1.7 Basic sentence structure

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Overview

Learn the core Japanese sentence pattern for simple statements: X は Y です (“X is Y”).

Japanese builds simple statements as Topic + は + Information + です.

In natural conversation, subjects like “I” or “you” are often omitted when they are clear from context.

です is the polite form. In casual speech, especially with friends, だ is commonly used instead.

Questions are typically formed by adding か to the end of the sentence, without changing word order.

Hello. I’m Alex.

I’m Slovak. Right now, I’m studying Japanese.

This is my notebook.

Are you a student? Yes, I’m a student.

Title	Description
は	topic marker (“as for…” / “about…”)
です	polite “to be” (sentence ending)
だ	casual copula (dictionary form of です)
か	question marker (usually at the end of the sentence)

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