Basic Sentence Structure

This page explains the most basic sentence structure in Japanese.

Order in Japanese

The order in Japanese is subject, complement, predicate.

⚫︎ Subject + (Complement) + Predicate

A characteristic of Japanese is that the predicate comes last.

Not all sentences have a complement, some sentences have no complement and some have more than one complement.

Also, if the subject is clear, it may be omitted.

Basic Sentence Structure

A predicate can be one of three parts of speech: verb, adjective or noun.

Therefore, there are three types of basic sentence structure depending on the part of speech of the predicate: verb sentence, adjective sentence and noun sentence.

Basic Sentence Structure 1: Verb Sentence

A verb sentence is a sentence whose predicate is a verb.

⚫︎ Subject + (Complement) + Verb

Basic Sentence Structure 2: Adjective Sentence

A adjective sentence is a sentence whose predicate is a adjective.

⚫︎ Subject + (Complement) + Adjective

Basic Sentence Structure 3: Noun Sentence

A noun sentence is a sentence whose predicate is a noun.

⚫︎ Subject + (Complement) + Noun

Various patterns

Complements between the subject and the predicate (verb, adjective, noun) add a variety of information to a sentence.

There are various types of sentences in Japanese, such as sentences with no complements and sentences with multiple complements.

Below are some patterns.

⚫︎ Subject + Predicate (Verb, Adjective, Noun)

⚫︎ Subject + Complement1 + Predicate (Verb, Adjective, Noun)

⚫︎ Subject + Complement1 + Complement2 + Predicate (Verb, Adjective, Noun)

⚫︎ Subject + Complement1 + Complement2 + Complement3 + Predicate (Verb, Adjective, Noun)

⚫︎ Subject + Complement1 + Complement2 + Complement3 + Complement4 + Predicate (Verb, Adjective, Noun)

As such, Japanese has three types of basic sentence structure, which are verb sentence, adjective sentence and noun sentence, and by adding more complements to a sentence, various information can be added.