Editing Japanese language (section)

===Sentence structure===
Japanese word order is classified as [[Subject–object–verb word order|subject–object–verb]]. Unlike many [[Indo-European languages]], the only strict rule of word order is that the verb must be placed at the end of a sentence (possibly followed by sentence-end particles). This is because Japanese sentence elements are marked with [[Japanese particles|particles]] that identify their grammatical functions.

The basic sentence structure is [[Topic and comment|topic–comment]]. Once the topic has been stated using the particle {{Nihongo||は|wa}}, it is normally omitted in subsequent sentences, and the next use of ''wa'' will change the topic. For instance, someone may begin a conversation with a sentence that includes {{Nihongo3|"As for Mx. Tanaka, ..."|田中さんは...|Tanaka-san wa...}}. Each person may say a number of comments regarding Tanaka as the topic, and someone could change the topic to Naoko with a sentence including {{Nihongo3|"As for Mx. Naoko, ..."|直子さんは...|Naoko-san wa...}}.

As these example translations illustrate, a sentence may include a topic, but the topic is not part of sentence's core statement. Japanese is often called a [[topic-prominent language]] because of its strong tendency to indicate the topic separately from the subject, and the two do not always coincide. That is, a sentence might not involve the topic directly at all. To replicate this effect in English, consider "As for Naoko, people are rude." The topic, "Naoko," provides context to the comment about the subject, "people," and the sentence as a whole indicates that "people are rude" is a statement relevant to Naoko. However, the sentence's comment does not describe Naoko directly at all, and whatever the sentence indicates about Naoko is an inference. The topic is not the core of the sentence; the core of the sentence is always the comment.

In a basic comment, the subject is marked with the particle {{Nihongo||が|ga}}, and the rest of the comment describes the subject. For example, in {{Nihongo||象が動物だ|Zou ga doubutsu da}}, ''ga'' indicates that "elephant" is the subject of the sentence. Context determines whether the speaker means a single elephant or elephants plural. The [[Copula (linguistics)|copula]] {{Nihongo3|the verb "is"|だ|da}} ends the sentence, indicating that the subject is equivalent to the rest of the comment. Here, ''doubutsu'' means ''animal''. Therefore, the sentence means "[The] elephant is [an] animal" or "Elephants are animals." A basic comment can end in three ways: with the copula ''da'', with a different verb, or with an adjective ending in the kana {{Nihongo||い|i}}. A sentence ending might also be decorated with particles that alter the way the sentence is meant to be interpreted, as in {{Nihongo3|"Elephants are animals, you know."|象が動物だよ|Zou ga doubutsu da yo}}. This is also why ''da'' is replaced with {{Nihongo||です|desu}} when the speaker is talking to someone they do not know well: it makes the sentence more polite.

Often, ''ga'' implies distinction of the subject within the topic, so the previous example comment would make the most sense within a topic where not all of the relevant subjects were animals. For example, in {{Nihongo||この贋物は象が動物だ|Kono ganbutsu wa zou ga doubutsu da}}, the particle ''wa'' indicates the topic is ''kono ganbutsu'' ("this toy" or "these toys"). In English, if there are many toys and one is an elephant, this could mean "Among these toys, [the] elephant is [an] animal." That said, if the subject is clearly a subtopic, this differentiation effect may or may not be relevant, such as in {{Nihongo||日本語は文法が優しい|nihongo wa bunpo ga yasashii}}. The equivalent sentence, "As for the Japanese language, grammar is easy," might be a general statement that Japanese grammar is easy or a statement that grammar is an especially easy feature of the Japanese language. Context should reveal which.

Because ''ga'' marks the subject of the sentence but the sentence overall is intended to be relevant to the topic indicated by ''wa'', translations of Japanese into English often elide the difference between these particles. For example, the phrase ''watashi wa zou ga suki da'' literally means "As for myself, elephants are likeable." The sentence about myself describes elephants as having a likeable quality. From this, it is clear that I like elephants, and this sentence is often translated into English as "I like elephants." However, to do so changes the subject of the sentence (from "Elephant" to "I") and the verb (from "is" to "like"); it does not reflect Japanese grammar.

Japanese grammar tends toward brevity; the subject or object of a sentence need not be stated and [[pronoun]]s may be omitted if they can be inferred from context. In the example above, ''zou ga doubutsu da'' would mean "[the] elephant is [an] animal", while ''doubutsu da'' by itself would mean "[they] are animals." In especially casual speech, many speakers would omit the copula, leaving the noun ''doubutsu'' to mean "[they are] animals." A single verb can be a complete sentence: {{Nihongo3|"[I / we / they / etc] did [it]!"|やった!|Yatta!}}. In addition, since adjectives can form the predicate in a Japanese sentence (below), a single adjective can be a complete sentence: {{Nihongo3|"[I'm] jealous [about it]!"|羨ましい!|Urayamashii!}}).

