(_I gave a postcard to you in Kurashiki._) | | [Dative case](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dative_case) | Indicate which noun is [the indirect object](
(_I gave a postcard to you in Kurashiki._) | | [Prepositional case](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adpositional_case) | Indicate where something takes place | In/at/on ...
(_I gave a postcard to you in Kurashiki._) | Verbs are the lifeblood of Japanese sentences, and case markers show how a particular word or phrase in a sentence is related to the main verb of that sentence. If we analyze the above example sentence from this "how things are related to the verb" perspective, we could say that: - The main verb is "to give" - "I" am the one who was doing the giving - "The postcard" is the thing that was given - "You" are the person that the thing was given to - "Kurashiki" is where the giving happened Make sense yet? Kinda sorta? We use these same cases in English, so they should make some intuitive sense to you. The difference is that English uses word order to show the case of words, whereas Japanese makes you use a particle to physically mark the case of each word or phrase. > The purpose of が (ga) is to mark the subject of a sentence's verb: > > - The thing that _does_ something > - The thing that _is_ something #### Some Japanese examples We've been in the world of theory for a while, so let's get hands on. Look through the following Japanese sentences and think about what が (ga) is doing in each one: -
A long time ago, in a certain place, there was an old man and an old woman. - The verb of the sentence is いました, "there was", talking about the existence of something - The old man and old woman are the things that existed -
The moon is beautiful, isn't it? - The verb† of the sentence is 綺麗です (beautiful/to be beautiful) - The moon is the thing that is beautiful -
The teacher, blinking, looked at me. - The verb of the sentence is 見た (to look {at}) - The teacher is the person doing the looking -
When I heard those words, my mind (head) went blank (white). - The verb of the sentence is なった (to become) - Your head/mind is the thing that underwent the change This can get somewhat complex because there are different types of verbs and Japanese sometimes decides that something should function as a verb when English doesn't think so (†looking at "beautiful" up there in the second example sentence!), but this should hopefully be relatively straightforward. > A verb belongs to a sentence, and が (ga) attaches to the thing that is, or is doing, that sentence's verb. ### The purpose of は (wa) In Japanese, は (wa) is what's called a [
Do (you) like sushi? - B:
Yes, (I) like. † And ask yourself: Why doesn't the word "お寿司" need to be in the second sentence? _It's because "sushi" has already been established as the topic of conversation!_ You _know_ we're talking about sushi, and not pizza or raw spaghetti noodles, because お寿司 has been marked with the particle は. This took お寿司 from being merely an element one sentence—the thing that is related to 好きですか—and elevated it being the topic of the conversation—the context that ties a group of sentences together. It's thus already clear that the comment "I like" pertains to "sushi", so there's no need to redundantly mention "sushi" again. _† While English requires us to point back to the topic by saying "I like it", Japanese makes no such imposition. The word "it" does not exist in the Japanese sentence. It literally just says "I like"._ #### Why "topicalization" causes confusion As we said up above, binding particles bind to other words/particles: there was an original particle, which was doing its own thing, and then は "binded" to it, giving it some additional nuance. Shown below ([source](https://chasoblogjapan.com/hatoga/)), this "binding" process has some important implications for Japanese grammar:
What this chart is showing is how は "binds" to some of Japanese's case-marking particles:
- In most cases, は buddies up alongside the particle it binds to: when you topicalize に, you get には
- With が and を, for whatever reason, は _replaces_ the particle it binds to: topicalized が "should" become がは, but Japanese people actually just say は
- _(The zero particle is beyond the scope of this post, but you can read about it [here](https://twpl.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/twpl/article/view/6178/3167))_
And, if I had to guess, I'd say that _this_ is why people get confused about が (ga) and は (wa):
1. When you see は, sometimes it is "actually" ~~が~~は—a topicalized subject marker
2. In this case, there are two jobs being done:
- The invisible が is still carrying out its original function of saying "that word is the subject of this sentence"
- The visible は is adding nuance, saying "that word is also the topic of the conversation that this sentence is contributing to"
So は is _not_ marking a subject... but it looks like it is, because the が it's attached to is invisible.
