Basically, a lot of my understanding of grammar comes from either things I have read, or loosely following JLPT guidelines. However, there are some general grammar points that I struggle to understand and use in everyday situations, that I don’t feel are covered at least in my current research into Japanese grammar.
The first and most prominent issue for me is what I refer to them as broken particles. This is a name I came up with myself because no matter how much I have tried to find comprehensive explanations, I can’t seem to find an explanation into their use-cases in sentence or how they differ from regular particles. From my understanding, Particles connect 2 points [A particle B]. A broken particle differs when there is no B, so I have trouble understanding its meaning in a sentence. Things such as “違うはね”, in this specific example I fail to see how that would differ from simply 違う. Or as a matter of fact any simple particle such as から, に, で, or even を at the end of a sentence. Is there any simple way to understand these. I feel like the lack of intuitive understanding on my part is limiting my ability to understand certain sentences, and I would love to know if there is a way to get a better understanding of these special cases. It’s like my brain shuts off in the absence of the traditional particle structure haha.
Secondly, it is understanding when nouns immediately follow verbs without any forms of nominalisation. I see this a lot mostly in things such as news articles or advanced materials, and never in study materials. Things such as 行く予定 or 行く場合は, I can understand these 2 cases as “Plan to go” and “In the event that I go” respectively. But there are a lot of potential varying cases of this where I fail to understand. I’ve heard these called “Secondary verbs”. I fail to know how to construct these in my own sentence, when to use these instead of a nominalised verb, and also how the meaning of these cases differs from nominalisation.
I realise these are two very broad things, and I don’t expect an answer that covers the full scope of these questions. However, I would greatly appreciate any and all help and advice about what worked for you in either of these areas, or potential links containing explanations about how these work. I’ve tried looking myself several times over a long duration, but I cannot find anything relevant. Thanks for reading.
5 comments
Here is part of your answer, since there is a lot to unpack:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wamt3AAJI6M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wamt3AAJI6M) – Cure Dolly’s explanation (particularly around the 10 min mark is most relevant). Something like “場合が場合だから” is not a full sentence, but if I say it you would know from context how I feel. Also, it is a great way to say ‘No’ politely without actually saying “No”.
First 1, I’m guessing you mean 違うわね? This is final sentence ending particles わ + ね
Something with particle at the end of sentence most likely implying something after it, for example
誰がケーキを…
Might imply 食べた. を already shows the cake is the recipient of the action so it can be known with context.
For the second, verbs can modify nouns, just like adjectives
小さい犬 small dog
走っている犬 running dog
The second question: in sentences like 面白い本, the 面白い part qualifies the noun 本. We can use sentences to qualify nouns, too.
行く猫
The cat is going
The 行く part describes what the cat is doing.
すしを食べた人
The person who ate sushi
The すしを食べた part describing what the person is doing
本店に行く人は本を買った。
The person who went to the book store bought the book
The 本店に行く describes the person, を買った describes what the person did.
>Basically, a lot of my understanding of grammar comes from either things I have read, or loosely following JLPT guidelines.
Have you done any more formal grammar study (sounds not)? If not you’ll definitely benefit from studying a more formal cohesive grammar model, rather than one you try to construct for yourself as you go along.
I’ve not heard of the idea of particles ‘joining’ 2 points (not even sure what you mean). Particles mark what comes before them. Probably the most common ones are the case marking particles that dictate the role of nouns (or noun like entities) in a sentence. What you call a ‘broken particle’ will often be a trailing particle on a sentence that implies an unfinished sentence (one where the listener fills in the rest for themselves based on previous context).
The other thing you mention (行く予定) is simply noun modification – in this case by a verb ‘to go’ modifying ‘plan’ – a ‘to go plan’. Nothing particularly special about that.
If you do feel the need for a cohesive grammar explanation, may I suggest [the following video series](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLg9uYxuZf8x_A-vcqqyOFZu06WlhnypWj).
>Secondly, it is understanding when nouns immediately follow verbs without any forms of nominalisation. I see this a lot mostly in things such as news articles or advanced materials, and never in study materials.
Relative clauses are always formed by just putting the verb directly against the noun. Maybe I’m misunderstanding what exactly you’re asking about, because this should be showing up constantly in all levels of Japanese.