All the hints and explanations which would take ages to understand out of dictionaries or textbooks are summarized in and easy to understand way. As often with sequels, not as excellent as the "A DICTIONARY OF BASIC JAPANESE GRAMMAR", but still a must for the one who seriously but quickly wants to learn Japanese.

The best part of this book is having English explanations for the nuances that I just can't understand in another language. The book will give me a sample sentence in both kanji/hiragana with the grammar point marked in red, and then an English translation. Not only that, it explains nuances in ways that I could never have understood had it been presented in Japanese.

For example, take the conjunction, ijou (wa) / 以上(は). The book gives me plenty of sample sentences/translations for the most general use, then explains other cases/situations and proceeds with sample sentences/translations for those, too.

This book is not a textbook--it's a dictionary/reference as the title says, and it works best when you're trying to figure out what someone said, but don't quite understand the specific grammar involved. Definitely a keeper. I'm looking forward to completing my collection of all three of these!

This book has proved extremely helpful to me as I try to pursue my goal of learning Japanese. I am studying in Kyoto Japan, and use this book everday in my studies. I find most of the examples very useful both in their content and application. Since the book is arranged in dictionary form, it is very easy to use. If you have not mastered the Japanes Hiragana, then I would do so before buying this book, because romaji has been eliminated. Since it is an intermediate level book, that is justified and useful in that it pulls the romaji crutch out, and forces you to concentrate on the characters.

This book is full of nuances and hints that will take you from the beginner level to ready to read a newspaper - not quite but close. Once again the authors of 'A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammer' have collaberated to produce a book that is infinitely usable and a must for reference and learning. The book is definitely a step up from the basic version with no romanised readings for the Japanese but rather the furigana to show you how to read those Kanji you haven't studied yet. The grammer however is very good but there are a couple of examples that don't get used very often in everyday conversation. This book is a step towards the literary world of Japanese as it leads you towards Japanese proficiency.