Breakdown of kinou ha keeki wo hutatu tabemasita.
はha
topic particle
をwo
direct object particle
食べるtaberu
to eat
昨日kinou
yesterday
ケーキkeeki
cake
二つhutatu
two
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Questions & Answers about kinou ha keeki wo hutatu tabemasita.
Why is the subject not stated in the sentence?
Because Japanese often omits the subject when it’s clear from context. Here the speaker (“I”) is understood without saying 私 or another subject.
Why is 昨日 followed by は instead of に?
The particle は marks 昨日 as the topic (“as for yesterday”). You could say 昨日にケーキを二つ食べました to mark time, but using は emphasizes or contrasts the time frame.
What is the function of the particle は here?
Here は is a topic marker. It sets 昨日 (“yesterday”) as the theme of the sentence, telling the listener what we’re talking about.
Why is を used after ケーキ?
The particle を marks the direct object of the verb. In this sentence, ケーキ is what was eaten, so it takes を.
Why is ケーキ written in katakana?
ケーキ is a loanword from English (“cake”). In Japanese, foreign loanwords are usually written in katakana.
How does the counter 二つ work? Why not use 二個?
二つ (ふたつ) is a general-purpose, native Japanese counter for counting items. You can also use specialized counters (e.g. 二個 for small round objects), but 二つ is perfectly natural when you don’t need that level of specificity.
Why is the verb 食べました in this form?
食べました is the polite past tense of 食べる (“to eat”). The suffix –ました shows that the action happened in the past and that the sentence is in polite speech.
Why is the object phrase (ケーキを二つ) placed before the verb?
Japanese follows a Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) word order. So objects like ケーキを二つ come before the verb 食べました.