Japanese Grammar Advanced 1

Japanese language has two basic types of sentences.

1) A is B

watashi (A) wa gakusei (B) desu.

In this case, the tipic marker is “wa”  and/or the copula is da/desu but they may be deleted if their presence is understood from the context.

Yuka: Watashi wa osushi o morau kedo, anata wa nani ni suruno?

Mary: Watashi, tenpura. Sakana, Kirai nano.

Mary dropped the particle and copula because their presence is understood from the flow of the conversation. The full form of Marie’s statement would be “watashi wa tenpura desu. (watashi wa) sakana ga kirai nano desu.”

Two uses of desu.

In the last example, the desu of watashi wa sakana ga kirai nano desu. merely makes the sentence formal instead of colloquial, while the desu of watashi wa tenpura desu is substituting for a verb phrase such as (tenpura) o moraimasu., (tenpura) ni shimasu, or (tenpura) ga ii desu.

When a comma immediately follows a noun-as in watashi, tenpura and sakana, kirai nano in the example above-it often indicates that a particle has been deleted. While punctuation in Japanese is a generally not as fixed as in English, this is one instance that is useful to keep in mind.

Omitted particles and Copulas

When the copula substitutes for a verb, the preceeding particle is often deleted.

Q: 何で行くんですか。

A：わたしは　バスです。（で　いきます）

Q：日本では　どこに　いらっしゃるんですか。

A：東京と　大阪です。（に　行きます）

In more informal or casual situations, the copula may also be deleted.

ex) watashi wa basu desu.

—>watashi wa basu.

–>basu.

Ex) Tokyo to Osaka kara desu.

–> Tokyo to Osaka kara.

KEY POINT! : Natural Japanese avoids mentioning or repeating what is understood from the context.

A does B type

A typical A does B type sentence consists of a verb phrase and one or more noun phrases. The following is the typical structure of an “A does B” sentence:

Topic:  WA

Subject: GA

Indirect Object: NI

Direct Object: O

Sentence Particles: YO, NE etc..

Some examples

Ex)

友達が／（わたしに）／彼の／電話番号を／内証で／教えてくれた。／の。

My friend secretly told me his telephone number.

母が／弟に／バスケットボールを／買ってやったんだ／よ。

My mother bought a basketball for my younger brother.

When the subject or object is the same as the topic, it is deleted.

Watashi wa (watashi ga ) Hon o kaimasu.

As for me, I’ll buy a book.

Hon wa Watashi ga Kaimasu.

As for the book, I will buy it.

In the next two examples, the topic and subject are different, so both appear:

わたしは　本が　買いたい。

As for me, I want to buy a book.

ここの　レストランは　てんぷらが　おいしい。

As for this restaurant, the tempura is good.

Normally, the topic comes at the beginning of the sentence and the main verb comes at the end. The word order, however, is not always fixed, and particles help to indicate the grammatical function when a word appears in an unexpected position.

Examples)

会ったことが　あるのか、あの男に？

Have you met that man before?

わたし、前に　見たことが　あるんです。あの男（を）。

I have seen that man before.

あんなに　高いからって　言ったのに、買っちゃったの、あなたは？

Even though I told you it was expensive (so you shouldn’t buy it), you bought it anyway, did you?

The above example show that the word order in Japanese can sometimes change rather freely. As explained below, though, there are cases when the order cannot be changed.

Modifiers and Modified

In English, a modifying sentence (i.e., relative clause) comes after the modified noun, while in Japanese the modifying sentence always comes before the modified word, regardless of how long the modifier is.

きのう来た手紙

The letter that came yesterday.

ジョンの借りているアパート

The aapartment that John is renting

Exercise 1

Translate the following sentence literally, and identify the noun modifiers.

やっと寺の許しを得た三人が布を解いて取り出した仏像は、今までの仏像とも異なった、神秘的な笑みをうかべた観音像だった。

Hint: This is an “A is B” sentence, where A is butsuzo and B is kannonzou. The gist of the meaning is, “The three people were finally given permission from the temple, so they undid the cloth and took out the Buddhist statue. It was a Kannon statue with a mysterious smile unlike any they had seen before.”

For those at an advanced level who need to read Japanese texts, analyzing sentence structures correctly is essential. Ignoring sentence analysis may make it hard to grasp the content. In reading, it is important to look for the verb-noun (V-N) sequences. They will help you pinpoint the modifiers and modified. Here are some clues to help you.

Step 1: Look for V-N sequences.

The first step in identifying the modifiers and modified in a sentence is to look for verbs that come directly before nouns.

Here are two examples:

ここはいつか友人たちとキャンプに来た所だ。

This is the place where I came with several friends.

わたしは昨年友人がインドネシアから買って来てくれた絵が好きです。

I like the picture that my friend (bought and) brought back for me from Indonesia last year.

 

2) A does B

watashi no ie (A) wa ookii (B) desu.