Teach a man to fish…

I’ve been studying Japanese as a hobby for a bit more than a year now, and over time I’ve become better and better at finding answers to my own questions about the language. For this blog post, I made a list of some of the resources and methods you can use to find answers to your own questions too.

First of all

Have you done a basic Google search? That is often enough.

You probably need to enable Japanese search results.

Helpful search terms: 意味、由来、語源、XとY 違い

Kanji

To find general information about a kanji, search for it on jisho.org.

eg: Search for 日#kanji to find info about that kanji.

To find words that use a kanji, search for it on jisho.org using wildcards.

eg: Search for *日* to see all words on jisho.org that use that kanji.

To find basic etymology of kanji, search on wikitionary.org.

eg: The English page for 本 and the Japanese page for 本.

The English and Japanese pages aren’t always the same. Check both.

Words and Sentences

For English-Japanese or Japanese-English word lookup, search on jisho.org.

eg: Search for dance to find corresponding Japanese words.

to find corresponding Japanese words. eg: Search for 踊り to find corresponding English words.

You can also find idioms and proverbs on jisho.org.

eg: Search for 初心忘るべからず to find its meaning.

To search Japanese dictionaries, I suggest kotobank or weblio.

Japanese dictionaries have way more detail. Use them!!!!

Seriously!!

Note that many words have self-explanatory definitions from their kanji.

eg: 人工 = “human-craft” = artificial

You can find the meanings of kanji on jisho.org (as explained earlier.)

See Appendix 4 of “The Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Course” for details.

You can search for sentences using jisho.org, ejje.weblio.jp, and Google.

Also, if you Google search for a word/expression, you usually find information about it.

I recommend Yomichan for quick dictionary lookups. Especially with a J-J dictionary.

Pronunciation

Dogen’s lectures on Japanese phonetics are awesome. You can find them on his Patreon.

The first few lessons are free on YouTube.

You can find clips of native speakers saying words using forvo.com.

eg: Searching for こんにちは finds various audio clips.

JapanesePod101 also has a database of native speakers saying words.

You can conveniently access this database through Yomichan.

Note that Japanese dictionaries often include pitch accent information.

This is normally written as [N] , where N is the mora of the pitch drop.

, where is the mora of the pitch drop. If it says [0] , then the word has no pitch drop (ie. it has the 平板 pitch pattern).

, then the word has no pitch drop (ie. it has the 平板 pitch pattern). eg: Searching for 食べる on weblio says [2] for the pitch drop on the 2nd mora.

You can also see pitch accent information using “Suzuki-kun: Prosody Tutor”.

Note that Suzuki-kun is not always right.

Grammar

For basic grammar, have a decent textbook at hand.

I hear Tae Kim’s Grammar Guide is good, and it’s totally free.

The “A Dictionary of Japanese Grammar” books are a good reference in English.

The books mainly cover grammar forms, but the appendices are also interesting.

As a formal reference for grammar, I recommend 庭三郎 (niwasaburoo)’s guide.

This website is amazingly detailed considering that it is totally free.

If the text looks broken, set your web browser’s text encoding to EUC-JP.

The author also made an amazing dictionary of verbs and their usage.

The YouTube channel 日本語の森 (nihongo no mori) has many free grammar lectures.

Use YouTube’s search feature if you’re looking for a specific grammar form.

Many grammar forms and “grammar words” are also explained in Japanese dictionaries.

Of course, if you Google search a grammar form, you usually find information about it.

Still can’t find an answer?

If you still can’t find an answer, ask on Japanese Language Stack Exchange.

Search the website before, to see if your question has already been answered.

Do not post translation/transcription requests without showing prior work.

Avoid asking overly opinion-based questions.

Read the rest of the rules too 🙂