## The key difference between は (wa) and basically every other particle, including が (ga)
However technical we might get, and however many example sentences we might give, all of the differences between は (wa) and が (ga) basically boil down to one thing:
- が (ga) is a **case-marking particle**
- は (wa) is a **binding particle**
This is _super_ important. は (wa) and が (ga) are both particles, but they are used for very different reasons:
- **Case-marking particles** simply specify the role that a particular word or phrase plays within a sentence: when marking a word with が (ga), you're acknowledging/clarifying that _this is the thing that does, or is, the sentence's verb_
- **Binding particles** have less to do with the grammatical nuts and bolts of a specific sentence and more to do with the speaker's perspective of that sentence: when marking a word は (wa), you're saying that _this is the bigger topic at hand—this sentence, and perhaps the previous one or the next few, should be seen as being a comment on this thing_
Whereas you can choose what is going to be the topic of conversation, you _can't_ choose who did or was something. Imagine that you're working behind the scenes for a theatre production: You can choose where to aim the spotlight, but you can't choose which actor is eating a cake.
In other words:
> - は (wa) is attached to キリン (giraffe), indicating that we are talking about giraffes - が (ga) is attached to 首 (neck), indicating that necks are the thing that is 長いです (long) As such, you might translate this sentence in a few ways, ranging from more literal to more natural: - Giraffes—necks are long - Giraffes? Their necks are long. - As for giraffes, they have long necks. - Giraffes have long necks. ### And now a kind of ridiculous side-by-side of "topics" and "everything else" Imagine that you're playing some party game where there are a bunch of people standing in a circle, and they take turns running into the middle of a circle, writing something on a whiteboard, and then holding the white board up. Everybody looks to see what is written and then writes whatever the first thing that comes to their mind is. Here's my depiction of such a scene: -
The person in our proverbial party game writes "giraffe" on a whiteboard and holds it up high, for everyone to see. The other party goers say: - Person A →
Necks are long - Person B →
Height is tall - Person C →
Eat leaves from tall trees - Person D →
Only sleep for 4–6 hours per day - Person E →
(I) haven't eaten (one) before
_(Note: In the first four sentences, there was an implicit ~~が~~は (~~ga~~wa); in this sentence, there is an implicit ~~を~~は (~~wo~~wa))_ The word _giraffe_ (キリン) isn't in any of those sentences, but all of them are _about_ giraffes. That's the power of は (wa). --- ## When to use は (wa) in a sentence While there are certain phrases and grammar points that use は (wa), there are six main situations in which you can meaningfully choose to use は (wa) over が (ga) in a sentence. I've condensed this section from about a dozen different Japanese resources, but three most helpful ones were [this textbook for Japanese teachers](https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/234726762.pdf), [this research paper](https://hermes-ir.lib.hit-u.ac.jp/hermes/ir/re/71055/gengo0057000250.pdf), and [this handout from Shinshuu university](https://soar-ir.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/16271/files/InternationalStudent03-04.pdf) (will auto download a .pdf!). If you're at an ~intermediate level of Japanese, feel free to go through them! They're wonderful. You'll notice that some of these categories overlap, or that you could seemingly justifiably choose both が (ga) and は (wa) in some sentences. This isn't a clear-cut science: が (ga) or は (wa) can often both correctly complete a sentence, they just bring a different nuance. ### Use は (wa) to reference already-mentioned information As a native English speaker, this one will be intuitive for you. We have the exact same rule with "a" and "the": - Use "a" to introduce new information into a conversation - Use "the" to point back to information that you have already mentioned, or that you know the other party is aware of In the exact same way as "the", the particle は (wa) is used in Japanese to refer back to things you have already mentioned. For example: -
Once upon a time, there lived an old man and an old woman. The old man went to the mountains to cut firewood, and the old woman went to the river to do the laundry. Notice how は (wa) is not used until the _second_ sentence. Once we've established that the old man and woman exist, we can then begin using は (wa) to refer to them. Here's one more sentence that demonstrates the same logic: -
When I returned home, there was a bear. The bear was eating my dinner. Or, to phrase this a bit differently, consider this sentence: -
Sami is a teacher.
→ The decision to use は (wa) here indicates that you believe the listener is aware who Sami is—in other words, you're making a comment about "old" information Similarly, you'll use は to make statements of common sense or everyday knowledge: stuff that is (or should presumably be) "old" information for everybody: -
The sky is blue, and clouds are white.
