2.1 - Further Sentences and Particles

As you saw in Lesson 1.2,  sentences in Japanese aren't all that difficult to make. Up until now we've only scratched the surface but now it's time to go a little bit deeper.

What if you wanted to say a longer sentence that is not just A is B? Maybe you want to tell someone: "I have to go to school tomorrow despite there being a holiday.", or "I will go to the supermarket with my mother, tomorrow, at 8 PM." Seems difficult, right? This might seem hard but by the end of this lesson, you'll easily be able to make sentences of such complexity on your own. Let's begin, shall we.

You might remember the particles "wa" (written 'ha') and "wo", (spelt 'o'), from the previous lesson on basic sentence-structure. As a refresher, "wa" is the topic-marking particle, whereas "wo" is the direct object-marking particle: "watashi wa hon wo yomimasu." (I read book/books.) Here "watashi", meaning "I", is the subject as the particle "wa" is marking it as the topic (and subject). Similarly, here "hon", meaning "book", is the direct object as it's being marked as the object by the particle "wo". This might seem repetitive but this is necessary to properly understand the advanced stuff.

Now, there are a plethora of other particles used in Japanese, be for time, place, location, destination, indirect object, reason, means (of transportation), etc. We'll discuss the most used ones in this lesson.

Firstly, I should make clear the distinction between "subject" and "topic" in a sentence. To my best knowledge, the subject and the topic of a sentence are the same thing in English. In Japanese, however, the topic can be different from the subject and thus needs to be marked by the topic-marking particle: "wa". The subject is marked with the subject marker "ga". Now you might be wondering, "Wasn't wa the subject particle? What the heck is this ga?"

In all our previous examples, the subject WAS the topic, hence we just went with the topic-marker "wa", instead. This lesson onward, "wa" is the topic-marker whereas "ga" is the actual subject-marker. "wa" and "ga" often cause confusion among learners so it's best to get them out of the way as soon as possible.

Notes about topic:

1. The topic is often the same as the subject, but not always.

2. The topic can be anything that a speaker wants to talk about (It can be an object, location or any other grammatical element).

3. It is sometimes compared to the English expressions “As for ~” or “Speaking of ~”

e.g, Anata wa - "As for you / Speaking of you, ... "

4. It can be omitted from the sentence in many cases. In this example, you can remove the words in the parentheses and it means the same thing:

(watashi wa) sensei desu. = sensei desu. (I'm (a/the) teacher.)

Notes about subject:

1. The subject can be the topic, but not always.

2. The subject can start a sentence in some cases.

3. The subject particle "ga" can be used in place of "wa" in cases where you want to specify/emphasize or distinguish the subject/topic from others.

e.g,  You're telling a friend: "(watashi wa) booru wo ketta." - I kicked the ball.

But if somebody asks you "Who kicked the ball?" You make "watashi" the subject, and hence use "ga" to signify that YOU were the one who kicked the ball:

"watashi ga booru wo ketta." - I (was the one who) kicked the ball.

This way ga can be used to emphasize that the subject "is the one" who acted out the verb.

ga has some other uses as well:

1. As an object-marker (like wo):
A friends asks you: "Do you like cats?" You should say: "neko ga suki desu" instead of neko 'wo' suki desu. 'wo' would be understandable but ga better signifies the meaning of the sentence. Here, ga works like an object-particle, similar to wo, but with more emphasis, like "Cats are the things I like."

2. As "but":
ga has the ability to be used like the conjunction "but":

Consider this example:

"I want to go, but I don't have money."
"ikitai no desu ga, okane ga nai no desu." - [ikitai - want to go] [okane - money]

Here, "ikitai desu" means "I want to go". This is a grammatically correct sentence on it's own, i.e, a clause. The other clause "okane ga nai desu" means "I don't have money." Now, to join these two clauses with the conjunction "but", we simply add ga between the two clauses as seen above. The second clause "okane ga nai" also makes use of ga, but as an object-marker like we discussed before.

