Hey everyone! I’m sorry for this overdue lesson,but I had issues… nVm! On to the lesson!

Most languages (or at least the English one) are SVO while Japanese is SOV. I don’t want to get into this grammar BS,so let’s just dive right into the action!

Just a side note, I’ll be writing with both hirigana and romaji for this lesson. I’ll try to write only with hirigana later on!

1- Subject wa Object desu.

This structure is the basic one. You’re probably wondering what it does mean at this point?! “Wa” is a particle. A particle in Japanese are sentence structure parts that define what the preceding word signifies or what function it does in a particular sentence.

So “Wa” here functions as a topic marker, it means that the preceding word is actually what the sentence revolves around! Don’t think hard about this,you’ll get the hang of it with practice! Yeah,you can’t possibly hope to accomplish anything in anything without some practice!

So, to get things started I’ll give you some example! It’s a simple one, so don’t worry.

Tanaka-san wa wakai desu.

The sentence means literally: As for Tanaka-san young is. Of course this doesn’t make any much sense! So you’ll have to drop translating sentences into English first! You HAVE to understand Japanese as a stand alone language! I don’t mean you can’t actually translate Japanese sentences into English,but I mean you have to understand Japanese on its own accord. Oh boy,I just keep going on and on and you probably got lost along the way, didn’t you?

Well, to simplify things, you just need to understand Japanese without actually referring to English grammar rules. So, in Japanese,the topic subject comes before “Wa” and almost always the verb, the main verb of the sentence that is, comes last in the sentence! These are some basic rules you need to keep in your mind at all times.

So,back to our example, Tanaka-san wa….Well,it is pretty much obvious that when we started this sentence we are planning on talking about Tanaka-san… so that pretty much makes him our topic subject! Get it now?

So, Tanaka-san wa wakai… well,wakai is an adjective. OK, I know most of you slept through English classes so I’ll make more clear. An adjective is a word that describes something or someone’s state or ability or anything, it’s a description word meaning “young.”

Again with this dude, Tanaka-san. Tanaka-san wa wakai desu..These things just keeping on coming, don’t they?! Well, desu is a copula. A copula is a word used to link the subject of a sentence with a predicate (a subject complement or an adverbial). Well, it almost always translates to “to be,” so it may mean “is,” “are,” or “am.” Well,this sentence shows us that we’re talking about this Japanese dude named Tanaka-san and that he is young. Well, that may not be of much concern to most of us, but hey, who said we couldn’t learn from that?!

So, that’s it for our little first lesson. Please keep practicing, cuz you know what they say: “practice makes perfect!”

Here are some words you might wanna use:

1. watashi = I (as in I am).

2. anata = you (it’s preferable to call people by their names rather with this pronoun).
3. wakai = young.
4. kuruma = car.
5. tsukue = table.
6. ringo = apple.
7. neko = cat.

Well,that should keep you going! I’m here for any comments or suggestions,I have told you before, but I have not learned Japanese the official way (academic way) but rather from my years of watching Anime and some helpful sites out there So I if made a mistake, I’m open for suggestions!

Cya next lesson!