Learn Hardcore Japanese: watasi ha kinou eiga wo mita.

は is the topic marker. It tells the listener what the sentence is about—“as for me.” It doesn’t necessarily mark the grammatical subject (that would be が), but it sets 私 as the topic or theme of the sentence.

Why isn’t there a particle after 昨日?

Time expressions like 昨日 (“yesterday”) often act as adverbs in Japanese. Adverbs don’t need particles, so you can simply place 昨日 before the verb or before the rest of the sentence to indicate when something happened.

Why is 映画 followed by を?

を marks the direct object of a verb. Here, 映画を見た means “watched a movie,” so 映画 is what you’re watching and gets を to show that relationship.

Why does the verb 見た come at the end of the sentence?

Japanese is an SOV (subject–object–verb) language. That means the verb almost always appears at the end of the clause. You list your topic or subject (私), then time (昨日), then object (映画を), and finally the action (見た).

What kind of verb form is 見た?

見た is the plain past tense (the “ta‐form”) of the verb 見る (to see/watch). You form it by replacing the final る with た, so 見る → 見た.

How is 見た different from 見ました?

見た is the plain or casual past form.
見ました is the polite past form.
Use 見た with friends or in writing, and 見ました in more formal or polite contexts.

Can 私 be omitted in this sentence?

Yes. Japanese often drops pronouns when the context makes them clear. So you could simply say 昨日映画を見た (“(I) watched a movie yesterday”) and it would sound natural if it’s clear you’re the one doing the action.

Why is 映画 written in kanji while 昨日 and 見る mix kanji and kana?

映画 is a common compound written in kanji.
昨日 is a standard kanji word (two‐character compound).
Verbs often appear as kanji + kana, so 見 is the kanji for “see” and た is the kana ending marking past tense. This mix helps you parse stem and grammatical ending at a glance.