This pretty much wraps up the subject particle "ga". Hope you learnt something informative and that how subject can be different from the topic. In the above example, "watashi wa", while not mentioned, is the implied topic.

The "ni" and "e" particles:

The ni and  e particles are destination particles. They can also be used to mark time. Their usage is really simple. Just plug either ni or e in front of a destination. Place/Time usually comes after the topic. ni can also be used as an indirect object-marker.

e.g, I am going to school.
As the topic, I, can be omitted, it becomes: "gakkou ni ikimasu." [Gakkou - school] [Ikimasu - to go/going] Here, ni becomes an object-marker and a destination-marker as well.

For more vague places/destinations, it is better to use e (written 'he', pronounced 'e').

e.g, I will go beyond the sea.
"umi no koete e ikimasu". [umi - sea] [koete - beyond]

The "no" particle:

This is another really easy one. In fact, we just used it in the last example. "no" is the possession-marker/particle. It shows that the word before it, owns the thing right after it. Like A no B means "B belongs to A". no may be thought of as 's for quick remembrance. In the above example:

"umi no koete" means: "Beyond the sea" or literally: "The sea's beyond area".
"watashi no hon" means "My book".
"anata no namae" means "Your name".

The "kara" particle:

The kara particle is used to mark a reason. It can also be used to mark the origin of something like "from". Again, this is really simple:

"I couldn't go to school because I have a cold."

Don't worry about the verb-forms. I'll teach it in some future lesson. For now, let's translate the above sentence:

"kaze ga hiku nan da kara gakkou ni ikenakatta no desu." [kaze ga hiku - to catch a cold] [ikenakatta - couldn't go] [gakkou - school]

Here kara is sort of like a "because". The difference is that the reason is told before using kara, and the effect of that reason comes after it. This can be seen in our example.

kara can be used to tell the origin of something too:

"I am from England."
"Ingurando kara desu".

However, the other origin/from-paricle "yori" is a bit more appropriate:

"Ingurando yori desu".


The "to" particle:

The to particle is used to define a co-participant in a sentence (like "with"). For example:

"I ate food with my friend."
"tomodachi to tabemono wo tabemashita." [tomodachi - friend] [tabemono - food][tabemashita - ate]

Here to tells us that "tomodachi", meaning friend, is the co-participant in the sentence. It's kind of like the English "with", but as it's a particle, it marks the word before it, unlike 'with'. You can put "issho ni" in front of to, to signify closeness and familiarity:

"tomodachi to issho ni tabemono wo tabemashita."


The "de" particle:

The de particle marks the means/mode of transportation:

"jitensha" means bicycle. "jitensha de" means "by bicycle".
"kuruma" means car. "kuruma de" means "by car".
"hitori" means alone. "hitori de" means "alone" (means of transport).
"ressha" means train. "ressha de" means "by railway".

The de particle can also be used as a location-marker. It can indicate the place at which an action or event takes place. It can be used like “at” or “in” is used in English.

"(watashi wa) toshokan de benkyō shimashita" [toshokan - library] [benkyou shimashita - studied]

Here de tells us that "I studied AT the library."


Alright! We've done all of the basic particles! Now, for the grand finale, I'll show you a sentence structure cheat-sheet that'll help you make longer sentences without straining your mind:

Topic [wa] Year [ni] Month [ni] Day [ni] Time [ni] Origin [kara] Place [ni] Co-participant [to] Means [de] object [wo] verb.

Although not perfect, this can be morphed into almost any long sentence while still maintaining a sense of structure. Of course, you can slightly bend the rules but remember! The topic comes at the start and the verb at the end. Now let's try one of the two sentences I told you about in the beginning.

Let's take: "I will go to the supermarket with my mother, tomorrow, at 8 PM."

This now becomes:

"(watashi wa) Ashita gogo hachi ji ni okaa-san to issho ni supaa ni ikimasu.

Ashita - tomorrow
gogo - PM
hachi - eight
jikan - time
hachi jikan - eight o' clock
okaa-san - mother
supaa - supermarket
ikimasu - go/will go

NOW YOU KNOW... mata ashita!