BASIC JAPANESE GRAMMAR
WITH YODA

“Do or do not, there is no try” – Yoda

Hrmmm. Learn Japanese, You will.

Chances are, you’ve seen Star Wars and it’s little green Jedi dude, Yoda. Did you know that George Lucas (director of Star Wars) was a big fan of Japanese film (and got the inspiration for Star Wars from The Hidden Fortress by Akira Kurosawa?). To show his Japan-love, he made Yoda speak kind of… strange. But did you know that the way Yoda speaks mimics very basic Japanese grammar? Lucky for us, because it’ll make learning Japanese grammar so much easier for you us English speakers.

*This is the last lesson with Japanese written in romaji. Please make sure you get comfortable with hiragana before moving on to the next chapter.

In this chapter we’ll start learning Japanese grammar in its most simple form. For most non-Japanese speakers, Japanese grammar is a bit of a challenge. Everything is, how should we say… flip flopped. Luckily, most of you probably know how Yoda speaks, and can mimic that. When it comes to simple Japanese grammar, Yoda is a perfect parallel of how everything works. When things get a little more complicated, we’ll have to forget about Yoda, but luckily this will give you a great foundation to work off of, and you can skip a lot of the confusing issues most Japanese learners go through.

First, let’s take a look at how Yoda would talk, using English. Take the following sentences as an example:

English: It is a pen.

Yoda: Pen, it is.

English: It is a doctor.

Yoda: Doctor, it is.

English: It is a Dog.

Yoda: Dog, it is.

Now let’s have you try.

English: It is a monkey. Click for Answer:

• Yoda: Monkey, it is.

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English: It is a hairpiece. Click for Answer:

• Yoda: Hairpiece, it is.

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Let’s see how this works in Japanese without actually using Japanese words for the nouns (person, places, or things) in the sentence (we’ll use English right now).

Desu (です)

The very first thing we’re going to learn is “desu.” The really important thing about “desu” is that it’s not pronounced the way you’d think (if you paid really good attention in the chapter about learning hiragana). To pronounce this, drop the “u.” It’s really pronounced more like “dess,” though as you get better at Japanese you’ll find yourself re-adding the “u” back in with certain situations and sentences. For now, we’ll always pronounce “desu” as “dess.”

“Desu,” for our intents and purposes, will mean “it is.” Although there is no literal meaning for “desu” in English, “it is” will get us close enough until you can experience “desu” in more variety. “Desu” is also a sentence ender that comes after nouns that makes sentences more polite, but we’ll get into politeness in speech more later. For right now, just link “desu” with “it is.”

In our practice sentences with Yoda, do you remember how the grammar worked?

English: It is a pen.

Yoda: Pen, it is.

Now, what does “desu” mean? Of course, you remember it to mean “it is.” In the phrases above, both use “it is.” Let’s replace those now with “desu.” We only want to look at Yoda’s sentence, though, because that sentence mimics simple Japanese grammar (and this is simple Japanese grammar!).

Yoda: Pen, it is.

Japanese: Pen desu.

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Based off that, can you guess what “pen desu” means? You got it, “It is a pen.” Of course, with this knowledge, you can say anything, really. It is a bus. It is a cat. It is a dog. It is a monkey. It is a flamingo… The list goes on and on. All you need to do is replace the noun with another noun, and you can essentially say hundreds of thousands of different things, if you have a dictionary. Let’s practice.

Yoda: Monkey, it is.

Japanese: Monkey desu.

Yoda: Dog, it is.

Japanese: Dog desu.

Yoda: Cow, it is. Click for Answer:

• Japanese: Cow desu

That should be simple enough, but let’s practice using some extra vocabulary, listed below. The important thing isn’t to focus on the vocabulary. Instead, focus on the grammar that you’re learning. You can always learn vocabulary, but if you don’t understand the grammar around it, you won’t be able to say much of anything at all.

There will be a series of images (including the word in Japanese), and I’d like you to follow the directions provided with each image.

