Sentence Reordering and Structure (並べ替え)
You are given a Japanese sentence and a set of scrambled English words, often seven to nine of them. Some tasks add "use one more word" or "change the form of one word", which is where most marks are lost.
Build from the verb
- Find the main verb and decide the pattern: SVO, SVOO (give me it), SVOC (make me happy), or verb + preposition.
- Build chunks, not single words: prepositional phrase, to-infinitive, -ing phrase, relative clause. Keep each chunk intact.
- For questions, put the question word or auxiliary first and keep question word order.
Worked example
Japanese: 「私は彼にその箱を運ぶのを手伝ってもらいたい」 Words: him / help / I / carry / want / to / the box / me Reasoning: the main verb is want, which takes want + object + to do. The person helped is "me"; the helper is "him". That gives: I want him to help me carry the box. Note that "help" takes a bare infinitive, so "to carry" would be wrong.
Patterns worth memorising
- It is + adjective + for A + to do
- A is so + adjective + that S + V / such a + noun + that S + V
- never ... without + -ing
- Do you know + wh-word + S + V (indirect question word order)
- the noun + which/that + S + V
Traps
- Dropping the object or preposition that the Japanese implies.
- Indirect questions keeping question order: "Do you know where he lives?", not "where does he live".
- Changing a verb form when the instruction says only to arrange the given words.
- Splitting a chunk: "the book which I bought", not "which book I bought".