Where do you stick adjectives?

[Kotonko]

Could some one help a poor home learner?

I know the basic stucture is Subject Object Verb, so where would the adjective go normaly?
For example would the setence...
I have a small Katana be
I Katana small have or
I small Katana have?
Please help!

Domo

 

[moyashi]

I small katana have

watashi wa chisai-na katana wo motteru.

cheers and welcome aboard!


gambatte (good luck!)

 

[Diana]

Isn't it
(watashi wa) chiisai katana o motte iru?
I use o for 'wo', so don't be surprised. This is what I'm used to.

 

[moyashi]

hehe, I write the way I speak

o or wo is basically the same ... even the textbooks put parathasis around the w.

Though, in this day and age the "wo" sound is definitely now "o", since the "wa-yomi line" is slowly disappearing. We no longer have "we" and "wi" ... although some of the folks that are still living past 80+ something have names that still incorporate these characters.

cheers

 

[samuraitora]

@ Diana
The proper way is to add the 'watashi wa' in the front.
Normally, in spoken Japanese, if the object is understood, you just drop it. So, technically, both are right

 

[moyashi]

Yep, samuraitora hit it on the nose!

Problem is that almost always in spoken Japanese the object is always dropped. I asked at one time if even Japanese new if they understood the object all the time. The person just smiled. Nope. They apparently spend part of the conversation guessing what the other person is mentioning and sometimes they miss it as much as a foreignor would .... hehehe

 

[samuraitora]

Thanks moyashi.

I love the fact that the Japanese can get confused by each other...then they look down on us for not understanding...the irony is great.

 

[Eirik]

"object"? you must have meant the word "subject"
watashi - the subject
katana - the object

 

[moyashi]

Actually, I left out "subject" unconciously since I don't use it 80-90% of the time. So, I mentioned to what for me is dropped off frequently, the object. Hehe, I guess I've lived over here too long.