Budou (grapes)

1. Write “budou” in hiragana. Answer:

2. How would Yoda say “It is a grape”?　Answer:

3. How do you say “it is” in Japanese? Answer:

4. Replace “it is” from Yoda’s sentence with the Japanese word for “it is.” Answer:

5. Now replace the word “Grape” with the Japanese word for grape. How do you say “it is a grape” in Japanese? Answer:

Great job, now for another picture.

Banana (Banana)

As you can see, the Japanese word for banana is “banana.” This means that the Japanese word for “banana” is really a foreign word. Do you know what “Japanese Alphabet” you would use to write “banana,” since it’s a foreign word? Look it up if you can’t figure it out on your own. Answer:

1. Using your katakana chart, figure out how to write Banana in katakana. Remember how hiragana and katakana share the same sounds? Find Ba, na, and na, and write them in katakana. Answer:

2. Now that you have “banana” in katakana, how would you write “it is a banana” in Japanese? Use your hiragana chart if you need to. Answer:

3. Did you notice how in the previous answer there were no spaces between バナナ (banana) and です (desu)? When it comes to written Japanese, there actually are no spaces, which is another reason why kanji is so important! It’s used to separate words from each other, otherwise it all gets mushed together.

4. Say “banana desu” out loud. Don’t pronounce “banana” like you normally would in English, this is incorrect! Use the sounds we learned in the hiragana chapter.

Now we’ll take a look at a series of pictures and I want you to tell me what they are. For example, if I show you a picture of a monkey, you should be able to say “it is a monkey” in Japanese. Before we move on, however, I want to introduce you to another great Japanese learning resource.

Say hello to “denshi jisho,” i.e. “jisho.org.” Jisho.org is a great online Japanese dictionary, which we’ll be using from time to time to help you find vocabulary words. As we go through the following images, I would like you to look up the Japanese words for these images so you can get some looking-up practice. This will also show you that you have unlimited potential in terms of being able to say “it is a ____” no matter what _____ is. I would recommend checking the “common words” box when looking things up on jisho.org, just because it will help you find more relevant results.

It is a monkey. Answer:

Now write it out 5 times in hiragana (use your sheet if you have to) Answer:

It is a Strawberry. Answer:

Write the answer in hiragana Answer:

It is a pumpkin. Answer:

Write the answer in hiragana and then say it out loud. Remember how if you combine a small や, ゆ, or よ to a kana in the い row it modifies it? ち (chi) + small や (ya) = ちゃ (cha). Here’s the pronunciation for pumpkin in case you’re unsure:

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How are you feeling about the lesson so far? Although this concept is pretty simple, here are some worksheets you can go through in order to practice this. Remember, just think “how would yoda say it” and you should be fine!

PASSION UTILIZATION 1

Remember that list vocab you created for your “passion” in the previous chapter? Go ahead and pull that out, we’re going to use it to practice this grammar lesson. If you’re feeling particularly inspired right now, you can even pull your “interests” lists out.

• Using your “Passion Vocab,” write “it is a ______” in Japanese for each one of them. As you are going through, picture that thing in your head. For example, “Baseball” in Japanese is やきゅう (yakyuu). I would picture the concept of baseball in my head as I said and wrote やきゅうです (yakyuu desu). I would also try to smell the air and hear the crowds as I did this. The more senses you try to use, the better of a memory you’ll develop!

Not particularly the most interesting way to use your new vocab lists, but it’ll get better as we learn more grammar. That being said, it’s time to move on! Congratulations, you are now officially able to speak some real, dynamic, Japanese. This is a big step, and there will be many more where that came from!

Chapter Content:

• です practice & hiragana practice

Before Moving on :

• Know Hiragana pretty well (how to read, write, and pronounce)
• Understand the meaning of “desu.”
• Understand the pronunciation of desu (it’s “dess” not “desoo”)
• How to say “It is a ______” no matter what ______ is.
• Be able to pronounce “banana” in Japanese.
• Have all the worksheets completed
• Go through your “Passion List” and practice です with them

Answering All of Your Questions →