Those who know English have a gigantic door open to learning Japanese. Among these thousands of materials, one that stands out is the famous Tae Kim’s Japanese Grammar Guide that we will discuss in this article.
Japanese grammar, despite being easy, is one of the most frustrating things for those learning Japanese. This guide can help you finally understand the irritating particles and the grammatical concepts that confuse our minds.
The goal of Tae Kim’s guide is to teach Japanese grammar in a rational, intuitive way that makes sense. It does not try to explain the meaning in our language; the focus is to show the perspective of the Japanese language.
This guide is a perfect combination with RTK Method and is highly recommended together. Tae Kim’s lessons require that you already have at least knowledge of Hiragana and Katakana.
Table of Contents
Where to get Tae Kim’s Japanese Grammar Guide
All content provided by Tae Kim is free on his official website, but you can also purchase the physical book on Amazon and study at home. Unfortunately, the book is only available in English.
The guide is also available in Portuguese and many other languages at the following link: guidetojapanese.org/portuguese/
On his English blog, you can also find a lot of additional material, including about Korean and Chinese languages. Some also report that the method used by Tae Kim was helpful in learning other languages besides Asian ones.
In addition to his main sites, his content being creative commons opens a door to various applications and other sites that use Tae Kim’s method as inspiration. If you search for him in your mobile store, you will likely find some application with his grammar guide.
Off: I can’t read the name Tae Kim’s without remembering Tom Keen from BlackList. I’m currently watching a crucial moment of the series while writing this article about Tae Kim’s.
What will you learn with Tae Kim’s guide?
Tae Kim’s guide is comprehensive and will teach things like:
- Hiragana and Katakana;
- State of being in Japanese;
- Particles は,も,が;
- Adjectives;
- Verbs;
- Past tense;
- Transitive and intransitive verbs;
- Subordinate clauses;
- Noun particles;
- Particles related to nouns [と、や、とか、の];
- Polite form and verb stem [～です、～ます];
- Question marker [か];
- Form-て、から、ので、のに、が、けど、し、～たりする;
- Potential form;
- Using する and なる with the particle に [～(よう)になる／する];
- Conditional [と、なら、ば、たら];
- Expressing “must” and “have to” [～だめ、～いけない、～ならない、～ても];
- Desire and suggestion [たい、欲しい、volitional、～たらどう];
- Defining and describing [という];
- Trying or attempting to do something [～てみる、volitional+とする];
- Giving and receiving [あげる、やる、くれる、もらう];
- Making requests [～ください、～ちょうだい、～なさい、Imperative];
- Numbers and counters;
- Passive and causative verbs;
- Honorific and humble forms;
- Things that happen unintentionally [～てしまう、～ちゃう／～じゃう];
- Special expressions with generic nouns [こと、ところ、もの];
- Expressing various levels of certainty [かもしれない、でしょう、だろう];
- Expressing quantities [だけ、のみ、しか、ばかり、すぎる、Amount+も、ほど、さ];
- Various ways to express similarity and rumors [よう、～みたい、～そう、～そうだ、～らしい、～っぽい];
- Using 方 and よる for comparisons and other functions [より、の方、stem＋方、によって、によると];
- Saying that something is easy or difficult to do [～やすい、～にくい];
- More negative verbs [ないで、ず、～ん、ぬ];
- Hypothesis and conclusion [わけ、～とする];
- Expressing time-specific actions [ばかり、とたんに、ながら、まくる];
- Leaving something as it is [まま、っぱなし];
- Advanced topics;
- Formal expressions [である、ではない];
- Things that should be a certain way [はず、べき、べく、べからず];
- Expressing the least expectation [でさえ、ですら、おろか];
- Showing signs of something [～がる、ばかり、～めく];
- Formal expressions of impossibility [～ざるを得ない、やむを得ない、～かねる];
- Tendencies [～がち、～つつ、きらいがある];
- Advanced volitionals [まい、であろう、かろう];
- Covered by something [だらけ、まみれ、ずくめ];
Perhaps the topics listed above will inspire you to have an idea of what to study in an order that makes your Japanese more effective. Many people use at least something from Tae Kim’s method in their projects.
I don’t know how Tae Kim’s method became popular, especially since I couldn’t find much information about him on the internet. Still, only one person was able to cause all this popularity online, with a simple blog full of texts.
Tae Kim is proof that the only thing that matters is the content. It doesn’t matter if a site has thousands of images, millions of articles, flashy design, and many videos. In the end, what matters is how useful and relevant your material has become.
I hope you enjoyed this article. Did you know about Tae Kim’s grammar guide? Have you thought about taking a look? We appreciate comments and shares.
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