Fun with Japanese adjectives and adverbs: a book review

Before my recent trip to Japan, I was very excited to see how much my Japanese had improved since I began my studies of the JLPT the previous year. Good news is that daily study helped, but I am became acutely aware that I was still making lots of little mistakes with things like basic conjugation, or awkward ways of expressing things.

So, when I got back home, I cracked open a book I bought a while ago: The Handbook of Japanese Adjectives and Adverbs by Taeko Kamiya, and delved right in. I bought this after receiving a good book recommendation for another book by Kamiya from Robert at Shiawase.co.uk related to Japanese verbs. I bought that book as well, but only very recently have I started to take a look, so expect a book review soon.

Anyway, the book on adjectives and adverbs covers both in two parts: the first section talks about adjectives, the various conjugations and how they’re used, while the second-half covers a large number of common adverbs. Unlike adjectives, adverbs in Japanese never conjugate, so what you see is what you get, and usage is fairly straightforward. Adverbs are typically placed just before the word they modify. However, the problem with adverbs is the nuance though, and the hair-thin differences between say 時々 (tokidoki) and たまに (tama ni) which mean “once in a while” and “once in great while” respectively. Then there are redundant adverbs like いつも (itsumo) and 常に (tsune ni) which are identical and mean “always”, but the former is spoken, while the latter is usually written. Yet another example is 度々 (tabitabi) and しばしば (shibashiba) which are completely identical and mean “constantly, repeatedly” as in a action taken repeatedly or routinely. You can see how subtly different these can get.

Adjectives though are surprisingly complex as the book eludes too. What’s interesting is what defines an adjective. For example, when saying something like “I want to eat” (tabetai, 食べたい), I was not aware that the “tai” ending is actually an adjective. Also, I was not aware that for na-adjectives, the “na” at the is part of the word. So for words like 素敵な (sutekina, “nice-looking”) or 静かな (shizukana, “quiet”), that な isn’t just another particle, it is part of the word. Knowing this actually really helps clarify other conjugations later. So, while the book starts with the very basics of adjectives, it covers them in very solid detail, and builds upon it as you get into harder sections. This is the kind of fundamental information I wish I had known years ago, and the book does a nice job drilling each point in the book with repeated exercises and later exercises which also touch upon earlier points.

So, the book definitely gets five out of five starts in my book. Even if you don’t get the book, definitely take the time to learn adjectives and adverb usage properly. It really helps your Japanese sound smoother when you know how to conjugate an adjective on the fly, or know how to express the right nuance using the right adverb, so don’t underestimate this aspect of Japanese language. While not directly related to the JLPT, getting comfortable with this kind of skills makes the difference in impressing Japanese or just sounding like another half-baked student.

Good luck!