Understanding Japanese Adverbs Through Images

イメージでわかる！日本語の副詞

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In Japanese textbooks and lessons, adverbs are usually introduced little by little as "new words," with students expected to memorise them bit by bit each time. However, there are loads of adverbs that crop up in similar situations, or ones with close meanings but different uses, so grouping them together for study brings big advantages.

That's what this textbook teaches, and it does so through images! This book isn't just a list of adverbs, but a crashcourse on how to use them.

Level: Beginner - IntermediateJLPT Level: N4Language Style: Polite & CasualCompanion App: No

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What does Understanding Japanese Adverbs Through Images cover?

You'll effectively communicate your thoughts and ideas.
You'll correctly express what you want to say, even in short sentences.

Features of This Book

Easy to understand because you learn through illustrations.
You can learn the "images" that adverbs convey.
By comparing similar adverbs, you can firmly understand their differences.
You can check what you've learned with practice problems.

Student Review

We covered the other book in this series, Understanding Japanese Particles from the Image, before.

While that book is very useful for helping Japanese language students understand the completely foreign concept of particles, here publisher ASK turns their hand to adverbs.

Adverbs are pretty much universal, but that does not make this book any less important.

In many ways, for intermediate learners, this book is even more useful than their release on particles.

The book opens with an explanation of just how much students can improve their speech by using adverbs.

It takes beginner–intermediate Japanese from something routine and a little robotic to something with more personality.

Compared to their particle book, there is quite a lot more text, which is helpful, as the author takes time to explain why using certain adverbs generates different responses or impressions.

This book is aimed at learners from beginner to intermediate level, but honestly, it’s most helpful once you’re already into Genki 2 or beyond. There’s some English throughout, but you’ll get the most out of it by really focusing on the Japanese. That’s where you’ll start to see how small language choices can change the way what you’re saying feels.

Most textbooks just toss adverbs at you as a list to memorize, without really showing how they work in real sentences or what kind of feeling they add. That’s what makes this book stand out as it focuses on nuance, using visuals to help you sense when and how each word works best.

For example, when it compares words like ずいぶん, かなり, だいぶ, and けっこう, it shows how each one can describe something being larger than expected, such as being surprised by putting on a big t-shirt, but with slightly different shades of meaning. ずいぶん suggests surprise, while けっこう feels more like something just turning out differently from what you expected. These fine differences rarely get taught in ordinary textbooks, which makes this a really valuable resource.

Although it’s marketed as beginner-to-intermediate, what that really means is that it covers adverbs from those levels; not that the explanations themselves are always simple. Some sections, like those comparing different words for “finally” (やっと, ついに, とうとう, and いよいよ), have no English explanations at all.

The illustrations do a great job of showing each word’s emotional tone, but since some of the written descriptions are around the JLPT N3 level, you’ll get more out of it if you can read a bit of Japanese. As clear as the visuals are, it’s still possible to interpret them differently, so reading the Japanese helps you catch what the author really meant.

Teacher Review

Before using Understanding Japanese Adverbs Through Images:

As with all the supplementary textbooks we’ve covered, you should have finished Genki 1 and be at least partway through Genki 2.

What to read next?

The other book in the same series, Understanding Japanese Particles from the Image, is a good companion book if you're still struggling with particles.