Japanese Verbs and Essentials of Grammar

Rating:
Summary: Must Have
Review: I bought the first edition of this book a long time ago, and it's become completely ragged through use. I rely on it so much for basic grammar reference. While the first edition had an index that was mostly useless, from what I've seen of the second edition, the index (among other things) has been improved greatly. This alone makes me say that this book is a must have. It does help to have background knowledge of Japanese, because if you don't then you'll spend three weeks trying to figure out what the hell stem and base mean, and how to tell what part ofthe verb is which, but if you already know the basics, then this book opens up a wealth of options when it comes to your grammatical abilities. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: For extensive verb training
Review: I bought this book as a beginning Japanese student, and the scope of it blew my mind and I quickly put it away. However, after some basic grammar and vocabulary training, I soon after picked this book up again and found it to be a gem! It goes through every possible verb conjugation, with Japanese and English examples, and teaches you new and different ways to use what you know and make your sentences more meaningful. After the verb section is also a grammar section which outlines the essentials of grammar (hence the name I suppose). This is also a priceless guide. At the back, there is a small dictionary type section of basic commonly used words, both Japense-English and English-Japanese. There are also appendixes with common and useful phrases, broken down into when and where you can use them. Last of all, the back of the book hold a guide chart with both hiragana and katakana characters, which is helpful because the book is all written in roomanji. My only complaint with this book is that the sections are mixed up: The essentials of grammar should be the first section, with the verbs as the second. You could even read it that way if you would like, and I think it will be more enriching if you do. Be forewarned, however, that the verb section, while it covers all basic conjugations (-masu), also goes very deep into additional (and much more difficult) conjugations. It's helpful if you need more extensive training or to enrich your verbage, but just don't get in over your head and be overwhelmed.