Wa vs Ga particle: the REAL secret. Japanese the textbooks don't tell you.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ก.ย. 2024
- Wa and ga aren't two similar particles. They are entirely different KINDS of particle. Understand this and the whole question becomes much clearer.▼See More ▼
The whole question of "choosing between wa and ga" is somewhat misleading. Wa-sentences and ga-sentences are completely different in structure, even though they don't appear to be. This video will make the matter clear to you.
▼The course-book for this course is Unlocking Japanese
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So far you are the best teacher I could find on TH-cam!!
Doumo Arigatou Gozaimasu!
Thank you so much! You are very kind!
こちらこそどうもありがとうございます。
very very interesting (i should maybe say essential) video it helped me to think in a more simple way when i m reading japanese.
it s the first time i see someone explaining the が and は particle in an understandable and logical way
generally teacher and book conclude by something like "however, with time you will be used to that" but personally i learn japanese 1 year now and it s the best lesson i ve seen on this subject
You are a wonderful teacher! You choose really well what information to give, and you present it very clearly and in a logical chain! I'm so grateful you made all those videos, I'm sure it was quite a work. Now I feel much more secure and excited to learn Japanese... and study about Japanese.... :P your blog too, it's all wonderful, I hope to be able to get your book soon! Please, if you can, keep up doing those... They're really good and helpful! And I think the dolls are cute and funny. I love your voice! Hahahaha
Thank you, thank you! Yes the videos take a lot of time to make, but I think it's worth it. I will definitely be making more - probably some on kanji and some on immersion techniques, but the grammar series is also far from over. Such a lot to do!
So glad you like my voice! Some people complain and say "change the voice" but the problem is, it isn't "the voice" it's my voice.
Thank you again and I am so glad to be helping you to learn Japanese. I think "secure" is a very well-chosen word here and just what I am aiming for. Japanese can feel so unstable and hit-or-miss illogical because of the way the standard Western texts explain it. My aim is to put grammar on a _secure_ footing, based on its real Japanese nature rather than half-baked Europeanizations. That way, people can use it confidently without worrying about all the imaginary "exceptions" and illogicalities that _eihongo_ teaching throws up.
Thank you so much for your considerate and kind answer ç _ ç yes, they are! I hope more people see it, because they are really so good and helpful! These are treasures, really! I'm going really too slow with my studies, I'm still on WA and GA... But with the ame wa futteiru example I think I started to understand that this is really very broad. I'll do my best to advance! I want to study in Japan... so I have to study really hard. xD
oh, I am glad, your goal passed through very well :) thank you again!!
sorry for the delay on answering, I don't have the habit to check notifications here, so I forgot.
i just can't see any problem with your voice, it's calm and clear, to me it's very easy to pay attention!
That's too bad really. Well. I guess we will never be able to help absolutely everyone. But I am sure you will help a lot!!!!
Thank you again for your kind appreciation. When you say that you are still on WA and GA, I am not sure what level you are at. The ame ga futteiru example is from my more advanced lesson on WA vs GA - starting to deal with the subtler nuances. So if by still on WA and GA you mean that you haven't learned all the particles yet, I would suggest that the best way to proceed is to get the basic structure before going into the subtler aspects.
Don't worry. Everything you learn will help you so you aren't doing anything "wrong". But definitely I would learn all the main particles and basic sentence structure before worrying about finer details - simply because the finer details will fit in and make more sense then. I may be misunderstanding what you meant of course.
I would recommend downloading this "cheat sheet" (it's free)
cheatsheets.nihonshock.com/sheets/basic-japanese/
It's a good idea to print and laminate it and use it as reference. It really is very clever the way it gets all the main points of basic Japanese onto one double-sided sheet. It isn't a substitute for a textbook but it covers all the bedrock basics very concisely and if there's anything on it you don't understand - well you know that's something you NEED so you'd better look it up!
I advise going over my videos as well as textbooks (Tae Kim online is as good as any paid textbook if you don't have one) on any part you look up. That's because there are certain faults in textbooks that I try to put right. However at this stage my lessons are supplementary to textbooks, not a substitute for them.
Just use Tae Kim or if you want a "real" textbook (not necessary but you may want it) I would recommend Genki.
Here is a quick run-down of my method:
learnjapaneseonline.info/2015/05/18/basic-japanese-grammar-how-to-learn-it/
If you have any questions or run into problems just ask. That's what I'm here for.
