This is the most basic part of communication, so every language does it. The simplest way to describe an object is to call it something else. Words that do this are called the "copula".
In English, the copula can be "is", "are", "am", "was", "were", "be", and so on. Even though you're calling an object something else, it's important to notice that it's not always literal. If you say "The chair is plastic", that doesn't mean that the entire thing is plastic. You're just describing "chair" by putting "is plastic" next to it, and it's not very specific or deep.
This is only the beginning of how cheap the "copula" can get, so take care, and don't think, feel!
If you remember elementary school, nouns are just words that label an object, like "chair" or "person". This might surprise you, but nouns can get complicated!
In English, we group concrete nouns and abstract nouns together. When kids are taught about nouns, they learn really concrete stuff like "chair". But there are abstract nouns that are kind of wishwashy, like "tiredness" and "speeding". Sometimes, they get so abstract that they can get used as adjectives, too, like the "speeding" in "a speeding car".
Japanese has the same kind of thing going on, and that's why "no-adjectives" and "na-adjectives" are given a different category from normal nouns.
This might surprise people who remember their English grammar classes, but "preposition" isn't the only kind of linking word in English. In fact, a lot of the time, when we put a preposition after a verb, it turns into a particle!
Basically, particles are linking words that don't have to mean what they look like until you check what they're attached to, like the "up" in "I'll bring it up later". That "up" can either be the direction of "bring", or just a particle on "bring it" that changes what action is happening.
It's important to notice that particles can change in meaning depending on the verb, because you're going to see that a lot in Japanese. If you want to read more about particles in English, click Here.
You're gonna love me for this if you're an absolute beginner. Our language's structure carries an interesting bit of trivia in common with Japanese. It's that "Our language's structure" right over there. What is that ['s] attached to? "Language"? No, it's attached to "Our language".
Clitics are things that look like suffixes, because they connect directly to a word and can change the way it sounds, but they actually apply to an entire phrase instead of just a single word.
Most japanese particles are like that, but most importantly the describing particle, の. When you see this guy, you're gonna have to look around a little to see how many words you should put together under the "comes before this の" umbrella. When I first started, I was immediately grouping the words to the left and right of the の, and I couldn't understand anything!
Oh no, more jargon! Don't worry, this is straightforward. The japanese "past tense" doesn't actually point to the past. It just says that a verb describes a complete action. It's just used to talk about past stuff because being able to is convenient.
You'll see the difference show up in conditions and instructions, where the English would say "Once you have closed the door, lock it", but if you translated the Japanese with the past tense, it would be "Once you closed the door, lock it", which is totally not fluent.
English is actually kind of flexible with this, too, if you noticed it when I said "...if you translated the Japanese with...", where I really mean "...if you were to translate the...", but it's important to consciously understand what's going on, because your textbook won't tell you!
This one's funny because English grammar classes are so bad. Adverbs don't just attach to verbs. They can attach to adjectives, too, or even entire sentences.
Sometimes, adverbs are used in totally batshit crazy ways, just beacuse the phrasing demands it. "Very" is an adverb, but you can't say "He very jumped", but it's not an adjective, either! You can only use it on adjectives, like "I'm very sorry". If you were coming out of the past you might say "He verily jumped", but today, we just say "He really jumped" or "He did a big jump".
That just means that, sometimes, adverbs can only be used in certain ways. Like, "Honest" has an adverb usage, but you can't put it on verbs or adjectives. You can only put it on entire phrases, like "I didn't steal it, honest!". You can't say "I'm honest sorry" or "He honest jumped". You have to use "honestly", there, and even the second one, it doesn't always come out as an "honest jumping".
Japanese has the same brainfuck of adverb usage, all the way down to putting adverbs in front of なる to describe a change. Keep calm, and let the context of a sentence tell you what the grammar is doing.
You won't need to know this unless you're using a crazy dictionary. In English, an adnoun is just an adjective that can be used like a noun, but in things that are talking about Japanese, they all use it differently from eachother! They'll usually define it somewhere, and if they don't, well, ignore it.
In sentences where something is being explained, the predicate is everything that isn't the context or the subject. The predicate makes an observation about the subject.
"Tomorrow he's really going to beat me up!"
He -- subject
's really going to beat me up -- predicate
The only reason "context" is excluded is because the people who make these words up can't decide whether "context" belongs to the subject or the predicate (e.g. "Him tomorrow, gonna beat me up" vs "Him, gonna beat me up tomorrow"), so they just say it doesn't belong to either.