List of similar grammar?

Bunpro
#1

One of my biggest problems in the reviews are similar grammar points. Some examples to get the idea:

mushiro/kawari ni/igai
-tokoro/-bakari
sou da/mitai/you da
kekkou/kanari

Bunpro does a good job to explain the differences and giving hints in the question what is meant. But usually I have to recognize the similarities, write them down and explain the differences for myself. Just going through learning new stuff and reviewing it alone doesn’t do the job at all for me.

That’s fine but I wonder whether someone already did that so other learners could save a lot of time.

Does anyone know such a list? Doesn’t have to do something with Bunpro. A generic grammar website that focusses on these topics would be fine too.

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#2

Shin Kanzen Master series does this. Maggie Sensei website does this. Japanese with Anime website kinda does this. Cure Dolly kinda does this. Nihongo no Mori does this. Many stack exchange threads exist that do this. Dictionary of Japanese Grammar does this. Many/most resources do this, including Bunpro.

Resources don’t necessarily know what things you’ll find confusing so different resources compare different grammar points for different reasons. For example, on the list you made, I am personally not sure what is confusing about mushiro/kawari ni/igai so if I were to be making a grammar guide then it would never enter my head to compare these. Doesn’t mean they aren’t confusing but just that not every guide will compare everything.

If your problem is that you get confused between these things when, for example, reading then the solution, in my experience, is just reading more and using a mix of resources. Use Japanese dictionaries and google in Japanese if you can as sometimes the Japanese explanation is a lot clearer than the English one.

If your problem is that you are failing these points on Bunpro then the problem is likely that the English translations can be or are the same. I suggest using the nuance hints to solve that. Also pay attention to the sentence pattern and surrounding grammar as that does dictate what is acceptable or not. If you don’t get bounced back by Bunpro to try again then your answer is probably not actually grammatically sound or synonymous in that sentence so it is worth going back and re-learning the nuance/usage.

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#3

I’m basically just lazy and would like to have a list or matrix with similar grammar. I have absolutely no problem to get the difference if I read the description in Bunpro and compare the nuances.

I know most of the sources you suggested but I never saw a list there. Do you have a link for something like that? Or do you just mean that they explain the differences in individual videos/webpages? That’s not really what I want. As said I don’t really have trouble to understand the differences if I take the time to compare them in detail. But that takes time and I just want to save time, that’s all. A list would help because sometimes I’m not even aware that there are maybe three similar grammar points because I remember only two. That happens a lot.

That some of my examples are clear for you and not for me could have its cause in my native language which is not English. It makes everything harder with English grammar guides because I have to understand two foreign languages at the same time. Sometimes there’s also a very direct translation into my language while it’s quite complicated with English. And vice-versa.

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#4

Nihongo no Mori has playlists on their youtube channel (although they have taken down some videos). There are a few playlists that compare similar grammar points. You can probably use the video titles in those playlists as a list. Here is a link to one such playlist. They have others if you check their channel.

The Shinkanzen Master grammar books (新完全マスター文法) group together grammar points based on similiarity so that may provide a useful list for you. I haven’t used them much as I am not planning on taking the JLPT but I really like the way the explanations are written, personally. I think there are also more comprehesnive tables/lists of grammar points based around specific usage or confusing elements (structures that use もの vs こと etc) so you might be interested in that.

Both of those resources are entirely in Japanese, as far as I know, so you don’t need to worry about English getting in the way. I am a native English speaker and even I find some English explanations to be unclear so I have a lot of respect for people like you who are English L2s and use it to learn Japanese. Also, I am not sure what your level is but I have only used these resources for the N2 and N1 level materials.

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#5

Thanks, I’ll have a look at that. Shinkanzen Master is a source I didn’t really use so far as I try to avoid textbooks. :slight_smile: But that sounds promising. I usually learn mostly through immersion and I look up grammar in “日本語文型辞典” (English Edition) (my favorite grammar dictionary) and the three “A Dictionary of Basic/Intermediate/Advanced Japanese Grammar” books.

Reading in Japanese is no problem, I actually read normal Japanese books. I’m around N2 level, I guess (6000-8000 words, 2400 kanji, can read at a usable speed). Mainly grammar is my weakness and around mid N3 level, that’s why I’m using Bunpro to fix that finally. Works much better than textbooks where I usually lose concentration after five minutes. Mindless SRS grinding and consuming native content work best for me.

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