DIFFERENCES BETWEEN JAPANESE AND ENGLISH

One of the most fundamental differences between Japanese and English sentence structure lies in their word order.

• English follows the SVO (Subject-Verb-Object) order.
  Example: “I eat sushi.”

• Japanese uses the SOV (Subject-Object-Verb) order.
  Example: 私は寿司を食べます。(Watashi wa sushi o tabemasu.)
  Literal translation: “I sushi eat.”
  

This distinction often feels unnatural for English speakers learning Japanese.

In English, we’re used to placing the verb right after the subject. In Japanese, the verb often appears at the end of the sentence, which can feel like a cliffhanger until you hear it.

English relies heavily on word order and prepositions to convey meaning, while Japanese uses particles: small words that follow nouns, verbs or adjectives and indicate their grammatical role in the sentence.

Examples:

• は (wa) – marks the topic of the sentence.

• を (o) – marks the direct object.

• に (ni) or へ (e) – indicate direction or time.

• で (de) – marks the place of an action.
  

These particles make Japanese grammar more flexible. You can rearrange parts of a sentence, and as long as the particles remain correct, the meaning stays intact.

In English, the subject is mandatory in nearly every sentence. You can’t just say “Am going to the store” — you need “I am going to the store.”

Japanese, however, often omits the subject, especially if it’s clear from context.

Example: 食べました (Tabemashita) – “(I/you/he/she) ate.”

This is completely natural in Japanese and reflects a context-driven communication style, where less is often more.

English uses articles (“a,” “an,” “the”) to indicate whether something is specific or general. Japanese does not use articles at all.

Example:

• English: “I saw a cat.” vs. “I saw the cat.”

• Japanese: 猫を見た (Neko o mita) – Could mean either, depending on context.
  

This difference can be confusing for English speakers, who are used to distinguishing definiteness.

Japanese speakers learning English often struggle with when to use articles correctly, because it is a concept not present in their native grammar.

In both English and Japanese, modifiers (adjectives, relative clauses, etc.) describe nouns.

However, Japanese places all modifiers before the noun, no matter how long or complex.

English: “The book that I borrowed from the library last week was interesting.”
Japanese: 先週図書館から借りた本は面白かった。
(Senshū toshokan kara karita hon wa omoshirokatta.)
Literal: “Last week library from borrowed book was interesting.”

Notice how the entire clause comes before the noun “book.”

In Japanese, the listener must wait for the noun to understand the full meaning.

Both English and Japanese conjugate verbs, but the rules are quite different.

• English verbs change depending on the subject and tense:
  I eat, he eats, they ate.

• Japanese verbs do not change based on subject and instead focus on tense and politeness:
  

  • 食べる (taberu) – to eat (plain form)

  • 食べます (tabemasu) – to eat (polite)

  • 食べた (tabeta) – ate

  • 食べません (tabemasen) – don’t eat
    

This makes Japanese more consistent once you learn the forms, but it introduces new challenges like politeness levels, which don't exist in English grammar.

Speaking of politeness, Japanese has an entirely different layer of grammar dedicated to honorifics and levels of formality.

• English may switch between “Hi” and “Hello,” or “Can I” vs. “May I,” but Japanese grammar has different verb forms, vocabulary, and structures depending on the situation.
  

For example:

• Casual: 食べる (taberu) – to eat

• Polite: 食べます (tabemasu)

• Honorific: 召し上がる (meshiagaru) – used to refer to someone else’s eating respectfully
  

This formality structure is deeply embedded in Japanese culture and affects sentence structure in complex ways.

In English, we form questions using auxiliary verbs like “do,” “is,” or “can”:

• “Do you like sushi?”

• “Are you coming?”
  

Japanese forms questions simply by adding か (ka) at the end of a sentence:

• 寿司が好きですか？ (Sushi ga suki desu ka?) – “Do you like sushi?”

• 来ますか？ (Kimasu ka?) – “Are you coming?”
  

There’s no need to invert the subject and verb or add extra helping verbs, which makes question formation in Japanese structurally simpler, though challenging in other ways.

In English, we distinguish between singular and plural using word changes:

• “One apple” vs. “Two apples”

Japanese does not pluralize nouns in the same way. Most nouns remain the same:

• りんご (ringo) can mean “apple” or “apples,” depending on context.

Instead of pluralizing nouns, Japanese might use counters or context to show quantity:

• 一つのりんご (hitotsu no ringo) – one apple

• 三つのりんご (mittsu no ringo) – three apples

This flexibility makes the structure cleaner, but mastering the variety of counters in Japanese is a unique challenge.

In English, the subject is usually the topic. Not so in Japanese.

• English: “The cat chased the dog.” – “The cat” is both subject and topic.

• Japanese: 猫は犬を追いかけた (Neko wa inu o oikaketa)
  “As for the cat, (it) chased the dog.”
  

The は (wa) particle marks the topic, not necessarily the grammatical subject.

This allows Japanese sentences to shift focus more easily, making them feel more nuanced but harder to translate directly.