Basic language structure in Japanese

I thought I’d start the new week with a look at the basic structure of Japanese sentences. I realize some readers may already be familiar with some of the points I’ll mention here, but I think it will be nice to have it in the archives for people to come back and update from time to time.

So let’s take a look at a basic Japanese sentence and some of its components and see how it can be broken down to form many other sentences. Remember that the key to mastering Japanese is understanding how to form your own sentences!

So let’s take a look at a sentence:

Watashi wa getsuyoubi ni suteki na boshi o kaimasu.

(On Monday I will buy a nice hat)

One of the first things to remember is that Japanese has almost the opposite sentence structure to English, where most sentences come from Subject Verb Object,

Japanese sentences actually go Subject Object Verb. So you have to get used to changing your order a bit. Japanese sentences will end with the verb you are using.

The second is that Japanese sentences are divided by particles that represent the different parts of the sentence. In the example sentence above, wa, ni, na and i are particles. Therefore, it is easy to identify the different parts of the prize.

Let’s take a closer look at it:

Watashi-wa- This is the theme of the award. In Japanese, the main subject is marked with a ‘wa’. In this sentence it is watashi which means ‘I’

Getsuyoubi ni- This is a timestamp. Ni is a particle and one of its functions is to mark a time when something will happen, in this case it is Monday. Which means that Monday is when our verb will take place.

Suteki na- This is an adjective that is marked by the particle ‘na’ that joins it to the noun that follows indicating that it is the Hat that is beautiful.

Boshi o- This is our object. Marked by the object marker ‘o’. Boshi is the Japanese word for hat.

kaimasu – Finally we have our verb. The verb Kau means to buy. In this sentence it has been conjugated and put in the ‘Masu box’ to make it more polite. This is commonly how you will see and hear your Japanese verbs.

Once you understand how a sentence is formed, you can easily make thousands of your own. For example, we can change the example sentence:

Watashi wa getsuyoubi ni suteki na boshi o kaimasu.

a

Watashi wa getsuyoubi ni hirugohan or kaimasu.

(On Monday I will buy lunch)

By removing the ‘suteki na boshi’ and replacing it with ‘hirugohan’, we have created a completely different sentence about buying lunch.