Sentence structure

While English uses a Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) structure, Japanese uses a Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) structure.

English: I ate an apple.
Japanese: 私はリンゴを食べました。 (watashi wa ringo o tabemashita)

Breakdown:

• Watashi (私) - I (subject)
• Ringo (リンゴ) - Apple (object)
• Tabemashita (食べました) - Ate (verb)

Sometimes, the subject is omitted if it's clear from the context. So, リンゴを食べました (ringo o tabemashita).

The Japanese language also uses small grammatical markers called particles to indicate the role of a noun in a sentence.

• は (wa) - topic marker
• を (o) - direct object marker
• が (ga) - subject marker
• に (ni) - location, time, direction marker
• で (de) - location of action marker