FORMING JAPANESE SENTENCES

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Examples: Japanese Verbs | Japanese Nouns | Common English words in Japanese

How Japanese Differs From English

Common to both English and Japanese sentences are a subject, verb, and an object.

In Japanese, however, the order of these is different than an English sentence. In English, the order is subject, verb, object, whereas in Japanese, it is subject, object verb.

In Japanese, the verb is at the end of the sentence.

Look at this example simple sentence.

English - I drink beer.
Japanese - I beer drink - wastashi wa biru o nomu

Meaning: wastashi -I, biru - beer, nomu - drink

Although it appears odd, this is how a sentence is written in Japanese; with the subject at the beginning and the verb at the end.

wa and wo(o) are particles; they follow nouns/pronouns in sentences to define their purpose.

Sentence Topic and Verb

In Japanese, the subject or topic is at the beginning of the sentence, followed by a particle, like 'wa'.
Placing the 'wa' after the subject or topic lets us know that it is the topic of the sentence. Without 'wa' a person would not know what the topic of the sentence is.
To explain; lets look at our example sentence: I drink beer.

I drink beer - wastashi wa biru o nomu

We want 'I' to be the topic of the sentence, since 'I' is the person(pronoun) who we are writing about, therefore, we place the particle 'wa' after watashi (I)

Verbs are placed at end of sentences in Japanese writing, and nouns that are the 'direct object' of a verb have a particle like o(wo) placed after it.

To explain; look at our example sentence:

I drink beer - wastashi wa biru o nomu

nomu is the verb drink, and biru (beer) is the direct object of that verb, because 'beer' is what I 'drink', therefore, we place the wo(o) particle after the noun biru (beer).

These two simple rules of Japanese grammar are the basis for forming sentences in the Japanese language.

To learn more about 'how to use particles in Japanese sentences', with examples, gohere

Japanese writing is flexible, when compared to English. For example, rearranging words before the verb is possible, without changing the meaning of the sentence - the important thing is the VERB, it must be at the end of the sentence. Verb conjugation is also important in Japanese, moreso than in English.

Conjugating Verbs

Japanese verbs have different tenses, and they can also be formal or informal.

Japanese verbs for present tense end with:

ku, ru, u, tsu, mu, nu, bu, su, gu,

To change them to past tense informal:

Change the ending letter or letters as shown;

ku-becomes ita,
ru, u, tsu becomes-tta,
mu, nu, bu becomes-nda,
su becomes-shita,
gu becomes-ida.

To make a present tense verb into a past tense verb you simply change the verb ending.

Example sentence:
I walked yesterday.

'Walked' is the verb and is past tense, and 'walk' is the present tense of 'walked.

The verb 'walk' in Japanese is 'aruku' and present tense is 'aruku'.
We need to change it to past tense; so we change the ku to ita- aruita.

Now write our sentence.

Watashi wa kino o aruita.
watashi wa (I), kino (yesterday) o(particle), aruita (walked-verb)

I yesterday walked.- our subject is at the beginning of the sentence and the verb is the end of the sentence.

In Japanese writing, verbs are either present tense or past tense. Unlike English, the Japanese verbs do not have a future tense. When writing a sentence with future tense, simply use the present tense verb.

Verbs can also be formal or informal depending on who you are speaking to. Usually the informal verb is used when speaking with those you are known to or familiar with, and, the formal verb is used when the person is not known to you or they are of social status.
Here are examples for different verb tenses for the verb - write.

Present - kaku
informal past - kaita
informal negative - kakanai
informal past negative - kakanakatta

formal past - kakimasu
formal past - kaitimashita
formal negative - kakimasen
formal past negative - kakimasen deshita

Also read: Japanese example sentences with 'present tense' and 'past tense informal verbs'.

