Sentence structure. This one's really for supermanda

In Japanese word order, "what comes before describes what comes after" and in a complete sentence (we don't always write/speak in complete sentences!), a verb ends the sentence. Meaning:

(description) (thing being described)

子犬（コ イヌ）
"child-dog", dog that is described as a child
= a puppy

俺達（オレ タチ）
"i group", a group of people that is described as "i"
= we

漫画３巻（マンガ サン カン）
"manga 3 volume", 3 volumes of manga
("3" describes "how many" volumes; "manga" describes "what kind of 3 volumes")

(noun) (verb)
This means that the noun is describing who or what did the verb.

(verb) (noun)
This means that the verb is describing how the noun is, but keeps its sense of time (tense). When we say a "talking man", a "boiled potato", a "broken watch", this is exactly what we're doing. Japanese just says "talks man", "boiled potato", "broke watch" and doesn't change the wordform at all.

人 探す（ヒト サガす）
"human searches". a person searches (for something)

探す 人（サガす ヒト）
"searches human". a searching person.

The problem is that through word order, 人 探す more clearly shows that a "human" is the one doing the searching, but in 探す 人 we actually lose all certain knowledge of who's doing the action (because nothing / no one is in front of the verb to describe how or by who the verb is being done). So 探す 人 can actually mean either "a person who is searching" or "a person who is being sought after" (the person other people, who are unmentioned, are searching for). The same is true for 人 探す but it's just less common to be able to misunderstand it I think. Another example:

[俺] 読める（[オレ] ヨめる）"(i) read-can"
(i) can read. i'm literate.

読める 本（ヨめる ホン）"read-can book"
a readable book. a book (i) can read

Word-order is exactly the same for time, amount, method, location, etc. In fact it's even in how verbs are formed:

行こう（イこう）let's go!; will/plan to go
行った（イった）went

学校 行こう（ガッコー イコー）
"school go-let's!", let's go to school!

"School" describes how, when, where, why, etc. the "go" is being done. "Go" describes what i'm "inviting you to do with me".

行った 人（イった ヒト）
"Went human", a person who went or a person who (I) went to. た means "finished action; past-tense" so "go" is describing what exactly we're "finished with". Then "go-finished" describes the type of "person" it is.

白かった 学校（シロかった ガッコー）
"white-finished school", a school that was white.

It doesn't matter what kind of word or group of words it is. If it comes in front, it's always describing something else.

ラーメン いっぱい あった
"ramen full exist-finished", was full of ramen. (i think いっぱい also just means "a ton")

"Exist" describes what action is over and done with. "Full" describes how the thing "existed" (plenty existed). "Ramen" describes what was the thing that "existed plenty".

たぶん かなり 辛い と 思う（カラい と オモう）
"probably fairly spicy-now when think-now", i think it's probably pretty spicy.

"Think" describes what we're doing "now" (it's not quite "now" but that's a good enough translation). "When" further describes how (when, where, why...) we're "thinking". "It's probably spicy" describes "what I'm thinking about now". "Fairly" describes the amount ("how much") of "spicy" it is. "Probably" describes how (likely) the "fairly spicy" is.

Basically, break down any Japanese sentence and this is what you're always going to get, except for in very rare cases when for example, they borrowed a phrase from Chinese in order to change the word-order around (and those phrases are really literary and you won't often see them).

But now we have the problem of not knowing what actually describes what. Say you have 探す 人 again, which means either "a person who's searching" or "a person who's being searched for". Well when you have a long sentence, it's going to be FULL of that problem, and suddenly you don't "really" know what's going on anymore. Let's say you have for example, 学校 探す 人 "school searches human".

Does this mean the school is searching FOR that person? Or that someone is searching for that person AT school? Or that the person themselves is searching for something AT school? Or what? The more words you add to the sentence, the more confusing it can become.

Well when it gets confusing, or in formal speech (as you always over-clarify yourself when being formal), you add in more words in order to clarify what exactly you mean. These are called "particles" in English, for whatever reason. The problem with teaching particles is that they don't usually make sense until after you're already familiar with Japanese without particles... Or until you already have "some idea" of what they mean and just are looking back on your notes to perfect that idea. But I'll teach them little by little in other posts.