I thought it would be better if I followed your videos chronologically, so I decided to start watching older videos first. I wasn't aware of that, thank you :) Actually, I have Tae Kim's app, because my best friend is more advanced at Japanese and he told me about it! I will proceed my studying there, then. And then watch your videos as I grasp the basics.
Ooooh, this cheat sheet sounds awesome! I will try to print and laminate it, yes! It would be nice to be able to get Genki one day, I'll see about that. At least books don't have extra import taxes here on Brazil :P
Thank you so much CureDolly-sensei, I feel so encouraged * - *
The videos and book are not intended to replace textbooks. I think one needs at least a very basic knowledge of the grammar I am discussing to follow them properly. I might end up doing a "from scratch" course/book at some point, but that is a big job that I haven't tackled yet. I do recommend watching the videos/reading the book _alongside_ learning the basics. This is the ideal way to use them I think.
For probably a majority of people they are a "repair job", helping them to correct the problems that the standard explanations throw up. Better than that is to learn from the standard texts _plus_ this material so that you get a proper grasp right from the start
.
My recommendation would be to read the relevant section of Tae Kim-sensei and then watch the relevant video. That way you get the standard explanation and immediately fill it in with the extra information that will clarify and de-confuse it. If you don't understand the Tae Kim or find it confusing come straight here rather than struggle with it, because you may find that solves the problem.
And if that works out for you, you won't really need Genki. I would suggest that moving into immersion is a better use of your time than going over the grammar to excess (but then I am an immersionist).
I am so happy that you feel encouraged. Please keep going (がんばってください). Feel free to ask me questions at any time.
Thanks for your videos. "watashi ga Mearii wo kisu shimasita" is strange, "Mearii NI kisu shimasita " or "Mearii TO kisu shimasita" is normal.
Just a slight correction: In the breakdown of the 私はさくらです part of the video you accidentally wrote か instead of が for the particle.
Thank you for pointing it out. As a matter of fact I was even dumber than that! I actually spotted the error and corrected it, but didn't correct it properly. If you watch at around 7:33 the missing ten-ten suddenly appears. Unfortunately it isn't possible to correct the video once it has been uploaded.
Why 「東京は土曜日に行きます。」 and not 「東京には土曜日に行きます。」 ?
I thought に and で where obligatory with は and only を or が could be omitted when "converted" to a topic marker...
ありがとうございました
even mr Heisenberg has learned japanese
Thanks for the great videos. Finally Japanese is not a guessing game anymore :)
Thank you for your kind appreciation. I am so happy to help.
Jesus. This is the best explanation ever. BRING HER BACK!!!
This has helped me immensely
so... I can say "Nihongo wa watashi ga hanasemasu" to say "As for japanese, I (subject) can speak"...
but if I say "watashi wa nihongo ga hanasemasu" is this correct?
I already saw "nihongo ga hanasemasu" in textbooks, but now I don't understand because if "ga" is for the subject that would mean that it is the "japanese language" that can speak...
so, does that mean "Nihongo ga hanasemasu" is incorrect?
Should it be either "(watashi ga) nihongo wa hanasemasu" or "(watashi ga) nihongo wo hanasemasu"?
or if we use "nihongo ga", shouldn't we use the verb "hanasu" in kind of a "potential-passive" form or something like that, because nihongo became the subject?
Nihongo is the subject here and this is usual with potential verbs and the core sentence is Nihongo ga hanasemasu. The whole sentence is literally "In relation to me, Japanese does speak-possible". This is explained here (with the potential of suru = dekiru, but it moves on to regular potential verbs from there) here th-cam.com/video/qcOhHmU0znI/w-d-xo.htmlm1s - Preferably I would watch this whole video plus the one before it to get a good grasp of what is going on here but the link will explain your specific question.
If it is still unclear I would really recommend watching my whole "from scratch" series because it isn't just for beginners, it's a good way to go over the whole Japanese structure that the textbooks never teach, which leaves one guessing what is really going on in a whole range of Japanese sentences th-cam.com/video/pSvH9vH60Ig/w-d-xo.html
If you have any further questions, please feel free to ask.
Thank you!!
I watch some more of your videos and now I get it!
It is amazing how easy and logical the japanese is as long as you know what's really going on and get rid of the misleading explications you can find on textbooks...
