Is this right?

anata no kao o minikui desu
(your face is ugly)

watashi wa bengoshi hitsuyo garimas
(i need a lawyer)

I got told that sometimes you dont need to put watashi wa in the begining of some sentences. if this is true how do u no when to do the?

Vicki

DISCLAIMER: doinkies isn't a native speaker of Japanese so I might make some mistakes in this post or not be quite sure about some things. ^^;; My Japanese ability isn't too doinky though...

Hi Vicki!

For the first sentence, "minikui" is an adjective and it isn't the object of the sentence. So there's no "o" in this sentence. Instead, you say wa because that indicates the subject (the subject being "your face" in this case). So the correct sentence is:

あなたの顔は醜いです。
Anata no kao wa minikui desu.

As for the second sentence, while 必要があります (hitsuyou ga arimasu) is a literal translation of "I need ~", in this sentence, doinkies would use ほしい (hoshii) instead. ほしい means "to want/desire (something)" or "to be in need of".

So the second sentence would be （私は）弁護士がほしいです。([Watashi wa] bengoshi ga hoshii desu.)

As for when to use "watashi wa"...if it's clear that you are referring to yourself and not to someone else in a sentence, you don't need to use it.

would n't the kao part be the object since thats face and most of the second thing u typed is all boxes

Vicki75 said:

would n't the kao part be the object since thats face and most of the second thing u typed is all boxes

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There are two very basic types of sentences in Japanese :

1. "A is B" (A wa B desu) -- This one uses the copula da/desu and doesn't have a true verb. (Face is ugly)

2. "A does B" (A wa B wo shite imasu).

Mix these up and you get very confusing, incorrect sentences. By the way, do you have the Japanese fonts downloaded to read them on your computer ? That would be an obvious explanation for the boxes.

Vicki, I don't knwo why you see it in boxes, you can type in it! =O

1: Anata no kao wa minikui desu.
2: I'm not really sure, but isn't need "tsukau"(使う), "iru"(要る), or "hoshii"(欲しい)? I have no idea if this is right, but i would say:

Bengoshi o/wo hoshii desu.

when you use hosii like this it needs a ga not an o, jsut like suki and kirai do.
bengosi ga hosii desu

KrazyKat said:

when you use hosii like this it needs a ga not an o, jsut like suki and kirai do.
bengosi ga hosii desu

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Grammatically I'm pretty certain hoshii can take wo as well (物を欲しい、を欲しがって), it just becomes less emphatic (?) and is not as common. For sure both suki and kirai can accept both.