How is Japanese sentence word order different from English word order?

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Japanese calligraphy — Japanese language Record of a haiku exchange on *kaishi* writing paper by Japanese poet Bashō and one of his pupils in the teacher's own handwriting, 17th century, from a hanging scroll (ink on paper).

The Japanese language differs significantly from English in its basic sentence structure. While English typically follows a subject–verb–object (SVO) order, Japanese is a consistent subject–object–verb (SOV) language, meaning the verb almost always appears at the end of the sentence.1

Key differences in word order and structure include:

Predicate Placement: In Japanese, the verb or adjective (the predicate) functions at the end of the sentence. For example, "Taro buys an apple" is structured as Taro-ga ringo-o kau (literally, Taro-[nominative] apple-[accusative] buy).1
Modifier Position: Japanese places modifiers before the words they modify. Consequently, adjectives and relative clauses precede the nouns they describe, and adverbs are placed before the verbs they modify.1
Case Marking: Unlike English, which relies heavily on word order to indicate grammatical roles, Japanese uses enclitic particles attached to the end of nouns to mark case distinctions, such as subject or object markers.1
Contextual Omission: Elements that are recoverable from the context, including subjects and objects, are frequently omitted in Japanese, leading to a high frequency of sentence fragments in conversation.1