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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The difference between 時 and 時は
I know that it's correct to use は after 時, and it's also correct to omit it. For example:
子供の 時、よく海で泳ぎました。
子供の 時は、よく海で泳ぎました。
How does the meaning of the sentence change when the particle is ...
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The particle は before 押す [duplicate]
スイッチは押しましたか。
Can を be used in place of は here? (Have you pressed the switch? / Did you press the switch?)
押す is a transitive verb, so the use of は is confusing. Thank you for your help!
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How to specify a day and a shop/office/etc. when asking for business hours? [closed]
I'm very sorry this is a very basic Question, I just started learning japanese as my third language (german being my native one and english my second) and Right now I learned a basic way of asking for ...
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Nominalisation and は
I posted a question a long time ago about why we need の in this sentence:
毎日、同じ物を食べるのは、面白くない
Eating the same thing everyday is not interesting.
To which I was told that adding の here nominalises the ...
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と particle in the subject of a sentence
To translate :
My friend and I are going to the park.
, the following sentence can be used :
私{わたし}は友達{ともだち}と公園{こうえん}に行{い}きます。
Literally :
I am going to the park with my friend.
と is used ...
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私には versus 私は - difference in nuance?
Can anyone help explaining the nuance in difference between:
私はまったく分かりません。
私にはまったく分かりません。
With expressions such as ヨーロッパには行く (versus は) I can see what affect including the に particle within the ...
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Changing を to は in negative statements
I've got confused and have a few questions:
In some situations speaker is obligated to change the particle e.g. answering yes/no questions.
Question: あなたはくじにひこうきにのりますか。(A)
Answer: いいえ、わたしはくじ ...
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The use of が, は and を in 私は総てを愛している
Is the を interchangeable with が in this case?
And if I say 私が総てを愛している does it mean 'I'm everything that I love'?
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What could a phrase like アルコールはダメなんだ possibly mean?
The phrase アルコールはダメなんだ is from a manga I read, in which a guy responds to his friend when being asked if he wants a beer. He appears not to be into alcohol, even goes so far to say that "I don't like ...
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Is there any rule to indicate when "circumstantials" of time can be the topic (marked with は) of the sentence?
In Spanish there is something called circumstantials which indicate time, place, means, cause, etc where an action is done. For example, in English a circumstancial of time could be translated as "in ...
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Why is there sometimes a は used in conjugated, negative, formal i-adjectives? [duplicate]
A few times now, I have seen a negative i-adjective with a は in between the く and the ありません. I have seen it usually present when it is a response to a question. Like the example below.
いいえ、車は赤くはありません。...
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Sentence topic without grammatical function
From here:
このスポーツは、海の上を走る水上オートバイから足に付けたボードにホースで水を送って、ボードから出る水の強い力で空中を飛びます。
In this sport you fly through the air using the force of water ejected from a board attached to the feet. Water is sent ...
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Can は imply more than just topic?
On https://www.wasabi-jpn.com/japanese-grammar/ha-vs-ga-five-points-you-need-to-know/ there is this sentence:
オレンジは好き
It’s explained as “this indicates that you like oranges, but don’t like other ...
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Question about the phrase 心配いりません
I came across the phrase 心配いりません and from what I understand it means "Dont worry". It is formed by using the する-verb 心配 (worry) and いる (to be needed). What I don't understand is why there is no ...
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誰はしました。Who did it?
I'm aware that する is the Japanese verb "To do". In order to conjugate this verb using the Ta form for past tense we of course just replace する with し and add our polite form ます with the た to make しました, ...
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A question about the usage of ては and ても
Why can't use も or は in the following sentence:
易しい質問に答えられなくて（は・も）、とても恥ずかしかった。
In the case of ても, I was told it probably has to do with 逆条件.
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What is the difference between "を" and "は"? Can I say both "お茶を飲みます。" and "お茶は飲みます。"?
I'm aware that I can say "お茶を飲みます。" (with the particle "を") to convey the meaning "I drink tea." in the sense of indicating that an action is taking place.
However, I'd like to know if I can also say ...
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What is the purpose of はある in this sentence?
顔の大きさの半分はあるであろう大きなマスク。(source)
I've been told that this sentence is describing the size of the mask being half the size of the face, Can't we simply say 「顔の大きさの半分であろう大きなマスク」 instead?
