タグ: Japnese Learning

Japanese sentences are classified in three by the type of predicates;

1. Noun predicate sentences

2. Adjective predicate sentences (I-adjectives or Na-adjectives)

3. Verb predicate sentences

Out of three, it is better to start with “1. Noun predicate sentences” when you learn Japanese as a second language. Today’s sentence “[Noun1]wa [Noun2]desu.” is a noun predicate sentence.

“Noun” means a group of words which means a name of something. Pronouns are also included in this category “Nouns”.

You find the sentence “[Noun1]wa [Noun2]desu.” consists four parts. They are as follows.

-Noun1: a name of something.

-wa: one of particles (post-positions) to indicate that preceding word is the topic of the sentence. We can call “-wa” a topic marker. However, a topic of a sentence coincides the subject of the sentence in many cases. Although there is another particle “-ga” that is subject marker, you need to know that particle “-wa” can also be a subject marker as well as topic marker.

-Noun2: a name of something.

-desu: At the end of a sentence, “desu” is attached to the behind of the noun predicate of a sentence. The function of “desu” is to make the sentence present-positive and to end the sentence politely.

Or you can think that the sentence “[Noun1]wa [Noun2]desu.” is comprising two segments. Then you will know that each segment is a combination of [meaningful word] plus [functional word]. And a meaningful word has a certain length, but a functional word is short as one letter, or two letters.

Let’s make a noun predicate sentence “[Noun1]wa [Noun2]desu.” by putting real Japanese words.

Watashi: I (prenoun)

wa: topic marker (particle) — also subject marker in this case

Dai-Gakusei : a university student

desu: present-positive, polite ending

Watashi wa Dai-Gakusei desu. (I am a university student.)