Breakdown of watasi ha mada syukudai wo site imasen.
はha
topic particle
私watasi
I
をwo
direct object particle
宿題syukudai
homework
するsuru
to do
まだ 。。。 て いませんmada ... te imasen
have not yet ...
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Questions & Answers about watasi ha mada syukudai wo site imasen.
What is the role of the particle は in this sentence?
は is the topic marker. It sets 私 (“I”) as the topic of the sentence—“As for me…”—without necessarily being the grammatical subject. It tells the listener we’re talking about ourselves.
Why is まだ used here, and where does it go?
まだ means “yet” (or “still”) in negative contexts. It emphasizes that up to now the action hasn’t happened. In Japanese, it typically appears before the verb or verb phrase and after the topic, as in 私はまだ…しています／していません.
Why do we need the particle を after 宿題?
を marks the direct object of a transitive verb. Here, 宿題 (“homework”) is what’s being done. So 宿題をする literally means “to do homework.”
What is the structure and nuance of していません?
This is the polite negative form of the resultative/progressive construction for する:
- する (dictionary form)
- → して (te-form)
- いる (auxiliary for ongoing/resultant state)
- → polite negative いません
So していません conveys “have not done” (resultant state) or “am not doing.”
Why isn’t してない or しません used instead of していません?
- してない is the casual (informal) negative of the resultative/progressive form—fine in casual speech but not polite.
- しません is the polite negative of the simple present “do,” but it doesn’t express the resultant/state meaning “have not done yet.”
していません combines both politeness and the nuance of “not done (yet).”
Can 私 be omitted here?
Yes. Japanese typically drops pronouns when the topic is clear. You can simply say まだ宿題をしていません。 and it still means “I haven’t done my homework yet.”