watashi wa mise de baggu o kaimashita.

Word
私わたし　は　店みせ　で　バッグ　を　買かいました。watashi wa mise de baggu o kaimashita.
Meaning
I bought a bag at the store.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Hardcore Japanese
Lesson
Lesson 11
Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have hundreds of Japanese lessons and thousands of exercises.
Start learning Japanese

Start learning Japanese now

Questions & Answers about watashi wa mise de baggu o kaimashita.

What is the role of は in the sentence 私 は 店 で バッグ を 買いました。

は is the topic-marking particle. It tells the listener what we are talking about—私 in this case. Key points:

  • It sets 私 (“I”) as the topic, not necessarily the grammatical subject in a strict sense.
  • It often contrasts or focuses on what follows; here it simply introduces who performed the action.
  • が would mark the subject in a neutral or new-information context; は emphasizes “as for me…”
Why do we use で after 店 instead of another particle?

で indicates the location where an action takes place. Here, 店で means “at the store.” Other common location particles:

  • に can indicate destination (“to the store”) or existence (“in the store”), but not the place of action.
  • へ marks direction toward, also not the actual site of the action.
What does the particle を do in this sentence?
を marks the direct object of a transitive verb. In バッグを買いました, バッグ is what was bought. Without を, the verb wouldn’t know what object to act upon.
Why is 私 explicitly stated? Could we drop it?

Japanese often omits pronouns when context is clear. You can drop 私 は if you already know who is speaking:

  • 店でバッグを買いました。
    This still means “(I) bought a bag at a store.” Use 私 は when you need to clarify or contrast who did it.
Why is バッグ written in katakana?

バッグ is a loanword (gairaigo) from English “bag.” Katakana is used for:

  • Foreign loanwords
  • Onomatopoeia
  • Emphasis or technical terms
What verb form is 買いました, and why is it used here?

買いました is the polite past form of 買う (“to buy”). Components:

  • 買い- stem
  • ました polite past ending
    It expresses a completed action with politeness. In casual speech, you might say 買った instead.
What is the basic word order in this sentence?

Japanese is typically Subject-Object-Verb (SOV):

  1. Topic/Subject: 私 は
  2. Location (adjunct): 店 で
  3. Object: バッグ を
  4. Verb: 買いました
Could the particles appear in a different order?
No. The relative order of particles and their phrases is fixed: location (で) comes before object (を), and the verb ends the sentence. Swapping them would sound ungrammatical.