Japanese sentence structure for beginners: word order, verbs and politeness

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Japanese grammar looks strange at first, but its basic structure is consistent and logical. Once you see how a sentence is put together, you can start reading and building your own sentences quickly. This guide covers the essentials; for the small words that mark each part of a sentence, see our particles guide.

Subject, object, verb

English is subject-verb-object: "I eat sushi". Japanese is subject-object-verb:

私は寿司を食べます。 watashi wa sushi o tabemasu. I sushi eat.

The verb always comes at the end of the sentence. Everything else (who, what, where, when) comes before it, marked by particles. Because particles show the role of each word, the order before the verb is fairly flexible:

昨日、友達と東京で寿司を食べました。 kinō, tomodachi to Tōkyō de sushi o tabemashita. Yesterday, with a friend, in Tokyo, I ate sushi.

A rough default order is: time, topic, place, object, verb. You will see variations, but this is a safe pattern.

Topic and subject, briefly

は (wa) marks the topic, what the sentence is about. が (ga) marks the subject, especially new information or the answer to "who?". This is the hardest point for most learners, and our particles guide explains it with examples. For now:

私は学生です。 I am a student. (As for me, student.)
誰が来ましたか。田中さんが来ました。 Who came? Tanaka came.

Dropping what is obvious

Japanese leaves out anything clear from context, especially "I" and "you". 食べました (tabemashita) alone can mean "I ate", "she ate" or "we ate". Do not keep saying 私は; it sounds unnatural.

Nouns with です

To say "X is Y", use です (desu) at the end:

これは本です。 kore wa hon desu. This is a book.
Past: でした (deshita). Negative: じゃないです (ja nai desu) or ではありません (dewa arimasen).

Adjectives also come before the end: このラーメンはおいしいです。 This ramen is delicious.

Politeness lives in the verb ending

Japanese has two basic speech levels, chosen by how you end the sentence:

Polite (masu form): 食べます, 行きます, です. Use it with strangers, at work and in shops. Learn this first.
Plain (dictionary form): 食べる, 行く, だ. Used with friends and family, and inside longer sentences.

Main patterns in the polite form:

Present / future: 行きます (I go / will go)
Negative: 行きません
Past: 行きました
Past negative: 行きませんでした
Let's: 行きましょう

There is no separate future tense; context and time words do the work. Honorific and humble language (keigo) build on top of this; see our keigo guide when you are ready.

Questions with か

Turn a statement into a question by adding か (ka) at the end, with no change in word order:

学生ですか。 Are you a student?
何を食べますか。 What will you eat?

In casual speech the か is often dropped and the question shown by rising intonation alone. Question words (何 what, どこ where, いつ when, 誰 who) sit where the answer would go.

Linking with the te-form

The te-form is the glue of Japanese. It joins actions in order, makes requests and builds many other patterns:

朝ご飯を食べて、学校に行きます。 I eat breakfast and go to school.
ちょっと待ってください。 Please wait a moment.
今、勉強しています。 I am studying now.

Learning how verbs change into the te-form is one of the most useful early steps.

Modifiers come first

Anything describing a noun goes before it, including whole clauses:

昨日買った本 the book (that) I bought yesterday

There is no "that" or "which"; the clause simply sits in front of the noun.

A practice method

Take a simple English sentence about your day.
Put the verb last and add particles to the other parts.
Drop "I" if it is obvious.
Say it in the masu form, then turn it into a question with か.

Post a sentence you built in the comments and others can help check it, or ask about anything that still confuses you.