25 marzo 2012

Particles は and が



Hey! This is going an important post! :)


Today I'll introduce the particles  は and が. I'll try to make it simple but actually these two particles, は and が, are kinda tough for Japanese learners as sometimes it is difficult to know when to use one or another.


は is one of the Japanese particles. Although the hiragana は is pronounced "ha", when used as a particle it is pronounced as "wa".


I'm no pro explaining things but thinking that the particle は had to stick with the subject you were going to talk about helped a lot. Also there's an unsaid rule that you should only use は once per sentence. So if you've already said it once in a sentence and you want to introduce another thing in the sentence you have to use が.


Summarizing, both show what is the subject but  emphasizes what comes AFTER and が emphasizes what comes BEFORE.


Sentence pattern only using は :  A は B です。A is B.
Sentence pattern only using が :  A が B です。A is B.
Sentence pattern using は and が in the same sentence: Aは B が ______ です。


This pattern is very complicated to translate so it's better to think of it as: "As for A, B is ______".


Instead of  です, you can say other things, such as じゃありません, でした, じゃありませんでした...
が です。




Examples that I hope helps everyone understand:


リオターです。I am Rioter.


リオターです。I am Rioter. [The importance is on the "I". This could be used, for example, if some asks "Who is Rioter?", so you answer "I am Rioter." ~me, not anyone else, it's me~ ]


私は猫が好きです。 I like cats. (Or more literally: "As for me, cats are liked (by me)" Oh my... This sounds so weird D: But it's the best I can do. The more you understand the structures this way, the more Japanese-like mind you'll be able to have :)


(Yes, I used Kanji and Katakana which I haven't yet made a post about. Don't worry! :) 私 is read わたし, and リオター is read りおたあ )


And that's all! I hope I could make it easy~ ^^ See you soon


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Today's song: Mr Children - "Hanabi"




 この歌が大好きです。(I love this song <3)

[ この = This ; 歌 (うた) = song ; 大好き (だいすき) = love]