Please help me master particles


What would be your recommendation to dominate the japanese particles? I'm
tired of my sentences and my speaking being destroyed by the fault of a little
stupid particle. I'm studying the minna no nihongo book and i'm starting the
lesson 16 but i'm still having problems with these particles!




This is a very subjective answer but, there is no "quick fix" for particles,
as there are many exceptions, special cases, etc. Mastery takes a long time,
even if you focus on it.

Consider prepositions in English, which fulfill a similar role. Why do we play
"on" a tennis court, "at" a park, and "in" a sand box? It feels easy to a
native speaker, but it is hard to give/explain a rule that always works, and
L2 learners will struggle.

I suggest you focus on learning how to use particles well enough to understand
and make yourself understood, and then gain mastery over time by paying
attention to them as you read and write (preferably a lot). This will take
years, but that is not unusual.

In general, mastering the small number of functional/adverbial components
commonly used in a new language is actually harder and more time consuming
than building up a core noun/adjective/verb vocabulary of several thousand..
which may be surprising/discouraging if this is your first time seriously
studying a second language, but is quite normal.

For example, and maybe some perspective, I am in my 5th year of Japanese
study, conversational, working for a Japanese company, have a vocab in excess
of 10k words, read multiple full length books, etc.. and still make basic
particle errors daily. It takes time.

