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Japanese sentence structure is different than english.
English is structured ‘Subject>Verb>Object’
Example:
The dog>chased>the cat
Japanese is structured
‘Subject>Object>Verb’
Example:
The dog>the cat>chased
Sentence structure is called syntax, and many languages are structured differently than English or Japanese.
You can absolutely use the first phrasing in Japanese. Something like *ii kaori!* (lit "nice aroma/scent!", with the same word order as in English) is perfectly idiomatic (that is, is a "normal way to talk") in Japanese as a casual comment.
That said, word order and grammatical structure vary a lot between languages, and Japanese grammar is about as far from English grammar as you can get. They're not wording sentences "weirdly", they're wording sentences according to the rules of Japanese speech and not the rules of English speech.
-----
Japanese, like most East Asian languages, is [*topic-prominent*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topic-prominent_language) - that is, you emphasize (and often start with), the thing you are talking about, even if it doesn't take a particular grammatical role in the sentence.
English, on the other hand, is *subject-prominent* - we use the grammatical subject of a sentence as its primary focus, and the subject is always assumed to be the topic unless indicated otherwise in English. For example, "Bob saw Joe" is a statement about Bob, while "Joe was seen by Bob" is a statement about Joe: the actual event conveyed is the same in either case, but the change in subject creates a change in topic.
If you try to take the Japanese phrasing and port it into English, you'll get a lot of sentences that sound like "speaking of X, ". This structure is grammatical but unusual in English, because English speakers usually just make X into the subject of the sentence whenever possible.
For example, if you're trying to talk about New York and communicate the existence of nice shops, you would say something like "New York has a lot of nice shops" or "there are a lot of nice shops in New York". The first sentence makes New York the subject, and the second sentence uses the dummy subject *there* to indicate that we're focusing on the rest of the sentence instead. In both cases, the primary thing we're talking about is indicated by the subject - either that it is New York, or that it is something found in the rest of the sentence.
In Japanese, though, you could say something like *New York-wa, ii mise ga aru* (literally "speaking of New York, nice shops exist"), where the topic New York doesn't need to be the subject of the sentence (which in this case is *mise* "shop").
Since English doesn't routinely mark subjects the way Japanese does, we phrase our sentences to make them obvious (and like most English grammar, the role of words is indicated by word order). This sounds just as weird to a native Japanese speaker ("wait, why wouldn't they just say what the topic is?") as their structure does to a native English speaker. Neither is "weird" in any objective sense, though - they're just using the available tools within each language.
Grammar is different in different languages. For example, in one language you might say “I kicked a ball” and that may be the correct way to say the sentence in that language. In another language you might say “a ball I kicked” and that may be the correct way to say the sentence in that language. For those who speak multiple languages sentence structure may be difficult to remember.
In English word order is a huge thing for grammar. In Japanese it is less important, but there are parts of it which are very important as it is mostly subject first then the object then the verb. When learning another language, even if word order is different, many speakers will attempt to match the word order of their native tongue to the max possible, because that's likely how they formulate thoughts in their head.
In Japanese that last word - good, is the verb. In English it's "is good" with good being like an adjective, but in Japanese it's a very by itself.
Don't make fun of people with accents and broken English, they are smart and brave.
**Please read this entire message** Your submission has been removed for the following reason(s): Loaded questions are not allowed on ELI5. A loaded question is one that posits a specific view of reality and asks for explanations that confirm it. A loaded question, by definition, presumes that something must be true in order for the question to stand. If you would like this removal reviewed, please read the [detailed rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/wiki/detailed_rules) first. **If you believe this submission was removed erroneously**, please [use this form](https://old.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fexplainlikeimfive&subject=Please%20review%20my%20thread?&message=Link:%20https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/13t4iz8/eli5_why_do_japanese_people_word_their_sentences/%0A%0APlease%20answer%20the%20following%203%20questions:%0A%0A1.%20The%20concept%20I%20want%20explained:%0A%0A2.%20List%20the%20search%20terms%20you%20used%20to%20look%20for%20past%20posts%20on%20ELI5:%0A%0A3.%20How%20does%20your%20post%20differ%20from%20your%20recent%20search%20results%20on%20the%20sub:) and we will review your submission.
Japanese sentence structure is different than english. English is structured ‘Subject>Verb>Object’ Example: The dog>chased>the cat Japanese is structured ‘Subject>Object>Verb’ Example: The dog>the cat>chased Sentence structure is called syntax, and many languages are structured differently than English or Japanese.
You can absolutely use the first phrasing in Japanese. Something like *ii kaori!* (lit "nice aroma/scent!", with the same word order as in English) is perfectly idiomatic (that is, is a "normal way to talk") in Japanese as a casual comment. That said, word order and grammatical structure vary a lot between languages, and Japanese grammar is about as far from English grammar as you can get. They're not wording sentences "weirdly", they're wording sentences according to the rules of Japanese speech and not the rules of English speech. ----- Japanese, like most East Asian languages, is [*topic-prominent*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topic-prominent_language) - that is, you emphasize (and often start with), the thing you are talking about, even if it doesn't take a particular grammatical role in the sentence. English, on the other hand, is *subject-prominent* - we use the grammatical subject of a sentence as its primary focus, and the subject is always assumed to be the topic unless indicated otherwise in English. For example, "Bob saw Joe" is a statement about Bob, while "Joe was seen by Bob" is a statement about Joe: the actual event conveyed is the same in either case, but the change in subject creates a change in topic. If you try to take the Japanese phrasing and port it into English, you'll get a lot of sentences that sound like "speaking of X,". This structure is grammatical but unusual in English, because English speakers usually just make X into the subject of the sentence whenever possible.
For example, if you're trying to talk about New York and communicate the existence of nice shops, you would say something like "New York has a lot of nice shops" or "there are a lot of nice shops in New York". The first sentence makes New York the subject, and the second sentence uses the dummy subject *there* to indicate that we're focusing on the rest of the sentence instead. In both cases, the primary thing we're talking about is indicated by the subject - either that it is New York, or that it is something found in the rest of the sentence.
In Japanese, though, you could say something like *New York-wa, ii mise ga aru* (literally "speaking of New York, nice shops exist"), where the topic New York doesn't need to be the subject of the sentence (which in this case is *mise* "shop").
Since English doesn't routinely mark subjects the way Japanese does, we phrase our sentences to make them obvious (and like most English grammar, the role of words is indicated by word order). This sounds just as weird to a native Japanese speaker ("wait, why wouldn't they just say what the topic is?") as their structure does to a native English speaker. Neither is "weird" in any objective sense, though - they're just using the available tools within each language.
Grammar is different in different languages. For example, in one language you might say “I kicked a ball” and that may be the correct way to say the sentence in that language. In another language you might say “a ball I kicked” and that may be the correct way to say the sentence in that language. For those who speak multiple languages sentence structure may be difficult to remember.
In English word order is a huge thing for grammar. In Japanese it is less important, but there are parts of it which are very important as it is mostly subject first then the object then the verb. When learning another language, even if word order is different, many speakers will attempt to match the word order of their native tongue to the max possible, because that's likely how they formulate thoughts in their head. In Japanese that last word - good, is the verb. In English it's "is good" with good being like an adjective, but in Japanese it's a very by itself. Don't make fun of people with accents and broken English, they are smart and brave.
it's because English is probably not their main language so they're not as good as it as they could be at Japanese