Particles can be difficult. Particles can be tiresome. But there is no denying it: they must be learned in order to speak decent Japanese. It is unfortunate that textbooks cover only the most basic particles, and only their most common usages at that. It is a pity that dictionaries are not always as helpful as thy could be. Then what, you may ask, is the student supposed to do when confronted with a new particle or an unusual usage of an old one. The student begins, simply, by poking about, thumbing through this book and that, looking for a definition and, if lucky, a sample sentence. The result, whether fruitful of not, is that you have spent a good deal of valuable time trying to discover the meaning of an extremely small word. This book includes all of the most common particles - and almost all of the less common ones as well.