統語論. Rules governing construction of phrases and sentences in a language.
Syntax describes the rules governing construction of phrases and sentences in a language. Distinguished from morphology, which governs construction of individual words.
Questions tagged [syntax]
641 questions
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How do we construct sentences ending in わけ?
The is a certain way of talking where you can end just about anything you say in わけ.
What is the sentence structure for this way of talking?
language hacker
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How to separate words in a Japanese sentence?
Unlike some languages (English, French, ...), written Japanese sentences don't have spaces between words.
I know that it is the same in Chinese for example, but the fact that the Chinese language only use one alphabet (hanzi) makes it easier to…
tama
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Difference between sentence final ものだ and ことだ
My understanding is that ものだ is used to assert things which are mostly known to everyone.
誰かの家に招待されたときは、何か手土産をもっていくものだ
'When invited to somebody's home it's customary to bring presents'.
On the other hand, ことだ is used to give someone advice.
A:…
buskila
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Are there cases when two or more particles will occur next to each other without intervening lexical words?
Most particles seem to be postpositions but I'm sure I've seen say a noun followed by a location particle followed by "wa" or "ga" or possibly "wo" but when I've tried to use it I've only confused my Japanese friends.
Under what circumstances can…
hippietrail
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When asking 'What is your name?' or 'What is your job?', why is it 'は' not 'か'?
As per the title, when asking 'What is your name?' or 'What is your job?', why is it 'は' not 'か'? For example, we are taught this:
おしごとは。
'What is your job?'
But I don't understand why it isn't this?
あなたはしごとですか。
'What is your job?'
Chris
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Usage of か after a clause?
Here's a sentence I found:
デパートはどこにあるか、知っていますか？
Do you know where the department store is?
What's the purpose of the か particle in 「どこにあるか」? Under what circumstances do I use it?
I'm fairly sure it's not the か that's normally used to form…
theycallmezeal
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Are Japanese modifiers "greedy", "anti-greedy", or do they mean whatever people choose them to mean?
(I'm a beginner. I just started learning Japanese about a month before I wrote this.)
The Japanese Wikipedia article 飛べない鳥, which corresponds to the English Wikipedia article Flightless bird,
has the…
edom
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In front of "ほうがいい," is it always past tense?
ほうがいい means:
the particular way "ほう"
is "が"
good "いい"
So, for example, if it looks like it's going to rain, I might say to a friend:
"今日は雨らしい。傘を持った方がいい。"
But what I'm curious is, why is "持った" past tense? It feels like it means, it WOULD'VE BEEN…
VladeKR
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How can I say "to be tired of verbING" in Japanese?
How can I say "I'm tired of waiting", "I'm tired/bored of staying home all day"?
Can I use て form + 疲れる?
What is the difference among 疲れる、飽きる and うんざりする?
Rafael Ferreira
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Sentence structure/element order
In the textbook Japanese for Busy People I, the order of the elements in a sentence is always the same (subject - when - with whom - by what means - to where - verb) at least as far as I have made it. Like…
JNat
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Can placements of adverbs be altered freely? 少なくとも週に一度車を洗う vs 週に少なくとも一度車を洗う
I'm curious if there is any difference in nuance between these two sentences:
彼は少なくとも週に一度車を洗う。
彼は週に少なくとも一度車を洗う。
I'm aware that grammatically speaking both are 100% right, but this question is not targeted at this issue.
Pacerier
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The use of -さん when answering about oneself
If someone says,
あなた は Chris-さん です か。
Are you Chris?
Do you answer
Chris です
Or
Chris-さん です
Chris
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How to tell よく (often) apart from よく (good)?
Whenever I see 「よく」, I have to ask someone whether it means "often" or "good".
For example, here is a sentence from my book:
クラスへ行って、先生の講義をよく聞いて、ノートをよく取り、それをよく覚えれば、試験でいい点がもらえる。
I thought all three 「よく」s meant "often" (eg. "often takes notes"), but…
BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft
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"unfinished" sentences ending in particles like を, に and が
This is something I've always wondered about, but can't find any info about.
When native speakers come across a sentence that ends ...を。, ...と。 or ...が！*, how do their brains parse it? Is it just a case of being able to guess what word would follow…
sebu
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Nominalization with のが、のを
I've just learned to nominalize verbs with のを but as I was looking for more info on the web I saw that this is also done with のが and こと. The question "What is the difference between the nominalizers こと and の?" uses のを and のが as if they were the same…
Julian
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