SENTENCES
WORD ORDER
Before talking about particles let's get into word order. In general, standard word order for Japanese when using an action verb is:
[SUBJECT]+TIME+PLACE/IMPLEMENT
+INDIRECT OBJECT+OBJECT+ACTION VERB
"Ashita, gakkou de sensei ni purezento
wo agemasu."
[I'm] going to give a present to [my]
teacher tomorrow.
For an existence verb it is:
[SUBJECT]+TIME+LOCATION+EXISTENCE VERB
"Takahashi wa, ima honsha ni iru."
Takahasi is in the main office right
now.
For a motion verb it is:
[SUBJECT]+TIME+ORIGIN+ROUTE+DESTINATION+MOTION VERB
"Ashita, paatii ni iku."
I'm going to a party tomorrow.
SUBJECTS
are put in brackets to stress that they are very often
deleted. In general, if a new subject is introduced where another had been
previously understood, signal the change by placing "wa" after the subject.
If a subject is understood, but for some reason not deleted (that's rare)
use "ga" or nothing. Often you can move a subject out after the verb when
things start piling up before the verb. Like:
"Ashita boku ga kooen de utau."
I'm singing at the park tomorrow.
often becomes:
"Ashita kooen de utau, boku."
For more on SUBJECTs, see the longer description in the
next section, "Subjects and Deletion". Knowing how to delete is a key to
sounding natural.
TIME
is usually followed by "ni". In general, use "ni"
for specific points in time or specific spans of time. So "jyuu gatsu
[ni]" (October), "san gatsu mikka [ni]" (March 3rd) take "ni".
A word like "ashita" (tomorrow)
can only be understood by context (it changes depending on when you say
it). These types of words are called "deictic" time words and don't take
"ni".
"Ashita iku" ("I'm going tomorrow."),
but:
"sanji ni iku" ("I'm going
at 3.")
Even if you have trouble making the distinction between
these two types of time words, don't worry: Japanese people can understand
what you mean even if you get it backwards.
PLACE/IMPLEMENT
is followed by "de". By PLACE, I mean the location
that a volitional action occurred. If you're eating at home, that's "ouchi
de shokuji suru". If you're eating with chopsticks, that's "ohashi
de taberu". The place you do something or the thing you use
to do something takes "de". If you're going somewhere by car,
you say "kuruma de iku". It's not that hard to understand, really.
See INDIRECT OBJECT for why DESTINATIONs are different. Verbs of motion that tell DESTINATION, or ones of existence that tell the LOCATION of something take "ni". (DESTINATIONs can also take "he".)
Try to distinguish PLACE from LOCATION by thinking of
it this way:
PLACE is WHERE SOMETHING IS DONE,
LOCATION is WHERE SOMETHING OR SOMEONE
IS.
Use "kara" ("from") after an ORIGIN and "wo" after a ROUTE.
"Gakkoo kara, kooen wo totte, ouchi
ni kaeru."
("I'm going home from school through
the park.")
There's usually an intermediate verb in this type of usage.
OBJECT
is followed by "wo" or nothing.
"Hon wo yonde iru."
(I'm reading a book.)
This is a really simple one in most cases. I really don't
know many Japanese learners who can't understand this.
INDIRECT OBJECT
is followed by "ni". By INDIRECT OBJECT, I mean
a sort of secondary object that some verbs take.
"Kono hon wo anata ni ageru."
("I'm going to give this book to you.")
You have "this book" and you have "to you". The "this
book" part is the OBJECT. The "to you" part is the INDIRECT OBJECT. "Wo"
and "ni" are used to distinguish these two.
VERB
doesn't take any particles, but it needs to be inflected.
There's a big section at the end on how you do that, and useful colloquial
English equivalents of what those inflections mean. To boil this section
down, remember it this way:
SUBJECT+wa/ga/nothing (delete subject if possible, show
changes with "wa") TIME+ni/nothing (use nothing if it's a deictic time
word) PLACE/IMPLEMENT+de (is the place where you do or where you
are)
LOCATION+ni (is the place where you *are* or where you *do*?) ORIGIN+kara
ROUTE+wo (is this a place on the way to where you're going?) DESTINATION+ni/he
(use "ni" over "he" but be aware that both are okay.) INDIRECT OBJECT+ni
(use this if you're out of choices :-)
DIRECT OBJECT+wo
After understanding the descriptions given earlier, these
nine lines are the key to knowing what particle to use 90% of the time.
Even if these rules cause you to make a mistake you're definitely being
understood.
