は and が 1

Hello! I am Kosuke!

How is your Japanese study going?
Also, is your practice to become a Ninja going well?


In the previous article, we studied about the first person representation!
  First person representation >>



In this article, let's study about the difference between 'は(wa)' and 'が(ga)'!


I have already talked about 'は(wa)' in this blog.

It is called "postpositional particle", and used right after the Subject of the sentence.

If you still don't remember 'は(wa)', please check this:
  ～は (wa) >>





'が' is almost same as 'は'.

If you see 'が' in a sentence, it means there is the Subject in front of 'が'.


So, what is the difference?


Actually, even Japanese language experts are still discussing this topic.
The detailed difference is very difficult to understand.


Therefore, I would like to talk about the basic difference of them in this article.


If you want to know which word you should use in a normal sentence, please check the predicate of the sentence!


Please remember the rule below:

Predicate of the sentence	Which should we use?
Noun	は
Adjective or Adjective verb	は
Verb	が

Is that too complex?

I think it's OK for you to remember:

  - If the predicate is a verb, we use 'が'.

  - If the predicate is not a verb, we use 'は'.

Let's check the example sentences!

Examples:

1.

さ

す

け

は

に

ん

じゃ

で

す

。

Sa

su

ke

wa

ni

n

ja

de

su

     Meaning :  "Sasuke is a Ninja."

     

							さすけ	：	Sasuke (person's name)
							にんじゃ	：	Ninja

In this sentence, "Sasuke" is the subject, and "Ninja" is the predicate.
Because "Ninja" is a noun, we use 'は' right after the subject, instead of 'が'.

If you don't know the word 'です(desu)', please check the article below:
  です(desu) and ます(masu) >>

2.

さ

す

け

は

ぶ

き

よ

う

で

す

。

sa

su

ke

wa

bu

ki

yo

u

de

su

     Meaning :  "Sasuke is clumsy."

     

ぶきよう

：

clumsy

"Clumsy" is "ぶきよう" in Japanese, and it is an adjective verb (na-adjective).

In this sentence, "Sasuke" is the subject, and "clumsy" is the predicate.
Because "clumsy" is not a verb, we use 'は' right after the subject, instead of 'が'.

3.		さ	す	け		が		お	ち	た	。
		sa	su	ke		ga		o	chi	ta

     Meaning :  "Sasuke fell."

     

おちた

：

fell, dropped

'おちた' is the past tense of the verb 'おちる'.

In this sentence, "Sasuke" is the subject, and "fell" is the predicate.
Because "fell" is a verb, we use 'が' right after the subject, instead of 'は'.




If you know this information, you can communicate in a normal conversation!
So please remember the information in this article as a basic knowledge!

  - If the predicate is a verb, we use 'が'.
  - If the predicate is not a verb, we use 'は'.

However, actually, it is not impossible to use 'が' for the sentence whose predicate is not a verb. And vice versa.

But it changes the meaning of the sentence a little.

I will explain about it in the next article:
  'は' and 'が' 2 >>


I hope this blog helps you study English!
Thank you for reading!

Related articles:

    ～は(wa) >>

    は and が 2 >>

    ～を (wo) >>

    ～の (no) >>

    です(desu) and ます(masu) >>

    First person representation >>

    Hiragana chart >>

    ～さん (-san) >>