(you especially saved my life with the so-called passive and the causative... I tried so hard during several months to get it and would never manage to understand who does what and the logic with particles...
and thank to you in 10 minutes I understood everything. It is so easy in reality! O_o )
あなたの解説は核心を突いている。
ありがとうございます。
Hello, wondering if anyone can clarify a 'ga'-related question i have: In the pattern ' koto ga dekiru', why is the particle 'ga' used? Why has the noun-phrase become the subject of dekiru? I think Im misunderstanding the way potential forms are used, is it 'I can do X', or 'X is doable' (and wouldn't 'doability' be an adjective??). Any advice would be appreciated!
できる means "doable" most of the time - in fact most potentials work this way - so we say 本がよめる (book does readable) even though the English translations twist it into "I can read the book". It isn't an adjective simply because Japanese isn't English and in Japanese it is a verb. In English "book does readable" is not the way we say things, but in Japanese it is. More on potentials here th-cam.com/video/qcOhHmU0znI/w-d-xo.html and more on this whole question of things being verbs in Japanese that aren't in English here: th-cam.com/video/wLrK_YxdPoM/w-d-xo.html
@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 Thanks so much!
Thank you very much for your videos. I watch them over and over to absorb the material. Could you tell me please, why do so many Japanese teachers, native also, on TH-cam, textbook practice sentences, communicate the wa as the subject ? They say, “ ... we use wa because Tanaka is the subject whose doing the action ‘ . There not treating Tanaka as the topic of the sentence. Don’t get it. It’s confusing.
There constantly referring to wa as the subject marker, or have I missed something.
ME TOO, I am confused now...
I am three years late to see your comment but I believe this is because Japanese is a topic heavy language compared to English. If you watch Dolly-sensei’s video on the ‘zero particle’, she explains it very well. For example: 田中は日本人です. Or It’s more literally like, “田中は🚫が日本人です” -> As for Tanaka, *it* is Japanese. We have to infer what the ‘it’s is from context. In this context, it is Tanaka. I have attempted answer this very poorly so I recommend looking up Dolly-sensei’s blog on spotting the zero particle and watching her video on it. がんばって！
Oh now i understand, Thanks for the lesson.
very helpful for understanding ga particle...
Thank you! Slightly embarrassing old video but the information is still valid!
What is the meaning of the zero particle + が in the sentence, "わたしは(0)がさくらです"? Is there a literal translation? I understand that it's always there but I don't understand what it means in a simple statement with a clearly marked topic (私は in this case).
Literally "As for me, (I) Sakura-am" at least that is the basic assumption where context doesn't imply anything else.
If we were discussing whom we love for example it would mean "As for me (it) Sakura-is" - "it" being the one I love.
@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 Thank you. That makes sense.
the zero particle thing threw me off and has made me a bit confused, can someone explain that part?
th-cam.com/video/3SqgXPBJfOI/w-d-xo.html
@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 cool thanks, I thought there might be a video on it or an explanation somewhere. I ordered your book too so I'm gonna look at that when it gets here
@@TheSaladTozzer Wonderful! Thank you!
interesting
Your accent is so cute, like classic Disney ❤️
She has dead recently, sadly
@@tokrrr what happened?
@@mercurymoon16 in the description of her last video says that she's passed away, I think she had some serious ill, I looking up about what happened :(
@@tokrrrhow could she have posted that update if she was dead? I’m pretty confused what is going on here 🫤
@@micah1754 Her family posted that, I suppose
Sorry if this isn't the best place for this question. Between you and Jay Rubin it's very clear that が always marks the subject (doer) and is never substituted for other particles such as を. But I came across the following sentence which is very confusing if that's the case. "アメリカに住みたいのは、英語の勉強がしたいからです。" Obviously, "I" is the subject but "study" is marked with が. If "study" is the direct object them why is it marked with が? Thanks!
I've read recently that this sensei behind this channel has passed away. :( Maybe someone else will step up with an answer to your question.
@japanori I understand that according to the "が is always the subject rule" 勉強would be the subject. But that doesn't explain why in this case 勉強 receives が but if the same sentence was about a third person it wouldn't. Compare the two examples: 1. 英語の勉強がしたい。2. ジョンが英語を勉強したい。
@@niwashikun "A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar" p.120 explains...
>In some expressions, elements which are considered to be direct objects are presented as subjects and are marked by ga.
So "eigo no benkyou ga shitai" means "I want to study English" or "English learning is desirable".
@@kotori_no_saezuri Thanks for the effort but that's just restating my observation. I'm trying to see the underlying reason/logic to understand why this case strays from the rule Cure Dolly was speaking about in the video. It's not the "meaning" of the sentence I'm looking for. I'm looking for the underlying reasoning for the structure.
