How Is Word Order Structured in Japanese?

Have you ever felt like Japanese word order can be a bit intricate? Or maybe the Japanese you heard in anime or on TV sounded a little  different?

Today, we’ll take a closer look at word order in Japanese—an essential part of communication. You might even find that this helps you understand some of the mysteries behind how Japanese people communicate!

So let’s dive in.

Just like every language has its own rules for word order, Japanese is no exception. The basic word order in Japanese is Subject (S) → Object (O) → Verb (V). This structure is known as the SOV word order.
Let’s take a look at a simple comparison with English:

Japanese:
田中さんは ラーメンを 食べます。 (Tanaka-san wa ramen wo tabemasu)
      (S)               (O)              (V)

English:
Mr.Tanaka eats ramen.
      (S)    　  (V)     (O)

The key point here is that the verb always comes at the end of the sentence in Japanese.

Some may say that Japanese is one of the most difficult languages in the world.
Indeed, it makes use of hiragana, katakana, kanji, and, more recently, even the Roman alphabet. At first glance, Japanese text can feel overwhelming—especially since there are no spaces between words, and the characters themselves may appear quite complex.

However, the perceived difficulty of learning a language largely depends on how different it is from your native language, rather than the language being inherently difficult. This leads us to an interesting question:
Are there any languages in the world that are structurally similar to Japanese?

Let’s take a look—starting with word order as a point of comparison.

Languages with the Same Word Order as Japanese (SOV): Approx. 41%
Korean, Turkish, Mongolian, Hindi, etc.

Languages with the Same Word Order as English (SVO): Approx. 35%
French, Spanish, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, etc.

VSO Languages: Approx. 7%
Arabic, Hebrew, Irish, etc.

VOS Languages: Approx. 2%
Tagalog, etc.

Surprisingly, the SOV word order, which Japanese follows, accounts for approximately 41% of the world’s languages. In fact, 564 languages around the globe share this same basic sentence structure. While Japanese may stand out due to its use of multiple writing systems, its word order is by no means unusual.

In Japanese, there is a well-known saying: “Listen to a person until they have finished speaking.” This phrase is commonly taught to children from an early age and reflects an important aspect of the language. Due to Japanese following a SOV word order, crucial components that determine the overall meaning of a sentence—such as verbs and negative expressions—typically appear at the end.
As a result, unless one listens carefully until the sentence is complete, it is often difficult to fully grasp the speaker’s intended meaning.

Let’s take a look at some examples.

Example:
昨日、夫が駅前のデパートで買った若い人に大人気のチーズケーキを私は食べませんでした。(Kinō, otto ga ekimae no depāto de katta wakai hito ni daininki no chīzukēki o watashi wa tabemasen deshita.)

This sentence is relatively long and contains multiple layers of information. It mentions that the speaker’s husband purchased something at a department store near the station, and that the item is very popular among young people.
However, the main point the speaker intends to communicate—“I didn’t eat the cheesecake”—appears only at the very end of the sentence.

When compared to English, this structural difference becomes immediately apparent. English tends to state the main idea early in the sentence, whereas Japanese often defers it until the end.

English version:
I didn’t eat the cheesecake, which is very popular among young people and was bought by my husband at the department store in front of the station yesterday.

In this sentence, “which is very popular among young people and was bought by my husband at the department store in front of the station yesterday” modifies the noun “cheesecake.”

You might be thinking, “It’s hard to tell which part is the modifier and where it ends!” That’s exactly one of the key characteristics of Japanese word order. In Japanese, you often have to listen until the very end of the sentence to truly understand what the speaker wants to say.

I teach Japanese in Spain, and I am often told by local people, “Spanish people tend to interrupt others while they are speaking, whereas Japanese people listen carefully until the very end.” They often express admiration for this characteristic of Japanese communication.

This tendency may stem from inherent characteristics of the Japanese people. Therefore, I personally believe that this communication style has evolved precisely because individuals listen attentively to one another until the very end. Would you not also agree that many Japanese people around you tend to listen carefully until the speaker has fully finished?

A notable characteristic of the Japanese language is its flexible word order. One of the first things you’ll learn at the beginner level is the placement of adverbs. Among the following three sentences, which one correctly places the adverb “よく” (yoku)?

(1)よく 私は テニスを します。(Yoku watashi wa tenisu o shimasu.)
(2)私は よく テニスを します。(Watashi wa yoku tenisu o shimasu.)
(3)私は テニスを よく します。(Watashi wa tenisu o yoku shimasu.)

Actually, all of them are correct!
Adverbs in Japanese are highly flexible — they can be placed before or after the object, and even before the subject.

That said, all three of those examples still follow the basic Subject (S) → Object (O) → Verb (V) structure. However, in real-world Japanese, the SOV order can sometimes be disregarded. Let’s take a look at two simple examples:

(1) 先生は 彼を ほめた。(Sensei wa kare wo hometa.)
　   (S) 　(O)　　(V)　 　　　

(2) 彼を 先生は ほめた。(Kare wo sensei wa hometa.)　
　 (O)　  (S) 　　(V)　

Although the word order of the subject (S) and object (O) differs between (1) and (2), the meaning remains exactly the same, as “The teacher praised him.”

As you can see, thanks to the use of particles such as wa and wo, the sentence structure remains clear even when the word order changes.


Now, let’s take a look at a more extreme example:

(1) 私の彼氏は、昨日私が買ったケーキを 
          (S)                               　　　        (O)
全部 食べちゃったんだ。
                     (V)
(Watashi no kareshi wa, kinō watashi ga katta kēki wo zenbu tabechattanda.)

(2) 全部 食べちゃったんだ、私の彼氏は！
                        (V)                 　　　　(S)
昨日私が買ったケーキを！！
                                    (O)
(Zenbu tabechattanda, watashi no kareshi wa! Kinō watashi ga katta kēki wo!!)

Both of these sentences have the same meaning: “My boyfriend ate all of the cake I bought yesterday.”
However, in example (2), the word order is rearranged into Verb → Subject → Object. The verb “tabechattanda!” appears at the very beginning, strongly reflecting the speaker’s emotions.

It is worth noting that spoken Japanese frequently exhibits a high degree of word order flexibility. This is one reason the Japanese language used in anime or on television programs can appear markedly different from the standardized forms typically taught in educational settings.

Japanese is an incredibly flexible language when it comes to word order.

Communicating in Japanese can be challenging at first due to the differences in word order compared to your native language — and the flexibility of Japanese word order itself. However, if you master the use of particles and practice consistently, you’ll find that Japanese can be much more approachable and casual to speak than you might expect.

Join our teachers at TCJ and elevate your Japanese skills in an enjoyable and effective way!

Dryer, M. S. (2013). Order of subject, object and verb. In M. S. Dryer & M. Haspelmath (Eds.), WALS Online (Version 2020.4) [Data set]. Zenodo.