(2016-04-26, 7:55 am)Meriden Wrote: Btw, I know this has been answered many times, and I've also looked on google, but since I read disparate opinions, I would like to ask it here.
What levels does Tae Kim's grammar cover? N4 or N3? Is it equivalent to Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese or lower?
That really depends on what you mean by 'grammar'. Tae Kim covers all of the structural grammar - conjugations, particles, when word order does and doesn't matter, all that stuff. In that sense I would say that Tae Kim covers all the grammar that exists in modern Japanese, including antiquated expressions that still see some situational modern use.
On the other hand, there are a lot of words that have strong impacts on the meaning of a sentence that Tae Kim doesn't cover. Whether that's really 'grammar' or 'vocabulary' is a matter of perspective, and that's why it's so hard for people to agree on how much of the JLPT Tae Kim covers.
You'll certainly need to learn a lot of expressions that aren't in Tae Kim, whether you consider that grammar or vocabulary learning is up to you.