Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Monday, December 05, 2005
The Tokyo Shimbun : Sentences Without a Subject
In Japanese, you can delete the subject of a sentence and still make yourself understood. For example, where English speakers would say, "I am hungry", Japanese would just say "Hungry." and still understand "who" is hungry. Japanese people are good at "sensing" the right meaning from the context that they hardly ever have any trouble knowing the omitted subject of a sentence. At times, Japanese even delete the subject and object of a sentence and still understand each other. Where English speakers would say "I need it", Japanese would simply say "Hitsuyoo (Need)." and still know "who" needs "what". While this may sound quite confusing for non-Japanese, the key here is for you to say the key word. They will complete the rest of the sentence in their heads and will most likely understand you.
