Word order
Structure of Japanese Language
Basic mechanism of Japanese sentences
The English word order is “subject + verb + object” SVO,
but Japanese is “subject + object + verb” SOV.
However, the difference in word order between Japanese and English is not limited to this. In Japanese, the positions of the subject and the object may be interchanged. In English, such word order cannot be changed.
わたし じ てん しゃ の
私は 自転車に乗った。
watashiwa jitensyaninotta
I rode a bicycle.
じ てん しゃ わたし の
自転車に 私は乗った。
jitensyani watasiwanotta
✖️ a bicycle rode I .
In this way, it is said that Japanese has a higher degree of freedom in word order than English, which does not allow the position of the subject-object to be exchanged (because the function of particles does not change even if the word order is changed).
Languages with a high degree of freedom in word order
I mentioned earlier that the basic word order of Japanese is SOV, but the most important point is to put the verb at the end. As long as this is followed, in fact, the word order of Japanese is quite free in other respects, and it is possible to move the subject after the object.
Language in which obvious subjects are easily omitted and even important objects are omitted
This is an example where the subject “I” and the possessive “my” do not appear in Japanese.
Furthermore, “she” has both meanings of “girlfriend” and “she”, so it should be difficult to understand unless you say “my girlfriend”.
However, we Japanese are talking about these things from the context.
Simple logic behind Japanese sentence patterns Comparison with English
In Japanese, word order is less important than it is in languages like English thanks to the existence of particles. As I talked about in my guide to Japanese sentence structure, particles, not word order, are what determines how each part of a sentence relates to the verb:
Thank you for reading! ありがとう。 Namu Shinnyo ■