@@niwashikun The ga particle in this case is what is called "ga case particle of object" (対象の「が」格助詞).
This is explained that...
Things that exist (〜がある,〜がいる) and objects that emotions are directed to (〜がほしい,〜が好き,etc.) are expressed with ga particle. Desired actions (〜がしたい), possibility of actions (〜ができる), etc. are also sometimes expressed with ga. These "~ ga" phrases are considered to be _subjects_.
"英語の勉強がしたい" would be explained like...
"したい" represents the resultant _(mental) state_ of the action "desire", and "勉強" is the _party concerned_ to that state.
Since the element that causes the state(したい) has been discarded, "勉強" is _free from the involvement of the doer_ and _acts like a subject_.
Thanks for the lesson. Does the は always on the left of が ? Sorry If it will be explained on later video.
は and が are never both used in a sentence to refer to the same entity. If they are used to refer to different entities, their order will depend on what's happening in the sentence.
@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 Thank you 先生!
So for the few videos now I've been thinking what is the point of hiding ∅-が instead of just using it but this video shed some more light on that topic. Tell me, please, if I understand it correctly that the fact that ∅-が is even a thing and a lot of the time a hidden thing is to add freedom of expression by which I mean various implications or subtexts or ways of saying things (like that: "I'll have an eel" sentence). Is that it? Or at least a part of it?
So, if you mark yourself as a topic of the sentence, can that be taken as self-centered, going back to the whole non-egocentricism and detaching yourself from language?
If anything of what I said it's partially true, would that mean that は became a thing in Japanese bit later than anything else to compensate for lack of expressing things in better ways? Or not really?
No, not really. Once something is understood, most languages don't keep repeating it and don't necessarily even say it once. But they do (European languages at least) keep marking it with a pronoun. "Oh this? I bought IT on Monday and had IT framed. IT grew legs yesterday and ran away. I've been looking for IT ever since." Now IT doesn't actually tell us anything except that it probably isn't a person so it is barely more informative than a zero pronoun. Repeating IT all the time also serves no purpose - it is just a redundancy that English insists on. Japanese does it a little more economically, that's all.
teacher, for your last example does it make sense to say 「私がさくらです」？
Grammatically it does, but the implication would be "I am the one who is Sakura" - in other words it is the answer to the (implicit or explicit) question "which of you is Sakura" whereas 私はさくらです is the answer to the (implicit or explicit) question who are you? For more about why this is, please see this video: th-cam.com/video/o-hK4-qv9Yk/w-d-xo.html
I make sense. Mindblow
Subbed. Thanks for giving us some really useful information! I consider myself to be an advanced learner but honestly there are tons of thing I don't get..
Thank you! I am very happy that I can help.
I don't know if this is a silly question, but is there always a topic when you make a statement in Japanese? Can you say something without a topic?
Yes, the wa particle marks the topic. So , if you don't have a wa particle you don't have a topic (at least in the grammatical sense). Only sentences with wa have the topic-comment structure.
Actually I should amend that slightly because there are sentences where mo substitutes for wa. For example, in "watashi mo koohii ga suki desu" the structure has to be topic-comment for reasons I will explain in a future video (or you can find in the book). In this case mo has been substituted for wa in order to express that the speaker _in addition to someone else_ likes coffee. Like wa, mo is a non-logical particle.
This aside, regular non-wa sentences have no grammatical topic.
KawaJapa CureDolly ありがとうございました
どういたしまして。
Following Johnjohntv 69's question, and in analogy with your arguments about the "ga" particle, could not one argue that any sentence must also have a topic (this is what a sentence is all about, after all: providing information about some topic!), whether explicit or implicit, and that there always exists some underlying "zero topic" even when it is not explicitly given?
But perhaps this is just the reason why you wrote in your reply that there is "no GRAMMATICAL topic".
Btw, I have another question, but it is about your book, not this particular lesson. Where should I post it?
Yes exactly. That is precisely why I said "grammatical topic". Of course every sentence has a topic in the sense that every sentence must be talking about _something_. But what wa marks is the topic not in the colloquial English sense but in the technical grammatical sense.
In a way it is confusing to say "ga marks the subject and wa marks the topic" because in everyday English "subject" and "topic" mean much the same thing (this is why I often say "do-er or be-er" in place of subject - a little clumsy, but clearer!). We are here discussing their grammatical senses. In this sense English and Japanese both have a grammatical subject (shugo) but only Japanese has a grammatical topic (shudai).
