There are a lot of nouns out there (those are people, places, and things . . . though this list mostly focuses on things). This Anki deck aims to make things easier. By figuring out what words are most used and most common, it’s possible to learn nouns (and other Japanese vocab words) in an order that makes it so you get the absolute most bang for your buck. There are multiple decks in this series, but by learning words in the right order, you essentially make sure that you learn words that are super-duper useful. For example, the very first word you learn in the first Ultimate Nouns deck is こと. This word shows up 4x more often than the second most common noun. It keeps going from there, but I think you get the picture. In the long run, you’re saving a ridiculous amount of time, you’re able to use Japanese more quickly, and you’re developing a great foundation for your Japanese learning self.
Pros
- Over the long run, saves you a ton of time (you get the same benefit of years worth of Japanese verbs learning within a month or two).
- Get a ton of benefit out of less time and effort (meaning you can spend more time studying other important things!).
- Comes with both a PDF and Excel spreadsheet which includes the words in kana, kanji, romaji, and more.
- Audio for all of the words.
- If you’re a TextFugu member, you can get this for free!
- Since it’s on Anki, you can use this list on nearly every operating system imaginable.
- Everything’s digital, so you don’t have to wait to get it in the mail after you buy it. Instant download via email!
- Multiple part series, meaning it’s getting new sections added, like Ultimate Nouns #2.
Cons
- $10 for an Anki Vocab deck (most vocab decks for Anki are free, though this one is kind of special!)
- Uses Anki — while this isn’t a bad thing if you’re like most people and like Anki, if you’re not an Anki user you either won’t be able to use this or will need to export the list from Anki to be used in your preferred SRS flashcards program.
Final Word?
The Ultimate Nouns pack is a little less expensive than the Verbs / Adjectives ones because the lists are shorter (and there are more of them). Currently there are two packs available (covering around 200 of the most common nouns) though more will be coming out over the next few months. By using this deck (versus other “vocab decks”) you’re learning the most useful words first, and cutting a lot of the fluff. The words here tend to lean towards “conversational Japanese” rather than newspaper Japanese (which a lot of “common Japanese words” lists seem to use) making it even more useful for most people.
One note, though — if you’re a member of TextFugu, you can get this for free (it’s part of the lessons), so don’t buy this unless you’re not a member.
Other “Ultimate” Lists
There are other “Ultimate Vocab” lists out there too. Here’s a list of all the currently available ones:
Pictures
