Japanese Word Order

[curiosityshop]

Ok, I've never been good at grammar, and this is true of all the languages I've learned or grown up knowing. I'm trying to get to grips with what word order to use when forming sentences in Japanese (although I've read somewhere that the Japanese don't actually have sentences? o.O). So, could a native speaker please confirm whether the following statements and phrases are correct?

-----
In general, Japanese word order goes Subject, Object, Verb.
-----
You can usually have time and place words before the subject and object, but not between the object and verb, or after the verb?
-----

You could write "Sometimes, I go to school on Sundays" as:

"Tokidoki watashi wa doyoobi ni gakkoo ni ikimasu."

"Doyoobi ni watashi wa tokidoki gakkoo ni ikimasu."

"Tokidoki doyoobi ni watashi wa gakkoo ni ikimasu."

-----

Another example. "Yuko is going back to Tokyo tomorrow"

"Yuko-san wa ashita Tokyoo ni kaerimasu."

"Ashita, Yuko-san wa Tokyoo ni kaerimasu."

-----
Are all of these variation ok to use? Or are there any that could be used but just don't sound good so they're not usually used in that order?

Thanks in advance ^^

[KyleGoetz]

I think they all sound good from a word-order point of view except I think maybe the second tokidoki example sounds a bit off. But I'd wait for a native speaker to weigh in on that one. To me, it's just weird to hear "On Wednesday first" because it prepares me to think about the upcoming Wednesday. Then all of a sudden "tokidoki" and I'm confused a bit. But like I said, wait for a native to weigh in on this one. My comments are just a quick placeholder.

Now, your first three sentences all sound bad because of the "watashi wa" in them. Japanese people would leave it completely out of the sentence for almost all conceivable occasions. The only time that actually comes to mind is if you wanted to say something like "Now I, on the other hand [as opposed to Yuko-san or someone], go to school sometimes on Wednesdays."

Just ときどきがっこうにいきます would be fine without the わたし.

[evanny]

i would say watashi wa tokidoki dyoobi ni gakkoo ni ikimasu.
its most usually like this
1. topic time place object verb
2. topic frequency time goal verb

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by evanny

i would say watashi wa tokidoki dyoobi ni gakkoo ni ikimasu.
its most usually like this
1. topic time place object verb
2. topic frequency time goal verb

To be fair, you're obviously a beginner; perhaps you shouldn't be giving advice just yet. Your suggestion is wrong on multiple levels.

[evanny]

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz

To be fair, you're obviously a beginner; perhaps you shouldn't be giving advice just yet. Your suggestion is wrong on multiple levels.

well...then blame the book. ive even looked it up - points 1. and 2. are straight out from there.
still im willing to learn. please write those multiple levels of wrong.
i expect at least 5 ways of how it is wrong. because 2 is a couple 3-4 a few...
so. go ahead and enlighten me.

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by evanny

well...then blame the book. ive even looked it up - points 1. and 2. are straight out from there.
still im willing to learn. please write those multiple levels of wrong.
i expect at least 5 ways of how it is wrong. because 2 is a couple 3-4 a few...
so. go ahead and enlighten me.

1. Perhaps you shouldn't be telling a native English speaker what the English word "multiple" means. define:multiple - Google Search Especially when you're wrong.
2. じょうび is not the word for Wednesday, but you used this in your sample sentence.
3. Using わたしは sounds non-native. You can verify this through about a hundred million threads on JF where Sashimister, MMM, and others have said so.

Beyond that, you don't have to get so catty. I'm just pointing out that you're a beginner (as you have said yourself http://www.japanforum.com/forum/japa...ml#post830507), so it may be a good idea not to attempt to teach Japanese to others.

According to you, you've been studying since September. That's not even two months. If you're going to give help, I suggest you preface it with "I've only been studying for two months, but this is what I think."

I've been speaking Japanese for nearly a decade, but you can see that in this thread I still warned OP that my comments are not infallible.

[evanny]

sorry if it seemed "catty"
but i actually prefer help...
and...sorry - sounds "non native" isnt just the same as grammatically incorrect.
so you came up with one point...and i appreciate it
P.S in that link it doesnt say im quite wrong. thou non native - i know that multiple is more than one or two.

[Columbine]

Actually, am I going mad or is everyone confused over the days of the week in this thread. OP declares in english s/he sometimes goes to school on Sundays, then uses 'doyoobi', I assume as in the romaji for 土曜日. Which is SATURDAY.

Kyle then responds, talking about wednesdays. (水曜日、すいようび、suiyoubi for the beginners）

Evanny then uses 'dyoobi', which is neither correct for 'sunday' OR 'saturday' in Japanese, but I presume you meant the same as the OP. Certainly isn't Wednesday anyway.

Sunday is 日曜日, にちようび nichiyoubi.

[curiosityshop]

Ha, I've completely lost track of this conversation. Let's stop mouthing each other off for giving bad advice, or this will get out of hand I think. In the future, would anyone replying please state what level of japanese they are at? And I appologise, I did translate Sunday wrong, as Columbine (who is not mad ) rightly pointed out, I should have written nichiyoubi 日曜日. No idea where the Wednesday came from, but I can't really complain xD

So, back to the original topic of conversation, do my sentences have the correct word order? Again, please state your level of japanese before answering.

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz

1. Perhaps you shouldn't be telling a native English speaker what the English word "multiple" means. define:multiple - Google Search Especially when you're wrong.
2. じょうび is not the word for Wednesday, but you used this in your sample sentence.
3. Using わたしは sounds non-native. You can verify this through about a hundred million threads on JF where Sashimister, MMM, and others have said so.

Beyond that, you don't have to get so catty. I'm just pointing out that you're a beginner (as you have said yourself http://www.japanforum.com/forum/japa...ml#post830507), so it may be a good idea not to attempt to teach Japanese to others.

According to you, you've been studying since September. That's not even two months. If you're going to give help, I suggest you preface it with "I've only been studying for two months, but this is what I think."

I've been speaking Japanese for nearly a decade, but you can see that in this thread I still warned OP that my comments are not infallible.

Sorry, I forgot what day we were talking about, and since じょうび isn't the word for any day of the week, just said it was wrong and moved on.

Regardless, that's embarrassing for me! Muchos apologies :/