[Japanese for Beginners] Chapter 3: Basic Sentence Structure

By Jaime Brownyard

X は Y です。 ⁄ X は Y ですか。 (X ha Y desu. ⁄ X wa Y desu ka.)

The basic sentence in all languages is “This is that.” For instance:

My major is literature.
I am a student.
It is nine o’clock.

In each case, there is a subject (X) and a describer (Y). In the above sentences, the subject (X) is “major”, “I”, and “It” (the time). The describers (Y) are then “literature”, “student”, and “nine o’ clock.” Such sentences translate fairly easily into Japanese, following the following structure:

X は Y です。 (X wa Y desu.)

は (wa) and です (desu) together become the indicators that mean that X equals Y, the “is” in the English sentence. In Japanese grammar, は is known as a particle, and です is known as a verb. Let’s look at the above sentences in translation:

せんもんはぶんがくです。
(senmon wa bungaku desu.)
わたしはがくせいです。
(watashi wa gakusei desu.)
くじです。
(kuji desu.)

As you can see by studying the above sentences, there are things “missing” in the first and last sentence. Let’s explore these briefly.

せんもんはぶんがくです。 : The original English sentence says “My major”, but this sentence only says “major” for the subject. In Japanese, many things are implied by context, and thus left out of the sentence. In a two person conversation, if you were asked what your major was, it is assumed that you are talking about your major, and thus the personal indicator is dropped, leaving you with simply “(My) major is literature.” If you were listing your family’s majors, however, you might prefer to use the personal indicator (わたしのせんもん) (watashi no senmon).

くじです。 : In this sentence, the subject X and the particle は are missing. This also has to do with the implied context of the Japanese language. Since くじ (kuji) means “nine o’clock”, it is assumed that the speaker is referring to the time as the subject. Thus, “the time” and the particle は are dropped. This happens often in other situations as well. For instance, if you were asked how old you were, it would be assumed your reply would be about your age, and not someone else’s. Thus sentences like わたしはにじゅういちさいです。 (watashi wa nijuuichisai desu.) become にじゅういちさいです。 (nijuuic hisai desu.) The subject is implied in the context.

The basic sentence then, is easily changed into a question in Japanese.

My major is literature. -> Is your major literature?
I am a student. -> Are you a student?
It is nine o’clock. -> Is it nine o’clock?

These sentences are easily manipulated by adding か (ka) after です. Please note, that the Japanese do not typically use a question mark except in special situations where they are indicating a question without the particle か.

せんもんはぶんがくですか。
(senmon wa bungaku desu ka.)
がくせいですか。
(gakusei desu ka.)
くじですか。
(kuji desu ka.)

Note: In the second sentence, again we use the implied context of a direct question asking “are you a student?”, and thus drop the “you” from the sentence.

You may use the basic sentence structure to answer questions like these. However, the implied context will assume that you do not need to reply with the information given. A beginning Japanese student might assume that the following question and answer are correct in spoken Japanese:

がくせいですか。
(gakusei desu ka.)
はい、 わたしはがくせいです。
(hai, watashi wa gakusei desu.)

However, the Japanese speaker will realize that the answer is indicative of a non–fluent speaker. The first problem is that the subject is implied in the question, and thus should be implied in the answer, thus わたしは (watashi wa) should be eliminated. Secondly, since the question asks specifically if the person is a student, the answer does not have to repeat the information of “student.” Consider it in English for a moment:

Are you a student?
Yes, I am a student.

Such a reply is wordy even in English. A better answer in English would be to say “Yes, I am.” This is done properly with the indicator そう (sou), which refers to the subject (similar to the English “I/she/he/it” pronoun.) Thus, the proper exchange would be:

がくせいですか。
(gakusei desu ka.)
はい、 そうです。
(hai, sou desu.)

Another example:
せんもんはぶんがくですか。
(senmon wa bungaku desu ka.)
はい、 そうです。
(hai, sou desu.)

Other lessons in this series: