Learning how to form a sentence in Japanese is not very complicated. All sentences follow the basic Japanese sentence structure X は Y です (X wa Y desu). X is the subject, and Y is the object. は (wa) is one of the particles that is used in Japanese, which connects X to Y. です (desu) is an important word in Japanese, meaning “it is.” です is used at the end of a sentence when another verb is not used, such as in the sentence わたし は がくせい です (watashi wa gakusei desu), which means “I am a student.” わたし (watashi) is the word for “I” in Japanese; however, it is assumed that I is the subject. Therefore, the sentence がくせい です (gakusei desu) also reads as “I am a student,” since no other subject is mentioned. While it may seem confusing at first, omitting “I” and “you” will become second nature when speaking and writing Japanese. Let's go over some other sentences that use the basic X は Y です (X wa Y desu) sentence structure:
まこと は にほんじん です (makoto wa nihonjin desu): Makoto is Japanese
せんもん は かがく です (senmon wa kagaku desu): (My) major is science
Notice in the second sentence that わたし (watashi) is not used in the sentence, but it is assumed that the sentence is about the speaker. If we want to talk about another person's major, we use another Japanese particle: の (no).
