I have sort of been studying Japanese my whole life, like primary school through to university level.
I have never been serious enough about it to be anything more than an intermediate level. At the moment I do about 20 minutes of revision each day, mostly because I don’t want to lose what I’ve learned.
I’d really like to have a very comprehensive Japanese grammar on hand to supplement my revision. I majored in linguistics at uni, and have experience reading descriptive grammars, so I would prefer something in that vein, rather than a learner’s grammar.
At the moment I’m thinking of buying the Routledge Japanese: A Comprehensive Grammar, but I’d like to hear if there are better options before splashing that kind of cash.
Really interesting to hear everyone’s recommendations!
2 comments
these three are good, also look for the blue and red intermediate and advanced ones, three in total
[https://www.amazon.com/Dictionary-Basic-Japanese-Grammar-%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E8%AA%9E%E5%9F%BA%E6%9C%AC%E6%96%87%E6%B3%95%E8%BE%9E%E5%85%B8-ebook/dp/B07STZY6X4/](https://www.amazon.com/Dictionary-Basic-Japanese-Grammar-%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E8%AA%9E%E5%9F%BA%E6%9C%AC%E6%96%87%E6%B3%95%E8%BE%9E%E5%85%B8-ebook/dp/B07STZY6X4/)
and this site is great, it breaks down japanese grammar in japanese terms
[https://imabi.org/](https://imabi.org/)
The Routledge grammar is OK, but in many areas not going into detail – also check if you can get a digital copy at a university library near you (do this for all books). But the new edition is much better than the original edition.
A very linguistically (and typologically) minded grammar is “Japanese” by Iwasaki published by John Benjamins. It is now in its 2nd substantially revised edition. However, the first edition is also good, so may be able to get it second hand at a vastly reducted price?
Also, if you are linguist, you might want to check out if the university library has Martin’s A Reference Grammar of Japanese. It is not for the faint-hearted, it is very long and organized in a bit chaotic way and hard to read due to the type-set. But he has a lot of data.
From a learner perspective, it may be useful to go for A Handbook of Japanese Grammar Patterns for Teachers and Learners. They have made it available as an online dictionary on iOS/Mac OS now, so I can only recommend you go for that. However, these grammar dictionaries (such as the Japan Times series as well) are only for constructions and presume a knowledge of the basic grammar.