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Confusion on は being used [duplicate]
So the sentence is " そういう相手は力で叩き潰して教えるに限る" which translates to "people like you need to be crushed by force." I'm confused on why it isn't written as"そういう相手を"。If は is used could it also be translated ...
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Trouble with 出ては消え in this sentence [duplicate]
I think I understand the meaning thanks to the context, but I don't understand why the first verb is in te form and the second in masu stem after a は particle(i.e.,I don't understand the structure ...
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Should emphasis follow the copula or move to the topic marker?
I recently tried machine translated the following:
This is amazing. This is amazing.
And was surprised when the result was:
これは素晴らしいです。これは素晴らしいです。
I kind of expected the second example to come ...
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What do ほかには and ほかのは mean?
What do ほかには and ほかのは mean? How are they different from one another?
And why is に used in ほかに? Is there an explanation for it or is it just naturally said? Thanks!
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Why do we need "は" in "とは思う"
I do not know the grammatical meaning of "は" and when to add a "は" in between the quotative particle and the verb, namely "とは思う".
Here is the example sentence without "は",
...
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「は」と「を」の違いは何ですか。
私の日本語の本によると、「を」の代わりに「は」を使う事が出来ます。でも、いつ使えますか。ニュアンスは何が変わりますか。
例えば:
肉を食べますか → 肉は食べますか。
子供たちはカレーを作っている。→ カレーは子供たちが作っている。
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Function of particles の and は in this sentence
A girls tells this to her friend:
このまま帰ってまた何日も会えなくなるのは嫌です
What are these particles doing here? は is being used to emphasize, to be the topic marker or the contrastive marker? My guess is that is ...
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は after adverbs
I don' understand what it means/adds on these sentences, since there's an adverb before them and the particle can be omitted and it still makes sense
今は...しない
目の前でこんなに弱られたら誰だって少しは優しくなりますよ
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Why does 悪く(は)ない give a condescending feeling?
I thought it just meant "It's not bad" but I read some comments from Japanese people who said that it can sound too condescending or like the speaker feels superior to the listener. Why is that? In ...
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How can I tell if a は is the particle は and therefore should be pronounced わ?
On page 82 and 83 of Japanese for Busy People II (third edition), there's the following sentence (written mainly in kana with only a small amount of kanji)
ミルズ：ええ。じつはちょっとねつがあるんです。さっき薬を買ってきて飲んだんですが…。（...
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に->には / で->では etc
My question is kinda simple (I hope).
When somebody asks you, for example:
学生りょうにＴＶがありますか。
Can you answer:
台所にはありますが、部屋にはありません。
Or do you use:
台所にありますが、部屋にはありません。
Can you also explain ...
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About は particle and the 'contrast' it implies
I started learning Japanese about 2 months ago and today, while talking with a friend of mine who has been studying Japanese for about two years, he gave me this example scenario about は particle and ...
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Confused when determining the correct subject with 思います [duplicate]
I met the following sentence :
あなたのお母さんは私が好きじゃないと思います
I think your mother doesn't like me.
As far I can tell, あなたのお母さん is the subject or topic marker of the sentence. But at the end of the ...
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Deconstructing this format: AことはBことがあります
I was doing an N5 test, and this construction came up:
山田さんは大変いいひとですよ。(Context)
何も悪いことは聞いたことがありません。(Construction in question)
While I understand the meaning alright (Nothing bad about 田中さん was ...
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Would someone mind checking my translation of -だか and a contrastive は?
If anyone is willing, I'd like to check my reading of the following sentence:
ところが夜だかは、ほんとうは鷹の兄弟でも親類でもありませんでした。
"However, for a number of nights, there is a lie that [he] is a family member or even ...
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What is the inheritance order of も and は topics?
Can a topic that is identified via the も particle be included in a は topic that comes AFTER it?
e.g. Two sequential sentences from a book I'm reading:
1st Sentence: ほかの鳥は、もう、よだかの顔を見ただけでも、...
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4x"は" as Contrast Marker
Is the following sentence O.K.?
