sentence structure... i'm struggling to grasp

[capps]

Hello,

I know a fair bit of Japanese but it's all broken... I've learnt bits here and there from friends and books... but I can't put basic sentences together.

no matter how many times i've read about particles and structure I just don't get it... I don't really know what i'm not getting (does that make sense?)

I know sentences that i've just heard people say and seen in books... like kore wa nan desu ka? ... but if i'm with friends i'd just point and say nani desu ka? but I don't get what the wa means ?

I can understand what my friends are saying as I just pick out the words I understand and answer with a one word reply or something like that. But I seem so dumb in doing so... I would like to be able to speak in full sentences rather than speak like a baby with a fews words here and there.

so if anyone could break it down in simple simple terms and help me with particles and structure that would be greatly greatly appreciated.

Thanx

[WatashiWaMono]

This is a great website that helped me a lot with sentance structure:
Nihongo o Narau - Learn Japanese

It's broken down into lessons and there are a lot of good examples. I hope this helps (:

[capps]

thank you very much

i'll check it out!!

Edit: I checked it out Mono... and it is EXACTLY what I needed!!! thank you so much for your help, i've been trying to find a site like this for ages... it's perfect!

[Smileydude]

topic- the doer of the action or the thing that is
object- the receiver of the action

"wa" in this case is へ　（the "he" is used for the subject particle wa) is place after the subject. It really doesn't have an english equivalent, but many people like translate it as "as for..."

let's take the sentence kore wa nan desu ka? これわなんですか (what is this?)

kore means this

"this" is the thing that is, making it the subject (this is what?, more literally)

Since "kore", this, is the subject, "wa" is placed after it to denote that. A good way to remember this is:

As for this, what is it?

and again most basically this sentence would be: This (wa) is what?

nani desu ka? makes sense because the people to whom you are speaking know what you are talking about. they understand that "this" is what you're talking about. That's the same reason why we here "genki desu ka?" (how are you/are you spirits well?) instead of "anata wa genki desu ka?" the anata wa denotes "you" as the subject (as for you, are your spirits well). this is again, not necessary because when this phrase, when asked is immediately understood as "you" as the subject, (unless otherwise stated) because, well who else would you be asking about when you are talking directly to a person?

I hope this makes sense. Try looking at lessons 1-4 on japanese-online.com. That should help even more to clear things up.