What is とは、のが、のは、には、 へは and では？

Question

Someone told me that these aren't actually particles, but they're separate particles put together. I vaguely have an understanding of には and では but it's とは、のが、 and のは that confuse me a lot.

I heard that とは means with?

Why are these particles combined together? What are their meanings and purposes?

Is ことが the same thing as のが?

Answer 1

「と」 in this situation is the inclusion particle. 「は」 is the topic marker as usual. So 「ＸとはＹ」 means "as for with X, Y".

「の」 is the nominalizing particle, which turns a verb phrase into a noun (gerund). So 「ＸのはＹ」 means "as for Xing, Y". Likewise with 「が」.

「こと」 is used when talking in a general, objective sense, whereas 「の」 is used when the sense is meant to be specific or subjective.

Answer 2

「とは」also has a special usage to show amazement of something unexpected or surprising:

80歳で富士山に登るとはねぇ！　→　How amazing that he'll climb Mt. Fuji at 80 (years old)!

Answer 3

You should focus your question on は/が itself. Having an other particle before it does not change its meaning. And does not change the meaning of the article before, either.

と can be with or used for quotation.

I think there is exceptions but at the moment, you can assume that it is ok to exchange こと and の when it is after a verb.

The question linked by Dainichi is what you are looking for: Are there cases when two or more particles will occur next to each other without intervening lexical words?

Answer 4

I would recommend getting a book about particles... even something like A Dictionary of Japanese Particles. Which is only about $15 (USD) at present.

Something to consider before getting into the particle combinations is the idea of は and が. There are a lot of different rules (sometimes seemingly-contradictory rules,) for は and が. But for the sake of simplicity, just remember that は is often the first, main subject of a sentence. が is kind of the second main subject (the "newer subject" or "focus point",) of a sentence.

Now let's get into the combinations from the question.

According to A Dictionary of Japanese Particles:

とは

• とは is a combination of particles と and は
• can mean: "the thing that is called" (i.e. ボタン*とは*なんですか。）
• can mean: with (i.e. わたし、Aさん*とは*スポーツをしたり、勉強したりします。）
• can mean: "surprise/shock about something" (i.e. あの人がそんなバカなことを言った*とは*・・・）

In the first example, とは actually seems related to when って is used after dialog, like this: 「ボタン」って、何ですか。 ("Button" <- pointing to subject, what is?) It's a sort of marker for the previous word... something that makes a sort of subject out of the phrase before とは.

のは

• When のは is used, it often refers to a subject (placed in front of のは,) for example:
  • 勉強をする*のは*難しいことです。(i.e. Studying is hard. -or- The thing of studying is hard.) Using のは like this effectively turns a subject (a noun or a concept,) into a subject of the sentence.

のが

• のが is similar to のは. But the difference comes down to the difference between は and が (explained earlier.)

• So if we go back to the example used for のは and replace のは with のが:

  • 私は勉強をする*のが*難しいことです。(i.e. For me, studying is hard. -or- For me, the thing of studying is hard.) Here, the main subject of the sentence is "私 myself". But when のが is used like this, のが (like のは）still effectively turns a subject (a noun or a concept,) into a subject of the sentence, but here, のが is pointing to a "new subject" of the sentence (the thing of studying.)

ことが

• With the example given with のが, ことが is essentially the same thing. It creates a concept from a given noun, verb, or phrase.