Particles are a prick. They are a very different way to organise a grammar for an English speaker. The classic is “what is the difference between は and が?”, and to a lesser extent “when should I use に or で?”
As far as は and が go there are various explanations on their differences. The [...]
Kanji gets a lot simpler when you start thinking about them in their component parts I think. For me that is the case anyway. On this theme, Salvatore-John has a book called “Easy Kanji” which groups kanji according to common components. It is good for low-intermediates and people who already have a couple of hundred [...]
Yesterday I came across the sentence 慌てる乞食はもらいが少ない。 In doing so, I had to find out how the hell to read 乞食 (こじき） which is a composite of 請う・乞う （こう – does anyone know if there is a difference in these two kanji? I suspect that 請う is less desperate? Like ask for or request. Whereas 乞う [...]