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I'm fairly new to learning japanese but I have the basic grammar down. The main thing that's confusing is the sentence structure. For instance, I sent this message to my friend who is native to Japan for him to check over it あなたはたべるすし？ I attempted to say "do you eat sushi?" In my mind this worked perfectly, anata=you, taberu=eat, sushi=sushi. So he responds with this No, it's "あなたはすしたべる?"

This leads me to wonder if there are any specific rules on where in the sentence the subject, verb, direction, direct object, etc have to come. I am currently learning japanese in addition to full time school work including Spanish classes. The only resources I have are the internet and my friends.

Please explain in simpleton terms, if you need any extra clarity please notify me. It's late and I'm typing this on my mobile device. Thank you very much

Part 2(I didn't want to make another question for this simple question):

If you were to say you like someone, would

わたしはあなたがすき Be correct? I don't fully understand when to use the particle だ. My gut is telling me that I should put だ after suki, but I don't know why

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    Forgive me for saying this but you do not have the basic grammar down if you don't know that verbs go at the end of Japanese sentences. This is usually on the first few pages of all beginner's resources. In Japanese, the basic clausal structure is ([Optional everything else][Verb][optional particle]). In words, verbs go at the end of clauses. Japanese is considered an SOV language (subject, object, verb). I could elaborate but I really think you'd be better off reading Tae Kim's guide from the beginning or really any other resource.
    – G-Cam
    Commented Sep 27, 2017 at 2:55
  • I caution you, as a beginner to Japanese, against relying too much on casual consultations with friends because they might leave parts of the language vital to your learning, such as using slang or shortcuts.
    – keithmaxx
    Commented Sep 27, 2017 at 3:00
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    I was thinking the same as @G-Cam .. not sure how you can have the "basic grammar down" without an understanding of the basic sentence structure. You can start having a look at this link it covers quite a few things you might wanna look at.
    – Tommy
    Commented Sep 27, 2017 at 3:09
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    だ is not a particle in すき(だ).
    – user1478
    Commented Sep 27, 2017 at 5:41

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だ is the dictionary/casual form of です, which in your sentence expresses a state of affairs (e.g. you liking the other).

As for the sentence order, between

あなたはすし（を）たべる? Do you eat sushi?

and

あなたはたべるすし？ Are you an eating sushi?

the former contains a particle (を) left out in your friend's response that points out an object of your action (e.g. すしをたべる eat what? sushi), while the latter's word order shows a compounded noun (e.g. たべるすし eating sushi, or sushi that eats, which doesn't make sense).

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  • I think I understand now, thank you very much.
    – Peter_Browning
    Commented Sep 27, 2017 at 13:27

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