SENTENCE STRUCTURE

The basic Japanese word order is Subject Object Verb. Subject and object are usually marked by particles which come after the word.

The basic sentence structure is topic-comment. For example, Kochira wa Tanaka san desu. Kochira ("this") is the topic of the sentence, indicated by the particle wa. The verb is desu ("is"). As a phrase, Tanaka san desu is the comment. This sentence loosely translates to "As for this person, (it) is Mr./Mrs./Ms. Tanaka". Thus Japanese, like Chinese and Korean, is often called a topic-prominent language, which means it indicates the topic separately from the subject, and the two do not always coincide. The sentence Zō wa hana ga nagai. literally means, "As for elephants, their noses are long". The topic is zō "elephant", and the subject is hana "nose".

Japanese is a pro-drop language, meaning that the subject or object of a sentence need not be stated if it is obvious from context. As a result, Japanese speakers tend to omit words from sentences, rather than refer to them with pronouns. In the context of the above example, hana ga nagai would mean "[their] noses are long," while nagai by itself would mean "[they] are long." A single verb can be a complete sentence: Yatta! "[I / we / they / etc] did [it]!". Another well-known example of omission is the sentence Watashi wa supagetti desu—which initially appears to mean "I am spaghetti," but in the context of a restaurant could also be an order: "For me, [it'll] be spaghetti."

While the language has some "pronouns," such as personal pronouns, these are not used as frequently as pronouns in Indo-European languages, and function somewhat differently. Instead, Japanese typically relies on auxiliary verbs to indicate the "direction" of an action "down" to the speaker or persons related to the speaker, or "up" to the listener or other person. For example, setsumei shite moratta (literally, "[I] obtained explaining") means "[he/she] explained it to [me/us]". Similarly, oshiete ageta (literally, "taught-handed up") is commonly used to mean "[I/we] told [him/her]". Such "directional" auxiliary verbs in Japanese thus serve a function comparable to that of pronouns and prepositions in Indo-European languages.

Japanese "pronouns" also function differently than Indo-European pronouns in that they can take modifiers as any other nouns may. For instance, you cannot say in English:

The big he ran down the street. (Bad grammar)

But you can grammatically say essentially the same thing in Japanese:

大きい彼は道を走っていった。 (Correct grammar)

This is partly due to the fact that Japanese pronouns evolved from regular nouns as indirect references, such as kimi "you" (君 "emperor"), anata "you" (貴方 "that side, yonder"), and boku "I" (僕 "servant"). This is why some linguists do not classify Japanese "pronouns" as pure pronouns, but rather as referential nouns.

Japanese personal pronouns are generally used only in situations implying some emphasis. The choice of pronouns used is correlated with the gender of the speaker and the social situation in which they are spoken: women in a formal situation generally refer to themselves as watashi, while men in rougher conversation are much more likely to use the word ore. Similarly, different pronouns such as anata, kimi, and omae may be used to refer to a listener depending on the listener's relative social position and the degree of familiarity with the listener. However, it is impolite to use pronouns to refer to listeners who are strangers or social superiors.

INFLECTION AND CONJUGATION

Japanese nouns have neither number nor gender. Thus hon may mean "book" or "books". It is possible to explicitly indicate more than one, either by providing a quantity (often with a counter word) or by adding a suffix (which is rare). Words for people are usually understood as singular. Thus Tanaka san usually means Mr/Ms Tanaka. Words that refer to people and animals can be made to indicate a group of individuals with noun suffixes that indicate groups, such as -tachi. Though some words, like hitobito "people", always refer to more than one, Japanese nouns without such additions are neither singular nor plural. Hito could mean "person" or "persons", ki could be "tree" or "trees" without any implied preference for singular or plural.

Verbs are conjugated to show tenses, of which there are two: past and present, or non-past, which is used for the present and the future. For some verbs, that represent an ongoing process, the -te iru form indicates a continuous (or progressive) tense. For others, that represent a change of state, the -te iru form indicates a perfect tense. For example, kite iru means "He has come (and is still here)", but tabete iru means "He is eating".

Questions (both with an interrogative pronoun and yes/no questions) have the same structure as affirmative sentences, but with intonation rising at the end. In the formal register, the question particle ka is added. For example, Ii desu "It is OK" becomes Ii desu ka "Is it OK?". In a more informal tone sometimes the particle no is added instead to show a personal interest of the speaker: Dōshite konai no? "Why aren't (you) coming?". Some simple queries are formed simply by mentioning the topic with an interrogative intonation to call for the hearer's attention: Kore wa? "(What about) this?"; Namae wa? "(What's your) name?".

Negatives are formed by inflecting the verb. For example, Pan o taberu "I will eat bread" or "I eat bread" becomes Pan o tabenai "I will not eat bread" or "I do not eat bread".

The so-called -te verb form is used for a variety of purposes: either progressive or perfect aspect (see above); combining verbs in a temporal sequence (Asagohan o tabete sugu dekakeru "I'll eat breakfast and leave at once"), simple commands, conditional statements and permissions (Dekakete mo ii? "May I go out?"), etc.

The word da (plain), desu (polite) is the copula verb. It corresponds approximately to the English be, but often takes on other roles. Two additional common verbs are used to indicate existence ("there is") or, in some contexts, property: aru (negative nai) and iru (negative inai), for inanimate and animate things, respectively. For example, Neko ga iru "There's a cat", Ii kangae ga nai "[I] haven't got a good idea".

The verb "to do" (suru, polite form shimasu) is often used to make verbs from nouns (ai suru "to love", benkyō suru "to study", etc.). Japanese also has a huge number of compound verbs (e.g. tobidasu "to fly out, to flee," from tobu "to fly, to jump" + dasu "to go out").

There are three types of adjective:

1. keiyōshi, or i adjectives, which have a conjugating ending i (such as atsui, "to be hot") which can become past (atsukatta - "it was hot"), or negative (atsuku nai - "it is not hot").

   atsui hi "a hot day".

2. keiyōdōshi, or na adjectives, which are followed by a form of the copula, usually na. For example hen (strange)

   hen na hito "a strange person".

3. rentaishi, also called true adjectives, such as onaji "the same"

   onaji hi "the same day".

Both keiyōshi and keiyōdōshi may predicate sentences. For example,

Gohan ga atsui. "The rice is hot."

Kare wa hen da. "He's strange."

Both inflect, though they do not show the full range of conjugation found in true verbs. The rentaishi are few in number, and unlike the other words, are limited to modifying nouns. They never predicate sentences. Examples include ookina "big" and onaji "the same" (although there is a noun onaji that can be followed by da, as in onaji da).

Both keiyōdōshi and keiyōshi form adverbs, by following with ni in the case of keiyōdōshi:

hen ni naru "become strange",

and by changing i to ku in the case of keiyōshi:

atsuku naru "become hot".

The grammatical function of nouns is indicated by postpositions, also called particles. These include

• no for possession,

watashi no kamera "my camera"

• ga for subject,

Kare ga yatta. "He did it."

• o for direct object

Nani o tabemasu ka? "What will (you) eat?"

• ni for indirect object,

Tanaka san ni kiite kudasai "Please ask Mr./Ms. Tanaka",

• wa for the topic

and many others.