“Shinjuku Gyoen: The gardens are a favorite hanami (cherry-blossom viewing) spot, and large crowds can be found in the park during cherry blossom season.”
Lesson Eleven: Desu
Now it’s time to start making sentences. Just basic ones for now though!
The most basic thing you need to know is that sentences in Japanese are not ordered the same way as English sentences. Be sure to remember that! In English, the order has the subject first, then the verb, and the object of the sentence last. A subject is the thing that does the verb, and the object is the rest of the sentence.
I am fast. Subject: I, verb: am, object: fast.
The English ordering of subject, verb, object can be shortened into S.V.O. Japanese sentences are ordered differently. The verb always goes last. The ordering is S.O.V. In Japanese, the example sentence “I am fast” would have the following ordering. “I fast am.”
The words “am,” “is” and “are” in Japanese are all the same word, desu. Regardless of the subject!
So in English we have the following partial sentences. “I am.” “He is.” “They are.” In Japanese they would be;
Watashi desu. Kare desu. Karera desu.
Remember that the desu goes last. The only thing different between these three sentences are the subjects. Technically, desu isn’t a verb, but it fits in the same place when looking at sentence structure.
Here are some words that will be useful in basic sentences. The word “this” can also be used as a subject. Also, notice that the u is silent on です(desu).
be | desu | です |
man | otoko no hito | おとこのひと |
woman | onna no hito | おんなのひと |
child | ko | こ |
American | amerikajin | アメリカじん |
Many of these words are common objects, and Japanese people are certainly common in Japan!
Japanese person | nihonjin | にほんじん |
chair | isu | いす |
car | kuruma | くるま |
book | hon | ほん |
house | ie | いえ |
Take a minute to get used to these new words then we’ll start using them in sentences!
GAME: Multiple choice
Alright! Let’s start using these in sentences. We just need to cover one more thing…
Particles. These are very small words that come after a word. They tell you the context of the word they follow. We’re only going to cover on particle right now.
That particle is は(wa). は(wa) is used to tell you what word is the topic, or main subject, of the sentence. What is the topic of this sentence? Kore wa kuruma desu.
If you said the topic was これ (kore) then you were right! If you said it was kuruma (car) then you need to remember that the particle goes AFTER what it is attached to.
What about this sentence? What word is the topic? Yamadasan wa otoko no hito desu. Also, what is the translation of this sentence?
For “Yamadasan wa otoko no hito desu,” the topic is Yamadasan! And the sentence translates to “Mr. Yamada is a man.”
Is this starting to feel a little more comfortable? Try making your own sentences! Putting it together on your own is a very effective way of learning Japanese!
I think you’ve earned a new game to practice with. Enjoy!
GAME: Memory
Next time we’ll learn how to change desu around into negative, past tense, and negative past tense. I can’t wait!