そのようなブラシ付モーターが、
高い回転数領域では、確かに、優れた出力性能は発揮しますが、
惜しい事に、定常作動に於いては、結局、十分な静的性能は発揮しないという結果となります。
I am using for times "は" as contrast marker to indicate two ...
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Proper Use of "は" and "が" Noun
I am really despairing. Recently, I was forwarded a link by
my Japanese colleague. It is about the proper use of "は" and "が".
https://www.alc.co.jp/jpn/article/faq/03/19.html
What is stated here, ...
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Why is this は positioned like that here?
For full context:
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/web_tokushu/2018_0202.html?utm_int=news_contents_news-closeup_002
The sentence in question:
山田さんによると、八王子は何度か大規模な火災に見舞われ、戦時中は大規模な空襲も受けたことから、...
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I don't understand why my は was changed to a に when a native corrected my sentence
My sentence: 彼はこれを出来るなら僕は矢っ張り出来る
Correction: 彼にそれが出来るなら、僕にもできる
I can understand the rest of the changes, but why はー＞に ? All they said was that it sounded more natural but they weren't sure why. ...
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For phrases modifying nouns, is the subject considered part of the modifier or separate?
Oftentimes I see phrases such as this in songs and such:
僕は迷い込んだ夢の中
I always interpreted these as the first part all modifying the noun, i.e. "Inside the dream I was lost in," here. However, when I ...
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tamago o yoku tabemasu
tamago o yoku tabemasu.
kudamono wa amari tabemasen.
Why for the first sentence with tamago, the particle "o" is used
where as for the second sentence with kudamono, particle "wa" ...
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when to use 〜の中で、中には
I think I answered this question for myself while writing it, but maybe someone can confirm: When to use 「の中で」 versus 「の中には」or something similar to mean "among X"?
For example, I pulled this ...
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Difference between ”が”はじまる and ”は”はじまる [duplicate]
I asked my teacher why is "が”はじまる instead of ”は”はじまる. She said "が” is always put before はじまる. But she said there are circumstances that ”は” is put before はじまる too. She said there are rules meanwhile ...
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Particle は seems like it should be を in this sentence
So I'm translating this song (https://www5.atwiki.jp/hmiku/pages/31606.html) and the particle usage in a line confused me:
チョコレート中毒さ それはもう大変な (this is just for context)
Chocolate poisoning, it's ...
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Inferred particles - should I infer は or に in this sentence?
I was translating this song (https://www5.atwiki.jp/hmiku/pages/31606.html) and there was a line that didn't make sense without an inferred particle, but I'm not sure which particle to infer.
(...
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What is the purpose of では in this context [duplicate]
Person A: どんな ときに しゅくだいを する ことが できませんか?
Person B: きょうしつで とか かいしゃでは できません。
I understand what 「で」is doing (indicating the place) but what about 'wa' in this case?
thanks in advance
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Is it OK to promote an object as the topic and change all relevant verbs to passive forms?
Once I have thrown an opponent to the ground and if I push his elbow outward, he will automatically lie face down to counter his pain.
相手は投げられてから、外側に肘を押されると、痛くならないように自動にうつ伏す。
Is it OK to promote an ...
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What does これには mean in this sentence? [closed]
「私って元来遊び人なのかもと妙に納得しつつ、もう一つ新たに開設された「脳内フェチイメージ」にチャレンジしたら、これには腰を抜かさんばかりの驚きでありました。」's「これには」
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は significance in ゲームは上手いですね
I'm confused by the reaction to は in this exchange
A:「ゲームは上手いですね!」
B:「ゲーム「は」.....」
source context:
http://neetsha.jp/inside/up/1/2/12840/24.jpg
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次の「普通」What does it mean?
A : この電車は東京へ行きますか。
B : いいえ、行きません。次の「普通」ですよ。
I'm not sure what B meant by 'the next local train'. It sounds like he's saying that 'this train is the next local train' which meaning I could not ...
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Uncertainties about this sentence: 「一番長い方は15年、短い方でも6年はいらっしゃるそうです。」
The bold part is the sentence in question, the rest is for context:
今日は、日本で長くお暮しの４人の外国の奥様においでいただきました。一番長い方は15年、短い方でも6年はいらっしゃるそうです。 その間のご苦労や嬉しかったことなどを伺いたいと思います。
The full text can be viewed here.
...
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