How do you build a japanese sentence?

[kyou8]

I know that the simple sentence is subject and then verb.

But how do you say a more complicated sentence like "I told you that yesterday she hadn't eaten anything"?

 

[Toritoribe]

What is your translation of a simple sentence "yesterday she hadn't eaten anything" or "I told you it"?

 

[kyou8]

What is your translation of a simple sentence "yesterday she hadn't eaten anything" or "I told you it"?

A simple sentence for me is like: "I eat cakes" - Watashi wa keeki wo tabemasu.

A more complicated sentence is: "I told you that yesterday she hadn't eaten anything"

I mean I know how to say every word of it but I don't know how to put it in the right order of a Japanese sentence. It will even help a lot if you write in romaji what I wrote as an example of "a complicated sentence".

Thanks!

 

[Toritoribe]

I(subject) eat(verb) cakes(object) - Watashi(subject) wa(topic marker) keeki(object) wo(object marker) tabemasu(verb)

she(subject) didn't eat(verb) anything(object)

Isn't this simple?
BTW, are you using a textbook or something?

 

[kyou8]

I(subject) eat(verb) cakes(object) - Watashi(subject) wa(topic marker) keeki(object) wo(object marker) tabemasu(verb)
she(subject) didn't eat(verb) anything(object)
Isn't this simple?
BTW, are you using a textbook or something?

no textbook, just trying to learn from websites.

but still you didn't understand what i meant so i'll ask it differently.

how do you say in japanese "I told you that yesterday she hadn't eat anything"?

 

[Angel Valis]

Just break it down into it's constituent clauses and then construct the sentence normally.

"I told you 'X'." = 「X」と言いました。

"She hadn't eaten anything yesterday" = 彼女は昨日何も食べませんでした。

Now just substitute the X in the first sentence with the second sentence.
「彼女は昨日何も食べませんでした」と言いました。

Often you'll use short form for the quoted bit (unless it's a direct quote), so:
「彼女は昨日何も食べなかった」と言いました。

If the context is completely clear:
「昨日何も食べなかった」と言いました。

Or if you're talking to a close friend:
「昨日何も食べなかった」って言った。

 

[kyou8]

Just break it down into it's constituent clauses and then construct the sentence normally.

"I told you 'X'." = 「X」と言いました。

"She hadn't eaten anything yesterday" = 彼女は昨日何も食べませんでした。

Now just substitute the X in the first sentence with the second sentence.
「彼女は昨日何も食べませんでした」と言いました。

Often you'll use short form for the quoted bit (unless it's a direct quote), so:
「彼女は昨日何も食べなかった」と言いました。

If the context is completely clear:
「昨日何も食べなかった」と言いました。

Or if you're talking to a close friend:
「昨日何も食べなかった」って言った。

Thanks a lot! I got it but i haven't learnt kanji yet so if you can rewrite your post with roumaji it'll be awesome =D

edit: never mind i found a translator to roumaji

 

[Toritoribe]

no textbook, just trying to learn from websites.

but still you didn't understand what i meant so i'll ask it differently.

how do you say in japanese "I told you that yesterday she hadn't eat anything"?

I understand what you said correctly. You can get the answer just to merge the two simple sentences I wrote in my previous post into one, as Angel Valis-san explained.

My two cents. Buy a textbook. Period.

 

[raguna]

Thanks a lot! I got it but i haven't learnt kanji yet so if you can rewrite your post with roumaji it'll be awesome =D

to iimashita

kanojou ha kinou nanimo tabemasen deshita

kanojou ha kinou nanimo tabemasen deshita" to iimashita

kanojou ha kinou nanimo tabenakatta to iimashita

kinou nanimo tabenakatta to iimashita

kinou nanimo tabenakatta tte itta

 

[SomeCallMeChris]

Thanks a lot! I got it but i haven't learnt kanji yet so if you can rewrite your post with roumaji it'll be awesome =D

edit: never mind i found a translator to roumaji

I assume you have learned kana. If not, you should do so soon.
Anyway, once you do know the kana, I strongly recommend the rikai-chan plugin for firefox or rikai-kun plugin for IE. (I think there's a rikai-something for Chrome also, but I may be wrong.)
Anyway, the rikai-chan family let you see a kana pronunciation on mouseover. If you install dictionaries, it also shows you suggested translations.

(I actually use rikai-sama, an extended version of rikai-chan, because it lets me save words directly to anki with a keystroke.)

 

[nekojita]

Toritoribe is a believer in the Socratic method.

For those for whom money or acquisition (i.e. no credit card to purchase online) is an issue, and presuming you have no library near you that holds Japanese textbooks (but check, you might be surprised), Erin's Challenge is probably the best of the online sites for beginners.

 

[Angel Valis]

Thanks a lot! I got it but i haven't learnt kanji yet so if you can rewrite your post with roumaji it'll be awesome =D

Yeah....my bad, I'm just so used to using kanji when/wherever I can, that I forget sometimes that people don't/won't necessarily know them. I'm glad you figured it out though.

If you do have some money for some books though and just want to learn some grammatical structures and see a lot of examples, I would suggest A dictionary of [basic/intermediate/advanced] Japanese grammar.

Though a regular textbook (and) a class, would be best at the beginner level to really be able to mesh together all of the things you'll be learning.

 

[letianchen]

google
minna no nihongo pdf, or go on the pirate bay and torrent some books, then go to your school/uni/work and mass print for free.

works good for me (Y) ☝

 

[Toritoribe]

What do you think about "copyright"?