Particles the Difference Between WA and GA

8/12/2019 Particles the Difference Between WA and GA

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Particles: the difference

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Japanese particles are both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand

they make Japanese grammar simple and direct, almost like a

computer language. They always follow the rules because

they are the rules. Particles tell us “this word does this” and “this

other word does that .” However, these little suffixes can cause

tremendous headaches for us English-speaking learners because

they group meanings together quite differently than our English

equivalents (prepositions), or in some cases have no equivalent at

all.

Of the lot, wa (は

) and ga (が

) are almost certainly the mostannoying pair of particles to keep straight, no doubt because neither

of them has a true English equivalent. They’re probably the most

frequently used particles in the language, so you need to learn them

early (note: you won’t master them early), but it’s very difficult to

find a decent explanation for them even in big bulky text books. And



if you ever want to make your Japanese teacher sweat, just ask

them to explain the difference.

I’ve devoted a lot of introspective soul-searching time to thinking

about these two little guys, and in this article, I’m going to do mybest to shed some new, meaningful light on the difference

between and .

Traditional wa and ga “explanations”

First, lets do a quick wrap up of the 3 big bread-and-butter

responses you’re most likely to get when asking someone about the

difference between は and が.

Stock response #1: は is the topic marker and が is the subject

marker.

Learner reaction: Well gee, thanks, that clears up everything for

me (sarcasm). Aren’t “subject” and “topic” synonyms??

Stock response #2: You just have to get used to it. You’ll figure it

out eventually. Don’t worry about it.

Learner reaction: I don’t want to figure it out “eventually,”

dammit, I want to know right now!!

Stock response #3: Look at this example and see

how は and が changes the meaning!

Learner reaction: Well okay, I get the example, at least, but what

happens in this different sentence? You’ve given me a fish without

teaching me how to do it myself.

While none of these explanations is inherently wrong or useless(except maybe #2), each fails in its own unique way to really get at

the root of our problem: there has to be a better way to explain it.

So… you ask, what is the real difference between は and が…?



The real difference

は is the topic marker and が is the subject marker. Wait! Cursors

off the back button, please. Hear me out.

There’s a reason you’ve heard this explanation so many times. The

problem is just that no one bothers to explain what they mean by

topic and what they mean by subject. To learn our Japanese, we

first have to have our English on right. Here’s a diagram to

illustrate:

Topic: a non-grammatical context for the whole sentence.

Subject: a grammatical relationship only to the verb.

See, that’s not so hard, right? By the way, I’ve worded these two

definitions very carefully so if you just glanced over them, go back

and read them closely, please, because this is very important. Okay?

done? Let’s move on, then…

The number one difference is that while a subject has a explicit

grammatical role (the thing which does the verb), a topic is just like

a big cloud, with no set relationship to what’s actually going on in

the sentence; it’s just there, floating around the sentence.

Okay, so that’s all well and good: subject versus topic .



Easy.

Piece of cake.

朝飯前.

Right? Not quite…

Subject and topic are very distinct roles and it’s not difficult to

understand their theoretical difference. But what is a poor gaijin to

do in real-life situations? Since we only ever have subjects in

English (never topics) it still takes some getting used to before you

can accurately distinguish where we should use one or the other.

This is where the 2nd stock response (don’t worry, you’ll get it

eventually) holds some truth.

To help start you down the (long) path to mastery of these two

terrible particles, here is a deeper look.

The feeling of wa and ga

Consider the sentence: A B. If we were to turn this sentence to

an image, here is what it would look like:



Because は marks a topic –something non-grammatically related to

the sentence–you can think of it like a picture frame. The thing は

marks surrounds and labels the sentence, but is largely independent

of what goes on inside. は is a good describer and observer.

Then we have the sentence: A B.

が–in contrast to は–is much more involved in the sentence. It’s

almost like a conqueror. Words marked with が stake their claim on

the sentence (and the verb in particular), making a definite claim of

ownership.



This difference is why when looking at a picture of several cute girls,

a young man might point his finger at one and say:

watashi wa kanojo da ne. …and mean, “I like her .” But he could not say watashi ga kanojo

da, which would have to mean “I am her “, because が would

specifically link him to the being verb だ.

Different situations, different particles

You may have heard the explanation that は gives emphasis to what

comes after it, andが

to what comes before it. This explanation isn’tcorrect in and of itself, but it does bring attention to the fact that

when we do want to bring attention to the subject (ie. who or what

did something), が is the usually the most logical choice.

