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こんにちは! I'm new to this site and Japanese language. I haven't learnt the entire
Hiragana alphabet yet and don't know any Katakana. I'm trying my best to stay
away from Romaji, so please be aware that I am working at a very basic level!

I want to be able to understand the structure of sentences, first and
foremost. I have been told that Japanese sentences are structured using SOV.

**Is this sentence correct?** If so, could it be improved? If not, where did I
go wrong?

> わたし は にほんご へた

As far as I know, it translates to '[Subject] - I am / [Object] - Japanese /
[Verb] - bad at'

Thanks!
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question
syntax
Is this sentence structured correctly?
> 私{わたし}は日本語{にほんご}下手{へた} -> × (incorrect)
>
> 私{わたし}の日本語{にほんご}は下手{へた}です -> ○ (correct)

私{わたし}の = My  
日本語{にほんご} = Japanese  
は下手{へた}です = is bad/clumsy

Some examples with simple sentences:

> This apple is red = このりんごは赤い{あかい}です
>
> Your dog is cute = あなたの犬{いぬ}はかわいい
>
> I will go to eat with my friends in Shibuya = 私は渋谷{しぶや}に友達{ともだち}と食{た}べにいきます

I hope it could help.
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2016-04-19T09:24:45.303
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I'm going to put this here, for posterity:

Literally speaking you would want to say

> "私の日本語は下手です" (わたし の にほんご は へた です)

so you're incredibly close, but missing out the 'connectives' :L

But in my opinion you could get away with it, especially with what you're
trying to say :P  
(It could me interpreted as "I am a poor Japanese" but you should be fine).

> わたし は にほんご へた。  
>  わたし の にほんご は へた です。

I'm not sure if you want me to explain why but I'll do so just in case:  

> わたし は = I am/As for me  
>  わたし の = My/Mine

You'll have to say "My Japanese..." instead of "I am poor..." (I'm not sure
why D: )  

> が = As/Is/But/Are (Basically any new information).

You're basically saying "My Japanese [NEW INFORMATION] poor." (I kinda love it
because it's just one word for just about all the connectives).

> です = It is/is/are (What a glorious anime phrase; it's really just
> formal/polite, but I think in this case you probably ought to say it).

It's really just "My Japanese is poor, it is." Though I don't really know how
to put it into an English example, (you probably know) it always goes at the
end of a sentence.
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> わたし は にほんご へた

is absolutely correct, so you shouldn't be surprised if you hear it.

But it's colloquial and informal, so you should only expect it in speech and
very informal writing. You could consider it a colloquial version of

> わたし は にほんご が へた だ

Dropping が is very common in speech in matrix clauses (e.g. outside of
relative clauses and subclauses). Dropping だ (copula) in matrix clauses is
also common, mostly in colloquial female speech. If you're a beginner, I
recommend learning the versions without particle-dropping first.

Here, にほんご is actually not the object, but the subject. The literal
translation would be "As for me, (my) Japanese is bad". This construction is
extremely common in Japanese, at least as common as わたし の にほんご は へた だ.

In the above, you could replace だ (the non-polite copula) with です (the polite
copula).
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answer
Regarding the comments on your posted answer:

I think @sombrero's examples may be confusing you because he uses です in two
different ways. Let's start simply:

> これは犬{いぬ}です  
>  As for this, dog is  
>  This is a dog

In this sentence です is indispensible. It means 'is'. Dog is a noun. Whenever
we want to say something is a noun we use です.

> 私の日本語は下手です  
>  As for my Japanese, poor is  
>  My Japanese is poor

Again です is indispensible. In English 'poor' is an adjective. However, in
Japanese it is something called a na-adjective which behaves a little
differently. When a na-adjective is not directly modifying a noun (e.g. hetana
hito, unskillful person) it behaves like a noun. Hence we have the 'something
is noun' structure again and we must use です to mean 'is'.

Now let's take one of @sombrero's examples.

> This apple is red = このりんごは赤{あか}いです

Red is an adjective in English. In Japanese 赤い is something called an
i-adjective. Unlike English these adjectives have the word 'is' built in to
them. So

> このりんごは赤{あか}い

is a complete perfectly grammatical sentence which contains the meaning 'is'.

So why did @sombrero add a です to the end? It's because です has another meaning.
It can be put after an i-adjective to make the sentence polite. In this usage
です cannot be translated. It just changes the tone of the sentence without
adding extra words/meaning. Without です the sentence is correct but informal.

Regarding @dainichi's answer, it seems that the Japanese love to miss out as
many words/particles as they can. It is good to know this for comprehension
but at this stage in your studies you should not be doing this. Only start to
drop words/particles when you have a firm understanding of the grammar and
have become familiar with the contexts in which natives drop them.
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