Japanese sentences are very different from familiar languages like English and
Spanish. Incidentally, Spanish is very similar to English grammar-wise.
Japanese, on the other hand, uses short words called "particles" to mark a word's
purpose in a Japanese sentence. More on particles later.
However, no worries! Japanese grammar isn't as difficult as most people think,
and in many ways, it it more logical than most other languages and has few
exceptions.
I will start by giving a literal translation to the example sentences that may look a
little strange. In order to avoid this as much as possible, I will incorporate
already taught concepts into translations, so they for the most part will not be
100% literal. In any case, a completely natural translation will always be
provided.
Japanese Sentence Structure
Here's a typical Japanese sentence:
Kore wa mizu desu.
This (topic marker) water is.
If you've seen Star Wars (and who hasn't), think back to the way Yoda spoke.
Japanese would sound a lot like that if you translated it literally.
"Your father is."
"An abode of evil it is."
"In you must go."
Japanese is also a bit vague, or can seem that way. Japanese speakers tend to
have a bit of an aversion to redundancy, and if they see the opportunity to leave
something out of a sentence (say, a subject or a direct object), they will most
likely take it. In fact, Japanese pronouns actually have roots in meanings that are
unrelated to "I, you, he..." For example, two of their words for 'I' (there are
many)literally mean "personal" and "slave." As a result, Japanese will usually
avoid pronouns like the plague, and most often refer to other people by name,
even when talking directly to that person. Back to redundancy: I know I'm
getting a little ahead of myself, but I'll take you by the hand and guide you as
you look at this example:
