は and が: WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THESE

JAPANESE PARTICLES, REALLY?

は SHINES A SPOTLIGHT AND が POINTS A FINGER
JULY 7, 2020 • 7100 WORDS WRITTEN BY JENNY STAINTON • ART BY AYA FRANCISCO 

The murkiness surrounding the Japanese particles は (ha/wa) and が (ga) is often
picked out as the most confusing area of Japanese study, and it continues to be
confusing right the way through from beginner to advanced level. Fundamental
ingredients in Japanese sentences, we learn them early in our studies, yet they are
so difficult to pin down that they tend to come back to haunt us over and over.

An indication of the complexity of は and が is the sheer volume of academic

writing dedicated to it. It still incites lively debate among linguists, even after over
fifty years of research. It also confounds native and non-native speakers of Japanese
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alike. If you want to test this out, go ahead and ask any native speaker of Japanese
(without Japanese teaching experience) to explain their choice of は or が in even
the simplest of sentences, and watch the confusion and soul-searching that ensues.

The fact is, the use of は and が often boils down to native-speaker intuition. And
like all good native-speaker intuition, it's as hard to put into words for native
speakers as it is for the rest of us. Underpinning that intuition, though, is a bunch of
principles, built up in every native speaker's subconscious throughout childhood,
and honed over years of exposure to all sorts of real-life uses. The goal of this
article, then, is to unpick these elusive principles and bottle up a good dose of that
precious native-speaker intuition to hand it over to you. By setting out the
underlying principles in the simplest possible terms, and examining them in all
kinds of different situations, we hope to clear up some of the fog that lingers
around は and が.

What is the difference between は and が?

The Pieces in the は and が Puzzle
Puzzle Piece Number One: が Points Out the Subject
Puzzle Piece Number Two: は Shines a Spotlight on the Topic
Puzzle Piece Number Three: Disappearing Acts
Puzzle Piece Number Four: It's All About the Emphasis
Piecing the Puzzle Together
When We Usually Leave Out Both
When we See a Topic and Subject Together in a Sentence
When We See Two or More Topics
は and が Etiquette
は and が in the Wild
は and が in Conversation
は and が in Storytelling
The Final Curtain
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 Prerequisites: This article assumes you already know hiragana and
katakana. If you need to brush up, have a look at our Ultimate Hiragana
Guide and Ultimate Katakana Guide. You may also want to check out our
grammar pages on は and が to give you more background on each particle
individually, before diving into the differences between the two. This
articles starts with the basic principles, and progresses through
increasingly nuanced and obscure applications of these principles.
Beginners might want to skim the later sections, and return to them
whenever you feel like the は/が fog is thickening around you!

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN は AND が?

The question "What's the difference between は and が?" is a little problematic in
itself. It implies that は and が are part of a two-piece set, and that's not actually the
case. They do, however, both belong to a much larger set of "particles," also known
as "postpositions." For beginners out there, particles are somewhat similar to
prepositions — like "in," "to," or "for" in English — and play important roles in
Japanese sentences.

The main difference between particles and prepositions is that particles go after
the word they're giving clues about — hence their other name "postpositions." For
example:

JAPANESE
にほん
日本へ

ENGLISH

to Japan
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As you can see, へ goes after 日本, whereas "to" comes before "Japan." So far so
good, right?

There are, however, a few particles in Japanese that don't have equivalent
prepositions in English. Can you guess what two of those particles might be? That's
right: は and が. Nevertheless, they both behave in the same way as all other
particles: they go after a word to give you grammatical information about that
word. Very handy!

The roles of は and が within that wider particle set are very different, though, and
conflating the two can make them seem even more confusing than they actually
are. We'll start by taking a look at the fundamental "meanings" of these two
ubiquitous particles, so that you can apply these concepts whenever は and が crop
up, and gradually get better and better acquainted with them.

THE PIECES IN THE は AND が PUZZLE

There are a few pieces to this puzzle, so let's start by looking at each puzzle piece
one by one, before moving on to see how the pieces fit together.

PUZZLE PIECE NUMBER ONE: が POINTS OUT THE SUBJECT

We're going to kick off our magical mystery tour with が, because this particle has
the more clear-cut part to play in a Japanese sentence.

From a grammatical point of view, が goes after a word or phrase to pick it out as
the subject of a sentence, or part of a sentence (a "clause"). That is, the person or
thing before が is doing or being something. It's the protagonist. Grammatically, it's
a relatively defined and straightforward role.
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If we turn this concept into an image, が is the witness to an incident, picking out
the perpetrator from a lineup. が is telling us, "they did it!" or maybe, "they're going
to do it," depending on the sentence. So we're stretching our lineup analogy a little
bit here. Bear with us while we stretch it a little further, because the perpetrator
can in fact be anything: a masked man, twenty dogs, or a teapot. Anything at all.
And the "crime" can be a verb, like "murder," but it can also be a noun, like "winner,"
or an adjective, like "delicious."

Let's take a look at a couple of examples to see what we mean.

JAPANESE
こども あそ
子供が 遊んでいる。

ENGLISH

A child is playing.
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子供 (child) comes before が here, showing us that 子供 is the subject. In other
words, 子供 is the person doing the action of "playing." 子供 is the "perpetrator," and
we know this because が is helpfully making this clear, by sitting politely right after
it and pointing a finger in its direction.

JAPANESE
もんだい
問 題がある。

ENGLISH

There's a problem.

Again, look at what comes before が to find the subject of the sentence. In this case
it's 問題 (problem). So "problem" is the thing that ある (exists). Using our lineup
analogy again, が is the witness as always, pointing the finger at 問題. 問題 is the
"perpetrator," the protagonist who is doing the verb, in this case "existing."

JAPANESE
なかむらせんせい いえ
これが 中 村 先 生の 家だ。

ENGLISH

This is Nakamura-sensei's house.

As you can see, が is pointing its finger at これ (this). So "this" is the perpetrator. In
this case the "crime" is being Nakamura-sensei's house. これ is the grammatical
subject, and the rest of the sentence is the information about that subject.

JAPANESE
じょうほう ひつよう
その 情 報が 必 要です。
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 ENGLISH

That information is necessary.

This time, が is showing us that その情報 (that information) is the perpetrator, or

subject, here. It's その情報 that is being the adjective, so in this case it's being
"necessary."

Okay, one last sentence. Can you tell who is the "perpetrator" here?

JAPANESE
お い
このチョコが 美味しい！

ENGLISH

This chocolate is delicious!

I think you've got the hang of things now! That's right, このチョコ is the subject!

An added effect of this lineup feature is that が also excludes all other potential
subjects. If you're saying "this teapot committed the crime," you're also absolving all
the other teapots in the lineup. So が is telling us the subject of the verb, noun or
adjective, and at the same time excluding all other subjects. In other words,
depending on the context, a more literal translation of the last sentence might be:

JAPANESE

このチョコが美味しい！

ENGLISH

This is the chocolate that's delicious!

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This ability of が to exclude everyone else in the lineup is an important factor in the
nuances it can create.

PUZZLE PIECE NUMBER TWO: は SHINES A SPOTLIGHT ON

THE TOPIC
は, on the other hand, isn't picking out a specific part of a sentence and telling us its
exact grammatical role within that sentence. Rather than showing us our subject, or
object, or some other grammatical building block, は is doing something quite
magical that most languages can't do explicitly in this way: it's telling us the topic of
our sentence, or part of a sentence, or maybe a whole paragraph or more.

If we imagine for a moment that our conversation or piece of writing is a play, then
は is the spotlight, shining on the thing that we want our audience to focus on at
that moment. The focus might be the main character in that part of the story, it
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might be a stage prop, or it might be an important section of the background
scenery. But whatever our magical spotlight は is shining on, it sets the tone for
that part of the play.

Just like anything a spotlight might shine on in a play, there are no exact rules as to
how far a topic can stretch. は tells our audience: this is the thing we are going to
talk about now. This is what we feel is central to our story, or at least this part of
our story. We might talk about it for the next few words, or we might talk about it
for the rest of the conversation, or the rest of the chapter.

The closest equivalent to は in English is probably "as for," and this is how it is often
rendered into English in more literal translations. It sometimes works in more
natural translations too, but that's the exception rather than the rule. Since "as for"
is an expression, it's not something that we want to throw into every other
sentence, because we'd end up sounding horribly repetitive. は on the other hand,
as the equivalent of a preposition, can sit very happily and unobtrusively in as many
sentences as we deem it useful, without sounding like we're saying "as for"
continuously.

は also goes well beyond the way we use "as for" in English, and has all kinds of
subtle effects on nuance. These effects are all linked to the fact that は is
highlighting our topic, though.

Let's look at some examples of all the different types of things that could take on
topic status in Japanese:

JAPANESE
とうきょう にぎ ところ
東 京は 賑やかな 所 です。

ENGLISH

Tokyo's a lively place.

(Literally: As for Tokyo, it's a lively place.)
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Here our spotlight is shining on Tokyo, so for starters we're saying that Tokyo's
lively, and there's every chance that the discussion will continue with Tokyo as our
theme. That's certainly the impression that は gives.

JAPANESE
みず の
お 水は 飲みました。

ENGLISH

I drank the water.

(Literally: As for the water, I drank it.)

The focus of this sentence is the water (お水). By shining our spotlight on お水,
we're picking it out as our theme, our topic. In English, we'd consider water to be
the object, but in this Japanese sentence, it's the topic, drawing extra attention to
the water and very likely adding extra weight to it in terms of nuance, depending on
the rest of the conversation.

JAPANESE
さんがつ た
三 月はチョコを 食べません。

ENGLISH

I don't eat chocolate in March.

(Literally: As for March, I don't eat chocolate.)

In this example the time period 三月 (March) is having the spotlight shined on it. It
is neither the subject nor the object of our sentence, but it is nevertheless the topic
that we consider most important at this moment in time.
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Because は has this spotlight effect, rather than excluding other potential elements
in our play, it simply leaves them in the shadows. Rather than saying "this person,
and only this person, is the perpetrator," we're simply emphasizing our theme, and
leaving other possible themes in the dark. We know they're there, but we don't
usually know much else about them. Consequently, the notion of a topic also always
carries with it a certain degree of implied contrast with the other potential topics
that are lurking in the shadows.

Let's have a look at another example to see what we mean by this:

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 JAPANESE
だいす
このチョコは 大好き。

ENGLISH

I love this chocolate.

(Literally: As for this chocolate, I love it.)

Rather than このチョコ (this chocolate) being our protagonist here, it is our topic.
This means that we're focusing on このチョコ, and at the same time leaving other
types of chocolate in the shadows. So you're saying you love this chocolate, and also
probably implying that there are other types of chocolate that you don't like as
much.

The degree to which this is important will vary according to the type of sentence,
the wider context, and (when speaking) which word you choose to put the stress
on. For now it's enough to bear in mind that は can have all kinds of implications
about the unmentioned other potential topics.

The final characteristic of a topic that we should mention is that it's something
identifiable — something we already have in our consciousness. So by telling us that
something is the topic, は is introducing something we are already aware of. This
has important implications for emphasis, which we'll come back to shortly, as
emphasis is our fourth and final puzzle piece.

PUZZLE PIECE NUMBER THREE: DISAPPEARING ACTS

The next important piece in this puzzle is the fact that so many parts of a sentence
can seemingly disappear in Japanese, as long as they are clear from the context.

In fact, all languages leave out information that is felt to be obvious. Otherwise we'd
constantly be repeating ourselves, and we'd never get anywhere. An example of this
habit in most European languages is pronouns, which allow us to refer to
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something without repeating it again and again:

I saw Mami the other day. She seems to be doing well.

In this sentence, we know intuitively that the pronoun "she" refers to Mami. There's
no need to repeat her name and indeed doing so would feel a bit weird. It's exactly
the same in Japanese, except Japanese goes one step further and doesn't bother
with pronouns at all — or at least not pronouns that we can see or hear! So in
Japanese, this sentence would look something like this:

あいだ あ げんき
この 間 マミさんに 会った。 元気にしてるみたいだよ。

We know beyond any doubt that the second sentence in the example above is
talking about Mami, even though she seems to have done a disappearing act. In fact,
she's still there. You don't believe me? We know she's still there because of the
previous sentence. She's just invisible. This is a concept that linguists often call
"zero pronouns."
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It's really not all that different from English, it just takes things one step further.
Whereas we would add "she" to the second sentence in English, because we feel
that repeating Mami is unnecessary thanks to context, Japanese speakers simply
omit Mami altogether. Or rather, they paint her in invisible paint. But in Japanese,
the subject of the sentence is no less clear than it would be in English. So in that
sense, she's still there. To cut a long story short, we leave out unnecessary
information in all languages, but Japanese is more efficient at this disappearing act
than most.

We can avoid explicitly mentioning pretty much anything in Japanese, as long as

our audience can guess that it's there. That could be the topic, the subject, an
object, a particle, or even a verb, but for the purposes of this article we're more
worried about the subject, topic, and particles, for obvious reasons. Let's stick with
subjects and topics for now.
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In our earlier example 三月はチョコを食べません, we have a topic and an object.
There is also a subject, in this case an invisible one. If so, what is it? That will all
depend on the context. The subject will have been established at some point earlier
in the conversation. If it hasn't been explicitly stated earlier, it will almost always be
the person who's speaking. So, without context we would assume that the
translation is "I don't eat chocolate in March," but depending on the context, it
could easily be "he," "she," or "they" who don't eat chocolate in March.

The point is that Japanese sentences have both a subject and a theme — they're just
very often invisible! Whether or not they're invisible depends on whether we think
that our audience can figure them out from context or not. So there are times when
neither can be left out, and there are times where one or both can be left out.
There are also times when they can be left out, but we choose to leave them in for
any number or reasons ranging from clarity, to emphasis, buying thinking time, or
even sometimes pure personal preference.

PUZZLE PIECE NUMBER FOUR: IT'S ALL ABOUT THE

EMPHASIS
We've seen that all languages leave out information that is deemed superfluous.
Another thing that all languages do is emphasize information that we consider to be
new, or not easily identifiable or prominent in the consciousness of our audience. In
other words, emphasis tells us what information is already out there and what
information we want our listener (or reader) to sit up and take notice of.

This is the final fundamental puzzle piece in the use of は and が. They can both
show us where emphasis lies, and in doing so they make a distinction between
information that is already in our consciousness and information that the speaker
or writer wants to introduce — or re-introduce — into our consciousness.
Information can be considered to be in our consciousness if it's already been
mentioned in conversation; if it's predictable because of what has already been said;
or if it's common knowledge shared by the people involved.
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 THE TOPIC IS SOMETHING WE
ALREADY KNOW ABOUT, OR CAN
GUESS. IT'S THE "OLD NEWS," OR
THE NEWS THAT WE BELIEVE TO BE
IDENTIFIABLE TO OUR AUDIENCE.

How do は and が fit into this? Let's start with が! You remember how が identifies
the "perpetrator" (the grammatical subject) and rules out all other possible
perpetrators? Because it's introducing the perpetrator, or protagonist, this means
that we use it to introduce information that isn't considered to be part of our
consciousness yet. In other words, we use が to point out new information, or for
information that we feel can't be inferred from context or shared knowledge. And
since "new" information is always emphasized, が always adds emphasis to whatever
comes before it. が points its finger at the perpetrator, and lets us know that this is
the focus of what we are saying.

As for は (see what we did there?) the added effect of the spotlight is that it actually
focuses on the action of whatever it's shining on. The topic is something we already
know about, or can guess. It's the "old news," or the news that we believe to be
identifiable to our audience. So the focus is on the action surrounding our theme.
We're saying "you remember such-and-such?" or "speaking of you-know-what,"
here's the interesting thing about them!

This distinction doesn't sound very concrete does it? Let's look at an example:

JAPANESE
つき
月はきれいだ。

ENGLISH

The moon's beautiful.

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We can assume that everyone knows what the moon is. It's therefore ripe to be a
possible topic, while leaving other topics in the dark. Once we've introduced the
moon as the topic, we can assume that it's also our subject, so it's the moon that's
beautiful. This would be a general statement about the moon. It's always beautiful,
and everyone agrees.

But what about if we left out the topic, and instead included the moon as our
subject?

JAPANESE

月がきれいだ。

ENGLISH

The moon's beautiful.

Here we're picking out the moon as our protagonist and drawing attention to it. We
might say this if we just noticed that the moon is particularly beautiful tonight, and
we're taken aback by it.

This phrase would be very much at home in a longer sentence that also mentions
the topic, such as:

JAPANESE
こんや
今夜は月がきれいだ。

ENGLISH

The moon's beautiful tonight.

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In this sentence, 今夜 (tonight) is the topic, and the moon remains our subject as
before. By shining our spotlight on tonight, we're adding the nuance that other
nights may not be blessed with such a beautiful moon!

All of these sentences are perfectly fine. The choice is down to the speaker — do we
want the moon to be our topic or our subject, or both? What exact nuance do we
want to create? Obviously, most speakers don't analyze this when they speak — it
just comes naturally.

In reality, 月がきれいだ is probably the more common of these two sentences

because you might be more likely to point out a particularly beautiful moon than
wax lyrical about the beauty of the moon in general. Obviously, though, this
depends on the kind of person you are and the kinds of conversations you have!

If we were to replace きれい with 丸い (round) on the other hand, which particle do
you think would be the more common choice? In this case, we really are talking
about an intrinsic characteristic of the moon, one that everyone can agree on, so
the more likely choice would be は.

JAPANESE
まる
月は 丸い。

ENGLISH

The moon's round.

Maybe you're explaining to a young child what the moon looks like! Again, the moon
can technically be your visible subject here too, in which case it's the same as for 月
がきれいだ. It means you've looked up at the sky to see a full moon and just then it
hit you just how round the moon is!
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Of course, how often these exact sentences come up depends on the kinds of
situations you find yourself in, but hopefully they give you an idea of the difference
between how は and が make a sentence feel.

This brings us on to the next step in understanding は and が: how they interact
with each other and the nuance they create in real-life speaking and writing.

PIECING THE PUZZLE TOGETHER

We now know that が shows us the subject, and は shows us the topic. We also
know that we can leave out either the subject, or the topic, or indeed both of them,
depending on what we feel others already have in their consciousness at that
moment. And we can play around with all of this to emphasize whatever we want to
emphasize.

Now for the fun part! Let's see how these pieces fit together with each other to
produce different meanings, nuances and emphasis in Japanese.

WHEN WE USUALLY LEAVE OUT BOTH

THERE ARE MANY CASES WHEN

BOTH THE SUBJECT AND THE TOPIC
CAN HAPPILY BE LEFT UNSAID
WITHOUT CAUSING ANY AMBIGUITY.

There are many cases when both the subject and the topic can happily be left
unsaid without causing any ambiguity.

One of the very first sentences many people learn in Japanese is an excellent
example of how a sentence can be grammatically accurate, but still create
unintended nuances, depending on the wider context: self-introductions.
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The standard phrase we often learn for telling people our name in Japanese is 私
は∼です. Fair enough. This does indeed mean "I'm so-and-so." However, remember
that は shines a spotlight on whatever comes before it, so 私は∼です is actually
more like "As for me, I'm so-and-so." You're shining a spotlight on yourself.

JAPANESE
わたし
私 はジェニーです。

ENGLISH

I'm Jenny.
(Literally: As for me, I'm Jenny.)

When would you shine a spotlight on yourself? Not all that often in self-
introductions. If you've just met someone, the chances are they know full well that
you're talking about yourself if you give a name. You're unlikely to be telling them
the name of your pet blowfish, and if you are, that too would be clear from the
context.

You have already established yourself as the topic by the very nature of the
situation, so there's no need to labor the point. Consequently, adding 私は (as for
me) actually sounds ever-so-slightly odd in most self-introduction situations.

One of the few situations you might naturally say 私は when telling someone your
name is if you're introducing yourself and other people at the same time. Then it
would be perfectly naturally to say:

JAPANESE

こちらはマミさんで、私はジェニーです。

ENGLISH

This is Mami, and I'm Jenny.

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 (Literally: As for this person, she's Mami, and as for me, I'm Jenny.)

This is because you're shining the spotlight first on Mami, and then on yourself.

There are situations when が would make sense, too. Imagine a stranger is looking
for you amongst a group of people. They might ask:

JAPANESE

あなたがジェニー？

ENGLISH

Are you Jenny?

In order to cross everyone else of the list and allow the questioner to end their
search, you could reasonably answer:

JAPANESE

そうです、私がジェニーです。

ENGLISH

That's right, I'm Jenny.

Someone might also ask more generally if someone called Jenny is present:

JAPANESE

ジェニーさんっていますか？

ENGLISH

Is there anyone here called Jenny?

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And then you could also answer with yourself as the subject:

JAPANESE
なん ごよう
私がジェニーです。 何の 御用でしょうか。

ENGLISH

I'm Jenny. Can I help you with something?

BY USING が, YOU'RE EXPRESSLY

EXCLUDING EVERYONE ELSE AND
MAKING IT CLEAR THAT YOU, AND
ONLY YOU, ARE THE PROTAGONIST.

So the nuance of が is a bit like you're saying "That's me! I'm Jenny! I'm the person
you're looking for!" or "I'm Jenny, that's me — not that other person over there. Me!"

By using が, you're expressly excluding everyone else and making it clear that you,
and only you, are the protagonist. You can probably see why this might come across
as a bit over-the-top in a run-of-the-mill self-introduction situation!

If there's no need or desire to shine a spotlight or point a finger at yourself, most

people would simply go with ∼です:

JAPANESE

ジェニーです。

ENGLISH

I'm Jenny
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In other words, no は — and no が either. Whereas in English we're often forced to
state the obvious, in Japanese the most natural thing to do is to leave it out.

WHEN WE SEE A TOPIC AND SUBJECT TOGETHER IN A

SENTENCE
There are, however, actually very few — if any — situations where you're obliged to
include your topic, or your subject, for your sentence to be grammatical. The
majority of the time it comes down to what you think your audience knows and
what you want to emphasize. This makes は and が very hard to get across
accurately in example sentences, because whether or not the topic and the subject
are expressly mentioned depends on the larger context — maybe the rest of the
conversation, or the rest of the paragraph, or beyond.

It's worth mentioning that, when the topic and the subject are different, there's
more chance that they'll both be mentioned. This goes back to the desire for clarity.

Let's have a look at some examples where both the topic and the subject are
explicitly stated in a sentence.

JAPANESE
あたま
ケンイチは 頭 がいい。

ENGLISH

Kenichi is smart.
(Literally: As for Kenichi, [his] head is good.)

Here we establish Kenichi as the topic, then we go on to make Kenichi's head the
subject of the next part of the sentence. Both need to be mentioned explicitly
because they can't be guessed from context.
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 JAPANESE
ほっかいどう なに お い
北 海 道は 何が 美味しい？

ENGLISH

What's good to eat in Hokkaido?

(Literally: As for Hokkaido, what's delicious?)

Again, we establish Hokkaido as our topic, then our question word 何 is the visible
subject.

Let's look at one more example:

JAPANESE
うめぼ だいす
カナエは 梅干しが 大好きだよ。

ENGLISH

Kanae loves pickled plums.

If either the topic or the subject is known from context, though, we can leave them
out as always. So if we've already established Kanae as our theme, we can just say:

JAPANESE

梅干しが大好きだよ。

ENGLISH

She loves pickled plums.

And if we've already established pickled plums as our subject:

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 JAPANESE

カナエは大好きだよ。

ENGLISH

Kanae loves them.

And finally, what do you think happens if we've already established both our subject
and our topic? That's right, we can leave them both out:

JAPANESE

大好きだよ。

ENGLISH

She loves them.

In English, we know that "she" is Kanae and "them" is the pickled plums, because
we've been following along with the conversation. In the same way, in Japanese we
know that our invisible subject is Kanae and our invisible topic is 梅干し.

WHEN WE SEE TWO OR MORE TOPICS

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The main situation in which we see two topics in a sentence is when we want to
throw the spotlight onto two or more separate entities. Why would we highlight
two or more things? Usually because we want to compare the two. As we already
mentioned, there's always a degree of contrast implied by は, but when we have two
or more, the nuance of contrast is always strong.

JAPANESE
つめ にほんしゅ す あつかん お い
冷たい 日 本 酒はあまり 好きじゃないけど、この 熱 燗は 美味しい。

ENGLISH

I don't like cold sake much, but this hot sake is delicious.

We could even throw another topic into the example above:

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 JAPANESE
ふだん
普段は日本酒はあまり好きじゃないけど、この熱燗は美味しい。

ENGLISH

I don't usually like sake much, but this hot sake is delicious.

First our spotlight shines on 普段 to show us that we're talking about "usually," but
implying that there are exceptions. We immediately move the spotlight onto 日本酒
(sake), and then on again to 熱燗 (hot sake), this time to contrast the two types of
sake.

In the first example, we're comparing two things, but we can just as easily compare
two people:

JAPANESE
だいきら
カナエは梅干しが大好きだけど、キャメは 大 嫌い。

ENGLISH

Kanae loves pickled plums, but Cameron hates them.

は AND が ETIQUETTE
は or が can also create certain etiquette slip-ups. Imagine you want to ask Mami
about her goals for next year. Would you make 目標 (goal) your topic or your
subject? Let's have a look at the question with が first of all:

JAPANESE
なに もくひょう
マミさんは 何か 目 標がありますか？

ENGLISH
:
 Do you have a goal, Mami?

Because "goal" is the subject, we are homing in on that only, and excluding other
things that Mami might potentially have. This makes the question feel very specific
and direct, and a little dry. Depending on the situation, it could come across as kind
of rude! Poor Mami could feel bad if she happened not to have any goals for next
year

So what if we make 目標 our topic instead, alongside the topic we already have,
which is Mami herself?

JAPANESE

マミさんは何か目標はありますか？

ENGLISH

Do you have any goals, Mami?

By shining our spotlight on the goals, but not excluding the possibility of other
things besides goals that Mami may have, the question sounds softer and more
polite.

Now, in answer to this question, Mami might respond:

JAPANESE
らいねん ご べんきょう はじ
来 年、フランス 語の 勉 強を 始めるという目標があります。

ENGLISH

My goal is to start learning French next year.

:
So while the question would usually make 目標 the topic, the answer turns it into
the subject. This is because it sounds more humble to be specific and clear-cut
about your goal. So this answer carries a neutral tone. Now let's have a look at the
nuance created if the answer makes 目標 the topic:

JAPANESE

来年、フランス語の勉強を始めるという目標はあります。

ENGLISH

My goal is to start learning French next year.

This answer can create a somewhat self-important image, because of the

implication that you have other goals besides this one. By being less specific about
the goal, it can also make it sound like you are not entirely serious about it.

Another potentially sticky situation that は and が may lead you into is also linked to
the nuance of は that other topics are implied, but left in the shadows. Imagine you
want to compliment your friend on their hair, and you say:

JAPANESE
きょう かみ かわい
今日は 髪が 可愛い。

ENGLISH

Your hair's cute today.

Looking at the English translation, you might wonder why your friend gives you
that funny look. But by using 今日は you're be shining the spotlight on today and
leaving other days in the shadows, thereby implying a contrast with other days. So
the unspoken implication is that, while their hairstyle is cute today, we won't talk
about how uninspired it is on other days.
:
Oops. Here, it'd be better not to mention the topic at all, and leave your friend to
assume that they are the topic. That said, this is a "mistake" that lots of native
speakers make too. You can expect a playful retort along the lines of "Hey, what are
you implying?" just like you might get in English if you put a bit too much emphasis
on the "today" when giving your compliment.

は AND が IN THE WILD

Now that we've looked at how all these elements piece together, let's move onto
some examples of how these concepts are applied in real-life situations.

は AND が IN CONVERSATION
As we mentioned earlier, the impressive flexibility of Japanese when it comes to
leaving out pretty much anything also extends to particles. In conversation, は and
が are very often omitted, even when the corresponding subjects and topics are
kept in.

The fact that they can be so easily left out means that they tend to have a greater
impact when they are, in fact, left in. This applies to other particles besides は and
が, but we'll focus on は and が here.

Take a look at the following dialogue between two housemates:

【41st WEEK】「尖ったコミュニケーションしか取れない…」聡太…
:
In this section, the two housemates are discussing making dinner. For a lot of this
conversation, the subjects and topics are obvious from context, and so they leave
out particles left, right and center. However, the particles stay when they're needed
for strategic reasons, as we'll see.