You can contact me via KawaJapa about the book or comment on the page about it there:
learnjapaneseonline.info/2016/11/05/unlocking-japanese-a-breakthrough-in-how-we-learn-the-language/
Or it's probably ok to ask here if you like!
done
Wow an og vtuber
I love the intro
I'm afraid we dropped it in later videos, but I liked it too!
@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49
We?
Wait... who is this ? Where's CureDolly ?!
An early model.
I love your voice :)
Yay! Thank you೭੧(❛▿❛✿)੭೨
You're very welcome! :) In fact, I'd like to say どう いたしまして and have used it without any thought for a while...until I read somewhere you should avoid saying that as "you're welcome", similar to avoid "anata" as it's too direct perhaps.
I don't think it is direct (it literally means "what did I (humbly) do (to be thanked)?" But no one remembers that anyway, just as English people don't remember "goodbye" as meaning "God be with you". どういたしまして is a bit old-fashioned these days, but I suspect the reason for avoiding it is that it seems like accepting the thanks (originally it didn't mean that of course, but the original meaning is mostly forgotten) and therefore a little like self-praise. As a non-native Japanese speaker it even feels that way to me. I have thought of saying it and then thought "no, that sounds as if I'm agreeing that I should be thanked". Very common is just saying いいえ, "no". Which in English would come across as rejecting I think, but in Japanese you're implying "no, don't thank me, I did nothing of value".
「どういたしまして」is more equivalent to saying "Don't mention it" or "its nothing" in English. Practically, you are not expected to return a response from ありがとう. Just give a smile or a nod of the head is just fine ^_^
Nearly slipped my mind, you could also respond with 「こちらこそ」depending on the situation. It means "I should be the one to thank you" (more or less like that).
Im lost, what is "zero Ø " about?
わたしがジョーンズです。"I" am Jones.
わたしが→
→ が is deleted and は is placed →
→{わたし(Φが) + は} →
→ わたしは
わたしはジョーンズです。I'm "Jones."
this zero shit is nonsense that you should just ignore tbh, watch taekim's guide on ga vs ha, to this day it's the best explanation on the matter that i've seen
@@apina69ok58
It’s standard linguistic theory. Saying that ga is always there is her interpretation. And I find it useful and coherent. That’s what matters.
Watch her videos starting from the oldest.
who dat
This voice is quite unsettling 😬 I find it hard to concentrate. Is it real or AI?
Honestly, Cure dolly is a fairly interesting channel. I’m guessing it’s a heavy voice changer from someone with a strong Japanese accent. I’m using caption because apparently her advice is top notch, but from my understanding, the person behind this channel unfortunately passed away too so we might never know any more or get audio improvements.
@@zaku2939 i cant pin the actual accent, but dolly was most definitely living somewhere in the UK. she was just an old woman with a crappy mic and antiquated editing style that wanted to help others learn japanese. rest her soul.
@@kernelscout3077not touched upon enough that perhaps the best TH-cam Japanese teacher is currently deceased lol.
This voice is one the most annoying things I've ever came across.
Oh dear. I seem to get a lot of love an a lot of - well not-love - for my voice. And the rest of me too. I think we have improved the sound somewhat in later videos (this is a very early one) and my vocal unit has been somewhat upgraded too. I hope it is enough to stop the not-love and not stop the love. But I guess it's hard to get things juu-st right when you're only a doll and not Goldilocks!
I love the voice! It took a little getting used to, but I find it relaxing to listen to you :)
ありがとうございます。
I bet a ton of people are saying that your personality is annoying too but they won't say it to your face, because they are polite.
I totally want to make out with cure dollys avatar. That notwithstanding, i think im getting used to は and が now.
I saw it in Minna no nihongo "これは さんとさんが うんで いた うちです”. It was translated "This is the house that Sato-san lived". But I got a little bit confuse. I have translated it into "As for this, Sato-san already lived in house", can you explain for me and point out the mistake I make?
I think the correct sentence should be this: "これは さとさんが すんで いた うちです”. I'm not sure where the "already" is coming from. すんで いる means "is living" therefore the past form すんで いた means "was living". So literally "As for this, Sato-san lived house is", which I would translate into natural English as "This is the house where Sato-san lived".
If we want to show the zero-pronoun and particle, we would write this:
"これは (∅が) さとさんが すんで いた うちです”
which means "As for this, (it) Sato-san lived house-is".
@@organicjapanesewithcuredol49 arigatou sensei ! I totally understand