら、どんあ に しあわせ でしょう
If he were still with me, how happy I’d be…
Q:日本に留学しないよ、本当の日本語を覚えられません。
A:にほん に りゅがく しない と、ほんとう の にほんご お おぼえられません。
If you don’t study in Japan, you’ll never learn real Japanese.
Once the above is completed I will then move onto Tae Kims ‘Guide to Japanese Grammar’ by importing sentences from this fantastic Google document file put together by a fellow AJATTeer and RETK Forum member.
Tae Kim Sentences
Oh, almost forget, there is a similar file for a load of iKnow sentences as well, happy SRSing!
iknow sentences
Credit: A huge thanks to Nukemarine for pulling these together.
Qu: What has been your experience with sentences so far? What approach have you taken or will take?
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