Syntax

Modern Javanese usually employs SVO word order. However, Old Javanese particularly had VSO or sometimes VOS word orders. Even in Modern Javanese archaic sentences using VSO structure can still be made.
Examples:

• Modern Javanese: "Dhèwèké (S) teka (V) nèng (pp.) kedhaton (O)".
• Old Javanese: "Teka (V) ta (part.) sira (S) ri (pp.) ng (def. art.) kadhatwan (O)".

Both sentences mean: "He (S) comes (V) in (pp.) the (def. art.) palace (O)". In the Old Javanese sentence, the verb is placed at the beginning and is separated by the particle ta from the rest of the sentence. In Modern Javanese the definite article is lost in prepositions (it is expressed in another way).
Verbs are not inflected for person or number. Tense is not indicated either, but is expressed by auxiliary words such as "yesterday", "already", etc. There is also a complex system of verb affixes to express the different status of the subject and object.
However, in general the structure of Javanese sentences both Old and Modern can be described using the so-called topic-comment model without having to refer to classical grammatical or syntactical categories such as the aforementioned subject, object, predicates, etc. The topic is the head of the sentence; the comment is the modifier. So our Javanese above-mentioned sentence could then be described as follows: Dhèwèké = topic; teka = comment; nèng kedhaton = setting.