I'm having real trouble remembering, and discerning from similar, words that are written in only Hiragana. This also includes mixing onomatopoeia type words up a lot as well.

It's pretty much always adjectives. だらしない, ほがらかな、そそっかしい etc.
(Some of these "can" be written with Kanji, but almost never do)

It's the same thing with grammar as well, discerning the slight connotations between different, but similarly used, grammar.

Kanji is the easiest part of Japanese by far, I love Kanji. But as I go into studying for N1 at the end of this year I'm coming across more obscure and less Kanji using adjectives that I just can't get to stick, Anki or otherwise.

Any tips?

[Zgarbas]

I try to picture an abstract image or voice to help me remember them. It helps with onomatopoeia since that's what they represent , but it works with others too. For example, when I think of だらしない I picture a angry mother like voice doing an anime-like gesture with her finger, as if she's scolding someone for being だらしない。 そそっかしい has that break in the middle like someone was being careless when they put it together. 朗らか has a kanji, and it's easier to remember the reading attached to it.
It's kind of hard to explain so I don't know if this helped with anything, though ^^. Once you get used to a word the mental image isn't necessary anymore, but it's of great help when you're only just learning it.

I made a thread about this recently. My solution has been to go in the opposite direction. Make cards in which the answer is the adjective (or other かな word), not cards where you go from the adjective to meaning. That way in order to pass the cards you need to remember the pronunciation.

For example, you could have cards where the front of the card is the definition of the adjective in Japanese, and perhaps an example sentense with the word missing. The only problem with this is that you might confuse words with similar meanings. Though, hopefully by associating them with the example sentences you will remember which word you are looking for.

I haven't been doing this for so long, so I'm not sure yet how well it'll work or possible problems.

Zgarbas Wrote:I try to picture an abstract image or voice to help me remember them. It helps with onomatopoeia since that's what they represent , but it works with others too. For example, when I think of だらしない I picture a angry mother like voice doing an anime-like gesture with her finger, as if she's scolding someone for being だらしない。 そそっかしい has that break in the middle like someone was being careless when they put it together. 朗らか has a kanji, and it's easier to remember the reading attached to it.
It's kind of hard to explain so I don't know if this helped with anything, though ^^. Once you get used to a word the mental image isn't necessary anymore, but it's of great help when you're only just learning it.

While I knew this (that applying images/ideas to words helps memory) since I did it with RTK and do it with vocab using Kanji, for some reason I have never thought to apply it outside of Kanji words.

I went through today reviewing and made up a quick story/connection to each of the words I struggle on and it turned out way better. Thanks for reminding me

[Katsuo]

I often make mnemonics to remember words. They don't usually fit perfectly, but there just needs to be enough to point you in the right direction. Basic method is to take a distinctive part of the word you wish to learn, think of something else you associate with that sound (or spelling) and then link the two together. E.g.

Hogaraka: Paul Hogan (Crocodile Dundee) being especially cheerful & merry.
Darashinai: The Dalai Lama is usually neat and tidy, but today he is slovenly (hence the ~nai) (r = l, so dara = dala).
Sosokkashii: Someone is a scatterbrain and scatters their socks (so-sok) everwhere.

[Zgarbas]

^genuinely curious. How do the stories work when you're just randomly encountering the word?

Thanks for all the responses.

Any tips on the grammar aspect? Starting to get really frustrating with all the small connotations and mostly the constructs that have a differen't form depending on whether you use it with a verb/na-i adjv/noun.

Can't remember shit captain.

*edit*

I've started adding entire sentences using the grammar (all from my N1 books) and it already seems to be a more effective way of doing things. Still interested in everyone's thoughts though.