Parts of Speech

Roughly speaking, Japanese has the following parts of speech. Some examples are given.

• Nouns
  • toukyou (Tokyo), mikan (mandarin orange), hito (person)
• Adjectives
  • -i Adjectives. These adjectives always end in a hiragana -i.
    • utsukushii (beautiful), ii (good), sugoi (amazing), ureshii (happy)
  • -na Adjectives. These adjectives have a variety of endings and use -na as a connector.
    • kirei-na (pretty), kantan-na (simple), shiawase-na (happy)
• Adverbs. Adverbs are almost always formed from adjectives.
  • sugoku (extremely, amazingly), tanoshiku (enjoyably), ureshiku (happily)
• Verbs
  • iku (to go), kuru (to come), iru (existence of animate object, "there is/are"), aru (existence of inanimate object, "there is/are")
• Particles (postpositions)
  • ha (pronounced wa) (topic marker), ga (subject marker), wo (pronounced o) (direct object), no (possession), ni (indirect object, "to", etc.), kara ("from"), made ("until")
• Pronouns
  • Pronouns are rather different in their quantity and usage versus many western languages. For example, there are many different ways to express "I" in Japanese: "wareware", "watashi", "boku", "ore" are just four examples (the differences are in politeness and nuance).
  • Natural-sounding Japanese tends to avoid the use of pronouns except when explicitly needed. This is often a point of confusion for beginners.
  • Examples: watashi (I), watashitachi (we), anata (you), kare (him), kanojo (her), karera (they)
• Interjections
  • waa ("wow"), are ("huh?" "eh?"), eeto ("yep, and"), anou ("um")

Basic Grammar

The Japanese language is often confusing for westerners first learning it, since word order and syntax are often backwards. However, the following basic grammatical rules are almost always obeyed.

• A noun modifier such as an adjective, or modifying clause always comes before the noun it modifies. Examples are below.
  • utsukushii hito (beautiful person)
  • kitanai heya (dirty room)
  • taisetsuna mondai (important problem)
  • watashi no yonda hon (The book I read)
• Adverbs come before the verbs or adjectives they modify.
  • tanoshiku shimashou (Let's do it enjoyably)
  • sugoku utsukushii (Extremely pretty)
• Postposition particles (joshi) always come after the word they modify.
  • watashi ha kita (I came)
  • okaasan ni ageta (I gave it to mom)
• More to come...

Introductory Conversation

A typical (yet contrived) exchange between two people would look like this: Mr. Hayashi introduces Mr. Tanaka to Mr. Sanger.

Yamada:   Tanaka-san, kochira ha, Sangaa san desu.
Sangaa:   Hajimemashite, Senga desu. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu.
Tanaka:   Hajimemashite. Eebiishii no Tanaka desu. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu.
Yamada:   Sangaa san ha Nupiidia no shain desu.

Yamada:   Mr. Tanaka, this is Mr. Sanger.
Sanger:   How do you do. My name is Sanger. I'm very glad to meet you.
Tanaka:   How do you do. I am Mr. Tanaka from ABC Company. I'm very glad to meet you.
Yamada:   Mr. Sanger is an employee of Nupedia.

Example of Basic Japanese Sentence structure

Note the importance of the particles, verb tenses, and adjectives.

Mr. Sanger and Mr. Wales eat at a Japanese restaurant.

Sangaa:    Sumimasen, menyuu o misete kudasai.  Please show us the menu.
Ueitoresu: Hai, douzo.                          Certainly sir. Here you are.
(cont'd):  Nomimono ha nani ni nasaimasuka.     What would you like to drink? 
Weruzu:    Biiru onegaishimasu.                 I'd like a beer, please.
Sangaa:    Sukiyaki ni shimasu.                 I'll have the "sukiyaki."
Weruzu:    Biiru o ni-hon to sukiyaki kudasai.  Two bottles of beer and some
                                                  sukiyaki, please.
Sangaa:    Dezaato ha meron ga ii desu.         For dessert we'll have melon.
Ueitoresu: Hai, kashikomarimashita.             I see (understood).

Vocabulary:
ueitoresu     -  waitress    
sumimasen     -  excuse me
menyuu        -  menu
hai           -  yes (in the sense of "that's correct", or "I agree")
nomimono      -  beverage
nani          -  what
hoshii        -  want (desire an object or outcome)
ii            -  good
biiru         -  beer
ni            -  two
hon           -  to count bottles (or any long object)
dezaato       -  dessert
meron         -  melon

X onegaishimasu -  please do X for me
X kudasai       -  please give me X

Particles:
ha - (pronounced wa as a particle) indicates the topic.
ga - indicates the topic with de-emphasis on the topic
wo - (pronounced o) indicates the direct object
ka - indicates a question
to - and

Verbs:
misemasu   - show
desu       - to be (copula, as opposed to existence) 
wakarimasu - to understand.

See also