Questions tagged [particle-は]
助詞「は」. Indicates the topic of a sentence or shows contrast in the universe of discourse.
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"I hate him" = 彼が嫌い or 彼は嫌い? Ambiguity regarding the target of the sentence
I apologize if this is a dumb question. I think I'm having a total brainfart here, but this is something I've been wondering since some time ago now.
If I wanna say, "I hate him!", which one ...
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Introducing an explicit subject into a sentence with a topic already existing
Consider for instance the following sentence:
わかった、忠告ありがとう。でも、ミコトがどんな子かは自分で見定める。
The obvious context is that someone has been warned about ill behavior of his new friend by others but wants to make ...
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Why is there a 'は' in these sentences, forming double particles?
家では勉強できません。図書館でも勉強できません。
東京には、たくさん人がいます。
Can I drop the は in these two sentences?
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Why is ‘は’ instead of 'が' or 'を' used here?
I saw a sentence:
これは、オンラインで聞けますか。
Why is ‘は’ instead of 'が' or 'を' used here? I think the full sentence should be like the following.
あなたはこれが/を、オンラインで聞けますか。
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Are questions ending in は polite or plain?
On my grammar textbook, there is a part about the possibility to ask a question with just the topic and は, for example:
お仕事は?
That can mean "what is your job?" or "how is work?".
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The use of causative + には in this sentence
Upon asking the group if they had a bad experience in the village, they deny and she says this.
I understand the first sentence is akin "Starting with the royal family, the village is quite ...
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Any difference between とは思う and と思う?
When expressing a thought, can とは思う and と思う be used interchangeably, or is there a more specific reason to choose one over the other?
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How does the nounはnounでも works?
揚げ物は揚げ物でも天ぷらっていってね
Upon the other character pointing out this is 揚げ物 the character explains this. What kind of nuance does the repeated noun give
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Nonsense sentences with だ
I recently encountered these sentences which must be nonsense because AはBだ means 'A is B'.
私は１０５号室だ
「ノルウェーの森」は村上春樹だ
東京は初めてだ
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Understanding ~たのでは "Conditionals"
I recently came across a sentence containing ~たのでは I found quite hard to parse, and I wanted to focus more on just its ~たのでは aspect to make a more focused question.
So consider:
「彼が来なかったのでは、何も始まらない。」
...
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Clarification about particle は
I had to translate these 2 questions:
"Is this Chinese (language)?"
"Is this sake?"
And I translated in this way:
それは中国語ですか。
それは酒ですか。
But the book solutions were
それ中国語ですか。
...
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What is the use ようとは + passive?
おそまつな警備だな
これで俺を捕まえようとは舐められたもんだ
My vague understanding of the sentence is akin to "Ill prepared defenses. If they are attempting to catch me with that, they are looking down on me."
However ...
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Trouble understanding context switching / setting in a Famitsu article
I started reading this Famitsu article about a new headset that is releasing soon. But I'm having trouble understanding how context or subject swapping / setting works in general.
I probably have a ...
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Is this sentence correct「小説は読みます」?
Is this sentence correct?
小説は読みます
I've learned that は is a topic marker not an object marker. In this case it's acting as an object marker to 小説 since 読む is transitive a verb.
Now according to the ...
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Would it be gramatically correct to say 学校は行きます as opposed to 学校に行きます
My understanding is that 学校は行きます would mean: As for school, I will go there.
While 学校に行きます is: I will go to school.
But is this the first sentence ever used? Or even grammatically correct?
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I'm having trouble understanding the usage of 特に...もっとですね, and 15回以上は
From Sakura Tips podcast episode 615. パッキング, there is a transcript to the podcast. I'm having difficulty understanding due to my confusion regarding word/phrase ordering.
Original transcript:
...
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Could I use わたしのうちには ペットが いません 。instead of わたしのうえ に ペット は いません。
I've learned the expressions:
(Location) の (position) には ありません/いません。 and
(location) に (noun) は ありません/いません。
and I'm kinda wondering whether I could use には with location nouns too? Or does it only ...
