When I moved to Japan in 2013 I spent the first six months taking intensive Japanese classes at a language school in Tokyo. During that time I got frustrated with the quality of the teaching materials and in particular the explanation of grammar rules which I found over-complicated things for the average student who just wanted to get a hang of the basics.

To that end I put together my own quick reference guide which covers a variety of useful topics, summarised in as simple a manner as possible:

Hiragana and Katakana

Numbers & Times / Dates

Counters & Pointers

Expressions of Time

People & Family

Useful Verbs

Useful Adjectives

Conjugation Basics

Common Verb Conjugations

Useful Adverbs

Useful Nouns

Common Particles

Sentence Recipes

It’s sat dormant on my computer for the last few years so I felt it was time to set it free in the hope it might be useful to others. You can download it for free as a PDF or from the iBooks Store (for iPhone / iPad).

Download PDF Download iBook

The guide roughly covers the content of the first ‘Minna no Nihongo‘ textbook and is intended as a supplement for classroom study, not as a replacement – it does not include copious examples or explanations.

While the content has been proof read by a native speaker there may be errors – if you spot one or have suggestions how things could be improved please get in touch and I’ll do my best to keep it updated.