Structure of a Basic Japanese sentence
I'll be teaching from this: http://www.learnjapanesefree.com/basic-japanese-grammar.html
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http://www.learnjapanesefree.com/basic-japanese-grammar.html
Japanese grammer is very simple but very different from English grammer. In English, simple sentence is: [Subject] [Verb] [Object] But in Japanese, verb always comes at the end. [Subject] [Object] [Verb] |
Basicly, in English I'll say:
The dog ate the bone
In Japanese I'll have to switch it around
The dog the bone ate
いぬ が ほね を たべた
Yellows are particles or articles. (Wikipedia: A particle, in grammar, is a function word that is not assignable to any of the traditional grammatical word classes (such as pronouns, articles or conjunctions)
Notice how the particles were simply move in front of the nouns. So while in enlgish the participle is behind the noun it refers to, in Japanese it's in front.
[Subject] [Object] [Verb]
So if I give you 2 nouns and and a verb, you guys should be able to make a simple sentence now.
Except it'll be akward in English if I said:
Dog ate bone (ironic, eh, since novice Asian students of English stereotypically leave out participles 
)
So I'm going to teach you guys some basic particles so that you guys can actually make simple [Subject] [Object] [Verb] sentences.
Particles: が and を
The cat ate the food
Neko ga esa wo tabeta
ねこ が えさ を たべた
Cat (subject/topic) the (referring to the cat) food the (reffering to the food) ate.
が
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http://www.learnjapanesefree.com/basic-japanese-grammar.html Particle ga marks the topic of the sentence |
So Neko, is the topic of the sentence. (IMPORTANT TO NOTE: Topic=/=SUBJECT)
In order to specify that the neko did something and is the topic, I'll use "ga".
Examples of topics:
The man (<- Topic) walked down the street
The wheel (<- Topic) turned
を
The particle "wo" (or "o") marks the direct object of the sentence. In the example, "I'm going to take her home" (watashi wa kanojo wo ie ni okuru), "her" would be the direct object.
Much more straightforward. If something is the object, then you refer to it using wo.
So I kicked the ball (<- object)
I tied the shoe (<- object)
Some of you may have been confused. The best way to combat this isn't to just think about it and drill it into your head, but to actually put it into concepts and use repetition.
Here's another example:
The boy hugged the girl
The boy the girl hugged
おとこのこ が おんなのこ を だきしめた
So the boy is the topic of the sentence. Therefore we reffered to him using ga (が).
The girl is the direct object of the verb. Therefore we reffered to her using wo (を).
So some exercises.
Remember:
が (topic)
を (direct object)
1.
The policeman chased the robber
Identify the topic, direct object, and the verb.
Translate the sentence into Japanese
Vocabulary:
Robber どろぼう
Policeman おまわりさん
Chased おった
2.
The child ate the candy
Identify the topic, direct object, and the verb.
Translate the sentence into Japanese
Vocabulary:
Ate: たべた
Candy: おかし
Child: こども
3.
Make your own sentence!
First write it into English (don't cheat and use a translator. Don't worry so much about tenses and verbs. This is just pracitcing your grasp of subject verb object, and using the 2 particles).
NEXT LESSON:
Not finalized.
