Japanese Sentence Structure

Japanese sentence structure, with its unique grammatical rules, might feel like a puzzle at first. In fact, I often tell new students to “throw out their English brain,” because it actually makes a lot of sense – just not to an English brain.

Why? Because Japanese sentence structure is quite different from English. Here’s how!

First off, in English, we typically use the Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) order. But in Japanese, things are a bit different – it usually uses a SOV structure. Let’s break it down!

English: Subject-Verb-Object (SVO)
Example: “I (subject) eat (verb) sushi (object).”

Japanese: Subject-Object-Verb (SOV)
Example: 私は (Watashi wa, “I”) 寿司を (sushi o, “sushi”) 食べます (tabemasu, “eat”).

Now, you’ll notice that after the words for “I” and “sushi” in the Japanese sentence, there were a couple of really short words. These are known as “particles” and they mark the role the word plays in the sentence. These particles give Japanese sentence structure a lot of flexibility!

In the example above, は (wa) marks the topic of the sentence (which is often the subject), and を (o) marks the direct object. (I’ll go into these in more detail below so stay tuned!)

In English, changing the word order can change the meaning of a sentence or make it grammatically incorrect. However, Japanese is more flexible. As long as the verb remains at the end, you can shuffle the subjects and objects around, thanks to particles that clarify their roles.

So actually, you technically could say 寿司を私は食べます (sushi o watashi wa tabemasu) in the above sentence! Although in most cases, it’ll be more natural to say the first example. I’ll explain why in a bit!

Here’s an interesting thing about Japanese: if the subject or object is obvious from the context, they can be omitted entirely.

So for example, while pronouns like 私 (watashi, “I”), あなた (anata, “you”), 彼 (kare, “he”) and 彼女 (kanojo, “she”) exist, they’re not always necessary in conversations. This dropping happens for a few reasons:

1. Contextual Clarity: If it’s clear who or what you’re talking about, there’s no need to repeat the subject. You’ll also notice that some Japanese pronouns are quite long, so it’s useful to not need to repeat them!

For example, instead of saying, “Are you American?” and answering, “Yes, I am American,” a Japanese conversation might simply go:
Question: アメリカ人ですか？(Amerikajin desu ka? / “Are American?”)
Answer: はい、アメリカ人です。 (Hai, Amerikajin desu. / “Yes, am American.”)

English doesn’t totally differ from Japanese here – it often leaves out the predicate, for example. (“Yes, I am” rather than “Yes, I am American.”) Or it changes a subject or object into “it” or “they/them” (“Did you make the cake?” “Yes, I made it.”), where Japanese would just totally omit the word. So in Japanese, there’s no direct equivalent to “it,” “they,” or “them” (except when using the latter two for people)!

If you’re learning to make Japanese sentences, one of the first words you’ll come across is です (desu). And I’ve already used it in the last few example sentences to mean both “am” and “is”! But actually, it’s both and… neither?

What?

Right, so in polite Japanese, you can think of です (desu) as similar to “am/is/are/will be,” “am not / is not / are not / will not be” (if we conjugate it into the negative form) “was/were” (if we conjugate it into the past tense), or “was not / were not” (if we conjugate it into the past negative tense).

I mentioned before that particles are essential for Japanese sentence structure. Japanese particles might seem daunting at first, but once you get the hang of them, you’ll find they actually make constructing sentences much easier.

Think of particles as the glue that holds Japanese sentences together. They show the grammatical relationships between words and give meaning to the sentence. For example, different particles mark the subject, object, location, or means by which an action is done.

Let’s look at some of the most common Japanese particles you’ll encounter:

は (wa): Marks the topic of the sentence.
私は学生です。 (Watashi wa gakusei desu., “I am a student.”)
“I” is the topic.

が (ga): Indicates the subject, especially when introducing new information.
猫がいます。 (Neko ga imasu., “There is a cat.”)
“Cat” is the subject.

を (o): Marks the direct object of a verb.
本を読みます。 (Hon o yomimasu., “I read a book.”)
“Book” is the direct object.

に (ni): Indicates direction, time, or the indirect object.
１２時に図書館に行きます。 (Juuniji ni toshokan ni ikimasu., “I’m going to the library at 12:00.”)
“Library” is the direction headed.
友達にあげます。(Tomodachi ni agemasu., “I’ll give it to my friend.”)
“Friend” is the indirect object.

で (de): Indicates location or means by which something happens.
車で行きます。 (Kuruma de ikimasu., “I go by car.”)
“Car” is the means.
家で食べます。 (Ie de tabemasu., “I eat at home.”)
“Home” is the location.

の (no): Shows possession or association.
私のペンです。 (Watashi no pen desu., “This is my pen.”)
The pen is what is possessed.

へ (e): Similar to に but less flexible, it can only indicate direction or a destination.
日本へ行きます。 (Nihon e ikimasu., “I’m going to Japan.”)
“Japan” is the destination.

と (to): Conjunction particle meaning “and” or “with”.
友達と遊びます。 (Tomodachi to asobimasu., “I play with friends.”)

から (kara): Indicates the starting point or reason.
ここから始めます。 (Koko kara hajimemasu., “We’ll start from here.”)
天気がいいから散歩しましょう。(Tenki ga īkara sanpo shimashou., “The weather is good so let’s take a walk.”)

