Hi,
I was wondering during my review why in this sentence “あの人の日本語は上手だね。日本に行った事があるのかな” why we use は instead of が, commonly used before 上手. I asked a Japanese person, and she said it is just weird to use が. Does anyone have a better grammatical answer?
Thanks
It’s not clear what is 上手. If you used が it comes across as the thing which is 上手 is 日本語, not the person’s Japanese ability, so the sentence sounds unnatural.
If we think about the basic structure where we see …が上手 in, it’s generally something like ([subject/topic]は)〇〇が上手。In this example, が isn’t really marking the subject (we all know that Japanese in and of itself is not skillful) , but rather, the thing that the subject (the person/thing marked by は) is good at.
Applying that principle to the sentence in question, I think it starts to sound strange because 日本語 is being modified by あの人(の). In other words, the thing that the subject is good at isn’t just 「日本語」 but「あの人の日本語」。 A bit like saying, “(Regarding that person,) they’re good at that person’s Japanese.” It sounds strange…
Meanwhile, with は, 「あの人の日本語」 becomes the topic instead. "(Regarding that person’s Japanese), (they are) skilled.
Right. If the sentence was:
あの人は日本語が上手だね！Then it would use the が particle before 上手, giving emphasis on the “his/her Japanese” part. Like so:
That person over there, his/her Japanese, is good!
On the other hand, the topic in your sentence is “That person’s Japanese”, so は sounds more natural. You’re saying:
That person’s Japanese is good!
Keep in mind that the main difference between は and が is that the former emphasizes the part AFTER は, while the latter emphasizes the part BEFORE が。
Hope that helps.
2 Likes
Thanks for all the replies. It helps a lot. Happy holiday season to all.
1 Like