This is another nice thing about Japanese.

To show relationship or possession between two things just put a の no between them. The trick is knowing which goes to the left of the no and which goes to the right…

Think of の as a ‘s (apostrophe S)

私の猫。 /　わたしのねこ。
watashi no neko
My cat [I’s cat]

日本の車　/　にほんおくるま。

nihon no kuruma

Japanese car [Japan’s car] 

- thejapanesepage.com

The particle ga 「が」 is a subject marker. It is used instead of wa 「は」 when you want to emphasize the subject. It can also sometimes be used for variation if the topic marker already has been used in a sentence. It feels stronger than the topic marker wa 「は」.

Example:

私はすしが好きです / わたしはすしがすきです.
Watashi wa sushi ga suki desu.
I like sushi. (Literally, As for me, sushi is likable.”)

- learnjapanese.com

In Japanese, negative and past tense are all expressed by conjugation. We can conjugate a noun or adjective to either its negative or past tense to say that something is not [X] or that something was [X]. This may be a bit hard to grasp at first but none of these state-of-being conjugations make anything declarative like 「だ」 does. We’ll learn how to make these tenses declarative by attaching 「だ」 to the end of the sentence in a later lesson.

First, for the negative, attach 「じゃない」 to the noun or na-adjective.

The particle “ni” (に): The particle “ni” can be used to mark the direction, time, or the indirect object of a Japanese sentence. 

An example of a direction marker can be seen in the previous example “I’m going to take her home” (watashi wa kanojo wo ie ni okuru). In this case, the “ni” acts like a “to” - “I’m going to take her ‘to’ home”. The particle “e” (へ) can be used in this way as well but usually implies more of a general direction as opposed to a specific place. 

The particle “ni” is also used to mark time in a Japanese sentence. For example, “I’m leaving at 3 o’clock” (watashi wa sanji ni hanareru). 

The final use for the particle “ni” in Japanese grammar is that of indirect object marker. In the example, “I was taken home by him” (watashi wa kare ni ie made okurareta), “him” is the indirect object. 

- freejapaneselessons.com

There are two different ways of saying something exists..

One is for animate things (people and animals) and one is for inanimate things.

These are the verbs imasu and arimasu. These both mean “to exist.”

• Imasu is used for animate things.
• arimasu is used for inanimate things.

- (nihongo-o-narau.com)

——-

Example:

Kana: 犬がいます。

Hiragana: いぬがいます。

Romaji: inu ga imasu.

Meaning: There is (a) dog.

——-

かばん が　あります。

Romaji: kaban ga arimasu.

Meaning: There is (a) bag.

• ka is added to the end of statements
• Word order is not changed as in English
• In Japanese, the ? (Question mark) is not required. (optional)
• Just like in English, the last syllable goes up in intonation

Examples:

どこ です か？ 
doko desu ka? 
Where is it?

だれ です か？ 
dare desu ka? 
Who is it?

いつ です か？ 
itsu desu ka? 
When is it?

- thejapanesepage.com

です is a copula (a word used to link the subject of a sentence with a predicate). It shows that something is or isn’t something else. It is one of the very few irregular forms in Japanese. です can act like the English “to be” (you know; is, am, are…) in the sense that です is used to explain who or what something or someone is. It is also used when equating one thing with another.

- (thejapanesepage.com)

Example:

Kana: 私はイエットです。

Hiragana&Katakana: わたしはイエットです。

Romaji: Watashi wa Ietto(Yhet) desu.

Meaning: I am Yhet.

—

Kana: これは猫です。

Hiragana: これはねこです。

Romaji: Kore wa neko desu.

Meaning: This is a cat.