16
votes
Accepted
Why is this sentence ungrammatical? 「お寺が公園のとなりです。」
In this case, が is incorrect because you are conveying a known piece of information. When you describe a known or general fact about a subject (お寺), you have to mark it with は, making it the topic of ...
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11
votes
私は猫が好き and 猫は私が好き
It may help to understand the nature of: the は particle (topic marker), the nature of the が particle (subject marker), and the fact that 好き is an adjective, not a verb.
Japanese is what is known as a ...
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8
votes
Accepted
私は猫が好き and 猫は私が好き
Particles have multiple uses or meanings. が can be used to mark the subject. However 好き【すき】 is an adjective not a verb. In this case が marks the target of 好き【すき】 which is cats.
1) 私は猫が好き
2) ...
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8
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Why が is said to be a subject marker?
The particle が is referred to as a subject marker because that's what it is. It marks the subject of a sentence. That's its primary purpose.
Even in two of the four sentences you provided, it's quite ...
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7
votes
「それがなにか」 v.s. 「それはなにか」
それがなにか is a shorthand of それがなにかしましたか or それがなにか気に障りましたか. It roughly translates to "Does that bother you?" or "You have a problem with that?", and is always used defensively.
In this instance, it ...
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7
votes
Accepted
Use は or が with ある when the phrase doesn't explicit the place
The basic difference is already covered in this question: What's the difference between wa (は) and ga (が)?
The following is a brief summary. As you can see in the above link, each sentence has ...
- 264k
7
votes
Accepted
「は」vs 「が」 in subordinate clauses
は serves as the topic marker of the main clause. In subordinate clauses, basically you cannot use は. You have to use が to mark a subject in subordinate clauses. (There are exceptions, which I will ...
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6
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私は猫が好き and 猫は私が好き
Sentence 1) is easy — it clearly means "I like cats."
Sentence 2) is more difficult, and has already generated complicated discussions about grammar elsewhere on this site. It's an unusual-...
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6
votes
Accepted
Can someone verify the reasons I give for using a "wa" and "ga" in this sentence?
The only reason が is used here is because 彼女 is the subject of a relative clause. Relative clauses don't have topics, so が is used instead of は.
In a main clause, the が in 彼女が would likely be ...
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6
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Use は or が with ある when the phrase doesn't explicit the place
To add to @Naruto's brilliant answer:
When asked "What's there? / What do you have?" (なにがありますか？), you'll reply with (C) つくえがあります, not つくえは...*
When asked "Are there any desks? / Do you have a desk?" ...
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6
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こども "が" ねて いますから
As far as I know, it is usually never technically incorrect to replace one for another, but the emphasis will be different and so will the meaning.
Using は in your example, would give me this ...
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6
votes
Accepted
A complex structure: Xが～するYについて、～する者は
しかし彼が 常日頃吐き出す思想について 認める者は誰一人いなかった。
The portuguese translation is like "people doesn't agree with his ideas"
The translation is correct.
I translated like "he doens't care about people ideas"
...
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5
votes
The song 「雪が降る」 by アダモ goes --> ♪♪ 雪は降る あなたは来ない ... ♪♪
When someone wants to put two things as comparison in Japanese, they will say Aは...Bは...。 So in this song, it will be better to use は...は...。 I think maybe it can mean - Even the snow is already ...
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Difference between two sentences
魚が好きな人。
It's not a sentence, there is no predicate. It's a noun phrase meaning "a person who likes fish", or if the general subject where this expression appeared is a comparison between different ...
- 6,417
5
votes
は and が usage in a weird case
みずがありません
is used when: we have run out of water; the tank is empty; this place is arid; what we don't have is water etc.
みずはありません
is used when: water isn't available; there's no water (you ...
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5
votes
Accepted
A question about the particle used with potential form
when the potential form of a verb is being used, direct object particle "を" should not be used. Instead, が or は should be used.
That's not really correct; you can still use を naturally in many cases. ...
- 264k
5
votes
Accepted
What does それが mean here?
The それ here is referring forward to the event referenced later in the sentence - the fact that 「俺はこの街であゆと再会した」. The use of が rather than は is because the whole たとえ～としても clause is subordinate to the ...
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5
votes
は significance in ゲームは上手いですね
The normal and neutral way to say "Someone is good at games" is "(先輩は)ゲームが上手い". Using は instead of が in this position is almost certainly taken as "contrastive wa", i.e., it implies he is good only at ...
- 264k
4
votes
Accepted
On the usage of 「は」 and 「が」 in a poem by 谷川俊太郎
は can be used to describe the general feature of something, while が does not have such a nuance.
りんごは赤い。 Apples are red. (as the general fact)
りんごが赤い。 This (specific) apple looks red.
鳥は飛ぶ。 Birds (...
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4
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は or が in the example "朝起きるとき、鳥 ( ) いつも歌います"?
In your example, "私は" sounds unnatural because it gives too much emphasis on "私", while actually it's so much unimportant that most of native Japanese speakers would omit it at all.
You have also to ...
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4
votes
Accepted
The use of が, は and を in 私は総てを愛している
愛する is a straightforward transitive verb. Therefore, が always marks a subject (i.e. who loves), and を always marks an object (i.e. who/what is loved). は, as a topic marker, usually marks a subject but ...
- 264k
4
votes
は and が function
Assuming you already know the basics, here are the relevant rules you may be missing:
が is normally used to mark subjects in subordinate clauses.
But は is still used in subordinate clauses when ...
- 264k
3
votes
Why does は change the entire sentence?
Well, it seems that you have wrongly understood these sentences.
There are two possible interpretations of 魚は好きな人。:
The fish is a person who I like.
A person that only likes fish.
To mean "Fishes ...
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