Sentence Stucture...

[Tomii515]

AS a lot of people know, I have been studying the Japanese language. A lot of the times of post forums about "Is this sentences right?". Well, if I learned simple sentence stucture, I can make simple sentences that are right with out ask anyone. Then I learn harder, and so on, and so forth.

I know that the sentence structure in Japanese is SOV and in English it's SVO.

EX: Spot ran home. In Japanese, this sentence would be literaly: Spot (wa) home (o : i think...lol) ran.

Hopfully that was right...lol

Anyway, the sentence structure is different, and there are particles. When I right more then a 3 word sentence, which is most of the time, I want to get it right on my own.

I know sometimes also, you don't need to use "watashi" and "anata". I just learned that.

I will probaly learn this later on, but if so can thank you: I want to learn when to use -i adjatives and when to use -na ones. Also how to make things past, which I think I got down. How to make nouns verbs or adjatives. How to add -ing. How to make wods verbs and past, or stuff liek that. If anyone can teach me, I'll be greatful, but if you don't I'll be ok. I learn it later on.

Mainly, I want to knwo hwo to put together...maybe 6-15 word sentences with adjatives and past and -ing words. Also what particles to put and where. To anyone who answers and helps, Thank You!!!

Tommi...

 

[nice gaijin]

That's a pretty tall order; I'll start by telling you that na and i adjectives are just different kinds of adjectives; you don't have to decide what kind to use, you just have to decide which adjective fits the meaning you are trying to convey, this kind of selection should have nothing to do with whether it's an i or na adjective.

There are many, many threads in the 'learning japanese' forum that covers pretty much all of the topics you have mentioned here. I would suggest starting off with particles. Your example about returning home had a fundamental mistake in it in regard to the particle you used. "wo" or "o" cannot be used with verbs like iku (go), kuru (come), aru/iru (be), noru (ride) hashiru (run) and kaeru (return) in that sense. all of these verbs call for "ni." Please do a search on particles, as I'm sure this will become much clearer if you read the other discussions on it.

Lastly, your other request is basically about conjugating verbs (making them past tense, present perfect, etc), and there are also several discussions on that as well. Do a search for "conjugate" or "conjugations" and you will surely find many more resources on the subject.

 

[Tomii515]

ok thanky you! ill search for that on here and on the web too! (if anyone can help me person to person though please post!)

 

[Mike Cash]

Has anyone suggested a....forgive me.....textbook?

 

[nice gaijin]

come to think of it, haven't we? or was that one of the other eager youngsters starting off on the perilous path of language acquisition?

 

[J C]

Verb Conjugations

A useful resource for verb conjugations is the ever-popular "Jim Breen's WWWJDIC Server" - which is an online English Japanese dictionary.

WWWJDIC: Word Search

Type in a verb in English or Japanese (dictionary form), hit "begin search" and scroll down the list of matches it gives. When you find the verb you're looking for (it gives kanji and hiragana - no romaji) hit the underlined "V" - this will give you all the verb conjugations you'll ever need, plus a few more.

 

[Mike Cash]

A useful resource for verb conjugations is the ever-popular "Jim Breen's WWWJDIC Server" - which is an online English Japanese dictionary.
WWWJDIC: Word Search
Type in a verb in English or Japanese (dictionary form), hit "begin search" and scroll down the list of matches it gives. When you find the verb you're looking for (it gives kanji and hiragana - no romaji) hit the underlined "V" - this will give you all the verb conjugations you'll ever need, plus a few more.

Verb conjugation is so regular and predictable in Japanese that I have never understood why anyone would avail themselves of such resources rather than just remember the few simple rules about conjugation and be done with it.

 

[Buntaro]

Tomii515,

Give us about 20 basic English sentences, using different adjectives, prepositions, parts of speech, past-present-future, etc., and we will give you the Japanese translations.

 

[J C]

Verb conjugation is so regular and predictable in Japanese that I have never understood why anyone would avail themselves of such resources rather than just remember the few simple rules about conjugation and be done with it.

As @Tomii515 seems not to have a textbook, I was pointing out where he could learn the verb conjugations. The verb conjugation page indicates the verb-group (or if it's irregular) and also has a "supplementary comments" section which explains the conjugations and has links to other pages that have the generic rules for the regular verb-groups.

I think it is a very useful resource for learners of Japanese.

 

[Mike Cash]

My point was that the OP really ought to get a textbook.

He's showing progress and potential. He ought to have something with a comprehensive pedagogical approach built in, rather than an ad hoc assemblage of net resources.