Theres a first time...

[blane11]

for everything...*sigh*. I have a few questions regarding the Japanese language, but first I should say what i already know. I can read katakana (i know most if not all of the symbols/combinations of katakana), and a little hiragana. I've picked up a few random words from SRW games and anime. Thats pretty much it... so, question time.

Are there words that can only be written in hiragana, or should i just go to a kanji dictionary for vocabulary building? If there are words that are only written in hiragana, are there any word banks with all of them in it?

I need something that tells me how particle words work (as detailed about it as possible) as the information i already have on it is shallow and i can't understand it (such as calling one of them a softener, showing a single sentence example, and moving on).

Some good resources about Japanese grammar. Again, as detailed as possible.

Verb conjugations. Again, the resource i already have just isn't detailed enough and i don't understand what it means most of the time.

Whatever the best kanji database is that you can think of.

Anything you think I missed.

Edit: Oh, and I should mention that I'm doing this alone/self-teaching/whatever you wanna call it.

[anrakushi]

well most of these questions have been answered recently in posts, so please look through them. but at the end of the day the ebst advice i can give you is get a good beginners book.

i really can't understand how people wanting to learn the language aren't about to afford enough for a decent text book. i have at least 12 books myself.

as for words written in hiragana, there are words that are commonly written in hiragana only such as 'thank you': ありがとう but it can also be written in kanji: 有難う the thing is children's books start off with just hiragana and as they learn the kanji they progress to include kanji. it would be a difficult task for you to start of straight into kanji for learning vocabulary. leave it for later, kanji is going to take you a lot of time to master a decent level.

so for example you should learn sentences that are simple like below in hiragana first, then as you learn the kanji you can fill them in

i want to go to the park
こうえんへいきたい - no kanji
こうえんへ行きたい - started learning
公園へ行きたい - continued learning, starting to be able to use more and more.

[blane11]

Yeah, I noticed the stuff in the other posts. I spent a while writing down addresses (firefox erases my bookmarks frequently). Thanks for the help though, that really cleared up alot.