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Japanese/Word Order

From Wikibooks

Word order of Japanese is much different than that of English. A simple sentence like "Watashi wa Komuku-san orimashite ka?" means in complete literal translation "I the Komuku went (question mark)?" which in true English means "I went to Komuku?". So that just states that English and Japanese are two different languages and you must cope with the grammatical differences.

The direct noun is located at the beginning of a sentence (usually) and the indirect noun located before the verbs (which are located usually at the end) then the expression words are placed like "ka? and "yo!". If one were to say this sentence in Japanese but in English word order it would say "I komuku to went" which doesn't make a lot of sense to anybody. Remember, a good sentence should be like:

  • "dNoun Article iNoun Verb Expression(if needed)"

There can also be informal situations where there could be a sentence like:

  • "dNoun iNoun Verb"

or

  • "dNoun Verb"

or

  • "iNoun Verb"

Where the "i" and "d" stand for "indirect" and "direct"