36666
I have been learning Japanese for a month now, using various online sources
and the Genki I textbook. In the textbook, lesson 1 introduces the
「ＸはＹです」sentence structure and although I'm way past this lesson, I always
return to this concept because it's simple, yet confusing for me.

The grammatical explanation given to me was "X is Y. As for X, it is Y."
Unlike the other sentence structures mentioned in the book, for example
noun1のnoun2 (to express possession), there was no indication whether the X and
Y variables in 「ＸはＹです」were supposed to be a specific part of speech.

I know I can replace the variables with nouns, for example 私はがくせいです to say "I
am a student." And that they are interchangeable, for example がくせいは私です to say
"The student is me.

If nouns are interchangeable, can a noun and an adjective be interchangeable
as well? For example, 私はかわいいです (I am cute) to かわいいは私です(Cute I am). If not, is
there a sentence structure where I can state the adjective first before
mentioning the noun?

ありがとうございます！
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-07-15T00:16:08.260
36663
2016-07-15T05:06:17.930
16115
question
grammar usage syntax particle-は word-order
Can I replace X with an adjective in 「ＸはＹです」?
## X は Y です

  * Noun, Noun Phrase ⇒ X 
  * Adjective, Noun, Noun Phrase ⇒ Y 

かわいい by itself is an adjective, so it can't go into X

> ×「 **かわいいは** 私です」 - This is _not_ OK

If you add の you can make a noun phrase and put that before the noun at Y

> ○「 **かわいいのは** 私です」 - This is OK

You can see more information about how の can be used to make noun phrases
(nominalization) at the links below:

<http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar/nounparticles>
<http://www.imabi.net/l112nominalization.htm>
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-07-15T00:49:12.320
36666
2016-07-15T05:06:17.930
2016-07-15T05:06:17.930
7055
7055
36663
answer