Lesson 1: New Friends

The absolute foundation of Japanese sentences.

General form: [Topic] は [Something] です = 'As for Topic, it is Something.' Think of です as an '=' sign — the whole point of the sentence sits in the noun right before it. は is the topic marker (written は but pronounced 'wa' — one of Japanese's most-forgotten quirks).

When to use: any time you are identifying, describing, or equating something — 'I am a student,' 'This is a book,' 'Tanaka is Japanese.'

How to use: state the topic, add は, state the descriptor, end with です. You do NOT conjugate です for person, number, or gender — one size fits all (わたしは がくせいです / かれは がくせいです / ミナさんは がくせいです).

Questions & negation: To ask a question, just add か at the end — no word order change: がくせいです → がくせいですか. For negation, swap です for じゃないです (casual-polite) or ではありません (formal).

Word order: Japanese is Subject-Object-Verb, so the です or real verb always lands last — keep listening until the end of the sentence before you decide what was said.