subject marker
Structure
- Subject + が
[subject marker・particle]
Hi guys,
For those of you struggling with は vs が, this video is THE best(が) there is.
Thank you and good luck!
2 Likes
Even now I make mistakes on this semi-regularly. Thanks!
I don’t get why ga can be used to describe things that you are experiencing in the moment while wa can’t. Help?
1 Like
I think the idea is that when you’re experiencing something with your five senses and you want to tell someone else about it, it’s often going to be new information, and は can’t be used to introduce it.
But on the whole I don’t like this statement either because it seems it would apply to a statement like ここは寒い which sounds weird with が. It’s probably not what it’s intended to mean, but IMHO the English description (actually the other two orange lines too) is way too simplistic for this topic and it would be better to not have anything at all and make people read up on the details in a more comprehensive source.
2 Likes
In this sentence, why is it 父は背が高い instead of 父の背が高い？
Hey @felicjli11 !
The reason の is not used here is because this particle is used for possession and in Japanese height is not something a person possesses. Since it is a physical trait of a person, は would sound more natural.
For example, 父は背が高い would sound like ‘my father is tall’ in English and 父の背が高い would sound like ‘my father’s height is tall’ in English. Although the sentence can be understood, it does sound a bit unnatural.
Hope this helps!
The following is an example sentence from the lesson on だった/でした but I have a question related to its use of が:
猫が大好きだった。 I really liked cats. (Cats were loved by me)
Since we have a が instead of a は here, should the translation not be “I really liked the cat”?
It seems to me that は would suggest cats in general, whereas が would suggest a particular cat.
At thee same time, は could suggest animals in general, whereas が refers to cats in particular.
And I’ve also just remembered that が is used (among other things) as a particle of emotion, so perhaps it would only ever be correct to use が here as we are talking about what someone likes.
Can anyone help clarify?
Hey @discopatrick !
This could be either ‘I really liked cats’ or ‘I really liked the cat’ and the difference really just depends on the nuance. For this sentence we went with the nuance, ‘I really liked cats’.
When が is used it has the nuance of ‘Cats are the animals that I like’, and using は will change the nuance to ‘I used to like cats (, but I did not like any other animals)’.
I hope this helps!
1 Like