I know how the sentence construction works, but Im looking for some personal tips or experiences that helped you. I get lost when forming them myself or when translating long ones.
When reading, focus on phrases first, sentences are just combinations of phrases with various joining mechanisms like te-form, the various if constructs, etc
For constructing, look up existing example sentences using words you know, which are known to be correct sentences, and then swap out some nouns and verbs and such with a similar other word you’re working on. I use weblio https://ejje.weblio.jp/ (don’t use Google translate or deepl or chatgpt for thus)
Some textbooks will have the verbs paired with particles, which helps eliminate some guess work.
For longer sentences, [this diagram](https://imgur.com/gallery/zdMPQ97) might be helpful. In a more complex sentence with relative clauses and so on, this should still hold true, but individual grammar points may or may not have their own restrictions.
2 comments
When reading, focus on phrases first, sentences are just combinations of phrases with various joining mechanisms like te-form, the various if constructs, etc
For constructing, look up existing example sentences using words you know, which are known to be correct sentences, and then swap out some nouns and verbs and such with a similar other word you’re working on. I use weblio https://ejje.weblio.jp/ (don’t use Google translate or deepl or chatgpt for thus)
Some textbooks will have the verbs paired with particles, which helps eliminate some guess work.
For longer sentences, [this diagram](https://imgur.com/gallery/zdMPQ97) might be helpful. In a more complex sentence with relative clauses and so on, this should still hold true, but individual grammar points may or may not have their own restrictions.