Suzukisan wa jimu ni tomodachi to kuruma de yoku ikimasu
Word order by particles
The word order in Japanese is relatively flexible due to the presence of particles. Typically, words marked by the particle “wa” come first, serving as the topic marker for the sentence. However, this order is not strictly enforced.
The basic word order in Japanese typically follows a structure where the topic marked by “wa” precedes the subject marked by “ga”, followed by objects or locations marked by particles like “o”, “ni”, “e”, “de”, “kara”, “made”, or “to”, and finally verbs, adjectives, and the copula “desu”.
While particles like “ga”, “o”, “ni”, “e”, “de”, “kara”, “made”, or “to” enjoy comparatively flexible placement in Japanese sentence structure, it’s important to note that “wa” precedes all, marking the topic. Verbs invariably occupy the final position. Adverbs, meanwhile, can be positioned anywhere between the particles and the verbs, typically appearing before the verbs.
Sentence with は
Eigo no hon wa satousan ga tsukue no ue ni okimashita.
Eigo no hon wa tsukue no ue ni satousan ga okimashita.
Sentence without は
1. Satousan ga hon o tsukue no ue ni okimashita.
2. Satousan ga tsukue no ue ni hon o okimashita.
3. Hon o satousan ga tsukue no ue ni okimashita.
4. Hon o tsukue no ue ni satousan ga okimashita.
5. Tsukue no ue ni satousan ga hon o okimashita.
6. Tsukue no ue ni hon o satousan ga okimashita.
These sentence structures are generally acceptable, but sentences in positions 4 and 6 might seem slightly unstable, as the subject is somewhat delayed. However, this poses no issue when speaking Japanese.
Adjective and adverb
In Japanese, adjectives are positioned immediately before nouns, while adverbs are placed before verbs.
ookii mado (big window)
yukkuri taberu (eat slowly)