Learn Hardcore Japanese: watasi ha asita no tyourei de supiiti wo simasu. - I will give a speech at tomorrow’s morning assembly.

Japanese almost always puts the main verb at the end of the clause, unlike English (SVO), where the verb comes before the object.
So the natural Japanese order is:

[I] [tomorrow’s morning assembly at] [speech] [do].

What does the particle は after 私 do here?

は is the topic marker.

In 私は明日の朝礼でスピーチをします, 私は means:

私 – I / me
は – as for / speaking of

So 私は = As for me, ... / I, ...

Important points:

は does not simply mean “is/am/are”; it marks what you’re talking about.
The grammatical subject and the topic can be different in Japanese, but here they happen to match (the topic “I” is also the one doing the action).

So you can think of a natural English equivalent as:
“I (for my part) will give a speech…”

What is the role of の in 明日の朝礼?

の is a linking / possessive / attributive particle. It links 明日 (tomorrow) to 朝礼 (morning assembly), so that 明日 modifies 朝礼.

明日 – tomorrow
の – of / ’s / (linking modifier)
朝礼 – morning assembly / morning meeting

So 明日の朝礼 literally means “tomorrow’s morning assembly” or “the morning assembly of tomorrow”.

In general:
A の B → B that is related to A (A’s B, B of A, B on A, etc.)

Why is the particle で used after 朝礼, and not に?

で marks the location where an action takes place.

In 朝礼でスピーチをします:

朝礼 – the morning assembly (an “event-place”)
で – at (place of the action)
スピーチをします – do/give a speech

So 朝礼で means “at the morning assembly” (that is where the speech happens).

Difference from に:

で – place where the action is carried out
- 学校で勉強します。= I study at school.
に – typically destination, time, or where someone/something exists
- 学校に行きます。= I go to school.
- 学校に先生がいます。= There is a teacher at the school.

Here we’re doing something at the assembly, so で is correct.

What does the particle を do after スピーチ?

を is the direct object marker. It tells you what the verb is acting on.

スピーチ – a speech
を – marks it as the direct object
します – to do

So スピーチをします literally means “do a speech”, which we translate naturally as “give a speech”.

Pattern to remember:
[Object] を [Verb]

本を読みます。= I read a book.
ご飯を食べます。= I eat a meal.
スピーチをします。= I give a speech.

Why is します used instead of する?

する is the plain (dictionary) form, and します is its polite -masu form.

する – do (plain, used with friends, family, or in informal writing)
します – do (polite, used in most public, formal, or respectful situations)

Because giving a speech at a morning assembly is usually a formal or semi-formal situation, します is more appropriate.

So:

Casual: 明日の朝礼でスピーチする。
Polite: 明日の朝礼でスピーチをします。

There’s no future tense verb—how does this mean “will give a speech”?

Japanese doesn’t have a separate future tense like English. The non-past form (here, します) covers both:

present / habitual (“do / does”)
future (“will do”)

Which one it means depends on context and time expressions.

Here we have 明日 (tomorrow), so します is understood as “will do”:

明日、会社に行きます。= I will go to the office tomorrow.
私は明日の朝礼でスピーチをします。= I will give a speech at tomorrow’s morning assembly.

Can I drop 私 and just say 明日の朝礼でスピーチをします?

Yes, and that’s actually very natural in Japanese.

Japanese often omits pronouns like 私 (I, me) when they are clear from context. If everyone already knows you are the one speaking, you can simply say:

明日の朝礼でスピーチをします。
→ “(I) will give a speech at tomorrow’s morning assembly.”

Including 私:

sounds more explicit,
may be used when you want to emphasize “I (as opposed to someone else)”
is fine, just sometimes less necessary in natural conversation.

Is は here the subject marker? I thought が marks the subject.

は is the topic marker, and が is the subject marker.

In simple sentences like this, the topic and subject are the same person, so in English we just see both as “I”.

私は – “As for me,” (topic)
Implicitly, 私 is also the one doing スピーチをします (subject)

In more complex sentences, は and が can have different roles and nuances. For this sentence:

Using 私は is the most natural way to say “I (will do X)” as the topic of the sentence.
You could technically say 私が明日の朝礼でスピーチをします, which emphasizes “I (and not someone else) will give the speech.” That has a contrastive or stressing nuance.

What’s the difference between 明日の朝礼で and something like 明日は朝礼で?

They emphasize different things.

明日の朝礼でスピーチをします。
- Focus: the event – the morning assembly of tomorrow.
- Natural translation: “I will give a speech at tomorrow’s morning assembly.”
明日は朝礼でスピーチをします。
- 明日は makes “tomorrow” the topic.
- Implies some contrast: “As for tomorrow, I will give a speech at the morning assembly (maybe other days I do something else).”

So 明日の朝礼で is a simple noun phrase “tomorrow’s morning assembly,”
while 明日は is “as for tomorrow” (tomorrow as a topic).

What exactly does 朝礼 mean? Is it like “morning assembly” in schools?

Yes, 朝礼（ちょうれい） is typically:

a morning assembly / morning meeting,
held at schools or companies,
where announcements, instructions, or short talks/speeches are given.

So in a school context, it’s like:

students gather in the gym or schoolyard
the principal or teachers speak
sometimes students give speeches, etc.

In a company context, it can be a short standing meeting in the office each morning.

Why are there spaces between the words? I thought Japanese is written without spaces.

You’re right: ordinary Japanese writing does not use spaces between words.

The version with spaces:

私　は　明日　の　朝礼　で　スピーチ　を　します。

is usually used:

in textbooks or learning materials,
to help learners see the word boundaries and particles.

In normal Japanese text, you would write:

私は明日の朝礼でスピーチをします。

Can I say スピーチします without を? Is スピーチをします more correct?

Both exist, but there’s a nuance:

スピーチをします。 – grammatically complete, neutral/polite.
スピーチします。 – more casual / shortened, often in speech; the を is dropped in conversation.

In careful or formal Japanese (like a written announcement, or a textbook example), you’ll almost always see スピーチをします.

In spoken, especially casual speech, you may hear the object marker を dropped after loanwords in カタカナ:

プレゼン（テーション）する – to do a presentation
デートする – to go on a date

With します in polite form, people often keep を, but スピーチします is not wrong in actual conversation.

Can I change the word order, like 明日の朝礼で私はスピーチをします? Is that still correct?

Yes, Japanese word order is somewhat flexible, as long as the particles stay with their words and the main verb stays at the end.

All of these are grammatical:

私は明日の朝礼でスピーチをします。
明日の朝礼で私はスピーチをします。
スピーチを私は明日の朝礼でします。 (feels a bit marked/emphatic)

The differences are mainly in emphasis / naturalness:

Starting with 私は is the most neutral.
Starting with 明日の朝礼で puts more emphasis on the time/place:
“At tomorrow’s morning assembly, I will give a speech.”
Moving スピーチを forward can emphasize the speech itself.

But you cannot move the します (main verb) away from the end in normal Japanese syntax.