おばあさんはいつかえりますか。
- When will your grandmother come home?
This Japanese sentence "おばあさんはいつかえりますか。" means "When will your grandmother come home?" in English. It is an N5 High-level example sentence.
Words Contained
AI Explanation
おばあさんはいつかえりますか。 meaning: When will grandma return?
⚫︎ The basic sentence structure in Japanese is Subject-Object-Verb (SOV). However, the subject is often omitted if it's clear from the context. ⚫︎ The sentence begins with the subject おばあさん, "grandma," followed by the topic marker は. ⚫︎ は indicates the topic of the sentence. It tells us what we are talking about. ⚫︎ The question word いつ, "when," comes before the verb かえりますか, "will return." ⚫︎ The particle か at the end of the sentence turns it into a question. ⚫︎ The particle に is not included in this sentence, because いつ is a question word of time and does not require a particle. ⚫︎ The particles used are: ⚫︎ は (topic marker) ⚫︎ か (question marker)
⚫︎ いつ is a question word, meaning "when." ⚫︎ Question words in Japanese typically appear before the verb. ⚫︎ Other common question words include: ⚫︎ なに (what) ⚫︎ どこ (where) ⚫︎ だれ (who) ⚫︎ いくつ (how many/how old) ⚫︎ どう (how/in what way)
⚫︎ The verb かえります (to return, to go back) is in its polite form (masu-form). ⚫︎ かえりますか means "will return" or "returns?" and is the present/future polite form of the verb. ⚫︎ The polite form is made by adding ます to the verb stem (in this case, かえり). ⚫︎ This verb is a "ru-verb," a common group of verbs in Japanese.
⚫︎ は (wa) marks the topic of the sentence. The topic is what the sentence is about. ⚫︎ In this sentence, おばあさん, "grandma," is the topic. ⚫︎ が (ga) marks the subject of the sentence. The subject is who or what is performing the action. ⚫︎ While が can mark the subject, it's often omitted if the topic is already clear, making は more common in many sentences. For example, if we knew that the subject was おばあさん from the previous sentence, we could use は to indicate that it is the topic and omit が.
⚫︎ The sentence uses polite language (keigo) with the use of ます. ⚫︎ か is added at the end of the sentence to form a question. This is a common sentence-ending particle. ⚫︎ Other common sentence-ending particles include: ⚫︎ ね (seeking agreement or confirmation) ⚫︎ よ (giving information or emphasizing) ⚫︎ ！ (exclamation)