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I meant to gather more examples before posting this question, but here we go. These are some lines out of various Ghibli movies I saw last weekend.

わからないは - when asked to take a guess about something
いないは - after looking for someone in a specific place

I realize this is casual and may not be strictly grammatically correct. Still I wonder what's the reasoning behind these type of sentences. It's not difficult to understand what they mean, but why は? How would a native speaker justify the particle? And if someone can tie it to some formally correct version of the sentences that would be great!

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As a sentence-final particle, it's わ, not は. See more about in this post and this post.

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  • Thank you, simple as that. :) I have not come across わ as a particle in my studies yet.
    – gibbon
    Commented Jun 26, 2012 at 21:52
  • @gibbon, neither did I, it was something I just learned from hearing people use it :)
    – silvermaple
    Commented Jun 26, 2012 at 23:04

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