Another example I’ve come across that for some reason stuck with

me is one that likened は to the and が to a/an, apparently because

we would use が to introduce new information to a discussion and は

when it is repeated. Again, this misses the point (and is unreliable

as a guideline, by the way), but it highlights a tendency that arises

from the difference between subject and topic: topics are better

suited for description, extrapolation and scene setting, subjects are

better for declarations and statements.

One clever example sentence for は and が that I’ve come across

is: watashi wa [my name] desu. vs. watashi ga [my name]

desu. While these sentences in English both come out as “I am

Lloyd .” In Japanese, they answer different questions: Q: Who are you?

A: watashi wa Lloyd desu.

Q: Who is Lloyd?

A: watashi ga Lloyd desu.



Here’s a similar example I came up with, showing how the question

changes when we use an adjective.

Q: What do you think of Japan?A: nihon wa omoshiroi desu.

Q: Which country is interesting?

A: nihon ga omoshiroi desu.

This example leads me to a very important point, one which is

somewhat difficult to deduce from our concept of subject vs.

topic: in Japanese, topics ( ) are often used to illustrate

contrast.

Consider the sentence “watashi wa chikoku shita” (I was late).

There are two situations where we could use this sentence:

Topic (Normal): watashi wa chikoku shita : I was late. (used

in a discussion centered around the speaker)

Topic (Contrast): watashi wa chikoku shita : I was late.

(used when some other relevant person was not late, or it is

not known if they were late)

I know you’re probably scratching your head and yes, this getsconfusing even for native speakers. In fact it’s one of the reasons

that normal topics are so commonly omitted in Japanese. If the

contrast is intentional, however, は cannot be omitted (the sentence

would become quite confusing if you did).

The big thing for learners to take away from all this is that は has

the potential to imply a contrast. So the next time you talk to a

pretty Japanese girl, be careful not to say “me wakirei desu ne”

(your eyes are beautiful), which could easily imply “but your other

features are mediocre”. “Me ga kirei desu ne” is a matter-of-fact

statement with no strings attached, much better in this situation.

…which brings me to the next important point…



“Contrasting” versus “Comparing”

Here we have yet another situation in which confusion in Japanese

stems from overlooking some of the fine points of English.

I stated above that は is used for contrasting things, that’s

something which is commonly said of は. I did not state that it

compares things. It’s very important to make this distinction.

“Contrast ( )” juxtaposes the nature of things. Think of it like

this: if A B, then C Dand E F . Everything has a certain

property which is either true or false. When we make a “contrast”

statement about something with は, the implication is that other

things either lack that quality, or have a completely different

quality.



“Comparison” juxtaposes the degree of things. If A is B, then

C might be B too, but not as much so as A. As the subject marker,

it’s が’s job to call out one specific thing from a group of similar

things and showing it off: it distinguishes one particular thing.

Note that が is used in the common (comparison) grammatical

form: ～ yori ～ no hou ga … (“～ is more … than ～”)

Now might be a good time to scroll back up to the example

sentences and have another look. See if you can really pin down thedifference in nuance between contrast and comparison, and see how

that is related to topic versus subject. If you can, then you’re well

on your way to knowing how to use these particles.

The removal test and the comma test

Okay, now for my final trick, I’m going to tell you how toactually test whether you should use はor が.

This is tricky; in Japanese, there is rarely ever a sentence that

becomes grammatically incorrect if you chose は when you should

have said が or vice versa. The error that arises from misusing these

particles is that you convey the wrong meaning.



So how can we possibly make a test that will hold true across

different situations? Well, since は marks a topic, information that

while important does not have a definite grammatical role, it is

much less central to the message of a sentence than a が marked

subject. So try this: take it out altogether.

watashi wa?/ga? kuruma o unten shimashita. (I drove the

car.)

What happens to the sentence? Does it:

a) become vague, but still have the core information that we need

to convey. (ie. in answer to the question “What did you do? “)

b) completely lose its ability to communicate the information we

want. (ie. in answer to the question “Who drove the car? “)

If you answered a, は is probably the particle you’re looking for. On

the other hand, if your sentence just became a steaming pile of

useless words without it (as in situation b), が is probably your best

bet. I won’t guarantee that this works in all situations, but give it a

try next time you are scratching your head over which particle youshould use.

A similar test that works on the same principle is to try replacing

the particle with a comma or imagining a pause in the sentence.

watashi, kuruma o unten shimashita. (I, drove the car.)

What happens to the sentence?

a) It doesn’t really seem strange at all.

b) The added pause seems really awkward.

If you answered a, chances are high that you need a は. But if you

feel there’s something just not right about the sentence and

chose b, I would advise が.



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Particles the Difference Between WA and GA