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Double/Triple 'wa' particles in a sentence
I'm having trouble parsing the following example sentence from an online Japanese-English dictionary:
女性はレスリングは好まないが男性はふつうに好きだ。
Can someone explain to me how to make sense of the sentence? I'm ...
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Appearance of が after a て form
In the game Persona 3, a teacher says this while talking about a poet they like as opposed to one being mentioned in the textbook:
…葛西もいいけど、先生、 最近は窪田空穂にハマってるのよね。 歌人としてが有名だけど、 随筆もとってもいいのよ。
I don't ...
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what does かは convey?
Here's the context: それについて、見てくれる人がどう思うかは、私は、コントロールできないから手放そうと思いました。
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Why are there multiple topic markers (は) in this sentence?
To be clear, my level of Japanese is about as elementary as it gets, so it's possible that this question is simply beyond my understanding. Still worth an ask, though!
I was looking at the Wiktionary ...
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A proposed tool about the use of は and が and about the use of "the" and "a" in English
UPDATE: Based on the discussion below, I now see that my proposal is not valid. But still, I want to make a clarification about the following proposal, anyway. Just please keep in mind that I'm ...
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Does the contrastive は always rise in pitch?
At 3:03 the speaker says
この人は
I could be wrong, but it sounds like she's saying this as "koNOHITOWA" rather than "koNOHITOwa".
According to my bilingual dictionary, Heiban is not ...
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What is the exact meaning of はな in the sentence: 「世の中的にはな。」
In order to understand the meaning of this sentence:
"まぁうん 一応 世の中的にはな。"
I put the complete conversation below:
Son: 「大人」って何？「大人」ってどういうこと？
Father: 大人？
Son: うん 親父 大人だろ？
Father: まぁうん 一応 ...
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What is the function of じゃ at the end of this sentence
I know the meaning of the whole sentence but what is the function and meaning of じゃ at the end of the sentence:
お巡りさんには関係ありません じゃ
I checked on the internet and maybe じゃ means "I guess".
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What is the function of は in the following conversation?
刑事：＜写真を見せて＞あなたが見たのはこの人ですか？
目撃者：そうですね。こんな人だったと思いますが、はっきりとは分かりません。
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Difference between ことが and ことは
What is the difference in the meanings of the following sentences when 事がある is replaced with 事はある?
週末はたいてい家で休んでいるがたまに公園に行く事がある。
週末はたいてい家で休んでいるがたまに公園に行く事はある。
I could find the grammar form ことがある in ...
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は vs が when the subject is modified by a relative clause
Please note that the question is not whether the subject in a relative clause should be followed by は or が. (In that case I am aware that the thematic は cannot be used.)
I was reading section II.2, Wa ...
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What is the difference when I swap が and は in this sentence
I want to know if my first translation of a sentence is wrong and more importantly why.
I'm using Duolingo as one of a couple tools for learning Japanese.
Today I got the sentence "The coffee ...
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で・と・が・は - Nuance
ボブと戦ってる
Fighting with Bob (Against Bob/Bob is fighting someone, and that same someone is fighting Bob)
ボブが戦ってる
Bob is fighting
ボブたちが戦ってる
Bob and them are fighting (not necessarily together nor ...
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Is くらい required in 「牛乳ぐらいは買ってください」?
A tutorial on the は-particle provides the following sentence:
牛乳ぐらいは買ってください。
At least buy milk, please.
The author then notes:
Grammar Note: The particle kurai/gurai くらい・ぐらい is frequently used with ...
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What is the correct way to use ”には” as a particle? Also how credible is Duolingo?
How credible is Duolingo? I've heard many bad things about its grammar in Asian languages so I just wanted to see if they got this specific thing right. One of the Questions it asked was how to ...
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紅茶がコーヒーより美味しいと思う
A native speaker corrected a learner's sentence from
やっぱり紅茶はコーヒーより美味しいと思う
to
やっぱり紅茶がコーヒーより美味しいと思う
I think 紅茶はコーヒーより美味しい sounds perfectly natural.
Using は with 思う also seems to be commonplace which ...
