16
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 the sentence.
お寺は公園の隣です。
The temple is next to the park.
(This is a known fact to you.)
鳥は飛べます。
Birds can fly.
(This is a general fact.)
Note ...
14
「って」 is the only correct (and possible) answer here.
When someone asks the question 「ねえ, 田中さん（ ）どんなひと？」, the asker should basically have no knowledge of Tanaka, correct?
That is where the topic-introducing 「って」 comes into place --- "this Tanaka guy", "this guy called --- what was his name, Tanaka?", etc.
Using 「が」 is very unnatural (I would call it ...
12
"I want xxx." vs. "I do not want xxx."
When you want something, you will generally say:
「XXX + が + ほしい」
and when you do not want something, you will generally say:
「XXX + は + ほしくない」
The only times you can and must use 「XXX + が + ほしくない」 is when it is used in the if-clause or relative clause. Thus, it is correct to say:
Relative Clause:「靴{くつ} + が +...
10
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) 猫は私が好き
The pattern of these sentences is:
Topic は target of adjective が adjective
I(topic) like(adjective) cats(target of adjective).
Cats(topic) like(adjective)...
9
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 topic prominent language. In English, no distinction is made between the topic of a sentence and the subject. In Japanese, however, they serve two different ...
9
You are correct.
In the sentence:
「私{わたし}（ ）言{い}うように書{か}いてください。」
The only particle that can be placed in the parentheses above is 「が」. 「は」 is not an option at all. Use a 「は」 there and you will sound weirder than you ever want to sound. It is that important.
Why? That is because the only possible subject-marking particle in subordinate clauses and ...
9
A:「ゲームは上手{うま}いですね!」
B:「ゲーム「は」.....」
This is the contrastive 「は」 or at least that is what B takes it to be.
A's line can be interpreted as "You are good at games (if not anything else)!", which is exactly how B interpreted it. That is why B reacts (jokingly) by emphasizing the contrastive 「は」.
B's line is obviously difficult to translate literally as ...
8
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 translates to: "I'm not married. Does that bother you?" or "I'm not married. You have a problem with that?". The underlying context is that in Japan, there is a ...
8
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 clearly marking the subject of the verb います. Don't get confused because the "sister" and "cat" are both objects in the most natural English translation of ...
7
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 two different meanings.
C. つくえがあります。
① There is a desk.
② (Among the aforementioned options,) The desk is what exists. [exhaustive-listing]
D. ...
7
The sentence:
「[山田]{やまだ}さんがいらっしゃいますでしょうか。」
is definitely more than weird and it is nothing native speakers would say. The particle needs to be 「は」, and never 「が」.
To ask if someone is in, the topic marker is always 「は」. Admittedly, though, using 「が」 to do so is a very common mistake among Japanese-learners.
There is, however, a situation in which 「...
6
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-looking sentence, and it's certainly not a normal way of saying "Cats like me." It could mean "I like cats." and I think that this is the most natural ...
6
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 exhaustive rather than neutral (because it would be weird to have a neutral が attached to something already in the "universe of discourse"), but here in a relative ...
6
In both cases, the natural particle choice would be 「は」. The speaker simply does not have enough reason to use「が」 in either of the two. You need a good reason to use 「が」 but J-learners tend to over-use it.
"In Sydney, I saw a ryokan. Are there ryokans in Melbourne?"
In this situation, the speaker does not know whether or not there are ryokan in ...
6
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 falling, but you still do not show up. To emphasize the feeling of disappointment.
6
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?" (つくえはありますか？), you'd reply with (D) つくえはあります, not つくえが...
*You might reply つくえはあります to mean "We have desks, at least (but we may not have other things)."
...
6
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 impression.
Maybe YOU are not sleeping, but THE KIDS are, so calm down!
With the が the emphasis on comparing the sleeping people and the non sleeping people is ...
6
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"
It's
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 main clause is 認めるものは誰一人いなかった。
彼が常日頃吐き出す思想について is an adverbial phrase to 認める; and this 認める ...
6
I will try to answer this question the way that I think beginning learners could follow.
1) 「ボブは魚{さかな}が好{す}きだ。」
2) 「ボブは魚は好きだ。」
Both sentences are 100% correct but there is a nuance difference between them and therefore, they cannot be used interchangeably.
1)「ボブは魚が好きだ」 is the most basic way of saying "Bob likes (eating) fish." It is ...
5
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 animal species (including human) "fish-liking human(kind)".
人は魚が好きだ。
This on the other hand is a full sentence. "Human(kind) like fish".
5
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 can have); when it comes to water, we don't have it etc.
Please note that water isn't subject in any English translation of みずがありません above. Without は attaches to ...
5
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 (can) fly. (as the general fact)
鳥が飛んでいる。 A (certain) bird is flying.
Let's take a look at the third stanza. See that いま is always used with が? Here, the poet is ...
5
I am going to give an answer based on the web site you are using. If you want more detail please ask. (FYI: There is book on the difference b/w は & が but I would suggest looking at a few of the Q&A on this website first and make a note of the comment from Tokyo Nagoya for future reference.)
The website you are looking at explains (quote):
"We ..use ...
5
What's important is to grasp what's talked about, that is, the topic.
In this conversation, they are talking over "hamburgers", so (as long as the context goes straightforwardly) you must first think to refer to the hamburgers as the topic, in other words, marked with は. (In this regard, the example sentence saying ハンバーガーを is not really natural. It should ...
5
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. See: The difference between が and を with the potential form of a verb.
が or は should be used. So when should we use which?
So do you know the standard ...
5
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 main sentence. Just like in relative clauses, you don't usually use a topic marker in subordinate clauses like this, because topics are generally defined at the ...
5
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 games and not good at anything else.
Maybe the girl was careless and incidentally leaked her inner feelings, and it hurt 先輩 all the more for her innocence. Or ...
5
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 contrastive meaning is important.
Both contrastive-は and exhaustive-listing-が "emphasize" something before it, but in different ways.
Therefore, 私が死んだら is the ...
4
The former (明日は…) is an answer to a question "What day is tomorrow?" while the latter (明日が…) is that to "When is Tuesday?".
Edit: "Topic" stands for imformation that's suggested in the preceding context, so when we see 明日は…, we can imagine some contexts that include "明日" e.g. "明日は何曜日？". On the other hand, 明日が火曜日 is inversion of 火曜日は明日, and we can think of ...
4
私は猫が好きだ means I like cats.
私は猫は好きだ has the same meaning and it's absolutely possible.
But in the second case you are putting emphasis on what you like for whatever reason: maybe you are going to talk then about cats, or you want to remark that you like a specific cat (私はこの猫は好きだ), or want to focus attention on cats, etc.
The same emphasis can be put on ...
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