聡太：夕飯どうしようか。昼食った？
まや：食べてない。アイス食べた。
聡太：アイス食べた？
まや：家で作る、今日？作るって言ってもね、作れる二人いないっすね。
聡太：作れない二人でご飯作る会する？
まや：えーーやだやだ！絶対作れないもう。
聡太：ぐちゃぐちゃなやつ。
まや：絶対ダメダメ。でも利沙ちゃんが、うどん食べたいって言ってたから …
聡太：うどんはいけるでしょう。
まや：うどんはできる。
聡太：うどんはいけるよね。
まや：いける、いける。
:
 Sota: What shall we do about dinner? Did you have lunch?
Maya: I didn't. I had ice cream.
Sota: You had ice cream?
Maya: Shall we cook at home today? Well, I say cook, but the two people
who can cook aren't around, huh?
Sota: How about the two of us who can't cook have a cooking party?
Maya: Huh? No way, no way! I really can't cook.
Sota: Something sloppy.
Maya: It's definitely a no go. But Risa-chan did say she wanted to eat udon,
so…
Sota: If it's udon it'll surely be okay.
Maya: If it's udon we can manage.
Sota: If it's udon it'll be okay, right?
Maya: Right, right.

Can you see which particles have been left out in the first part of the dialogue? Let's
have a look at a few examples:

JAPANESE
ゆうはん
夕 飯どうしようか。

ENGLISH

What shall we do about dinner?

The overall theme is dinner, which is providing the context for the whole
conversation. So 夕飯 is our topic, and would normally have the particle は after it:

JAPANESE
:
 夕飯はどうしようか。

ENGLISH

What shall we do about dinner?

(Literally: As for dinner, what shall we do?)

If we were to use は here, it would add a little extra emphasis, as if we wanted to

make it clear that we're shifting from some other topic to 夕飯.

In the next sentence, Sota shifts the focus onto lunch:

JAPANESE
ひるく
昼食った？

ENGLISH

Did you have lunch?

Since the spotlight is now shining on lunch, the most likely particle here would
again be は:

JAPANESE

昼は食った？

ENGLISH

Did you have lunch?

We can't leave the topic out altogether, because we couldn't possibly know that the
focus had shifted to lunch unless it's explicitly stated. However, we can leave out
the particle, because our audience knows instinctively that it's our topic.
:
Let's look at one more example from this section of the dialogue:

JAPANESE
つく ふたり
作れる 二人いないっすね。

ENGLISH

The two people who can cook aren't around, huh?

Here, the 作れる二人 could in fact be either the topic or the subject, with very little
difference in the meaning. So the missing particle could be は, and the emphasis
would be on the fact that they're not around, and it could equally be が, shifting the
emphasis onto the two people themselves.

JAPANESE

作れる二人はいないっすね。

ENGLISH

The two people who can cook aren't around, huh?

JAPANESE

作れる二人がいないっすね。

ENGLISH

The two people who can cook aren't around, huh?

This shift in nuance is almost impossible to translate into English, and is something
that we'd probably mostly get across using intonation.
:
Okay, let's continue with the dialogue. Until now there's been a lot of particle
dropping. But when the conversation stops being about only the two involved, and
moves to a third housemate, 利沙ちゃん, the が is kept in there to show that 利沙ち
ゃん is the subject and emphasize the fact that their sick housemate wants udon, so
maybe they should make it:

JAPANESE
ぜったい り さ た
絶 対ダメダメ。でも 利沙ちゃんが、うどん 食べたいって言ってたから …

ENGLISH

It's definitely a no go. But Risa-chan did say she wanted to eat udon, so…

Then udon becomes the topic, and this time the は is left on, highlighting that if it's
something as simple as udon, they can manage. The implication is that any other
kind of food might be a challenge but, as for udon, that's doable:

JAPANESE

うどんはいけるでしょう。

ENGLISH

If it's udon it'll surely be okay.

JAPANESE

うどんはできる。

ENGLISH

If it's udon we can manage.

:
Of course, they've gone back to being the subjects in their own conversation, so no
need to mention them, but we know they're there!

は AND が IN STORYTELLING
As we saw in the previous section, new characters introduced into the conversation
are usually introduced as the subject, and then once they're established in the
audience's consciousness, they can take on topic status. Once this happens, they
can either be followed by は or, more frequently, they'll become invisible. We all
know they're there though, thanks to the context.

We've also seen that if we do mention the topic or the subject, this tends to be to
create a certain effect. In the following example, the speaker is describing what
Kanae did yesterday:
:
 JAPANESE
きのう うめぼ つく べんとう
昨日はカナエちゃんが 梅干しおにぎりを 作った。そして、それを 弁 当にして、
で
カナエちゃんはキャメのアパートに 出かけていった。

ENGLISH

Yesterday, Kanae made pickled plum onigiri. Then she put them into a bento
box and she headed out to Cameron's apartment.

The first mention of Kanae is followed by が, because she's being introduced into
the dialogue for the first time. Then an invisible Kanae packs her lunch box, before
reappearing when she goes to see Cameron. The は here is highlighting the
transition from bento-making to heading out. It would be perfectly natural not to
mention the topic here at all, so the fact that Kanae is explicitly mentioned again
creates this feeling that we are changing scenes in the story.

