What we should know

Hey there, here's a handy, categorized list of everything discussed in the Japanese for Busy People 1 book (apart from vocabulary).

Writing

1. Hiragana alphabet
2. Katakana alphabet

Speech, sound and social interaction rules

1. Pronunciation
2. Changing sounds in contexts (fun/bun/kun)
3. Bowing
4. Basic daily phrases (hi, bye, sorry, etc)
   
5. Refer to next meeting instead of saying goodbye
6. Levels of politeness
7. Family members: mine and other people's

Nouns, pronouns and noun phrases

1. Nouns are genderless, numberless
2. Gender, number or person of subject does not affect the rest of the sentence
3. Omitting topic
4. Personal pronouns watashi, anata
   
5. -san suffix (Mr/Ms)
   
6. Use of -san over anata
7. -jin suffix (nationality)
8. Demonstrative pronouns: kore/kono, sore/sono, are/ano
9. -go suffix (language)
10. o- prefix (polite)
11. "Noun prepositions": ue, chikaku, naka etc.
12. go- prefix (polite)

Verbs

1. Verb come at the end of a sentence or clause
2. Verb times: only present/future and past exist
3. Polite copula desu
4. Negative polite copula dewa arimasen
5. Past polite copula deshita
6. Negative past polite copula dewa arimasendeshita
7. Polite verb forms: -masu, -masen, -mashita, -masendeshita
8. Meaning of kaerimasu
9. imasu, arimasu
10. Desu as an implicit verb (p. 79)
11. Exhortation: -masen ka, -masho ka, -masho
12. arimasu as have/own
13. -te form
14. Use of -te form as sequence, or as polite command
15. Verb classes: Reg I, Reg II, Irreg
16. -nai form of verbs
17. -naide kudasai: Please do not~
18. Past tense in thanks and apologies, e.g. sumimasendeshita (sorry for what happened)
19. -te imasu (gerund): progressive or habitual
20. -tai: desire (conjugates like an adjective); impolite when used with other

Adjectives

1. Adjectives inflect for time and mood
2. Adjective before noun, before desu
3. -i and -na adjectives
4. Conjugation of -i adjectives for time, mood

Particles

1. Particles (general)
2. Particle wa: Topic marker
3. Particle ka: Question marker
4. Particle no: belonging, affiliation, possession
5. Particle no without noun after it (substantivized genitive): "Jim's", "mine"
6. Particles kara, made
7. Particle mo: also, too
8. Particle ni: direction with movement
9. Particle e: direction
10. Particle ga: grammatical subject used after interrogatives/in case of new info
11. Particles ni + (ar)imasu: existence at
12. Ga vs wa with (ar)imasu: new vs known (roughly 'a' vs 'the')
13. Particle ya: incomplete enumeration (nouns only)
    
14. Particle to: complete enumeration (nouns only)
    
15. Particle yo: please note!
16. Particle mo: anyX, no X
17. Particle goro: approximate point in time (but not period)
18. Particle o: object
19. Particle ni: use with aimasu
20. Particle ni: use as indirect object/receiver
21. Particle de: location of action
22. Particle kara: because
23. Particle ni: to (when giving), from (when receiving)
24. Particle gurai: approximate period, amount etc (but not point in time)
25. Particle de + arimasu: event
26. Particle ga: courteous hesitation between less relevant and more relevant clauses
27. Particle o: indicates point of passage
28. Particle made: as far as
29. Particle o: point of departure (with orimasu, demasu)
30. Particle ni: point of entrance (with norimasu, tsukimasu)
31. -te + Particle mo + ii desu ka: asking permission
32. Particle ga: but
33. Particle ni: for place of residence/employment
34. Double particles vs. replacing particles: de + mo = de mo, wa + mo = mo
35. Particles wa and ga combined: suki, jouzu etc.

Interrogatives

1. Polite interrogative donata
2. Casual interrogative dare
3. Asking origin: doko no

Numbers and time & space

1. Numbers (digits, not amounts)
2. Large numbers: the 4-digit skip (man, oku)
3. Decimal points and fractions (ten and bun)
4. Counters (default and specific)
5. Hours and minutes
6. Gozen/gogo
7. Time: last/this/next day/week/month/year
8. Days of the week
9. Days of the month
10. Month names
11. Cardinal directions (NEWS)
12. Positions and directions: before, ahead, left, right
13. -me suffix: -th
14. -kan counter for time units except months