Online resources?

[Delinjapan]

One of the problems I'm encountering while learning japanese, is that I'm not sure in what context a lot of words or expressions are used...I often use the oxford japanese minidictionary which is not bad in terms of providing context but limited of course as it's only a dictionary.

Is there an online resource that provides useful vocabulary and sentences in which this vocabulary is used in some sentences and vice versa, english vocabulary/expressions with the best japanese equivalent.

Of course I'm also interested if there are any books for this (so far I haven't found any).

Also, is there somewhere a list of shortcuts that the japanese use when talking, like "nya naranai" instead of "nakereba naranai"? or "matteru" instead of "matte iru"??

Another one, a site that has lists of katakana words (I need to practice reading them!).

Maybe it's a long shot but as they say you can find anything on internet...

Any other useful online resources for japanese learners are welcome (I already know about wwwjdic)!!

Thanks!

[omae mona]

One of the problems I'm encountering while learning japanese, is that I'm not sure in what context a lot of words or expressions are used...I often use the oxford japanese minidictionary which is not bad in terms of providing context but limited of course as it's only a dictionary.

Is there an online resource that provides useful vocabulary and sentences in which this vocabulary is used in some sentences and vice versa, english vocabulary/expressions with the best japanese equivalent.

It only addresses part of your question, but WWWJDIC contains lots of example sentences under "[Ex]" links, when you look up words.

[Mulboyne]

http://www.jgram.org/

and

http://www.jlptstudy.com/