語順 – Word Order in Japanese Simplified
The Japanese language has a fairly consistent and straightforward word order. Once you learn it you can create sentences pretty easily. In order to do that below I will introduce some of the basic concepts to understand how Japanese word order works. Understanding these concepts will help you form more accurate and natural-sounding sentences.
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Word Order – Subject Object Verb
Japanese is a subject-object-verb (SOV) language, unlike English which is subject-verb-object (SVO). This means that in Japanese the subject, which is the person or thing performing the action comes first, followed by the object which is the person or thing receiving the action, and finally the verb or the action being performed.
男が本を読んでいる
A man(subject) is reading (verb) a book(object)
Above we can see that the word order is different in both languages.
- Subject: 男が → a man
- Object: 本を → a book
- Verb: 読んでいる → is reading
Unlike English though, Japanese is a topic prominent language. This means a language where the basic structure is a topic being talked about, and what is being said about it. I will explain the more below.
https://japaneseuniverse.com/2024/02/18/pac-man-in-japaneseconcepts-behind-development-to-global-icon/Word Order – Topical and Non-Topical sentences
A new model to that would be better to explain Japanese word order would be based off of the topic. In Japanese, the topic of a sentence is marked with the particle は. The topic refers to the thing being talked about in the sentence. Generally the topic will come at the very beginning of the sentence before everything else.
私はりんごが好きです
I like apples
犬はよく遊ぶ生き物です
Dogs are animals that play a lot
You can see here that in these sentences, the topic is the same as the subject. But it’s important to note that the topic of a sentence is not necessarily the same as the subject. The subject is the doer of the action, while the topic is the thing being talked about. It is possible that a different element of the sentence, like the object could be the topic.
りんごは私が好きです
As for apples, I like them
本は太郎が読んでいる
Talking about the book, it is Taro that is reading it
Basically, the topic would be something that has already been brought up in a sentence or that the people talking to each other understand from context.
So, the next logical question you maybe thinking is, what about when you are not already having a conversation? For example, if you are just making a comment on something, pointing something out, or for exclamations there may not always be a topic.
火事だ！
There’s a fire!
あ、アライグマが屋根で寝ている
hm? A racoon is sleeping on the roof
In summary,
- There are two types of sentences in Japanese, the topical and non-topical ones.
- は tells you the topic and comes first in a sentence
- Any other element like a subject, or object in a sentence can be the topic
Finally, another thing to note is that the topic will be something that spans across sentences. So, it can be the same as the subject in one sentence, then the object in the next. For more of an explanation on は and topics, check out the post below which goes into more detail.
Indirect and Direct Objects and Syntactic Roles
As we know now, Japanese is a topic prominent language with SOV word order. I would like to now explain about the other element in the SOV formula, the object.
There are two types of objects, the direct and indirect. When we say object, most of the time that means the direct object. The direct object is the noun that receives the action of the verb. The indirect object is the noun that is affected by the action of the verb.
太郎が次郎にりんごを上げた
Taro gave Jiro(indirect) an apple(direct)
In Japanese, the direct object is marked with the particle を, while the indirect object is marked with に.
In this sentence, the apple is the direct object, and Jiro is the indirect object. Just like in English, you can swap the direct and indirect objects around and the meaning does not change.
太郎がりんごを次郎に上げた
Taro gave an apple(direct) Jiro(indirect)
The indirect object tends to come first, but the meaning is still basically the same. These particles, を and に along with は and が are just a part of several other particles which are the core of Japanese grammar. Not only are they responsible for syntactic functions like subject and object, but also for other elements in a sentence. They can be prepositions, or be used to compare things and so on. I will talk more about this and more below.
Particles and Valency
Particles are small words that indicate the grammatical function of a word in a sentence. So this can be the subject, object, and other elements like prepositions. These particles come after nouns and depending on the verb you have in the sentence, you will have different particles available to use. For an overview of particles check out the article below:
Particles can convey a number of different meanings just like prepositions in English can. However, here instead of going into all the types of particles I would like to talk about their relation to word order in a sentence. Every verb in Japanese like in English will have a valency. Valency refers to the number of arguments that a verb takes. An argument is a noun phrase that is necessary for the verb to make sense.
男が本を読んでいる
A man is reading a book
Above, the Japanese verb, 読む has two arguments.
- 男が: a man (subject)
- 本を: a book (direct object)
This type of verb with two arguments, a subject and direct object is known as a transitive verb. There are however verbs that only have a subject and no direct object.
男が走った
A man ran
Here, there is only a subject since there is nothing being influenced by the running.
Japanese also can have ditransitive verbs. These are verbs that have three arguments. In addition to the subject and direct object they have the indirect object.
太郎が次郎にりんごを上げた
Taro gave Jiro an apple
Here, 次郎に would be the indirect object. All verbs will need at least one to three arguments depending on the type of verb. If one of these arguments are missing the sentence will be incomplete.
So, in a sentence the verb will always determine which arguments, noun phrases or particles which will show up. Just like in English though, you can add different elements to the sentence to give more information.
昨日体育館で太郎が次郎にりんごを上げた
Taro gave Jiro an apple yesterday in the gymnasium
These extra elements are not needed for a complete sentence but add more information. In Japanese, elements representing time and place will usually come right after the topic of the sentence, before the subject. Then, any other elements will come after the subject before the direct object. Of course this order can vary but it is the most natural order in most situations.
Modifiers
In both Japanese and English, modifiers are words or phrases that provide additional information about a noun or verb in a sentence. Modifiers can be adjectives, adverbs, verbs, phrases, or anything giving more information about the word that follows it. A basic rule in Japanese is that modifiers always precede what they modify.
私はとても美味しいパンを食べました
I ate very delicious bread
Above, the modifier would be とても美味しい. This modifies the noun, パン. In more complex sentences you can take a phrase to explain words.
チータ―は速く走る動物だ
Cheetahs are animals that run fast
Here, the phrase run fast is before the word animals. In Japanese this also works for words that modify verbs, like adverbs. Actually, in the phrase above, 速く走る the word 速く is an adverb which is modifying the verb 走る.
Summary and Where to go Next
so, the basic way to think about Japanese word order would be the following:
- The topic comes at the beginning of the sentence
- The verb comes at the end of the sentence
- Modifiers precede modified
This is just part of what you will need to know in order to learn the Japanese language. Having this knowledge though will take you a long way. After you know how to put words together in single sentences, you can expand to more complex phrases, and start having conversations. If you are interested in where to go after this, I have a guide below I wrote on a guide to the order to learn different aspects of the Japanese language.
Good luck with your Japanese studies, and if you are curious about other topics, I have several other articles about Japanese, Japan and how to learn Japanese here. 頑張って！
