In the lesson, you teach us to say “Jack is Jill’s father” like this:

Jackさん は Jillさん の おとうさん です。

In the answer section of the worksheet you go all

Jillさん の おとうさん は Jackさん です。

on us. I am assuming both are correct, but this inconsistency caused me to think I had all the answers wrong which was kind of a bummer.

I know in English you can go both ways (Jack is Jill’s father and Jill’s father is Jack) but is there a preferred order in Japanese?

Kind regards,

Joffrey

How about you’re talking about Jill’s family? You might want to say who Jill’s father is, so you’d say「JillさんのおとうさんはJackさんです」- “As for Jill’s father/Regarding Jill’s father, he is (called) Jack.”

Or maybe you are at a party and you ask someone “Hey, which one is Jill’s father again?”, they might say「かれ / あちら / あの人 / JackさんがJillさんのおとうさんです。」- “*HE* / *OVER THERE* / *THAT MAN (OVER THERE)* / *JACK* is Jill’s Father.” (the part before が is emphasised here)
However, for this one, the second example would work too (but IRL, it would be easier just to say “He is./Jack is./Him./That man./etc.” haha).

While they’re both correct, they’re *slightly* different, “nuanced” if you will.

PS Michael, look behind you! A three-headed monkey!

hehe ;) Y’know, Koichi said the exact same thing first time he saw this avatar; guess he’s a big MI fan too.

And don’t worry, Japanese is alien to just about EVERYBODY when they first start out :) Asking questions is all part of the learning process. Once you have one concept down though, another one, more horrific, comes soon after ;) Don’t worry: the joy that comes from tackling and conquering these little niggling pain-in-the-ass points “is what ALL true warriors strive for”.

At the end of the day, you just gotta draw your weapon and say: “You fight like a cow!”
;)