When Forming Sentences: Basic Grammar Rules

The subject comes first, the verb comes last, and if the verb takes an object, it comes in the middle,
Verbs can have no object, one object, or more than one,

Verb that has one object is called a 'direct object',

Verb with more than object, the second is the 'indirect object'(usually destination of the direct object),
Verb at end of sentence and is preceded by particle - wo(o),

Verbs - whether a present tense of verb or future tense - will use the same verb: example:
i eat and i will eat both use the verb - taberu,

Verbs are not conjugated if it's: i, he, she, we, they, same verb would be used for each of them, for example;

i eat - watashi wa taberu,
she eats - konojo wa taberu
they eat - kanojora wa taberu
would all use the same Japanese verb -taberu (present tense)

Using Particles To Show the Noun's Function

Function or the purpose of each noun or noun phrase is done using particles - like wa, ga,

To show the action of the noun in a sentence, particles are used. For this example sentence:

Kim ga Ann o sasotta. - Kim invited Ann

you have: Kim (the noun) ga (particle) o (particle) sasotta (verb)

Placing the particle ga after Kim, means Kim is the action performer:
Kim is performing the action of inviting Ann

And, the sentence can be written also as:

Ann o Kim ga sasotta. - Kim invited Ann

Even though the sentence is changed, Kim is still the action performer because ga is placed after Kim(noun)
Both these sentences mean the same thing.

Generally, whoever or whatever is initiating the 'action' (action performer) would have the particle 'ga' placed after it in the sentence, and whoever or whatever is the 'action receiver' would have the particle o (oh) placed after it.

Defining Sentence Topic with Wa

Sometimes your sentence can have more than one word that could be the topic. You can use the particle 'wa', easily to define which word you want as your topic. Lets look at examples.
The topic of the sentence is usually at the beginning of the sentence.

Example: English
Yesterday, i went shopping

In Japanese:
Kino wa watashi kai o iita - Yesterday i shopping went.

We wanted the topic of this sentence to be 'yesterday', so we placed the particle 'wa', after kino(yesterday). If we wanted, I, to be the topic of the sentence, then we would place 'wa', after watashi(I), and write the sentence as:

Watashi wa kino kai o iita - I yesterday shopping went.

ALSO:

Kai is the word 'shopping' in Japanese, pronounced 'kae', and 'iita' is the verb 'go', pronounced eeta, the past tense informal form. Because we are writing about what we did yesterday (shopping) and yesterday is 'past tense', we used the 'past tense form' of the verb 'go', which is 'went' - iita. The present form of the verb 'go' is 'iku'. To conjugate it to 'past tense informal', we simply remove the ku, and add 'ita' to it- iita.

We placed another particle 'o', after the word 'kai'(shopping).

Watashi wa kino kai o iita.

Why? Because shopping is the direct object of what we did, 'went shopping', therefore, the particle, 'o', is placed after the word 'kai', because it is the direct object of the verb. You will use the particle 'wo', pronounced and written as 'o', often in Japanese writing and speaking.

You will use "Watashi" often, because it is the pronoun, "I", which we use often when speaking or writing in Japanese, just as we do in English.


Sometimes a 'noun' can be both the 'direct object of the verb' and the 'sentence subject/topic'. When a 'noun' is the direct object in your sentence and the topic; use 'wa' as the particle, do not use 'particle 'o' or wa' and 'o'.

Example simple sentence:

I eat - watashi wa taberu

DO NOT WRITE: I eat - watashi o taberu

DO NOT WRITE: I eat - watashi wa o taberu

If, we were to add what we are eating, like 'chicken', then the sentence would be written as:

I eat chicken- watashi wa niwatori o taberu

We now add the particle (wo)o; because, niwatori (chicken) is now the 'direct object of the verb', therefore it is followed by particle wo(o).

Particles are necessary in Japanese sentences, and learning when to use them is essential to master Japanese writing. There are additional examples at this website for particles wa and ga

Pronouncing the Letters and Sounds

Knowing the proper intonation for verbs and words in Japanese is essential.

Simply writing a sentence in Japanese requires no need to know intonation of the However, to master writing and speaking in Japanese, it is good practice to learn them.

For additional reading on 'Understanding Japanese Speaking and Writing' read our article - How To Understand Japanese Writing

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