Hope you guys enjoyed the video! It was a big topic to cover, and I tried to keep it as condensed as possible to avoid too big of a video :) Hopefully you all get something useful from the video! I'll make sure to go into even more detail for the single-particle focused videos!
I have been studying Japanese for years and while I have a good grasp of most grammar these two always alluded me. This was by far the best explanation I could have and it also explained why question words can never have the は particle. It will definitely take some practice with my new found knowledge but now I think I can understand much better! Thank you so much!
There's so much nuance here and books very rarely explain these particles and when they do it's insufficient. Thank you fit an excellent explanation ^.^
One thing that was confusing in some of the video examples for example with FF10, was when they say が but it sounds like は. Sometimes when Japanese speakers speak really fast I have trouble understanding whether they are saying は or が
The quality of this video is just unbelievable! It's the only lesson explaining the difference between wa and ga I could actually understand! Thank you very much!
Thanks so much for this video! I hadn't realized you had this and it was bought up in the Discord. The more I've immersed, the more I was less sure about my understanding of particles, so this helps a lot!
Yaaay hehe thanks for enjoying the video man!! Its so fun taking examples from a wide variety of different games! The hard part is just finding them all haha
Thank you! After getting all the grammar lingo from CureDolly your channel always delivers with great applied examples! :) (you did do the grammar justice as well though I believe)
I mean, I studied Japanese 15 years ago, I am not profficient at all, but I can understand a lot of sentences in a regular conversation. All this, just to say, that I never quite understood the difference between these two particles. You are absolutely right, referring to "ha" as a "topic" made it incredibly confusing for me to grasp. But now I understand that this is just a concept that we don't have in western languages (I am a Spanish speaker), and that this adds to the notion that Japanese is incredibly contextual. PS: Love your content!
a rule of thumb a professor once told me is that sentences generally go 'something ha something ga', never 'something ga something ha'. reflecting on this video, i remember times ive found it difficult to express myself accurately in japanese. part of that may have been confusing the listener with incorrect use of ha and ga!
Nice video. I know that this is something which I always get confused too. I assume that the more experience I get, the better I will be able to determine which to use and when
Framing it as "は *VS* が" implies that they are in opposition to each other. That you must choose one or the other. This almost guarantees that people will continue be confused. They perform different functions, and both can be present (and both can be absent) in a sentence. は can be dropped if the topic is known, が can be dropped if the subject is known. The topic and the subject are independent of each other. It's like saying "topic *VS* subject". To say "when to use は and when to use が" is to say "when to state the topic and when to state the subject". It is not either/or. My source is "Making Sense of Japanese: What the Textbooks Don't Tell You" by Jay Rubin.
The versus in "は VS が" just means the he is comparing the two. He compares は to が and tells us what the differences between them are. That doesn't imply that they're mutually exclusive or in opposition, just that they are two different particles.
A good comparison for English would be "Explaining there vs theyre". That statement simply means that i will explain the difference between the word there and the word they're, not that they are in opposition to each other or can't be used in the same sentence. Depending on the context, the meaning of "vs" can change.
The comparison use of は still seems a bit confusing. Never seen it used that way. I'll have to practice that. I was actually going to ask about 雨/雪が降る, but you beat me to it. If you use は you are talking about rain/snow, but with が, I guess you can assume there is an unsaid 今は or something before it since that is the true topic.
It is fairly confusing at first! It's why I really recommend translating は into 'as for' as it will apply to situations when it both is and isn't used in comparison :) So the main difference using は and が with the rain is that は feels like a general statement like 'the rain falls' where as が has a sense of new information so 'the rain is falling' would be more likely to use が for that very reason.
No one explains this better than Cure Dolly. This explanation does a good job with は, but it makes the fundamental mistake with が of trying to explain it as if it were English. The が particle exists in every Japanese sentence, whether we can see it or not. It marks the thing that is performing the action or the thing that is being. Saying that it is the thing that takes the action is wrong. Theが never takes the action. Not even in what people say is the “passive voice”. Japanese has no passive voice in the same way English or Spanish does. Anyway, the が particle marks the subject, the one doing the action or being the thing. That’s all it ever does. Simple as that. Once you understand this fully, Japanese sentences quickly begin to be less confusing and to make a lot more sense.
