Is N3 Grammar easier than N4 Grammar?

Japanese
#1

On N4, It was a pain in the ass to do 3 points per day, and I was always feel pushing myself too much. But now, I can easily do 5 points, and I feel better retention than ever. Currently, I’m at 95/217 points from N3, and my stats seem to corroborate with my feelings about my retention:

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Going into N3 fearless, I watched a bunch of Cure Dolly videos to help with N5+N4 stuff that were still bugging me, and changed my learning strategy routine a little bit. I assumed that was the reason behind N3 becoming easier, but maybe it’s actually easier and I’m just fooling myself? :slight_smile:

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Frustration is taking over …
#2

I also feel this way with N3 grammar over n4 grammar. I see what you mean. I think purely cause N4 is the essentials and basics. N3 to me is more adding on to what you’ve learned in N4 and N5. Fundamental bases are usually a lot at first!

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#3

I agree with ShinobiTay here. Now that you’ve worked hard and gotten a solid foundation, building on top of it becomes easier. Don’t worry, in the next 100 of n3 the synonyms will knock you down a peg :joy:

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#4

When studying a foreign language grammar is generally taught by how common it is rather than how difficult it is. There are plenty of pretty easy grammar points in N1 but those points are rarely used.

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#5

went through the same thing-N3 is quite a bit easier (more expressions instead of foundational grammar )but has a lot of synonyms which makes it kinda hard to some people (I found it easy enough with time) You’ll find it good to know the easiest ones are n2 and n1 since they are literally most of the times just words

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#6

All the synonyms are killing me, man

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#7

お前はもう死んでいる

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#8

So I guess I’m not completely wrong, the fundamentals played a good role, but it is a little easier overall.

I have also been thinking that it may also because of a change in mentality. In N3 I went quite fearless, and in N4 I was quite worried on how hard would it be, maybe the anxiety got the best of me…

The while synonyms where a little pain, but in a few days they became normal, like the others, so it’s standard stuff for me I guess.

I was thinking of slowing down on N2 and N1, but a lot of N3 has already been glorified vocabulary up until now, maybe I’ll just keep the +5 a day and let time do it’s thing.

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#9

なにイ

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#10

Yeah, N4 is when all of the conjugating gets real serious and the honorific, polite, and humble forms kick my ass…

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#11

I find that N3 and up are often special expressions that recombine simple vocabulary and grammar. For instance yesterday I started the ものか N1 item because I encountered it in something I was reading. While it’s technically fairly “advanced” grammar, it’s pretty easy to understand and remember if you know 物 and か.

So in that sense I do find that many of these points feel “free” to learn because they’re just fairly straightforward combinations of things I already know.

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#12

i think n3 is easier than n4 personally because a lot of them feel like vocab to me. like for example, n3 has 途端（に）as one of the grammar points, so i remember it as “just as i did x” and move on pretty easily (in the case of 途端 I had already added it to my anki vocab too so that helps).

n4 has a lot more conjugations and stuff to worry about. polite/plain/humble and their sometimes irregular conjugations. The only “conjugation” i really remember being in n3 is the ず ones, which arent too bad. It feels like n3 had more of those vocab-like points

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#13

I guess it depends on the person. I’m terrible at remembering vocabulary (in my native language, English, and Japanese). However, I love understanding details about grammar. N3 grammar feels more like vocabulary (not so much to understand but to memorize), as others have said, and with many synonyms to remember. So for me, N3 grammar is more difficult, as it is vocabulary. :woman_shrugging:

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#14

Personally N4 was a bit difficult for me due to the conditionals (at least if you want to truly understand the differences, rather than just answering BunPro questions). The honorifics weren’t too bad, but one set of grammar points that confused me at first were the ことにする、ようにする、ことになる、ようになる set and their variations. I’d get them mixed up all the time.

N3 was challenging due to all the new vocab and similarities between grammar points, as has been expressed.

On the other hand, N2 and (even more so) N1 have been really easy for me since they are mostly just permutations of previously learned grammar. There’s a lot of old school grammar as well, but they are just different ways of saying the same thing you’ve been studying up to that point. That has been the light at the end of the tunnel, as the saying goes.

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#15

There may be hope for me then! I basically stopped adding new grammar points when I finished N3 because my brain couldn’t take it. I really hope that when I feel ready to move on, N2 and N1 will be easier for me too.

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#16

I did the same, except my break was way too long. In retrospect, I should’ve started N2 sooner.

Just start by going for the easy grammars, like さすが or つもりで which either you already know or can easily figure out and go from there. The ones that might be “hard” at first are the old school grammar, which have new vocabulary in them. But they’ll get easier with repetition, as with everything. You got this :sunglasses::+1:.

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#17

I’m guessing it’s more of one of those ‘broke through the plateau’ things. You just got better at Japanese grammar in general, partly by slogging through N4.

Our brains are literally super-mega learning machines. Keep working at something and practising it, and you will end up learning something.

Congrats, you’ve ‘leveled up’ on Japanese grammar, from what it looks like to me! :partying_face:

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#18

That makes a lot of sense! I think I’ll start doing that slowly and also add any grammar points that I encounter by immersion. :smiley:

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#19

Hey @albcasahu!

I was just watching this video as listening practice, as well as a refresher on N2 grammar, and thought about you. I think this will be helpful since she groups grammar points that have similar meanings together, which I think makes it easier to learn. Hopefully this will be helpful to you :blush:.

Take care!

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#20

Grouping similar grammar points and comparing them is extremely useful for me, thank you! I think I will watch the equivalent video for N3 as a refresher and then move on to this one as I study N2 grammar. Thank you so much! :smiley:

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