Japanese Sentence Structure - ぶんbunのこnokoうぞuzoうu

Unlocking the Basics: Building Sentences in Japanese
Japanese might seem like a mystery at first glance—but once you understand the patterns, it becomes a language of clarity and elegance. In this lesson, we'll uncover one of the most essential sentence structures: AはBです (A wa B desu). Along the way, you'll meet some of the most common particles, learn practical nouns, and pick up a few cultural gems that make learning Japanese even more fun.

Japanese Sentence Structure: AはAhaBでBdeすsu

One of the first things you'll notice about Japanese is its unique sentence structure. Unlike English, where the order is typically Subject-Verb-Object (SVO), Japanese often follows a Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) pattern. However, the basic structure we'll focus on today is:

AはAhaBでBdeすsu

which translates to A is B. This structure is fundamental for making simple statements in Japanese.

💡 Fun Fact:
In Japanese, "ですdesu" is a polite way of saying "is," "are," or "am" when used as a copula to link a subject to a predicate. It adds politeness to sentences and is similar to using "to be" in English. In casual speech, ですdesu is often dropped.

わたwataしはshihaがくgakuせいseiですdesu

Here, わたwataしshi means "I", はwa is the topic marker particle which tells the listener that the sentence is about the object that came before. がくgakuせいsei means "student". The sentence ends with ですdesu , which adds politeness. The sentence means "I am a student." or "As for me, student."
Below are examples of the AはAhaBでBdeすsu structure:

JapaneseRomajiEnglish
わたしはせんせいですWatashi wa sensei desuI am a teacher.
これはほんです。Kore wa hon desuThis is a book.
あれはとそかんですAre wa toshokan desuThat over there is a library.

Note:
これkore and あれare are considered "words that point". We will cover these in more detail later.

Particle はwa - The Topic Marker

The particle はwa is used to indicate the topic of the sentence. It tells the listener what the sentence is about. For example, in the sentence わたwataしはshihaがくgakuせいseiですdesu, はwa marks わたwataしshi as the topic, meaning "As for me" or "I am".

JapaneseRomajiEnglish
わたしはにほんじんですWatashi wa nihonjin desuI am Japanese.
かれはエンジニアですKare wa enjinia desuHe is an engineer.
ねこはかわいいですNeko wa kawaii desuCats are cute.
❗ Note: The particle はwa is pronounced as wa when used as a topic marker, even though it is written as はha. This can be confusing for beginners, but it is a common feature in Japanese.
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