は marks the topic; です is a polite “is/are”. “[Topic] は [what it is] です.”
わたしは マイク・ミラーです。
I am Mike Miller.
ミラーさんは 会社員です。
ミラーさんは かいしゃいんです。
Mr Miller is a company employee.
は (written は but pronounced “wa” when it is the particle) marks the topic — the thing the sentence is about. です comes at the very end and works like “am / is / are”.
Japanese has no articles (a/the) and no separate verb “to be” before the noun — です alone does the job. Word order is fixed: topic first, です last.
です is polite, used in normal, respectful conversation.
The topic は is often dropped when it is obvious from context.
2
～です かYes/no questions with か
か particle
Add か to the end of a statement to turn it into a question. Word order does not change.
ミラーさんは 会社員ですか。
ミラーさんは かいしゃいんですか。
Is Mr Miller a company employee?
あの方は どなたですか。
あのかたは どなたですか。
Who is that person? (polite)
Japanese forms questions simply by adding the particle か at the end — there is no need to invert the word order as in English.
どなた is a polite word for “who”; the plainer word is だれ.
3
N1 の N2の — linking two nouns
の particle
の joins two nouns: N1 modifies N2 (belonging, group, type). “N1's N2 / N2 of N1”.
ミラーさんは IMCの 社員です。
ミラーさんは IMCの しゃいんです。
Mr Miller is an employee of IMC.
わたしは 日本語の 先生です。
わたしは にほんごの せんせいです。
I am a teacher of Japanese.
の connects N1 to N2 so that N1 describes N2 — company you belong to, the group/category, the kind of thing. The order is always modifier + の + main noun.
4
今 N時 N分ですTelling the time
Time
Hours use 〜時, minutes use 〜分. 今 何時ですか = “What time is it now?”
今 ９時１０分です。
いま くじじゅっぷんです。
It's 9:10 now.
Counters 時 (o'clock) and 分 (minute) attach to numbers. Several readings are irregular: 4時 = よじ, 9時 = くじ, and 分 becomes ぷん/ふん depending on the number.