Japanese grammar

From Conservapedia

Japanese grammar differs from English grammar in that sentences typically end with a verb. Also, the subject of the sentence may be omitted, when it is understood from the context. It uses particles to link nouns in the opposite order from English, much like a possessive. For example, "the founder of the company" becomes "the company's founder" (C no F).

The most basic sentence structure in English can be described as consisting of the following elements in this specific order: Subject, Verb, Object. A sentence is not grammatically correct if any of those elements are missing or out of order.

However, the basic Japanese sentence order is Subject, Object, Verb. In many ways, Japanese is simpler than English - there are no singular or plural words (again, it is derived from the context of what is being said), verb and adjective stems remain the same, even as they are conjugated, no need to worry about irregular verbs. Japanese also does not use articles (a, the, an, etc.); personal pronouns are also possessive pronouns; and, as opposed to English; there are very few exceptions to the rule.

The Scripts

Although all the examples that follow are written in the roman alphabet, or romaji, anybody who wants to learn the language is going to have to learn the three scripts that Japanese use to write their language, namely kanji, hiragana and katakana. Of the three, kanji is clearly the most difficult, but if learnt in order, and with application, it be done fairly rapidly.

Hiragana is probably the best script to begin learning, as it will assist you in learning the correct pronunciation of the kanji. Also, all the various parts of speech associated with constructing a proper sentence in Japanese are written in hiragana (for example, all the particles, as well as the okurigana, which are hiragana attached to a verb stem to conjugate the various forms of the verb).

In modern Japanese, kanji are used to write nouns, adjective and verb stems, and compounds, whilst hiragana are used to write the inflected verb and adjective endings, and particles. Native Japanese words for which there is no kanji are also written in hiragana, as are words where the kanji is too obscure, or difficult to read, to remember. New Japanese words, or words imported from foreign languages are usually written in katakana.

Understanding a Japanese sentence

Once you understand how a typical Japanese sentence is constructed, especially if you understand how the various particles indicate how each part of a sentence relates to the others, then understanding a sentence, and even converting it into English, becomes fairly simple.

Firstly, each Japanese sentence contains a central theme, which one can find as follows:

Take the sentence in question, and beginning at the end, try and find the smallest part that makes sense, i.e. it is logical in both Japanese and English. This is always a verb and the main particle that is associated with it.

To use a sample sentence (do not worry about the kana below the sentence, it is for illustrative purposes only, to link the kana to the romaji):

kanojo	wa	itsumo	yuumoa	de	minna	o	warawasemasu	desu
彼女	は	何時も	ユーモア	で	みんな	を	笑わせます	です

Now, that probably looks like gibberish to most people and probably only like a sentence because there is a string of words. However, you probably know, or have read that Japanese sentences are written in the order Subject (or topic) -> Object -> Verb. The problem is, where does one find these, in order to extract some meaning from the sentence. (Although the truth is that in spoken Japanese, the sentence structure can be "*anything*...verb" - particles, or post-positions, serve to identify the various parts of speech for the listener. So, as long as you know your particles and verbs, you will be able to make yourself understood, even if the word order is slightly mangled.)

Starting at the end of the sentence, we find the verb "desu". This is an "all-purpose" verb and crops up everywhere. It basically means "it is". Seeing "desu" immediately tells us that this sentence is simply a statement of fact. However, it is not the verb we are looking for.

The next word is "warawasemasu". Bear in mind that most (but not all!) Japanese verbs end in "~u" or "~ru", so this is possibly a verb, which is confirmed by the next word, the particle "o". The function of the particle "o" is to indicate that what precedes it, is going to be acted on by the verb that follows it. So what is going to be acted on?

The next word is the noun "minna", which translates as "everybody, or everyone".

Returning to the verb, which means "to laugh", and bearing in mind that any acceptable Japanese sentence is essentially a noun, followed by the particle "o", which is in turn followed by a verb and we have the central theme: "minna o warawasemasu" - everybody will laugh.

The sentence still does not have a topic (or subject) - who or what will provide the humour to make everybody laugh? That is where the topic indicating particle "wa" comes in. Everything that precedes "wa" will be the topic of the sentence - in this case "Kanojo", which means "her", or "she".

The only words now remaining are "itsumo," "yuumoa" and "de". "Itsumo" means "always;" "yuumoa" translates as "humour" and "de" is another particle, which indicates "how" everybody is being made to laugh - through her (sense of) humour. (Interestingly, "yuumoa" is written in katakana, indicating it is a word that has been "borrowed" or "imported" from another language, in this case English. Also note that it is the phonetic pronunciation that is imported, not the spelling. "Humour" could hypothetically be spelled using kana - something like hu-mu-o-u-ra (フムオウラ) - but given that each syllable is pronounced separately in Japanese, that would sound even less like "humour" than "yuumoa" does.)

So translating "kanojo wa itsumo yuumoa de minna o warawasemasu desu" directly into English, you get: "(As for) her, always humour (by) everybody (make) to laugh it is," or in correct English, "She always makes everybody laugh with her sense of humour."

So even when faced with a sentence written in kana, such as "彼女 は 何時も ユーモア で みんな を 笑わせます です" if you look for the particles "wa" (は) and "o" (を), indicated in bold, you will have a starting point to break up the sentence and begin translating.

Obviously, the Japanese do not analyse each sentence they read or hear this way, which is where the particles come in. The minute they hear "wa", what they heard before is now identified as the topic, or subject. Likewise, the moment they hear "o", they know what has been said between the topic and "o" will be acted on by the verb that follows, and how the verb is conjugated will inform them if the sentence has ended, or if there is more to follow.

Parts of Speech

As with any language, it is best to study the mechanics behind it, before trying to compile sentences. It when one begins to comprehend how the parts link with each other to form a whole, that the doorway to a wonderful language opens.

• Pronouns
• Particles
• Adjectives
• Verbs
• Counting in Japanese