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What does とは do in this sentence 「ちなみに俺はどちらも見ようとは思わない」 [duplicate]
From Quintessential Quintuplets (Season 2, ep.3, 9:30)
Character A was describing movies that they saw to someone when Character B said this about those movies.
ちなみに俺はどちらも見ようとは思わない
If I were to try ...
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Usage of は and が in 文明が進むと、社会は複雑さを増す
文明が進むと、社会は複雑さを増す。
In this sentence,
1 - What are the reasons for using が and は particles in their respective places?
2 - Could we replace any of these two particles with the other one? If yes, how ...
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Difference between 後にも and 後には?
In an IMABI article on 後, the author explains the difference between ～後には and ～後にも:
It's also possible to see ～後には and ～後にも. The meanings of the individual particles do not behave any differently. ...
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Which は is this?
A過去の通知はありません
There are no past notifications
B参加予定のイベントはありません There are no planned events.
C(あなたは)メッセージがありません
You have no messages.
In A and B, it can either be the main topic or the contrastive は as ...
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Difference between ～ことは and ～ことが
What is the difference between:
練習することが大切です。
練習することは大切です。
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What's the difference between である and ではある?
隊服の上から触れた彼の身体からは、かすかではあるものの温もりを感じられる。
I've already read the answers to these questions:
Meaning of ~つもりではいる in that sentence
What is a good way to translate ではある?
ではあるんだろうが meaning
However, I still ...
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は・が in 犬が死んだ and 犬は死んだ
犬が死んだ
犬は死んだ
は is typically used to mark something already in context as the topic. Would that be equivalent to "The dog died" since "The" typically marks something know?
が is a ...
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Role of は when following phrases ending in particles
I have read several linguistic accounts of the particle は that claim it has two fundamental uses:
To indicate the theme/topic of the discourse (assuming that the speaker can take for granted that the ...
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Subordinate clauses that are not for comparison - should we use が or は？
In a subordinate clause, が is often used.
However, some sentences with けど or のに are used with は because they are for comparison.
But it seems to me that some sentences with けど or のに are not for ...
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Regarding the use of が instead of は in 「いけのなかにさかな｛が・は｝たくさんいますか。」
いけのなかにさかな＿たくさんいますか。
So my question is, would the particle affect the emphasis we want to put on either asking if there ARE Fish inside the pond, or if we are asking how MANY Fish there are in the ...
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Implications of using either が/は in 足跡が/は消えない
I came across this line in a song and was wondering why が was used over は:
足跡が消えない
I would interpret the usage of が to mean that out of everything, the 足跡 left behind is specifically the thing that ...
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Is there a way to tell which sentences or structures particle wa can replace particle wo for emphasis in?
I've been told that in the sentence,
kare wa tsugou ga warui koto wa kakusu
wo can be used instead of wa in the last particle like,
kare wa tsugou ga warui koto wo kakusu
but that wa is used ...
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What’s the usage of “では” in this sentence?
歴史の授業は大きい教室でやります。歴史の先生は日本人で、授業ではあまり英語を使いません。
Is it composed of “で+は“ while は just highlights the noun before it? But if that’s the case then does 授業 here refer to a period of time?
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“は…は” usage: What’s the function of the first は?
午後は授業はありません。
I saw this sentence in my book, and from my understanding the second は marks the topic of the sentence, and in some cases “は…は” highlights the contrast between two topics, but in this ...
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日本語は話せますか, 日本語が話せますか and 日本語を話せますか what's the difference?
日本語は話せますか
日本語が話せますか
日本語を話せますか
What's the difference? Some people said it means the same thing, but when I googled it several people were saying several different things and I'm lost. I read that ...
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~のは at the end of the sentence. What does it mean?
I started reading 君の名は and this sentence came up: そんな気分になったのは。。
(1) what does the なった means here? Is it the past tense of the verb なる which means “to become”? What meaning does it have in this ...
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Is 6月 the subject in 6月は涼しい?
This webpage, under Specific Time, says that 6月 in 6月は涼しい is the subject of the sentence and thus does not take に, but that's like saying 日曜日は忙しい and ignoring the implied 私が. In the former case, that ...
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