Nevertheless, unlike the topic, the subject is always implied: all sentences which omit a ''ga'' particle must have an implied subject that could be specified with a ''ga'' particle. For example, {{Nihongo||この猫はロキだ|Kono neko wa Loki da}} means "As for this cat, [it] is Loki." An equivalent sentence might read {{Nihongo||この猫はこれがロキだ|kono neko wa kore ga Loki da}}, meaning "As for this cat, this is Loki." However, in the same way it is unusual to state the subject twice in the English sentence, it is unusual to specify that redundant subject in Japanese. Rather than replace the redundant subject with a word like "it," the redundant subject is omitted from the Japanese sentence. It is obvious from the context that the first sentence refers to the cat by the name "Loki," and the explicit subject of the second sentence contributes no information.

While the language has some words that are typically translated as pronouns, these are not used as frequently as pronouns in some Indo-European languages, and function differently. In some cases, Japanese relies on special verb forms and auxiliary verbs to indicate the direction of benefit of an action: "down" to indicate the out-group gives a benefit to the in-group, and "up" to indicate the in-group gives a benefit to the out-group. Here, the in-group includes the speaker and the out-group does not, and their boundary depends on context. For example, {{Nihongo||教えてもらった|oshiete moratta|literally, "explaining got" with a benefit from the out-group to the in-group}} means "[he/she/they] explained [it] to [me/us]". Similarly, {{Nihongo||教えてあげた|oshiete ageta|literally, "explaining gave" with a benefit from the in-group to the out-group}} means "[I/we] explained [it] to [him/her/them]". Such beneficiary auxiliary verbs thus serve a function comparable to that of pronouns and prepositions in Indo-European languages to indicate the actor and the recipient of an action.

[[Japanese pronouns|Japanese "pronouns"]] also function differently from most modern Indo-European pronouns (and more like nouns) in that they can take modifiers as any other noun may. For instance, one does not say in English:

<blockquote>The amazed he ran down the street. (grammatically incorrect insertion of a pronoun)</blockquote>

But one ''can'' grammatically say essentially the same thing in Japanese:

<blockquote><poem>{{Nihongo2|驚いた彼は道を走っていった。}}
Transliteration: {{tlit|ja|Odoroita kare wa michi o hashitte itta.}} (grammatically correct)</poem></blockquote>

This is partly because these words evolved from regular nouns, such as {{tlit|ja|kimi}} "you" ({{Nihongo2|君}} "lord"), {{tlit|ja|anata}} "you" ({{Nihongo2|あなた}} "that side, yonder"), and {{tlit|ja|boku}} "I" ({{Nihongo2|僕}} "servant"). This is why some linguists do not classify Japanese "pronouns" as pronouns, but rather as referential nouns, much like Spanish {{lang|es|usted}} (contracted from {{lang|es|vuestra merced}}, "your ([[Royal we|majestic plural]]) grace") or Portuguese {{lang|pt|você}} (from {{lang|pt|vossa mercê}}). Japanese personal pronouns are generally used only in situations requiring special emphasis as to who is doing what to whom.

The choice of words used as pronouns is correlated with the sex of the speaker and the social situation in which they are spoken: men and women alike in a formal situation generally refer to themselves as {{Nihongo||私|watashi|literally "private"}} or {{tlit|ja|watakushi}} (also {{Nihongo2|私}}, hyper-polite form), while men in rougher or intimate conversation are much more likely to use the word {{Nihongo3|"oneself", "myself"|俺|ore}} or ''boku''. Similarly, different words such as ''anata'', ''kimi'', and {{tlit|ja|omae}} ({{Nihongo2|お前}}, more formally {{Nihongo2|御前}} "the one before me") may refer to a listener depending on the listener's relative social position and the degree of familiarity between the speaker and the listener. When used in different social relationships, the same word may have positive (intimate or respectful) or negative (distant or disrespectful) connotations.

Japanese often use titles of the person referred to where pronouns would be used in English. For example, when speaking to one's teacher, it is appropriate to use {{Nihongo3|"teacher"|先生|sensei}}, but inappropriate to use ''anata''. This is because ''anata'' is used to refer to people of equal or lower status, and one's teacher has higher status.