This change of scene effect can be found in both speaking and writing. By repeating
the topic when it's already obvious to the audience, the speaker shines the spotlight
back onto that topic and shows that for some reason there is a break in the
storyline or a shift in the dialogue.

は and が can also be manipulated to create a sense of familiarity or unfamiliarity

with the characters. Children's stories are a great example of this. Let's take a look
at the opening sentence from the children's book どうぞのいす:

JAPANESE

うさぎさんが ちいさな いすを つくりました。

ENGLISH

A rabbit made a small chair.

:
This is the first time we meet the rabbit in the story, so the narrator uses the
particle が to introduce this new information. In English, we use "a" in this kind of
scenario, as you can see in the translation.

A couple of pages later, once うさぎさん is already in our consciousness and can be
the topic, the narrator uses は:

JAPANESE

うさぎさんは たてふだを ひとつ つくりました。

ENGLISH

The rabbit made a signboard.

As you can see, in English we switch to "the" to create the same effect.

However, lots of stories, including the majority of modern novels, start by

introducing their characters as the topic, and so follow them by は. There are plenty
of examples of this, even in children's books. Let's have a look at the first time we
meet the eponymous hero in another picture book, ネズミのゆうびんやさん:

JAPANESE

ねずみの ゆうびんやさんは かばんに てがみを つめこむと、はりきって そ

とに とびだしました。

ENGLISH

Postman Mouse stuffs the letters into his bag as he rushes eagerly outside.

Even though this is the first time the main character is introduced, the narrator
uses は from the very beginning to give us the impression that we're already
familiar with this character.
:
The same thing happens in most modern novels. We're thrown right into the
universe of the novel, creating the impression that the characters already existed
before we got there, and were already part of our consciousness.

Look at the first line of Murakami's short story トニー滝谷:

JAPANESE
たきたに ほんとう なまえ ほんとう たきたに
トニー 滝 谷の 本 当の 名前は、 本 当にトニー 滝 谷だった。

ENGLISH

Tony Takitani's real name really was Tony Takitani.

As first-time readers, we couldn't possibly know who Tony Takitani is, yet this
opening line creates the impression that we do know him, and that we are in on the
story from the start. Making Tony Takitani the topic subtly transmits the feeling
that we are already aware of his existence, even though we're not.

Besides being a nifty tool for changing scenes and designating characters as
familiar or unfamiliar, は is a useful device for showing readers the narrator's
perspective. は and が are used frequently in creative writing to highlight the point
of view of the narrator, point out unusual details, and hint at other subtle points
that are often difficult to render adequately into English.

THE FINAL CURTAIN

Getting to grips with は and が will take time and experience, but hopefully you now
have a clearer idea of the roles they play, and the different shades of meaning they
can bring, and you can look out for them with a trained eye

Given that they show up all the time in Japanese, you'll have no shortage of
opportunities to apply these concepts and scratch your head over the exact color of
each instance. Every time you come across は and が, your understanding of these
:
two vital particles will deepen, and eventually you'll be able to put them in just the
うつく ゆうじょう
right places to create the exact nuance you're going for. これが 美 しい 友 情の
はじ
始まりだ — this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship!

Speaking of which… we recorded a podcast mini-series about は and が as well. We

use more examples to explain the difference between these two tricky particles and
even addressed some questions from our listeners. Be sure to check it out!

Tofugu

は VS が Mini-Series

Play on SoundCloud

3 Listen in browser
TRACKS

Tofugu - は and が: Part 1 K

Tofugu - は and が: Part 2 K

Tofugu - は and が: Part 3 K

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SOURCES
Dubuc, M. (2017). Nezumi no Yūbinyasan

Hinds, J. et al (1987). Perspectives on Topicalization.

Iwasaki, S. (2013). Japanese.

Kayama, Y. (1981). Dōzo no Isu

:
 Kuno, S. (1973). The Structure of the Japanese Language.

Murakami, H. (1999). Tonii Takitani. Rekishinton no Yūrei.

Rubin, J. (1998). Wa and Ga: The Answers to Unasked Questions. Making Sense
of Japanese.

Shimojo, M. (2006). Properties of particle 'omission' revisited. Toronto Working

Papers in Linguistics.

Suzuki, S. (1995). The functions of topic-encoding zero-marked phrases: A

study of the interaction among topic-encoding expressions in Japanese. Jour-
nal of Pragmatics.

Tsujimura, N. (2014). An Introduction to Japanese Linguistics, 3rd Edition.

Walker, M. et al (1994). Japanese Discourse and the Process of Centering. Asso-

ciation for Computational Linguistics.

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NEW JAPANESE LEARNING RESOURCES: SUMMER 2020

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NEW JAPANESE LEARNING RESOURCES: SUMMER 2020

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