Just Began

[Chaotic]

Ohayo! I just recently began my journey down the Japanese language. I believe I've been doing alright (starting with Romaji), but there's something I don't quite understand...

The author in this book I'm learning from doesn't give a very precise explanation of the sentence structure, where to put particle words, and why. She isn't very specific on the sentence structure bit.

Basically I just wanted to know where to put the subject of the sentence, verbs, suffixes, etc. Could somebody please clear this up for me? Arigato :)


PS. I've been reading several posts on this forum and the japanese characters that many people have been posting are appearing as question marks. How do I fix this?

[frostyg02uk]

Hmm have you looked further into the book? most teachers dont explain sentence structures till after a while usually after a few of the particules have been explained. The structure also depends on the strickness of the teacher.

Charectors wise have you installed the Japanese language tool bar? you can do that by using your XP disk (or VISTA). There should be a site that will guide you through it.

[Chaotic]

Well, I'm at least 1/4th of the way into the book and there's been quite a bit of it. I just don't want to get all some way and still not understand the sentence structure.

Just in case that happens, could you recommend a good book or program?

[frostyg02uk]

Erm...i use to use Japanese for busy people which was OK but there are probably better ones. Ive never really used a program so i cant help you there. Even if its a beginners book yours should have what your looking for though. Thinking back to my lessons i'd learnt to write in hiragana before learning structures but because there are sometimes rules to them its better to learn all of the particules before that. A basic description would be

X wa Y desu. with wa being the topic marker and desu being the sentence final. For now as long as the topic marker is at the start and desu at the end, what ever is in the middle doesnt matter too much.

Im not sure how far you have read upto but maybe for now that will be enough. Once you learn more volcabulary the author should explain how to use it correctly.

[Chaotic]

Hope you're right. Maybe she will, but if she doesn't I should probably go find a good book or program. Book preferably.

[frostyg02uk]

If im honest you'd be better off with a good teacher if its possible preferbably a Japanese native, they can explain things alot better and because they are teachers they know when to teach certain levels and of course when you have questions like this you can ask them.

[Chaotic]

Well, I don't have any money for that nor do I know any Japanese friends or teachers, or schools.

With all that I do, I've usually / always taught myself. I believe I'm a "book learner". While it helps and I would definitely learn from a japanese friend if I could, I have no japanese friends. So I'll just have to find a good book, or something.

I've been asking on the Gamespot off-topic discussion forums about this, and they told me the particle words are more the "glue" for the sentence. The Japanese language has a Subject-Object-Verb structure rather than the English language that has a Subject-Verb-Object structure. And between the Subject, Object and the Verb are the particle words, right?
Like Subject-P-Object-P-Verb. Is this right?

Is there some official, legit list of particle words and their meanings somewhere I could read and memorize?

[frostyg02uk]

I think on the net there are alot of people interested in language exchange friends so it might be worth checking out.

Subject-P-Object-P-verb. is correct.

There might be a list you could find from the net but your book should explain them all in due time. If your a book learner stick with the book.

[Chaotic]

Well I'm going to pay a visit to Barnes n' Noble and see if I can find anything (obviously read up on it before puchasing). I'll post here if I have anymore inquiries...

Arigato! :)

[frostyg02uk]

Sokka. Doitashimashite. genki da.

[Elizabeth]

I've been asking on the Gamespot off-topic discussion forums about this, and they told me the particle words are more the "glue" for the sentence. The Japanese language has a Subject-Object-Verb structure rather than the English language that has a Subject-Verb-Object structure. And between the Subject, Object and the Verb are the particle words, right?

Well....umm, maybe half the time, or less. The subject in Japanese is often omitted. There is the copula desu instead of a 'real' verb, and a lot of sentences have no objects either. :relief: But it's a good basic framework for the :

"A Does B" type 'starter' sentences (consisting of a verb phrase and one or more noun phrases).

In "A Is B (desu)" sentences, B is a noun phrase that tells what A is but there is not a verb.

I'm curious what you have been learning if it's been light on the meat of particle formation. You don't need to memorize anything soup to nuts or the part of speech order as much as understand how to recognize these two types of sentences that are the basis for 99% of everything you'll ever see in the language.

[Chaotic]

She's not really being specific. Here, I'll quote what she has to say on particles...all she has to say on particles:

"Japanese has many "particle words," such as wa, ga, o, ni and to. Often, particle words cannot be translated into English. When these particle words have no English equivalents, they will simply be marked (P)."

That's it.

[undrentide]

You can find a lot of materials to learn Japanese grammar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_particles
This page gives you explanations of the particles.

http://japan-studies.com/language/grammar/constructions/
This page explains about the sentence structure.

[Mike Cash]

No one has asked what book the OP is using?

[Elizabeth]

No one has asked what book the OP is using?
My money is on phrase guide, or at most a glorified pronounciation manual. Does this 'book' exist largely as a transcript for the accompanying audio tapes, by chance ? :relief:

[Charles Barkley]

Sokka. Doitashimashite. genki da.

好奇心から、これはどういう話ですか？
koukishin kara, kore wa dou iu hanashi desu ka?

Out of curiousity, what are you talking about here?


I cant place it as a response to any of the other posts because of the 'genki da' (and sokka shoul be souka).