Thats how I've naturally come to explain it as well. This is an old video. But は marks the topic of the sentence (whats being talked about) and が marks the subject of the sentence (the thing doing the action or existing in a state)
But wait, isn't Jecht know in the world of FFX? It makes no sense that he's not known since the announcer is talking through the monitor to the people of Zanarkand not to us, no? "Everyone's hero Jecht (the one we all know since he's everyone's hero) has disappeared". if someone like Masahiro Sakurai went missing IRL, would we use WA since he's known? And at 13:00, shouldn't "boku ga" be "what kind of a human *I* am" and not the "I'm the one"?
I really appreciate your effort to make learning Japanese a joyful progress for gamers, but I have something to point out. 13:23 I found an issue in your translation This is the sentence you translated: だけど"ボクは"…… "ボクが" どんな人間なのかを 知りたいんだ But, "speaking of myself"... "I'm the one that" wants to know what kind of human "I am"(???). My question is: where is the third "I(ボク)" in the original sentence? Why not translate it into "what kind of human he is" or "what kind of human she is"? According to your translation method, the original sentence should be: "But, speaking of myself... I'm the one that wants to know what kind of human.", which doesn't make sense. The reason cause this problem is that the second "ボク(が)" isn't the one who "wants to know" in the sentence, but the one who "is what kind of human". The original sentence should be comprehended like this: (I'll borrow your translation to make it a easier comparison for understanding) だけどボクは…… "ボクが" どんな人間なのかを 知りたいんだ But, speaking of myself... (I) want to know what kind of human "I am". -> "ボクが どんな人間なのか" can be comprehended as the question which is asking "what kind of human I am". -> Because the default subject in Japanese is “(I)”, it is skippable, especially "speaking of myself" had been mentioned before. That's the third "I(ボク)" you can't find in this sentence. "ボクが" isn't emphasized in the noun clauses "ボクがどんな人間なのか(what kind of human I am)", but the whole comment "ボクがどんな人間なのかを知りたいんだ(want to know what kind of human I am)" after "は" is what really matters.
Hey Graham! Thanks for all your support and comments lately!! :D Great question! There are lots of different reasons, it would be due to just a certain characters style, or perhaps the Kanji is too difficult for the target audience of the game, maybe the writer is wanting to put emphasis, or make a name stand out. There are tons of different reasons why it's used :) I feel like Vivi might be using it to stand out as he is referring to his own name which is written in Katakana perhaps?
@@GameGengo Oh hey, no problem. I love the way you put together your videos and I think its only a matter of time before you hit it big among Japanese learners. A lot of them get into Japanese because of games, after all. As for Vivi, I was thinking that since katakana is used to describe foreign things in Japanese, maybe Square used katakana here to further emphasize that Vivi feels like he doesn't belong in the world, or that he's unsure of his origin. I loved Vivi, and that further depth makes me like him more. Keep up the good work!
![เจ็บที่ยังฮัก - ม่อน วรวิทย์ [ Official Mv ] จอนนี่มิวสิค](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/KALIGSRSjFs/mqdefault.jpg)
Out of all the dozens of explanations about は and が this is, hand down, the best one.
Damn. Thank you so much
honestly yes, i finally understand it now
Facts he made it very clear
criminally underrated
You're probably the best TH-camr when it comes to abstracting these concepts with good comparisons, especially for the gamers and show lovers
Hope you guys enjoyed the video! It was a big topic to cover, and I tried to keep it as condensed as possible to avoid too big of a video :)
Hopefully you all get something useful from the video! I'll make sure to go into even more detail for the single-particle focused videos!
Hi, why is that wa and ga are not being compared to "the"?
I have been studying Japanese for years and while I have a good grasp of most grammar these two always alluded me. This was by far the best explanation I could have and it also explained why question words can never have the は particle. It will definitely take some practice with my new found knowledge but now I think I can understand much better! Thank you so much!
There's so much nuance here and books very rarely explain these particles and when they do it's insufficient. Thank you fit an excellent explanation ^.^
One thing that was confusing in some of the video examples for example with FF10, was when they say が but it sounds like は. Sometimes when Japanese speakers speak really fast I have trouble understanding whether they are saying は or が
The quality of this video is just unbelievable! It's the only lesson explaining the difference between wa and ga I could actually understand! Thank you very much!
