Creating basic sentences Creating questions Creating negatives

Word order Japanese is SOV (Subject + Object + Verb) スミスさん は にほん に いきます。 Sumisusan wa nihon ni ikimasu. Smith (topic) Japan to will go. English is SVO (Subject + Verb + Object) Smith is going to Japan.

Basic punctuation Japanese uses no spaces. (Spaces are used to help new learners of the language only.) 。 = full stop 、 = comma

Topic - Wa Topic (what the sentence is mainly about) is marked with Particle wa – は (hiragana ha but read wa). はなこさん は がくせい です。 Hanako san wa gakusei desu. Hanako (topic) student is. Hanako is a student. The topic of the sentence is Hanako, the rest of the sentence provides information about the topic ie describes Hanako.

Ellipsis – omission of topic When the topic is understood or obvious, it is common to omit the topic. わたし は がくせい です。 Watashi wa gakusei desu. わたし は がくせい です。 Watashi wa gakusei desu. First and second person pronouns (me – わたし watashi) (you – あなた anata) are often omitted, as they are obvious.

Creating questions - Ka Simply add the Particle ka - か がくせい です。 Gakusei desu. I’m a student. がくせい です か。 Gakusei desu ka. Are you a student?

Answering questions – no topic Topic is often omitted when answering questions はなこさん は がくせい です か。 Hanakosan wa gakusei desu ka? Is Hanako a student? はい、はなこさん は がくせい です。 Hai, Hanakosan wa gakusei desu. Yes, Hanako is a student she is.

Negatives です ではありません OR じゃありません desu dewa arimasen (f) ja arimasen (if) がくせい です。 Gakusei desu. I’m a student. がくせい じゃありません。 Gakusei ja arimsen. I’m not a student.