Word Order: Chapter 1

Word Order in Japanese

1. The word order of Japanese is totally different from that of English.
English has: "Subject_Verb-Object" word order.
Japanese has: "Subject_Object-Verb" word order.

Japanese word order is pretty much free except the position of a verb: that is, Verb MUST always come at the end of a sentence.

2. Japanese uses so-called "particles" to indicate which noun is a subject or an object of a sentence. In colloquial (or informal) Japanese, however, people often drop these particles.
We will discuss these particles later in detail. For the time being, you don't have to worry about them.

3. The first person or the second person subject (i.e.,I or You) is hardly used in colloquial Japanese.
For instance, if you want to say:"I drink coffee."
you simply say: "Koohii nomu."(with a falling intonation)

If the subject is third person, simply put the person's name in front of the sentence.
For instance, if you want to say: "Chris eats sushi,"
you say: "Chris, sushi taberu."

How would you say?

4. To make question sentences, you don't have to do anything.
Say a sentence with rising intonation (

)!
For instance, if you want to say: "Do you drink coffee?"
You simply say:"Koohii nomu? "

Japanese has a question marker (/ka/). But this /ka/ is used only in the formal style of Japanese, not in colloquial Japanese.

How would you say?

Now, you can do Voc. Situational Drill 1, can't you?

Next Grmmar Point!