Subjects and Deletions
Usually, you don't have to worry about whether to use
wa
or ga, because most subjects can usually be deleted. "You can't
get something wrong, if you left it out in the first place." That's my
philosophy. So we'll work on the parts of sentences that you can delete,
starting with subjects.
If you turn to a Japanese and suddenly
make a statement:
"Ashita paatii ni iku."
("[I'm] going to the party tomorrow.")
the listener will assume the subject is you. So don't
bother supplying any subject. To do so, is in fact, not natural; a Japanese
wouldn't normally do it.
If you turn to a Japanese and suddenly
ask a question:
"Ashita paatii ni iku?"
("[Are you] going to the party tomorrow?")
the listener will assume the subject is himself or herself.
Easy! Most one-on-one conversations where you or the listener is the subject
don't
need an explicit subject. No chance of screwing up wa/ga here.
If you suddenly turn to a Japanese
and want to make a statement or ask a question about some other person
altogether, use "wa" after that person's name or title the first
time you mention that person:
"Shachoo wa, ashita paatii ni iku?"
("Is the shachoo going to the party
tomorrow?")
Let's just say the "wa" introduces a change in
subject. This time it signals a change from the default "you the listener"
to the "shachoo".
After you establish that you're talking
about the president, you can go back to dropping subjects again:
"Sono ato wa, kaeru ka na?"
"Is he going home after that?"
--again some vagueness added with "ka na" ("I
wonder"). Don't be too forward making assumptions about other people. This
trick also stops the listener from thinking the question is back to being
about himself. There's a strong tendency for questions to erase understood
info and you have to signal that things are unchanged. Usually you play
with the verb a little bit to get this across. Note that the change in
time being talked about was also signaled with a "wa".) Note that
this tendency to delete in Japanese parallels the point where an English
native speaker would use plain pronouns like, I, you, he, she, they. When
you start a comment about yourself, you use "I" (Japanese delete). When
you ask about the listener, you use "you" (Japanese delete). When you've
first established someone and then keep going with that person, you use
"he" or "she" (Japanese delete). See? Simple.
Deleting other Established Info
Just like with subjects, any info that's been established
can be deleted, and any changes in established info can be signalled using
"wa":
"Ashita paatii ni iku?"
("[Are you] going to the party tomorrow?")
"Un, anata wa?"
("Yeah, how about you?")
--info about "paatii ni" and "iku" unchanged,
therefore deleted. Subject changed to original questioner, so the change
is signaled with "wa".
"Un-n, ikanai"
("No, I'm not going.")
--info about "paatii ni" still deleted, "iku" comes back as "ikanai" because it has changed form.
"Sono ato no eiga wa?"
"How about the movie afterwards?"
--the established info "paatii" changed to "eiga"
so we use "wa" to establish the change in understood information.
Understood info that *hasn't* changed is still left out, like the subject
"boku"
and the action "iku".)
"Un-n, ikanai."
This is pretty much how deletions work whether it be subjects
or something else. In general, always go for deletions if possible. This
section also serves the purpose of giving you a feel for "wa".
Particle Ga
In general, you don't need it. In the instances where
you do, you can slowly build a feel for it. Basically, you need it in situations
where you're not expressing a change in subject, but where you want to
state the subject even though it is established info. Usually, this is
to add emphasis or avoid ambiguity.
"Shacho wa, ashita paatii ni iku?"
("Is the shachoo going to the party
tomorrow?")
"Un-n, ikanai mitai."
("No, it doesn't look like it.")
--throw in a "mitai" because you don't wan't to act too sure of the actions of others in Japanese. We're not really covering that though, it's just a side note.
"Nande?"
("Why not?")
"Sore ga wakaranai."
("I don't know why not.")
--there's no real ambiguity in this case, and "wakaranai"
alone would have worked, but it is a case where you're not changing an
understood subject to another, you're restating the understood subject
as such for some emphasis. If you're stating an established subject, for
whatever reason, use "ga". But you could've deleted, and if you
were following my explanation you should have. This one sentence also helps
dispell the huge MYTH that "wa" is for negative sentences.
Particle Mo
Use mo when you're adding more info on a list
of established info. It may be used alone when marking subjects and objects,
and can follow other particles (like ni, de, and he). Put
it this way: if "wa" clears the understood info and replaces it,
"mo"
adds extra info on top of what's already there without clearing out anything.
"Ashita paatii ni iku?"
("[Are you] going to the party tomorrow?")
"Un, iku yo."
("Yeah, I'm going, how about you?"
--note what was deleted and why.)
"Boku mo iku."
("I'm going too."
--add yourself to the understood subject.)
Mo is easy, so we won't waste any more time with
it. Just trying to be complete and it only took a few lines to do.
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