Simple Japanese sentence structures

For today's Japanese lesson, let us leara some simple structures.

In Japanese, the subject is indicated by a subject marker, namely　は pronounced as 'wa'.

The equivalent of 'I' in Japanese is わたし (watashi). です or 'desu' is the equivalent of 'is' in English. Hence if you want to tell people that your name is Tanaka. Then you would write:

Hiragana: わたし は たなかです。　
Romanji: Watashi wa Tanaka desu.
English: I am Tanaka.

By the way, Romanji is Romanised way of writing Japanese.

Now let us use this is and that is to construct sentences in Japanese.

In Japanese, 'this is' is これ or 'kore' and 'that is' is それ (sore) or　あれ (are).

Look at the following sentences.

Hiragana: これ は みず　です。
Romanji: Kore wa mizu desu.
English: This is water.

Hiragana: それ は　かぎ　です。
Romanji: Sore wa kagi desu
English: That is a key.

Hiragana: あれ は　かさ　です。
Romanji: Are wa kasa desu.
English: That is an umbrella.

So much for some simple Japanese sentences.