Particles are one of the most difficult aspects of the Japanese language. This is precisely why there are a good number of books on the market dealing with the subject. Most of these books take up particles as independent entities, so that after having studies them, students are, if all goes well, familiar with the functions of the individual particles. One unfortunate side to this approach is that some of the particles share the same functions (but with slight differences), and so even though students may have grasped the general nature of each particle, they are not sure