Description

The Unofficial Learner’s Vocabulary and Grammar Companion to Minna no Nihongo 1 is your one-stop destination for additional explanations and clarifications of everything in the Minna no Nihongo (MNN) Translation and Grammar Notes 1 (version 2, published in 2012) book.

As someone who started learning Japanese with the MNN books, especially the translation and grammar book, I thought many things were presented in odd ways or not explained thoroughly. Often, I would learn something from the book just for it to be corrected or clarified afterwards by Japanese teachers or natives.

Rather than learning something and then having to partially unlearn it later on your language-learning journey, this guide provides those clarifications and corrections to learn it once. As a result, there will be more information in this companion guide than in the main textbook. It will also go into more detail. This is to avoid those “edge cases” where MNN says to use a certain grammar and later comes back and says “Oh remember when we taught you this? Actually you can use that for 90% of what we said but for this other 10%, use this instead”.

Layout of the Minna no Nihongo 1 Companion Guide

Each MNN Lesson is a separate section. At the top of each section is clarification about the vocabulary when MNN is ambiguous with its translation or explanation. For example, does “fall” mean the season as in “winter, spring, summer, and fall”, does it mean “to fall” (verb) or is it a noun, such as “the fall of the Roman Empire”?

When needed, vocabulary will be followed by clarifying the “Useful Words and Information” sections. These sections often have information not 100% relevant to modern, 21st-century Japan, so there are clarifications and additions to explain which are still used and how.

Just like the textbook, each section in this guide ends with the grammar, which is more thoroughly explained as needed. Examples (different ones from the textbook) demonstrate each grammar point in action.

After going through all the lessons, some additional materials have been included in the appendix. The titles are:

• Subject vs topic: は vs が
• Objects: を vs が
• Verbs of motion: を vs に vs へ
• Places: で vs を
• Pronouns for “I”
• How to say “you”

See also:

• MNN1 Bundle (companion guide, verb conjugation and verb form charts, practice book)
• MNN1 Verb conjugation and verb form charts
• MNN1 Unofficial practice book
• Minna no Nihongo 1 Translation and Grammar textbook (version 2)
• Minna no Nihongo 1 full textbook set