Breakdown of watasi ha maiasa koohii wo nomimasu.
Questions & Answers about watasi ha maiasa koohii wo nomimasu.
You don’t actually need 私 here. Japanese often drops the subject when it’s obvious from context.
私 は 毎朝 コーヒー を 飲みます。
“I drink coffee every morning.” (explicit “I”)毎朝 コーヒー を 飲みます。
Also “I drink coffee every morning.” (subject is understood)
In natural conversation, the second sentence (without 私) is often more common, especially when it’s clear you are talking about yourself. 私 is useful:
- at the beginning of a conversation,
- when you change the topic to yourself,
- or when there might be confusion about who you’re talking about.
は (wa) is the topic marker, not a verb.
- It shows what the sentence is about (the topic).
- It does not mean “is.”
So in 私 は 毎朝コーヒーを飲みます, you can think of it as:
- As for me, (I) drink coffee every morning.
English often doesn’t have a direct word for this; we just change the sentence focus with stress or context. Japanese marks it explicitly with は.
Also note: は is written with the kana は, but pronounced “wa” when used as a particle.
を (o) marks the direct object of the verb — the thing that receives the action.
- コーヒー を 飲みます。
“(I) drink coffee.”
→ Coffee is the thing that is drunk, so it gets を.
This is similar to English word order “drink coffee,” but in Japanese, the particle を explicitly marks what is being acted on. The usual pattern is:
- [Someone は] [Object を] [Verb]
Examples:
- 本 を 読みます。– “(I) read a book.”
- 音楽 を 聴きます。– “(I) listen to music.”
毎朝 (まいあさ) means “every morning.”
In this sentence it’s used as a time expression. Common positions are:
- 私 は 毎朝 コーヒー を 飲みます。
- 毎朝 私 は コーヒー を 飲みます。
- 私 は コーヒー を 毎朝 飲みます。 (less common, but possible)
Time expressions like 毎朝, 毎日 (every day), 昨日 (yesterday) usually appear near the start of the sentence, before the verb. Putting it early sounds the most natural:
- 毎朝 コーヒー を 飲みます。
“Every morning, (I) drink coffee.”
Japanese uses three scripts together:
Kanji: Chinese characters, mainly for content words:
- 私 (わたし) – “I”
- 毎 (まい) – “every”
- 朝 (あさ) – “morning”
Hiragana: for grammar (particles, verb endings) and native words:
- は, を, みます (in 飲みます)
Katakana: mainly for:
- Loanwords from other languages
- Foreign names, sounds, emphasis
コーヒー is from English “coffee”, so it is written in katakana. That’s why it’s コーヒー, not こーひー or 珈琲 in everyday writing.
飲みます is:
- the polite,
- non-past form
of the verb 飲む (のむ, “to drink”).
Japanese non-past covers both:
- present / habitual:
“I drink (coffee every morning).” - future:
“I will drink (coffee tomorrow).”
In this sentence, 毎朝 (every morning) makes it clear it’s habitual (“I drink coffee every morning”), not a one-time future event.
The dictionary (plain) form is 飲む (のむ).
Basic conjugations (polite vs plain):
- Polite non-past: 飲みます – “(I) drink / will drink”
Plain non-past: 飲む – “(I) drink / will drink”
- Polite negative: 飲みません – “(I) do not drink”
Plain negative: 飲まない – “(I) don’t drink”
- Polite past: 飲みました – “(I) drank”
- Plain past: 飲んだ – “(I) drank”
So, for this sentence:
私 は 毎朝 コーヒー を 飲みません。
“I don’t drink coffee every morning.”私 は 毎朝 コーヒー を 飲みました。
“I drank coffee every morning.” (past habit, or in some specific period)
No, 私 は 毎朝 コーヒー が 飲みます is incorrect.
In this sentence, you are the one doing the action (drinking), and coffee is the thing being drunk, so coffee must be marked as an object with を:
- 私 は 毎朝 コーヒー を 飲みます。 ✅
が is usually used for:
- marking the subject, especially in certain patterns,
- or with potential verbs (can-do forms).
If you use a potential form like 飲めます (“can drink”), then コーヒー が is possible:
- 私 は コーヒー が 飲めます。
“I can drink coffee.”
Japanese is much more flexible with word order than English, as long as:
- the verb comes at the end, and
- the particles (は, を, が, etc.) are correctly attached.
Some natural variations:
- 私 は 毎朝 コーヒー を 飲みます。
- 毎朝 私 は コーヒー を 飲みます。
- 私 は コーヒー を 毎朝 飲みます。 (OK, though a bit marked)
- 毎朝 コーヒー を 私 は 飲みます。 (possible but sounds more stylized/emphatic)
In everyday speech, the most neutral and common is:
- (私 は) 毎朝 コーヒー を 飲みます。
飲みます is the polite form, used:
- with people you don’t know well,
- at work,
- in most public situations.
The casual/plain form is 飲む.
Casual versions of the sentence:
- 毎朝 コーヒー 飲む。
- 俺(おれ) 毎朝 コーヒー 飲む。 (masculine, informal)
- 私 毎朝 コーヒー 飲む。 (still polite-ish, but casual)
Polite version:
- 私 は 毎朝 コーヒー を 飲みます。
In casual spoken Japanese, some particles are often dropped when the meaning is clear, especially は and を.
Possible casual reductions:
- (私 は) 毎朝 コーヒー (を) 飲む。
Here:
- 私 は can be dropped because it’s obvious you’re talking about yourself.
- を after コーヒー can be dropped in casual speech, especially if the sentence is short and clear.
However:
- For learners, it’s safer to always include particles until you’re very comfortable, especially in writing or formal situations.
Kanji often have multiple readings:
- 毎 can be read まい.
- 朝 can be read あさ (kun-yomi, native reading) or ちょう (on-yomi, Sino-Japanese reading, as in 朝食 ちょうしょく “breakfast”).
In 毎朝, the combination is a common word meaning “every morning,” and its standard reading is:
- 毎朝 → まいあさ
You just have to memorize common compounds like this. Other examples:
- 毎日 – まいにち – every day
- 毎週 – まいしゅう – every week
私 は 毎朝 コーヒー を 飲みます。 is usually understood as a habitual action:
- “I drink coffee every morning / I have coffee every morning.”
It doesn’t automatically mean “without fail” or “I never miss a day.” Context and tone decide how strict it sounds.
If you want to stress it’s really every single morning, you can add words like:
- 必ず (かならず) – always, without fail
→ 私は 毎朝 必ず コーヒー を 飲みます。
“I always drink coffee every morning.”