Rules of the game
RED means move word
BLUE means don’t-move word
Every word links to a jisho.org page. Just click the word!
A lesson about sentences? What?
I dedicate this course to answer a single, but very complex question : What is a sentence in japanese ?
This question is hardly ever adressed in usual japanese courses, and I find it very sad, because it’s in my opinion one of the most important concepts in japanese.
If I was to answer this question in a single sentence, I would say « It’s a group of words that, together, move »
I can see you flustered. Baffled. It seems you need some proper introduction to some important japanese concepts.
Move and Don’t-Move
Japanese has two and a half types of words. In these types, you can find many more categories with more… specialized uses.
- Words that move : 用言 in japanese. You will find in this category Verbs, Adjectives, and some Particles (な, の, だ, です)
- Words that don’t move : 体言 in japanese. You will find Nouns, Adverbs, and the majority of Particles (に, で, を, が…) in there
- … And some particles that don’t respect any of this. The most important being は, も.
Particles are the big frame of grammar and construction of sentences in japanese. I will explain particles’ superpowers in later lessons.
But… what is a movement? Roughly speaking, it is the link, the relationship between elements. In “Mom is in the kitchen“, for example, “Mom” is an element that doesn’t move, “in the kitchen” as well. The word that link the two of them is “Is”. In english, move words are almost always verbs. But in japanese, there are also adjectives and some particles. Because of this, I decided to visually separate move words and don’t-move words. I use colors to show their group : blue means don’t-move, red means move.
So what does all of this do ? Simply, there are rules to play with these legos.
- You can assemble don’t-move/don’t-move : In english Teacup, in japanese 麦藁 – Wheat Straw (don’t forget you can click on japanese words to have the dictionary at the word’s page)
- You can assemble don’t-move/move : In english To out-stand, in japanese 顧みる (かえりみる made of 帰り and 見る) – Look back
- You can assemble move/don’t-move : In english : Blue rose, in japanese 青い薔薇 – Blue rose
But you cannot assemble move/move. And, to my knowledge, you can’t do that in english either. As you can see, the concept in a way already exists in english.
But in japanese, it rules. You will be seeing this over and over. It will follow you forever, even in hell.
The foreign words problem
I’ll say this straight. All words in japanese that don’t have a japanese origin are don’t-move words. 話す has a japanese origin : it has okurigana. 風 has only kanji (chinese), it’s then foreign.
Okurigana words are made of chinese characters aka Kanji and added hiragana (あ), which are japanese. As a result, the word itself has a japanese origin and therefore can be EITHER don’t-move or move.
Words made of only kanji (容赦, 私, 水音…) and foreign words, written generally in katakana (コーヒー、カスタム、カメラ), can therefore ONLY be don’t move.
But, there’s a problem. We want to create verbs with the kanjis for words like 開始, meaning “beginning”. The solution they found is to add the most basic verb in japanese to make it a move-word : する, to do. We then find foreign words becoming verbs. 開始する means “to begin”. They assembled a don’t move word 開始 to the move word する, and the result is a move word!
So, what is a sentence ?
Simply, something that moves the whole sentence, with all the things that are attached to it.
In japanese, it makes sense to say that subordinates are full-fledged sentences. Subordinates, even in english, are composed of move words to « push » the word that is not moving, completing it. In « The car that IS blue », IS pushes blue towards car. But, in japanese, EVERY move word in the middle of a sentence is a subordinate. Even when you want to say « A blue car », you HAVE TO use a subordinate to say « blue ».
Now, you will start understanding why trains are a good analogy. A blue car. 青い車. Blue « moves » car. That’s the normal order of subordinates in japanese : from left to right. And, subordinates are everywhere in the language. So, if a sentence is moved by a move word… You guessed it ! The main move word of the sentence is at the very right ! 車が青い (Ignore が) : The car is blue. « Blue » moves the sentence, so it’s at the very right.
Subordinates party and japanese legos !
Let’s look together at a japanese sentence.
What it means : I’ll give you the precious tricks to buy items! (アイテム is あいてむ in katakana, you guessed the meaning “Item”). You don’t have to understand how everything works yet. This is just an illustration of the lesson. Let’s disassemble the sentence and build it again. Blue means don’t-move, red means move :
アイテム 買い の とって おき の コツ を 教え て あげる プ二！
アイテム買い の とっておき の コツを 教えて あげる プ二！
アイテム買いの とっておきの コツを 教えてあげる プ二！
アイテム買いのとっておきのコツを 教えてあげる プ二！
アイテム買いのとっておきのコツを教えてあげるプ二！
And we got our beautiful completed sentence! The “プ二 ” is a pun(i), because the monster talks with a verbal tic. Just like me.
That’s it. That’s how all japanese sentences are made. Nothing else. And… You probably noticed it too, but adjectives move, unlike those in english.
You don’t say « (Car) (is) (blue) ».
You say « (Car) (is blue) ». Is blue is a pack. It moves by itself.
Now, you know what are sentences. But you may wonder what they are at least composed of. If you did, you’re really sharp.
A quick introduction to particles
Something that moves. Something that makes the movement. And something that is moved.
That’s the minimum japanese sentence. It’s in fact a little more complicated than that, but that’s the gist of it. And I talk about this in the next course about が and を particles, made especially for this use.
As I said before, Particles are an important part of japanese structure. The main particles are :
が、を
に、で
は、も
な、だ、の, です
と, か, や (These are difficult to classify as either move or don’t move. I arbitrarily say they are Don’t-move)
They are ordered, because they work in the same manner in each pack. And I recommand learning them with this sorting. Even if you master only these, japanese grammar will be a walk in the park. The next courses will be based around this logic. If you are ready to face your destiny, on to the next course !