Just starting out of japanese, I've been struggling with getting these down for days. Simple and concise video made it all clear, thank you so much.
Well, that's about as clear as anyone can make it! Great job, Matt, love the production on this one too!
Yaaay thanks JDbackstory!! Really trying to go for a professional but also fun look! I'm glad you're enjoying the videos so far!
これからも頑張り続けます！！
this is the first time i actually feel like i understand the differences and nuances between these two particles!
I thought I knew this well but you still showed me new and useful ways to think about WA and GA. Great breakdown.
Your grammar breakdowns are fantastic. Keep up the amazing work, you have helped a ton to clear things up.
Thank you so much man! Hopefully one day all JP grammar will be easily broken down on this channel hehe
That's my goal! ;) thanks for your support!!
Thank you so much! This is so much more helpful than any other source I've seen explaining it! :)
Thanks so much for this video! I hadn't realized you had this and it was bought up in the Discord. The more I've immersed, the more I was less sure about my understanding of particles, so this helps a lot!
This is by far the best explanation I've ever heard 😀
Try Cure Dolly's first videos. These particles are better to learn along with the sentence structure to really understand the underlying mechanics.
This video is pure gold!
Whoa! Thank you so much! That is an amazing compliment!! hehehe
That's so awesome you enjoyed it!! I'll do my best to make more!
I am very, very grateful for this video. Thank you so, so much. 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾
The Examples were excellent, good job!
Yaaay hehe thanks for enjoying the video man!!
Its so fun taking examples from a wide variety of different games! The hard part is just finding them all haha
What about a video on ni versus de?
Thank you! After getting all the grammar lingo from CureDolly your channel always delivers with great applied examples! :) (you did do the grammar justice as well though I believe)
As always clear explanations, great video and great editing! The quality of your videos is improving at an incredible rate! 👏
Thank you so much man! Glad you enjoyed the video!
I'll keep doing my best to improve the quality of both the videos and learning content itself! :)
Your videos are amazing mate
I mean, I studied Japanese 15 years ago, I am not profficient at all, but I can understand a lot of sentences in a regular conversation. All this, just to say, that I never quite understood the difference between these two particles. You are absolutely right, referring to "ha" as a "topic" made it incredibly confusing for me to grasp. But now I understand that this is just a concept that we don't have in western languages (I am a Spanish speaker), and that this adds to the notion that Japanese is incredibly contextual.
PS: Love your content!
Awesome channel thanks you very much !!!
a rule of thumb a professor once told me is that sentences generally go 'something ha something ga', never 'something ga something ha'. reflecting on this video, i remember times ive found it difficult to express myself accurately in japanese. part of that may have been confusing the listener with incorrect use of ha and ga!
ive re watched my teacher do this explanation for 3 hours straight and your 2 minute video just clicked for me lmao
你是一個好老師。
A great video, as always
Thank you so much Rah!! Glad you found it useful/fun!! :D
Nice video. I know that this is something which I always get confused too. I assume that the more experience I get, the better I will be able to determine which to use and when
thanks for the vid
Framing it as "は *VS* が" implies that they are in opposition to each other. That you must choose one or the other. This almost guarantees that people will continue be confused. They perform different functions, and both can be present (and both can be absent) in a sentence. は can be dropped if the topic is known, が can be dropped if the subject is known. The topic and the subject are independent of each other. It's like saying "topic *VS* subject". To say "when to use は and when to use が" is to say "when to state the topic and when to state the subject". It is not either/or. My source is "Making Sense of Japanese: What the Textbooks Don't Tell You" by Jay Rubin.
The versus in "は VS が" just means the he is comparing the two. He compares は to が and tells us what the differences between them are. That doesn't imply that they're mutually exclusive or in opposition, just that they are two different particles.
A good comparison for English would be "Explaining there vs theyre". That statement simply means that i will explain the difference between the word there and the word they're, not that they are in opposition to each other or can't be used in the same sentence. Depending on the context, the meaning of "vs" can change.
The comparison use of は still seems a bit confusing. Never seen it used that way. I'll have to practice that.
I was actually going to ask about 雨/雪が降る, but you beat me to it. If you use は you are talking about rain/snow, but with が, I guess you can assume there is an unsaid 今は or something before it since that is the true topic.
