Sentence Structure (English vs Japanese)

The most basic thing you need to know is that sentences in Japanese are not ordered the same as English sentences so be sure to pay attention to them.

• English Sentences
• Japanese Sentences

English Sentences

In English, the order of a sentence is Subject first, then the Verb and finally the Object of the sentence last; This is incorrectly known as an S.V.O. language. For example:

The Subject is "who" or "what" does the verb and often mistaken as the Topic. A subject must contain a noun or pronoun. In a statement, the subject is usually the first thing in a sentence, though this is not always true; A noun or noun phrase functioning as one of the main components of a clause, being the element about which the rest of the clause is predicated.

The Object is a person or thing to which a specified action or feeling is directed. There are several different grammatical relations including the Direct Object, Indirect Object and Oblique Object; A noun or noun phrase governed by an active transitive verb or by a preposition.

The Verb is one of the main parts of a sentence or question in English. You can’t have a sentence or a question without one; A word used to describe an action, state or occurrence and forming the main part of the predicate of a sentence, such as: hear, become and happen.

In English, a sentence has two parts, a subject and a predicate. The predicate is that part of the sentence that expresses what is said about the subject. It usually comes after the subject and it must contain a verb then everything else in the sentence that isn't part of the subject.

The Topic is the part of a sentence that names what the sentence is talking about. However, not all sentences have a topic and even with sentences that do have one, it may not be obvious out of context.

Here, in Miki's resonse to Shinobu, it is clear by context that "She" is the Topic and it is referring to "Haruhi". The rest of Miki's response is the Comment — that is, what is being said about her. The Comment is that part of the sentence which expresses new information, while the Topic expresses old information (what was already talked about). Not all sentences have a Topic/Comment structure, though.

When Topicalization happens, emphasis placed on the Topic is moved out of its ordinary position to the beginning of the sentence. For example:

Remember, not all sentences have a Topic but it may not be obvious out of context. Where the Topic is conveyed by context, the Topic can be dropped: (Shinobu looked at the book and said "I can't recommend reading it").

In English, the ordering of the Subject, Verb and Object cannot be easily changed but depending where they move to can change the meaning of a sentence. You can say "The man ate an apple" but it would not be the same to say "An apple ate the man".

1. The man ate an apple. [S.V.O]
2. An apple ate the man. [O.V.S]
3. Ate the man an apple. [V.S.O]
4. Ate an apple the man. [V.O.S]

1. The man ate an apple. [S.V + Topic]
2. An apple the man ate. [Topic + S.V]

In the following example, you'll see it's actually the topic that moves, not the Subject, Verb or Object.

1. He always studies in the library. [S.V.O]
2. In the library he always studies. [Topic + S.V]
3. Always in the library he studies. [Comment + Topic + S.V]

Sentence (1) is mostly centred on the fact that [he always studies] while sentence (2) is focused on the fact that the studying is done [in the library]. Sentence (3) focuses on the point he is [always in the library].

However, Sentence (3) may appear rather ambiguous: Did he study that something is "always in the library"? or maybe it is "he" that is "always in the library". Please remember, just because something maybe ambiguous, doesn't mean it is grammatically incorrect.

Japanese Sentences

Japanese sentences are ordered differently. The Subject usually goes first, then the Object and finally the Verb; This is incorrectly known as an S.O.V. language in western culture. For Example:

In the examples above, you'll notice we are using です (desu) for the verb. Usually, です always goes last. Even though you will see です translated as am, is or are, it is not a verb but still fits in the same place and can change tense too.

です is a politeness indicator falsely known as a copula: a connecting word, in particular, a form of the verb "to be" connecting a subject and complement. Regardless of the subject, this is why the non-existent words am, is and are in Japanese are all incorrectly viewed as the same word: です.

The predicate is the main core of the Japanese sentence. It comes at the end and must be a verb or a verbal form. In Japanese, a verbal form may be a noun phrase or a verbal adjective. Here are four types of predicates in Japanese:

• Verb (not including "desu")
• Noun + verb (desu)
• na-adjective + verb (desu)
• i-adjective [politer with (desu) but don't use (da)]

While Japanese sentences may have a Topic, they must always have a Predicate. The predicate is placed at the end of a sentence and everything else comes before it but is not considered part of it (subject, object, indirect objects, adverbs and others).

As opposed to the Predicate, a sentences does not always need the Topic part. If the topic is obvious from context, it can be omitted. The example above would be more natural if written as "doko de ban gohan o tabetai desu ka". If the Other Information part is also obvious, it could be spoken as "tabetai desu ka" instead; this in turn can be made more casual with the use of informal words.

One big difference to note is that Japanese does not strictly follow the Subject, Object, Verb rule. While the predicate must be at the end of a sentence, everything else can be anywhere it likes. As an example:

As can be seen here, in the second sentence, the object "toshokan" (Library) comes first and the subject "kare" (He) after: Object, Subject, Verb. The third sentence is the same except all of the Other Information is before the topic. However, the predicate "benkyou suru" (studies) containing the verb is always last.

In Japanese, particles are used after almost every word in the sentence to identify what type of word is at play (unless they are obvious, then they are dropped). This means that no matter what order the words are in, we'll always know if it's the topic, subject, object, indirect objects, adverbs etc.

However, it is best to avoid such complicated sentences. The farther away from the main verb, the more irrelevant or unrelated the rest of the Other Information may become.

If we take the problem example we used in the English section "The man ate an apple" notice that the Japanese sentence changes but still keeps its meaning.