Basic sentence pattern

Sentences containing Japanese subjects and predicates can be divided into the following three basic sentence patterns.

“Sentence pattern in which a verb becomes a predicate”

たなか　　　　　かいしゃ　　い

田中さんは会社へ行きました。

tanakasanwa kaisyae ikimashi ta

Mr. Tanaka went to the company.

“Sentence pattern in which adjectives become predicates”

たなか　　　　

田中さんはきれいです。

tanakasanwa kirei desu

Ms. Tanaka is beautiful.

“Sentence pattern in which nouns become predicates”

たなか　　　ぎんこういん　　

田中さんは銀行員です。

tanakasanwa ginkou in desu

Mr. Tanaka is a bank clerk.

So far, we’ve only touched on subjects and predicates, but there are still more types of clauses.

Modifiers

Modifiers are words that describe other clauses in detail.

さとう　　　　　ともだち　がっこう　い

佐藤さんは友達と学校へ行きました。

stousanwa tomodachito gakkoue iki mashi ta

Miss Sato went to school with his friends.

“With friends” and “to school” in the above sentence are called modifiers.

Conjunction

Plays the role of connecting sentences.

ごご　　　　あめ　ふ　かさ　

午後から雨が降りそうだった。だから傘を持って行った。

gogokara amega furisoudatta dakara kasawo motte itta

It was going to rain in the afternoon. So I brought an umbrella with me.

The word “だから dakara” in the above sentence is the conjunction.

Independent language

Bunsetsu is isolated independently of other bunsetsu

　　　　　　　　　　 きょう　　　　　　　　　ねが

こんにちは、今日もよろしくお願いします。

konnichiwa kyoumo yoroshiku onagaii shimasu

Hello, I look forward to working with you today.

　　　　　 しゅっぱつ　　　　　　　　　

さあ、出発しようか。

saa syuppatsu shiyouka

Let’s start now.

In the above sentence, “こんにちは”konnichiwa and “さあ saa” are independent words.
It expresses greetings, calls, impressions, etc.

Thank you for reading! ありがとう。　Namu Shinnyo ■　