Lesson: Sentences

This lesson will explain how to compose sentences.

In Japanese, typical sentences are composed in subject, object, verb order. Typical English sentences are written in subject, verb, object order.

Meeting people

The sentence in English:

My name is ______.

The sentence in Japanese is:

わたしのなまえは ______ です。

Literally:

I of name は ______ is.

The word "なまえ" means name. Subjects are marked with は or が, and objects are marked with を to avoid confusion.

The sentence in English:

I am an American.

The sentence in Japanese is:

わたしはアメリカじんです。

Literally:

I は American is.

The postfix "じん" is added to the country's name to denote nationality. Notice there is no word for the particals "a" or "an".