General Features of Japanese
1. Parts of Speech
The Japanese language mainly consists of nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions and particles.
| Word class | Japanese | English |
| nouns | kazoku | family |
| verbs | tabemasu | eat |
| adjectives | atsui | hot |
| adverbs | yukkuri | slowly |
| conjunctions | soshite | and |
| particles | [kôhî] to [kêki] | [coffee] and [cake] |
2. Word Order
A predicate always comes at the end of a sentence.
| Japanese | English |
| Kore wa hon desu. | This is a book. |
| Fujisan wa takai desu. | Mt. Fuji is high. |
| Kyôto e ikimasu. | I go to Kyoto. |
A modifier always comes before the word or phrase to be modified.
[modifier] + [noun]
| Japanese | English |
| Sumisu-san no uchi | Mr. Smith’s house |
| atarashii uchi | a new house |
| kireina uchi | a beautiful house |
| hiroi niwa ga aru uchi | a house which has a wide garden |
* uchi : house
3. Predicate
There are 3 kinds of predicates in Japanese: noun, verb and adjective.
| Types of Predicates | Japanese | English |
| Noun | Kore wa hon desu. | This is a book. |
| Adjective | Fujisan wa takai desu. | Mt. Fuji is high. |
| Verb | Kyôto e ikimasu. | I go to Kyoto. |
4. Verbs
A predicate conjugates according to whether it is (1) affirmative or negative and (2) non-past or past.
Ex: ikimasu (to go)
| non-past, present | past | |
| affirmative | ikimasu | ikimashita |
| negative | ikimasen | ikimasen deshita |
In Japanese, words are not inflected for person, gender or number.
1. Watashi wa ikimasu. ----- I go (to ~).
2. Watashi-tachi wa ikimasu. ----- We go (to ~).
3. Kare wa ikimasu. ----- He goes (to ~).
4. Kanojo wa ikimasu. ----- She goes (to ~).
5. Adjectives
Adjectives are divided into 2 types according to their inflection. They are i-adjectives and na-adjectives.
| Japanese | English | |
| i-adjective | atarashii uchi |
a new house |
| na-adjective | kireina uchi |
a beautiful house |
6. Particles
A particle is used to show the grammatical function of words. The position of a particle is right after nouns.
Ex: : particles
| Japanese | English | |
| topic marker : wa | Kuruma wa akai desu. | The car is red. |
| object marker: o | Kuruma o kaimasu. | I buy a car. |
| means of transportation marker: de | Kuruma de ikimasu. | I go to ~ by car. |
Unit 1-General Features of Japanese To next Unit 2 |