It is fairly confusing at first! It's why I really recommend translating は into 'as for' as it will apply to situations when it both is and isn't used in comparison :)
So the main difference using は and が with the rain is that は feels like a general statement like 'the rain falls' where as が has a sense of new information so 'the rain is falling' would be more likely to use が for that very reason.
ありがとうよ!
No one explains this better than Cure Dolly. This explanation does a good job with は, but it makes the fundamental mistake with が of trying to explain it as if it were English. The が particle exists in every Japanese sentence, whether we can see it or not. It marks the thing that is performing the action or the thing that is being. Saying that it is the thing that takes the action is wrong. Theが never takes the action. Not even in what people say is the “passive voice”. Japanese has no passive voice in the same way English or Spanish does. Anyway, the が particle marks the subject, the one doing the action or being the thing. That’s all it ever does. Simple as that. Once you understand this fully, Japanese sentences quickly begin to be less confusing and to make a lot more sense.
Thats how I've naturally come to explain it as well. This is an old video. But は marks the topic of the sentence (whats being talked about) and が marks the subject of the sentence (the thing doing the action or existing in a state)
But wait, isn't Jecht know in the world of FFX? It makes no sense that he's not known since the announcer is talking through the monitor to the people of Zanarkand not to us, no? "Everyone's hero Jecht (the one we all know since he's everyone's hero) has disappeared". if someone like Masahiro Sakurai went missing IRL, would we use WA since he's known?
And at 13:00, shouldn't "boku ga" be "what kind of a human *I* am" and not the "I'm the one"?
I think 5:00 example is too hard for people who are only learning N5 to understand, and the GA (in "我が") makes it confusing too.
Yeah for sure, sorry about that! This video is quite old and I've since built a much bigger database of examples to be able to find better examples :)
I really appreciate your effort to make learning Japanese a joyful progress for gamers, but I have something to point out.
13:23 I found an issue in your translation
This is the sentence you translated:
だけど"ボクは"…… "ボクが" どんな人間なのかを 知りたいんだ
But, "speaking of myself"... "I'm the one that" wants to know what kind of human "I am"(???).
My question is: where is the third "I(ボク)" in the original sentence? Why not translate it into "what kind of human he is" or "what kind of human she is"?
According to your translation method, the original sentence should be: "But, speaking of myself... I'm the one that wants to know what kind of human.", which doesn't make sense.
The reason cause this problem is that the second "ボク(が)" isn't the one who "wants to know" in the sentence, but the one who "is what kind of human".
The original sentence should be comprehended like this: (I'll borrow your translation to make it a easier comparison for understanding)
だけどボクは…… "ボクが" どんな人間なのかを 知りたいんだ
But, speaking of myself... (I) want to know what kind of human "I am".
-> "ボクが どんな人間なのか" can be comprehended as the question which is asking "what kind of human I am".
-> Because the default subject in Japanese is “(I)”, it is skippable, especially "speaking of myself" had been mentioned before. That's the third "I(ボク)" you can't find in this sentence.
"ボクが" isn't emphasized in the noun clauses "ボクがどんな人間なのか(what kind of human I am)", but the whole comment "ボクがどんな人間なのかを知りたいんだ(want to know what kind of human I am)" after "は" is what really matters.
Hey, out of curiosity... When Vivi is referring to himself, why is it ボク in katakana and not ぼく or 僕?
Hey Graham! Thanks for all your support and comments lately!! :D
Great question! There are lots of different reasons, it would be due to just a certain characters style, or perhaps the Kanji is too difficult for the target audience of the game, maybe the writer is wanting to put emphasis, or make a name stand out. There are tons of different reasons why it's used :)
I feel like Vivi might be using it to stand out as he is referring to his own name which is written in Katakana perhaps?
@@GameGengo Oh hey, no problem. I love the way you put together your videos and I think its only a matter of time before you hit it big among Japanese learners. A lot of them get into Japanese because of games, after all. As for Vivi, I was thinking that since katakana is used to describe foreign things in Japanese, maybe Square used katakana here to further emphasize that Vivi feels like he doesn't belong in the world, or that he's unsure of his origin. I loved Vivi, and that further depth makes me like him more. Keep up the good work!
Katakana is often used stylistically, for emphasys and things like that.
This is BANANAS GOOD!