For any beginner of Japanese, adjectives and adverbs are bound to present a challenge. Unlike English adjectives, Japanese ones conjugate, meaning that you must memorize their various forms before being able to build sentences of any complexity. Adverbs do not conjugate, but make use of particles to show their grammatical relationship to other words, and some have very subtle shades of meaning that are difficult to grasp. Moreover, many do not translate into adverbs in English.

The role these parts of speech play in adding flavor to the Japanese language is invaluable. This handy reference manual introduces the basic (and basics of) adjectives and adverbs in a clear and sensible way, enabling students not only to speak Japanese but to do it with pizzazz.

The book is divided roughly in half, the first half dealing with adjectives, the second with adverbs. Each is prefaced by a short introduction that serves as an overview of the material introduced. The section on adjectives is divided into two parts: Part 1 covers the conjugations of i- and na-adjectives and some basic auxiliary adjectives, and Part 2 presents common sentence patterns in which adjectives appear.

The adverb section is arranged by topic. Among the types of adverbs explained here are those used to express time, quantity, degree, circumstance, and natural sounds or actions (the ubiquitous onomatopoeic adverbs).

Each entry in this book is given a simple, concise English explanation and two or more example sentences to illustrate its usage. Exercises every few pages enable students to measure their understanding. Finally, a number of quick-reference lists in the appendixes provide a convenient means of recalling and building vocabulary.

Together with its sister publication, The Handbook of Japanese Verbs, this unique manual is certain to provide years of friendly guidance.
About the Author:
TAEKO KAMIYA received her BA from Doshisha Women's College and MAs from the University of San Francisco in education and from the Monterey Institute of International Studies in linguistics. A veteran language teacher, with 25 years' experience teaching Japanese, she is the author of numerous books on the Japanese language, including The Handbook of Japanese Verbs and The Handbook of Japanese Adjectives and Adverbs (both by Kodansha International).