まで (made): Indicates the end point, often translated as “until.”
駅まで歩きます。 (Eki made arukimasu., “I walk to the station.”)

Thanks to particles, Japanese sentences can have a flexible word order. As long as the verb stays at the end, the other elements can be rearranged to emphasize different parts of the sentence. Let’s take a simple sentence and see how it can change:

Basic Sentence:
私は明日図書館で本を読みます。
Watashi wa ashita toshokan de hon o yomimasu.
(“I will read a book at the library tomorrow.”)

Here are some variations of the same sentence:

明日私は図書館で本を読みます。
Ashita watashi wa toshokan de hon o yomimasu.
(“Tomorrow, I will read a book at the library.”)

本を私は明日図書館で読みます。
Hon o watashi wa ashita toshokan de yomimasu.
(“The book, I will read it tomorrow at the library.”)

図書館で私は明日本を読みます。
Toshokan de watashi wa ashita hon o yomimasu.
(“At the library, I will read a book tomorrow.”)

Notice that none of these variations change the fundamental meaning, but they do shift the focus or emphasis. The ability to play around with word order gives Japanese a subtlety that can convey nuanced meaning.

In Japanese, the element placed at the beginning of the sentence often gets more emphasis.

By starting with 明日 (ashita, “tomorrow”), you emphasize the time. Starting with 本を (hon o, “the book”) emphasizes what action is going to be taken with the book.

This flexible structure allows you to tailor your sentences to what you find most important, whether it’s who is doing the action, when it’s happening, or where it’s taking place.

Just remember that the verb location is the only thing that’s not flexible!

In Japanese sentence structure, modifiers like adjectives, possessive pronouns, adverbs, and numerals play key roles in adding detail and clarity to our statements. Let’s break down each of these modifiers and see how they work in Japanese sentence structure.

Possessive pronouns in Japanese use the particle の (no) to indicate possession or association between nouns. This is fairly straightforward and often functions similarly to the possessive “’s” or a phrase like “X of Y” in English.

Here are some examples:

私の車 (watashi no kuruma, “my car”)
田中さんの本 (Tanaka-san no hon, “Mx.’s Tanaka’s book”)

This goes beyond just possessives like in English, though. To show nationality, for example, you use の (no) between two nouns. Here are some examples of what I mean:

アメリカ人 (Amerikajin) means “American” or “American person.” In English, these mean the same things in certain contexts, but one is an adjective, and one is an adjective and a noun. In Japanese, this is all one word which is a noun.

Now to say, “the American teacher,” you need to say アメリカ人の先生 (Amerikajin no sensei). Note this does not (usually) mean that an American possesses a teacher – it shows that the noun “American [person]” modifies the word for “teacher” (先生, sensei).

You’ll find this noun modifying another noun in the phrase 日本語のクラス (nihongo no kurasu, “Japanese class”) which uses particle の (no) between “the Japanese language” and “class.”

It might sound a bit confusing at first, but it’s really a very streamlined process to use one phrase type where English has many options. My final example is インディアナの家 (Indiana no ie, “[my] home in Indiana”), which is just “Indiana” + “home”!

Numerals in Japanese sometimes come directly before the nouns they modify (usually with our connector の [no], or alone after the noun and particle they modify.

Asking questions in Japanese is very straightforward and intuitive! In this section, focus on using the particle か (ka), the designated question particle. It’s basically like a spoken question mark.

Forming yes/no questions in Japanese is simpler than you might think. You don’t need to rearrange the sentence or add auxiliary verbs like in English. All you need to do is add the particle か (ka) at the end of the sentence and usually use a rising intonation.

Here are some examples:

Statement: 私は学生です。 (Watashi wa gakusei desu., “I am a student.”)
Question: 私は学生ですか？ (Watashi wa gakusei desu ka?, “Am I a student?”)

Statement: これはペンです。 (Kore wa pen desu., “This is a pen.”)
Question: これはペンですか？ (Kore wa pen desu ka?, “Is this a pen?”)

See how easy that is? Just add か (ka), and you’ve turned a statement into a question!

Also, especially in casual, everyday conversations, you might hear people drop the か (ka) particle and rely on rising intonation alone to indicate a question.

English sometimes does this, like when you’re showing surprise (“Oh, you’re a doctor?”), but it’s much more common in general situations in Japanese. In spoken English, the intonation goes up, and in written English, the question mark tells us it’s a question.

And here’s my insider tip: In written Japanese (especially older texts), sometimes questions end with their equivalent of a period 。 rather than a question mark ？ when か (ka) is used. This is because technically, か (ka) makes a question mark redundant! So don’t be surprised when you see questions ending in か。 (ka.) rather than か？ (ka?).

Building sentences in Japanese becomes much simpler once you understand the fundamentals of structure, particles, and modifiers. By practicing these steps, you’ll be well on your way to forming accurate and meaningful sentences in no time.

So keep practicing these structures and try creating your own sentences. For further practice, consider using language exchange platforms or studying with a tutor. You’re making great progress, and the more you practice, the more natural it will feel. Happy learning!