N5Lesson 16 of 437 min
The shape of a Japanese sentence
Verb last, markers after words, and anything obvious simply left out.
Japanese puts the verb at the end, and marks each word’s role with a particle that comes after it. English does neither, which is why English speakers struggle here. Hindi does both, so you are starting from a much better place than they are.
| Language | Order | Sentence |
|---|---|---|
| English | S · V · O | I eat rice |
| Hindi | S · O · V | मैं चावल खाता हूँ |
| Japanese | S · O · V | 私はご飯を食べます |
Particles are postpositions
A particle attaches after a word and tells you what that word is doing in the sentence. That is exactly the job your Hindi postpositions do. The marker follows the noun instead of coming before it, the way English prepositions do.
| Japanese | Role | Hindi parallel |
|---|---|---|
| 〜を | marks the object | को |
| 〜に | destination, time, recipient | को / में / पर |
| 〜で | place of action, means | में / से |
| 〜から | from | से |
| 〜まで | until | तक |
Japanese drops what is obvious
If the context makes the subject obvious, drop it. Saying 私は in every sentence sounds oddly insistent, the way repeating "I, myself" would in English.
- 学生です がくせいですगाकुसेइ देस(I) am a student
- 食べます たべますताबेमासु(I / he / they) eat
- 行きますか いきますかइकिमासु काAre (you) going?