Page 28 - Easy Japanese - Learn to Speak Japanese Quickly! (TUTTLE)

14. Yamaguchi
15. Saitō
16. Matsumoto
17. Inoue
18. Kimura
19. Hayashi
20. Shimizu

GRAMMAR NOTE Japanese Sentence Types and Predicates

There are three types of sentences: noun, verb, and adjective sentences. Nouns,
verbs, and adjectives occurring at the end of a sentence are collectively called
predicates and they are the core element of the sentence. Other elements such as
subject, object, time expression, etc., are all optional. When they do occur, they
occur before the predicate and you can order these rather freely. However, the

following is the most neutral and common order. To give extra emphasis to any
item, place it in the front of the sentence.

Time—Subject—Object—Quantity/Degree—Predicate

A predicate can comprise a complete sentence by itself. Unlike English, where a
subject is required, the subject and other elements are usually not mentioned in
Japanese if they are understood from the context. So, in the dialogue above, Ms.
Sato simply says Satō desu “Satō am” in order to introduce herself. She does not
mention “I”, which is obvious from the context. Noun predicates are explained

below and verb and adjective predicates will be introduced in Lessons 2 and 3,
respectively.

GRAMMAR NOTE Noun Predicate—X desu. “(It) is X.”

A noun sentence ends with a noun plus desu (Affirmative) or ja nai desu
(Negative). X desu means “is X” and X ja nai desu means “is not X”.

Satō desu. I’m Sato.
Eigo ja nai desu. It’s not English.

Japanese uses a two-way tense system: Past or Non-past. Non-past covers both

present and future. These noun predicates X desu and X ja nai desu are Non-
Past, and they are in the Formal form as opposed to the Casual form, which will