In English, the head of a phrase comes before its role-players. In many languages, it is the other way around—but it is the other way around across the board, across all the kinds of phrases in the language. For example, in Japanese, the verb comes after its object, not before: they say Kenji sushi ate, not Kenji ate sushi. The preposition comes after its noun phrase: Kenji to, not to Kenji (so they are actually called “postpositions”). The adjective comes after its complement: Kenji than taller, not taller than Kenji. Even the words marking questions are flipped: they say, roughly, Kenji eat
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