Japanese Grammar

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If you want to learn to speak Japanese then it is important to understand Japanese Grammar. In a language that is so different in structure to English we need some rules to know where to begin when learning this fascinating language. So I have included some of the main Japanese grammar points for you to know below.

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As the Japanese language is not written in the same way as English (romanized), but rather uses characters, it should come as no surprise to you that the grammatical structure is also very different.

The structure and order of sentences are not the same as in English, with the verbs, nouns and adjectives used in a way that we English speakers are unfamiliar with.

The Japanese have two tenses: The simple present and the simple past.

However the great news is that with Japanese grammar the verbs, adverbs and adjectives all follow a regular structure and are formed adding a suffix (an add on to the end of a word).

Let's have a look at how Japanese grammar differs.

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Sentence Structure

Firstly let's take the sentence: "I am Sarah"

This sentence follows the structure: Subject (I), Verb (am), Object (Sarah).

In English we put the verb in the middle of the sentence between the subject and object. However in Japanese the word order changes.

The above sentence in Japanese would be: "Watashi wa Sarah desu"

Which translates to "I Sarah is".

The structure is now: Subject (Watashi wa), Object (Sarah), Verb (desu)

Let's take a look at another example: "I am sick"

This sentence structure is: Subject (I), Verb (am), Adjective (sick)

However in Japanese things are a little different. The translation of this sentence in Japanese is: "Byoki desu", which is simply: Adjective (Byoki), Verb (desu) or "sick am".

Japanese Particles

There are a number of different particles used in Japanese. A particle is a small word that indicates the subject, object, question, possession etc... in a sentence.

The most common ones are:

Wa: Topic Particle - and is used to highlight what the topic in the sentence or the main point to focus on is.

For example if you were to say 'My name is John', you say 'Watashi wa John desu'. The topic is 'My' in this sentence.

Ga: Subject Particle - and is used to highlight what the subject being referred to in the sentence.If I want to say 'This is my Car', I say: 'Kore ga watashi no Kuruma desu'.

No: Possessive Particle - and is used to illustrate possesion in a sentence. For example 'Yuki no Hoteru' , which means Yuki's Hotel

O: Object Particle: and is used to show us what the object is. for example if I want to say "I ate fish" you would say "Sakana O tabemashita"

Ka: Interrogative Article: and is used to make a sentence into a question. for example if you want to say 'where is the station?' you would say 'Eki wa doko desu ka'

Japanese Adjectives

This brings us to adjectives in Japanese grammar. For those of you who don't know an adjective is a word used to describe something, for examples the word "beautiful".

In English we place the adjective before the noun so we say: "The beautiful girl". However in Japanese they would say: "Girl beautiful" or "Onna utsukushii"

Japanese Nouns

Now I want to point out an interesting difference in how nouns differ within Japanese grammar also. If we take the above example the Japanese word for girl 'Onna' can be used for: 'The Girl' 'A Girl' 'Some Girls' 'Girl' 'Girls'. Therefore Japanese nouns do not change with number, gender or article.

As you can also see from this example when learning Japanese (sponsored affiliate link)grammar you do not us an article in front of a noun like we do in English. 

Japanese Verbs

Verbs in Japanese grammar also do not change with number, gender or person, where as in English they do, for example:

I		Am
He/She/It		Is
You		Are
They		Are

In Japanese they use the word 'Desu', which stays the same for each person and any number of people. To learn about Japanese verbs click here: Japanese Verbs

Pronouns

Generally speaking Japanese grammar doesn't use pronouns. If I want say 'I am English', I say 'Igrisu gin desu', which can be translated to "I am" or "He, She, It Is" or "You are" and "They Are" - English. However there are exceptions to this rule which we won't go into here.

Finally if you want to know about Japanese grammar and start speaking Japanese fluently I highly recommend that you take a course in the language. The best course I have found is Rocket Japanese (sponsored affiliate links). This course will allow you to learn Japanese in a fun interactive way and the best part is you can download the course and take the lessons in your own time. To visit there website you can click the link below.

Click here to visit the Rocket Japanese website
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Enjoy!

Sayoonara (Goodbye)

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