Quote:
Originally Posted by curiosityshop
Ok, I've never been good at grammar, and this is true of all the languages I've learned or grown up knowing. I'm trying to get to grips with what word order to use when forming sentences in Japanese (although I've read somewhere that the Japanese don't actually have sentences? o.O). So, could a native speaker please confirm whether the following statements and phrases are correct?
-----
In general, Japanese word order goes Subject, Object, Verb.
-----
You can usually have time and place words before the subject and object, but not between the object and verb, or after the verb?
-----
You could write "Sometimes, I go to school on Sundays" as:
"Tokidoki watashi wa doyoobi ni gakkoo ni ikimasu."
"Doyoobi ni watashi wa tokidoki gakkoo ni ikimasu."
"Tokidoki doyoobi ni watashi wa gakkoo ni ikimasu."
-----
Another example. "Yuko is going back to Tokyo tomorrow"
"Yuko-san wa ashita Tokyoo ni kaerimasu."
"Ashita, Yuko-san wa Tokyoo ni kaerimasu."
-----
Are all of these variation ok to use? Or are there any that could be used but just don't sound good so they're not usually used in that order?
Thanks in advance ^^
|
Yeah, that's about right. I think you could force any word order of: S -O- V lets see:
S-O-V
yukiwa gakkouni ikimasu.
S-V-O
yukino ikutokorowa gakkoudesu.
( not really svo but English and Japanese are not one-to-one languages)
O-S-V
gakkouni yukiwa ikimasu.
O-V-S
gakkouni ikunowa yukidesu.
( again not actually dvs)
V-O-S
I can't make one
V-S-O
I can't make one
The point I wanted to focus on is that Japanese has special post articles like: wa, ga, ni, mo, no. to, de, ka etc... . These postfixes create word relationships or more precisely, they tag words as objects, subjetcs or verbs among other things.
wa & ga tags subjects
ni and de tags objetcs
masu tags verbs
Because of this, the word order is very flexible. Yet, just like in English, each sentence has a different feel and focus.
