Here we learn the basics of Japanese sentences and structures. rYou are assumed to be fluent in Hiragana and Katakana, otherwise please review them thoroughly.
A sentence in Japanese has the subject first, then the object(s) and finally the verb (or omitted for to be). For this English sentence:
I am Francisco.
In Japanese it'd be translated as:
わたしはフランシスコです。
This is the decomposition of that sentence:
- わたし: the pronoun I
- は: particle that indicates the preceding is the subject
- フランシスコ: "Francisco" in katakana
- です: formal particle in the end; no need for "to be", it is implied.
Pronouns in Japanese are a difficult topic, so we will just be using 私(わたし), "I", and for "you" and "he/she" we will use the name or last name of the person instead.
The general structure for "I am __" is:
わたしは__です。
When we want to say the opposite, "I am not __", then we use:
わたしは__じゃありません。
Exercise: say 3 different things that you are and 3 things that you are not in Japanese. Use a Google translate to search for the adjectives and/or nouns.