Basics of Japanese grammar

Japanese grammar is not so exotic as it seems, but it's quite different than usuall concept of European and Anglo-Saxons languages. In this article I'll show you the basic difference and in other articles we'll take a look at problems of Japanese grammar in detail.

1.) Writing system

Well, so the first difference is complex writing system. Japanese has two different alphabets and kanji characters. Alphabets are KATAKANA and HIRAGANA. Katakana is used when word is taken from another language, usually from English, then used in the names of companies, etc. Hiragana is used in most of the words, it's mostly part of words along with kanji characters. And at last, there are many kanji characters. They are adapted from Chinese writing system. They have also  two ways of reading - ON and KUN. The writing system is the most difficult thing when you are learning Japanese and it's really important for you!

2.) Structure of sentence

Second difference is structure of sentence. Look at the follow example.

The typical English sentence has structure:

Mr. Tanaka | eats | apples.

Japanese sentence:

Tanaka-san wa | ringo wo | tabemasu. 


We can also try to translate more difficult sentence.

Today | Sachiko | will  read | this story.

Kyoo-wa | Sachiko-ga | kono  hanashi-o | yomimasu. 
Kyoo-wa | kono hanashi-o | Sachiko-ga | yomimasu. 

They both are right. As you can see, there is not important where exactly lies subject and object. But there is something VERY important you have to learn. Particles. They are the most important thing in Japanese structure of the sentence, which indicate relationship of words to each other (object, subject, adverb, adjective etc.)

3.) Particles 

This is something you probably never used in your language. But without them Japanese sentence has no meaning. Without them you don't know if someone say "People eat fishes" or "Fishes eat people". Example:

人は魚を食べる。People eat fishes.
人を魚は食べる。Fishes eat people.
魚を人は食べる。People eat fishes.
魚は人を食べる。Fishes eat people.

The sentences 魚を人は食べる and 人を魚は食べる are not exactly wrong, but this kind of structure is not used so often. Usually the object follows the subject.

This sentence is example how important are particles in sentence:

Shuumatsu-ni Washinton-de hansen-demo-ga aru-to iu hanashi-o kiita-n- desu-kedo, sanka-shimasu-ka.

週末にワシントンで反戦デモがあるという話を聞いたんですけど、参加しますか。

I heard, that there is anti-war demonstration in Washington on the weekend, would you like to participate?

4.) Conjugation and declination

Conjugation and declination of Japanese words can be quite different than in English. Declination in Japanese is really simple, because there is no gender or number. So it's same when you say for example fish or fishes ( 魚 ). By the way most European languages have grammatical gender and very difficult system of conjugation. I can agree, that Slovak language is especially hard (I speak Slovak and Czech, it's very similar).

Conjugation in Japanese is something else...
Verb are divided into three groups (る, う and 来る/ する), each with its own rules of conjugation. That's pretty simple. Adjectives are divided into two groups (na-adjectives and i-adjectives), again, each group has own rules. And everywhere are some annoying exceptions. Just be patient...

5.) Politeness and gender difference

Unlike most European languages, Japanese has an extensive grammatical system to express politeness and formality. Broadly speaking, there are three main politeness levels in spoken Japanese: the plain form (kudaketa), the simple polite form (teinei) and the advanced polite form (keigo). Keigo is also divided to two levels - honorific language (sonkeigo) and humble (kensongo) language. Also in some situations, women and men are speaking different. For example, only women use "atashi" ( あたし ) and only men use "ore" ( 俺 ). But there are much more differences. I will talk about it later.