Japanese Grammar for Beginners

Sentence order: the verb comes last

In Japanese the verb goes at the end: 私は りんごを 食べます (I apple eat). Words before the verb can move around because particles show what each word is doing.

This is very close to the order of Hindi and many other Indian languages, which gives Indian learners a head start.

X は Y です: the first pattern

This pattern means “X is Y” and covers a surprising amount of everyday talk.

• 私は インド人です。— I am Indian.
• これは 私の かばんです。— This is my bag.
• 今日は 月曜日です。— Today is Monday.
• Negative: 私は 先生では ありません。— I am not a teacher.

Polite verbs with ます

Beginners learn the polite ます form first because it is safe to use with anyone. It changes in a regular way:

• 食べます: eat / will eat
• 食べません: don't eat
• 食べました: ate
• 食べませんでした: didn't eat
• 食べましょう: let's eat

The three verb groups

Group 1 (u-verbs) like 書く and 飲む change their last sound. Group 2 (ru-verbs) like 食べる and 見る simply drop る. Group 3 has only two verbs: する (do) and くる (come). Knowing the group tells you how every form is made.

Two kinds of adjectives

い-adjectives end in い and change form themselves: 高い (expensive) → 高くない (not expensive) → 高かった (was expensive). な-adjectives work more like nouns: 静かな 部屋 (a quiet room), 静かでした (was quiet).

Asking questions

Add か to the end of a polite sentence to make a question: 学生ですか (Are you a student?). Question words go where the answer would go: これは 何ですか (What is this?), 駅は どこですか (Where is the station?).

The て-form

The て-form is the most useful verb form after ます. It joins actions (起きて、食べて、出かけます, I get up, eat and go out), makes requests (見て ください, please look) and builds the progressive (読んで います: I am reading).