I guess this is relevant to all parts of grammar. It just so happens that さ form is what I’m doing currently.
I understand what the さ form is doing to the adjectives. The textbook explains it to me fine. I want to study it more so I can get used to using it in sentences though, so this is my question. When you learn new grammar points in a textbook, how do you practice it properly? I can write lots of different sentences with the grammar, but maybe what I write doesn’t make complete sense, or it might just be wrong. How do you go about doing this if you don’t have someone to check your work? I don’t want to be picking up bad habits from studying the wrong way without knowing I’m doing it wrong.
2 comments
I usually make flashcards – an English sentence on the front that would elicit an example of that grammar point from a textbook or wherever.
If I can make eight or so of those for a grammar point, it sticks very well after a few weeks of Anki review.
Drills and exercises. If your textbook doesn’t have any, grab the corresponding workbook, or another textbook. Something with an answer key so you can check.
Other than that, get exposed to the grammar a whole lot. At the level of something like ～さ (as well as a good bit beyond that) the grammar is ubiquitous and you’re bound to run into it often enough in the wild, even if you don’t go out of your way to find instances of it; just consume your media of choice. You’ll get a good feel for and internalise it if you hear/see it used enough times in enough contexts.