How to seperate words and particles when reading
When reading Japanese at such an entry level I often find myself stopping to translate every second or third word. This can take some time but it's good to help learn.

Often there are a series of words together and it's hard to take just the individual word out to be translated especially when some words contain what looks like it could be a particle, or kanji that change their meaning when prefixed or suffixed by certain other kana characters.

Is there any good method for a beginner to help identify where one word starts an another word ends?

Ideally I'd like to translate a sentence word for word so that I can try to work out the context of the sentence as I read in a liner manner... If I translate the entire sentence in one hit then I feel like this prevents optimal learning and also moves the dependency to translation tools such as google translate instead of dictionaries such as Jisho.

Question

How to seperate words and particles when reading
When reading Japanese at such an entry level I often find myself stopping to translate every second or third word. This can take some time but it's good to help learn.

Often there are a series of words together and it's hard to take just the individual word out to be translated especially when some words contain what looks like it could be a particle, or kanji that change their meaning when prefixed or suffixed by certain other kana characters.

Is there any good method for a beginner to help identify where one word starts an another word ends?

Ideally I'd like to translate a sentence word for word so that I can try to work out the context of the sentence as I read in a liner manner... If I translate the entire sentence in one hit then I feel like this prevents optimal learning and also moves the dependency to translation tools such as google translate instead of dictionaries such as Jisho.

Answer

I have thought about the idea  seriously and come to the conclusion that "there is no magic tip".

Then I will introduce basic method.

「そんなことはわざわざいわなくてもわかってくれているとばかりおもっていた」

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1．Let's find 格助詞, basic particles/markers including て、に、を、は、が、も, and cut the sentence into pieces

「そんなことはこちらがわざわざいわなくてもわかってくれているとばかりおもっていた」
　　　　　　　　　　　　　↓
「そんなこと【は】こちら【が】わざわざいわなくて【も】わかってくれている【と】ばかりおもっていた」
　　　　　　　　　　　　　↓
「そんなこと【は】、
こちら【が】
わざわざいわなくて【も】、
わかってくれている【と】、
ばかりおもっていた」

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2．Let's find verbs.

そんなこと【は】、
こちら【が】
わざわざ『言わ』なくて【も】、
『分かっ』て『くれ』て『いる』【と】、
ばかり『思っ』て『いた』

You can find 7 vebs, 『言う』『分かる』『くれる』『いる』『思う』『いる（いた）』

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3．Let's find noun/pronoun.

そんな”こと”【は】、
”こちら”【が】
わざわざ『言わ』なくて【も】、
『分かっ』て『くれ』て『いる』【と】、
ばかり『思っ』て『いた』

You can find 2 pronouns, ”こと”,"こちら分かる"

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4. The rest are adjective, adverb, particle to combine verbs(often "て"）, or others

'そんな'
'わざわざ'
'なく','て'
'て', 'て'
'ばかり', 'て'

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5． Let's analyze part  by part.

「そんなこと(such thing)は(subject, theme)、こちら(this side -> I)が(subject)、わざわざ(voluntarily?)いわなくても(if don't say), わかってくれている(have already known for me) と(that ....)ばかり(only)おもっていた(thought)」

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I thought he/she/they had already understood it ( for me ) even if I told him/her/them.
          or 
I thought he/she/they would have understood it ( for me ) even if I had not told him/her/them.

※ Sorry, I am not sure this is a right translation or not....

Answer

I would suggest familiarising yourself with the particles (は、が、に...), conjunctions (けど、それで...) and verb endings (ている、たら...)... essentially anything that 'joins' together the important words into a sentence.
I know you said you're at an entry level, but if possible, try to access texts which have more kanji. It makes it easier to identify the words, and if you're using technology it is easy to check kanji meanings anyway.
Good luck! :)

Answer

One absolute way is to find  ｢　を　｣ in a sentence. This hiragana is very special.
Because, it is always a particle and never makes a word together with other letters.

Answer

Could you give me an example sentence in English or in Japanese?

Answers · 4

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