Japanese Sentence Structure:

There maybe no rule for this, but I thought I'd ask; is there specific order things go in when you're speaking in Japanese? I'm having a hard time figuring out what goes where in the sentence and when.

For example: "I walked to the mall alone Sunday" にちようびにひとりとあるいてでモールにいきました. (hoping it's correct)

How do you know when & where to put the "how", "when", "where", "who", etc. ? It there a basic formula to follow such as: When, who, how, where (like this sentence would follow) or is there any specific rules I should know about for forming a sentence. I can't seem to wrap my head around it :(

Question

Japanese Sentence Structure:

There maybe no rule for this, but I thought I'd ask; is there specific order things go in when you're speaking in Japanese? I'm having a hard time figuring out what goes where in the sentence and when. 

For example: "I walked to the mall alone Sunday" にちようびに  ひとりと  あるいてで  モールに  いきました. (hoping it's correct)

How do you know when & where to put the "how", "when", "where", "who", etc. ? It there a basic formula to follow such as: When, who, how, where (like this sentence would follow) or is there any specific rules I should know about for forming a sentence. I can't seem to wrap my head around it :(

australianlinguist · Answer

Just think, speak like Yoda.

I the beach to went
私が 海岸に 行った

Subject Object Verb

a man a dog hit
(A man hit a dog)
男が 犬を 打った

belthazar · Answer

One of the joys (and, for English speakers, woes) about Japanese is that because the function of each word in a sentence is defined by the particles, word order within clauses doesn't matter - with the caveat that if things get too shuffled, people start losing track of what's going on. The main clause's verb is almost always at the end, and the direct object needs to hang fairly near the verb, but other than that it's pretty fair game.

The word you put at the start tends to be where you want the emphasis to go. For example,
明日、私は公園に行く
has a slightly different emphasis to
私は、明日、公園に行く

The word you put at the start tends to be where you want the emphasis to go. For example,
明日、私は公園に行く
has a slightly different emphasis to
私は、明日、公園に行く

belthazar · Answer

P.S. "Alone" is ひとりで

And あるいて doesn't need a で =)

P.S. "Alone" is ひとりで And あるいて doesn't need a で =)

Just think, speak like Yoda.I the beach to went私が 海岸に 行ったSubject Object Verba man a dog hit(A man hit a dog)男が 犬を 打った

P.S. "Alone" is ひとりで

And あるいて doesn't need a で =)

Just think, speak like Yoda.

I the beach to went
私が海岸に行った

Subject Object Verb

a man a dog hit
(A man hit a dog)
男が犬を打った