{"id":1265,"date":"2020-12-20T00:13:53","date_gmt":"2020-12-20T00:13:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/japanesecomplete.com\/articles\/?p=1265"},"modified":"2021-05-02T16:43:02","modified_gmt":"2021-05-02T16:43:02","slug":"japanese-sentence-structure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/japanesecomplete.com\/articles\/?p=1265","title":{"rendered":"Japanese Sentence Structure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Aside from always having a verb at the end, Japanese does not depend on sequence.  Japanese is a grammar defined by <em>grammar particles<\/em>, functional &#8220;words&#8221; that glue on to nouns to indicate what purpose the noun serves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here we highlight some common Japanese particles in a slice of the \u3072\u3089\u304c\u306a [hiragana] syllabary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1069\" height=\"834\" src=\"https:\/\/japanesecomplete.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/japanese-particles.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1266\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>You can practice your \ud83c\udfb5 listening comprehension\ud83d\udc42 of the \u3072\u3089\u304c\u306a \ud83c\udf8e <a href=\"http:\/\/japanesecomplete.com\/hiragana\">here<\/a>.  But we digress, Japanese relies on <em>grammatical particles<\/em> to indicate the <strong>who, what, when,  where, and how<\/strong> of a sentence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Who, what, when, where, and how<\/strong>.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u3067  (de) <strong>where and how<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, \u3067 [&#8220;deh&#8221;] implies <em>manner of accomplishment<\/em> or <em>setting-locality where something takes place.<\/em> Mapping to English, we cover the <strong>where<\/strong> [setting] and <strong>how<\/strong> [means] with \u3067\u3002<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"246\" height=\"142\" src=\"https:\/\/japanesecomplete.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Screen-Shot-2020-12-19-at-4.34.24-PM.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1267\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator alignfull is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u306b (ni) where and when<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>For destinations, or specific times, or precise physical points of existence (being), Japanese relies on the use of the <em>grammatical particle<\/em> \u306b [&#8220;ni&#8221; as in, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=zIV4poUZAQo\">&#8220;we are the knights who say&#8230;&#8221;<\/a>].  \u306b [&#8220;knee!&#8221;] therefore covers <strong>where<\/strong> [destination] and <strong>when<\/strong> [moment].<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"648\" height=\"446\" src=\"https:\/\/japanesecomplete.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Screen-Shot-2020-12-19-at-4.36.55-PM.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1268\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u304c  (ga) who and what<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The <em>grammatical particle<\/em> \u304c [&#8220;ga&#8221;] is used to explain <strong>who<\/strong> and <strong>what<\/strong> when used as the <strong>grammatical subjects<\/strong> of a sentence.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example: Vegetables are delicious.  Candy is sweet.<br>  (Veggies are <strong>what<\/strong> is delicious)<br>  (The candy is <strong>what<\/strong> is sweet)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"366\" height=\"295\" src=\"https:\/\/japanesecomplete.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Screen-Shot-2020-12-19-at-4.38.46-PM.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1269\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Finally, in this brief primer, we want to show the concept of <strong>bunsetsu jar<\/strong> which we have featured on our <a href=\"http:\/\/japanesecomplete.com\/reverse-engineer\/\">&#8220;Reverse Engineer Some Japanese&#8221;<\/a> page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"737\" height=\"138\" src=\"https:\/\/japanesecomplete.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Screen-Shot-2020-12-19-at-4.41.05-PM.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1270\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Within a <strong>bunsetsu jar<\/strong>, we place a noun and cap off the <strong>jar<\/strong> with a <strong>lid<\/strong> containing a <em>grammatical particle<\/em> such as \u304c\u3001\u306b\u3001\u3067 or one of the many others.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In total, there is an estimated 233 + particles (some are multi-mora, that is, multiple letters) and we teach them in a gradual and comprehensible way in <a href=\"https:\/\/japanesecomplete.com\/articles\/?p=83\">Japanese Complete<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finally, a sentence-final verb is placed at the end of a sentence.  In English, this would be akin to moving the &#8220;is\/are&#8221; or &#8220;be\/exists&#8221; verb to the end of every sentence.  Japanese fun is.  Grammar easy is.  Japanese-about thinking = interesting is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So that&#8217;s it. You pick your nouns, you pick the <em>grammatical particles<\/em> to match based on the meaning of <strong>who, what, when, where, and how<\/strong>, and you figure out the sentence-final verb element.  Now you&#8217;re thinking in Japanese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course, developing the reflex and intuition around this takes some practice, which is why we devised quizzes for Japanese Complete that help train your intuition on the particles, one-by-one.  You can watch a brief video showing some of the quizzes in action on our <a href=\"https:\/\/japanesecomplete.com\/guide\">free guide page<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Kanji in English Context<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In order to accelerate Kanji comprehension into English context, as you can see in a sonnet by Shakespeare on <a href=\"http:\/\/japanesecomplete.com\/learning-to-read\">this page<\/a>.  This pattern follows a similar pattern of adoption that native Japanese took: grab kanji from mainland Asia for their ideographic value and smash them together with your native syllabary to add helpful meaning, nuance, and context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"496\" height=\"177\" src=\"https:\/\/japanesecomplete.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Screen-Shot-2020-12-19-at-4.46.27-PM.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1271\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Temple NI arrive.<\/strong> [unstated subjects arrive to the temple]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Enter-before NI, hands OH let&#8217;s wash, NE.<\/strong> [before entering, let&#8217;s wash our hands, right?]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We&#8217;ve created a substack newsletter to share <em>Kanji in English Context <\/em>once or twice a month, you can <a href=\"https:\/\/japanesecomplete.substack.com\/p\/coming-soon\">sign up for it here<\/a> if you&#8217;re interested in getting interesting <em>Kanji in English Context<\/em> lessons to your inbox.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>One great thing about Japanese grammar is that the <strong>bunsetsu jars<\/strong> can be arranged in any sequence before the final verb, provided each noun has its appropriately matching <em>grammar particle<\/em> glued on and intact.  This leads to great fun with parsing, as one can create a <a href=\"https:\/\/japanesecomplete.com\/articles\/?p=811\">rudimentary Japanese grammar parser<\/a> from a 5-line EBNF grammar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1080\" height=\"1349\" src=\"https:\/\/japanesecomplete.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/osaka-castle.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1272\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Hopefully this post made the inner mechanics of Japanese more clear.  Developing intuition and unlocking the language takes study, practice, and determination!  If you&#8217;re looking for a program to break the language down logically <strong>and<\/strong> provide practice and training to help your newfound understanding become intuitive and fast, get a free 7 day trial for <a href=\"https:\/\/japanesecomplete.com\/\">Japanese Complete<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Aside from always having a verb at the end, Japanese does not depend on sequence. Japanese is a grammar defined by grammar particles, functional &#8220;words&#8221; that glue on to nouns to indicate what purpose the noun serves. Here we highlight some common Japanese particles in a slice of the \u3072\u3089\u304c\u306a [hiragana] syllabary. You can practice<a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/japanesecomplete.com\/articles\/?p=1265\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">&#8220;Japanese Sentence Structure&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[317,322,142,159,170,319,320,321,318],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v15.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Japanese Sentence Structure<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sentential Structure of Japanese. 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