Japanese grammar dictionaries worth keeping on the desk

A spellchecker can tell you that a word does not exist. It cannot tell you that 〜ようになります should have been 〜ようにします, or that ので would sit better than から in a polite email. Grammar slips in Japanese are made of perfectly good words in the wrong pattern, and the only way to settle them is to look the pattern up. That is the job of a grammar dictionary, and it is the one reference I would not want to check Japanese without.

This piece is about the grammar dictionaries that suit English-speaking writers, learners and checkers, how they differ, and how to actually use one in the middle of a proofreading pass rather than leaving it on the shelf.

What a grammar dictionary does that a textbook does not

A textbook teaches grammar in the order a course needs it. Lesson 8 introduces a pattern, lesson 14 adds a second meaning, and a note in lesson 19 compares it with something else. That is a good way to learn and a bad way to check, because when a doubt comes up you need all three pieces at once.

A grammar dictionary turns that around. It is organised by the item itself, so you go to the pattern that is bothering you and read everything about it: what it means, what it attaches to, how formal it is, and what it is easily confused with. For checking, that last part is the most useful. Most real errors are not invented forms. They are a near neighbour chosen by mistake: から for ので, に for で, ようになる for ようにする, ことにする for ことになる.

It also gives you something a native-speaker instinct does not: words for the correction. If you are reviewing a colleague's or a student's Japanese, "this sounds off" helps nobody. "This pattern describes a change that happens to you, and you mean a habit you are trying to build" is a correction they can learn from.

The basic volume

A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar by Makino and Tsutsui, from The Japan Times, has been the standard English-language grammar dictionary for learners for a long time.

How it is organised:

• Entries are listed alphabetically by romanized form, so you look up ba, dake, ni, node or yō ni the way you would look up a word in any dictionary.
• Each entry opens with a short definition and a few key sentences that show the pattern in its plainest form.
• A formation section shows what the item attaches to: plain verb, masu stem, noun plus だ, and so on. This is the part to check when a learner has the right pattern in the wrong form.
• More examples follow, then notes on usage, register and the items it is often confused with, with cross-references to those entries.
• Front matter explains the grammatical terms the entries use, which helps if you have never had to name a part of speech in Japanese grammar.

It suits learners from their first year onward, and it suits translators and editors who need to explain a correction in English. It is less useful for very formal written Japanese: the basic volume covers the core of the language, and the patterns of reports, contracts and newspapers mostly live in the next one.

The intermediate volume, and beyond

A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar by the same authors follows the same layout for the next layer of the language. That means longer compound patterns, more formal connectives, and the expressions that start to appear when you read articles and business writing rather than textbook dialogues.

The structure is familiar if you know the basic volume, and the entries often assume you have it. For proofreading work it is the more useful of the two once the texts you check are written for adults at work, because that is where the formal patterns cluster. The authors also have an advanced volume in the same style, which fits translators and readers who work mainly with formal written Japanese.

Should you buy both? If you check learners' writing, yes: their errors cover the whole range, and the basic volume is where most of them are explained. If you only check business or technical Japanese written by fluent writers, the intermediate volume is the one you will open more.

Choosing between them

The last row is a category rather than one book. Several Japanese publishers produce pattern dictionaries written for teachers and learners of Japanese, with explanations in Japanese. They are a good step once the English explanations start to feel like a detour, because they use the terms Japanese editors use when they talk about a sentence.

How to use one while proofreading

Owning the book is the easy part. Here is a routine that keeps it in the loop.

1. Read the draft once for meaning and mark anything that makes you hesitate, without stopping to fix it. A light pencil mark or a comment is enough.
2. For each mark, name the pattern. Not "this sentence is odd" but "this is ようになる". If you cannot name it, you cannot look it up.
3. Look up the pattern and check three things in this order: the formation (is it attached correctly?), the meaning (does it say what the writer meant?), and the notes on similar items (is a neighbour a better fit?).
4. Write the correction with a reason, in a few words. The reason is what turns a correction into something the writer can reuse.
5. Keep a list of the patterns you looked up. After a few documents from the same writer, the list shows you where their slips cluster, and you can read their next draft with that in mind.

A worked example

Say a colleague sends you this line for a self-introduction:

毎日日本語で日記を書くようになります。

The intended meaning is "I will make a point of writing a diary in Japanese every day." Look up the two patterns, ようになる and ようにする. The first describes a change that comes about, often gradually: you come to be able to do something, or you end up doing it. The second describes making an effort to do something, building a habit on purpose. The writer means the second:

毎日日本語で日記を書くようにします。

A second one, from an email announcing a move:

来月から大阪支社で働くことにしました。

Grammatically fine. But koto ni suru presents the move as the writer's own decision, and koto ni naru presents it as something that was decided, by the company or by circumstances. In a work announcement, the second is the usual and more modest choice:

来月から大阪支社で働くことになりました。

Neither of these is something a rule-based tool will flag. The checker on the front page catches patterns such as ra-nuki forms and doubled particles, which is useful, but a choice between two correct patterns needs a person and a reference. For the register side of corrections like the second one, see the keigo checklist for business email.

A small reference shelf beyond grammar

A grammar dictionary answers grammar questions. Three other kinds of book cover the rest of what comes up at the desk.

A kanji course book helps with the slips that are not grammar at all: a wrong component, a misremembered reading, a homophone picked from the conversion list. The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Course is a good fit here because each entry brings meaning, readings and example words together, so it works as a quick reference as well as a course. It also helps with okurigana questions, which are a spelling matter rather than grammar.

A monolingual Japanese dictionary (国語辞典, kokugo jiten) is where you check that a word means what the writer thinks it means, and which kanji spelling is standard. Any good one from a major publisher will do; pick one in a format you will actually open.

A usage handbook of the kind Japanese newspapers and publishers keep for spelling and word choice (用字用語, yōji yōgo) helps when your question is "which form do we use here" rather than "is this correct". It matters most in long documents where consistency is the real issue.

For how these fit next to manuscript paper and a keyboard, see the writing desk. And for usage shifts that are not quite errors, such as ra-nuki forms, this piece on when to step in covers the judgement calls.

Questions readers ask

Can I use a grammar dictionary instead of a textbook?

Not well. A grammar dictionary assumes you already know some Japanese and want to check a point. A textbook builds the basics in order, with practice. Use the textbook to learn and the dictionary to check.

Are the romanized headwords a problem for advanced users?

They take a moment to get used to if you think in kana, but they are consistent, and the entries themselves give the Japanese. Once you know the system, lookup is fast.

Is an online grammar site good enough?

For a quick reminder, often yes. For checking, a printed or properly edited reference has the advantage that every entry follows the same structure and the comparisons between similar items are written deliberately, not collected from many authors.

Which volume should a translator start with?

If you translate from Japanese and mostly read formal text, the intermediate volume. If you also review writing by learners or non-native writers, add the basic volume, since that is where most of their slips are explained.