Sentence construction
The first thing to note, is that it is not the same sentence construction as a basic English sentence. In fact, I think you will appreciate how complicated English sentences are as you learn more about Japanese, or any other language for that matter.
Think about a very simple English sentence like "I am going to school" or "I love 7/11 slurpees", or even a simpler sentence like "I am the best".
As you can see, the general pattern for a simple sentence is subject, verb, object.
This sounds a little weird saying this, but notice that we usually identify the subject very clearly in English with a personal pronoun (I/he/she/it/they). Think about when or if you leave it out in a sentence. (Hint: Japanese is quite different with this particular point)
Now for the exact same sentences in Japanese.
Notice the general pattern - S.O.V.. Understanding this pattern now will help you enormously as you gradually make sentences (statements, questions, responses etc.) more complex.
Alright, so you can see that the general pattern is for the VERB to come at the end of the sentence - "ikimasu" (to go), "daisuki desu" (to love) and "desu" (is/are/am).
As a first time learner of Japanese, this is quite a lot of mental effort piecing together all of the scrambled information from the sentence. Firstly, you must establish the subject of the sentence, or the thing the speaker is talking about. Next, you'll need to wait until the end of the utterance for the action, and then retrace what was said just before the verb.... aahh it sounds so complicated when I type this out. In actual fact, the more you listen or create sentences in this format, the easier it becomes to comprehend. Mentally, you already anticipate the verb that will be used before you even hear it.
Cast your eyes now on the italicized wa, ni, no, ga. In my experience, these little guys are the most difficult concept for learners of Japanese, especially beginners. Welcome to ....
Particles
Particles are similar to articles and prepositions in English. I can hear you saying to yourself "What are they?". Articles are the little words like a, an and the. Prepositions are the little words like in, on, at, for, since, from and to. There are lots of them, just as there are lots of different particles (or functions of particles) in Japanese.
How would you feel if a speaker left out these little words in a sentence, or misused them? It sounds a little disjointed doesn't it? You can't help but pick out the mistakes, rather that concentrate on the intended message. The same feeling applies to using particles in Japanese. Please try your best to use them accurately but remember that this takes time - even native speakers of English make plenty of mistakes with articles and prepositions.
I have found the book on the right to be a useful reference guide for not only particles, but also basic and more complex sentence constructions.
Let's take a look at some of the most important particles for starting out in Japanese. The first thing to note is that particles come after the words you are talking about. Look at the sentences above again to check what I mean.
This page will be edited further when time permits. In the meantime, watch the video below on the particle "no".