Point of interest: ambiguous subjects and missing pronouns

Although this is sometimes used to suggest Japanese is more 'vague' than English, it is simply that if the subject of a sentence is implied by the broader context, explicit references to the subject can be left out. Consider the following English:

In the second sentence, every occurrence of 'he' and 'his' refers to Fred - we know that from the first sentence. Once we know that, Japanese simply allows the personal pronouns to be left out:

However, things can get a little more muddy in situations where multiple people are involved or implied. The typical English subject and object often don't exactly map to the Japanese equivalent, which can lead you to using incorrect particles if you're not careful. Sometimes it is easiest to remember the set expressions used in Japanese. For example, consider the following:

In this Japanese sentence, the subject is missing, and even more confusingly, the implication seems to be that you cut your own hair!

In English, somebody is doing the hair cutting, and somebody is having their hair cut, and we would have to use extra words to make it clear who is doing what: 'Did the hairdresser cut your hair?'. To simplify things, we would typically use a different phrase such as 'get a haircut'.

Now consider this book title:

This book title demonstrates a similar ambiguity. In English, we have to make it clear that it is the presentation of the recipes that is done in English. In Japanese, there is no such requirement.

When you are learning Japanese, of course you regularly encounter sentences that don't provide context. When a sentence is considered in isolation and it is not clear what the subject is, it is not 'wrong' to include a personal pronoun that would be omitted in a normal conversation. In other words, in textbooks (and Kanshudo) you will regularly encounter sentences that begin with

わたし

私

,

ぼく

僕

,

かれ

彼

,

かのじょ

彼女

etc. However, it is important to remember that if you were using those same sentences in normal everyday speech, where the subject is obvious from context, you would omit those words.

For example, what if you say

わたし

私

は

い

行

きます instead of

い

行

きます? Since the pronoun is not required, the fact that it is being used implies that you are making a point with it: I am going (instead of someone else going). For example, if a pizza arrives at the door, it would be reasonable to say 'I will go' to imply that you will be the one to go and get it. In a situation where that implication is not intended, it would just sound a little stilted - rather like saying 'I will be the one to go' instead of saying 'I will go'.