→ The choice to use は (wa) here indicates that you don't think you are introducing any new information to the conversation—everybody knows that the sky is blue ### Use は (wa) when making judgments If you encounter (see, hear, feel, etc.) something and cast judgment upon it or somehow interpret it, use the particle は (wa) to introduce these judgments. While the word "judgment" is somewhat strong in English, the point here is just that the statement you are making is somehow rooted in your own subjective perspective—what you've just said may _not_ be true from someone else's perspective. Notice how the following statements are all things that you could disagree with: -
That sakura tree is very pretty.
→ "Pretty" is a subjective judgment; you're giving your opinion. -
I'm not a fan of natto.
→ As hard as it may be to believe, there are people out there who like natto. -
This train is always late.
→ Naturally, the train isn't _always_ late. Hyperbolism is subjective! Another person may find that the bus is generally on time. -
Children cry _(it's natural that children cry/children are supposed to cry)_.
→ From this person's perspective, it isn't surprising that a child should cry: they're saying that it is in a child's nature to cry. Anyway, this is a statement you can disagree with. ### Use は (wa) to introduce contrast into a statement Look at this sentence for a second, and think about how you'd interpret it: - I didn't tell _him_. This sentence is really saying two things: 1. I didn't tell that man 2. I did/may have told someone else In linguistics, this is called contrast—and, in Japanese, you use は (wa) to imbue a sentence with this kind of contrast. -
I didn't tell _him_.
The reason for this contrast becomes a bit more clear when we see the other half of this kind of sentence: -
I like cats, but my younger brother doesn't.
So, as you can see here, we've first established ourselves as the topic and made a comment that applies to ourselves, then quickly changed the topic to something else and made the inverse of the same comment. Here's two more examples, just for good measure: -
I can write hiragana, but not kanji.
→ You can't see it, but the subject is the same in each clause—it's the same person doing the writing—only the object has changed. -
(I) don't like _coffee_.
→ Just like in that first sentence above, the nuance here isn't _just_ that you don't like coffee. It's more that while you don't like coffee, there's something else available (such as tea or milk or soda) that you _do_ like. ### Use は (wa) to note a characteristic of something When you are saying that one thing is a characteristic, attribute, or part of another thing, use は (wa) to connect the owner and attribute. The definition of "owner" and "attribute" is quite loose, but what we mean here is in situations like "all thumbs are fingers, but not all fingers are thumbs"—where A=B is true, but B=A is not necessarily true. For example: -
Sami is American.
→ Importantly, this is a one-way relationship. It's not true that, if there is an American, then they are inevitably Sami. There are more Americans than just Sami. The same thing goes for talking about qualities of people: -
Mika Nakashima is cool.
→ While [Mika Nakashima is cool](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AabAbM_Lmuo), she does not have a monopoly on cool-ness. There are other cool people. And here's an example of using は (wa) to explain a category: -
A corgi is a (type of) dog.
→ This one might be a bit less intuitive. While it's always true that a corgi is a dog, it isn't always true that if you see a dog it will be a corgi. ### Use は (wa) to introduce something that applies to the entire sentence Like most things in life, sentences can come in simpler or more complex forms. When sentences get complex enough to contain multiple parts, we describe them as having _clauses_: the "main" clause is the part of the sentence that could be cut off and turned into an independent sentence, while the the "subordinate" clause is the part of the sentence that would no longer be a complete sentence if cut off and left by itself. Anyway—attach は (wa) to the thing in the beginning of the sentence that is related to the sentence's verb. -
The cake that the woman made yesterday was very delicious.
→ The cake is the thing that was very delicious, so it gets marked with は (wa). The sentence would still make sense if you entirely deleted "彼女が作った" . -
When he came to our place, I had already gone out.
→ The point of the sentence is that the speaker had already left their house. "When he came to our place" provides more detailed information, but you could delete it and the sentence would still make sense. ### Use は (wa) to make negative ("not/don't \_\_\_") statements While there are a number of exceptions to this, especially in more complex sentences, you'll generally use は (wa) with negative sentences. _(Note: "negative" not as in "bad", but as in "is not" or "does not".)_ A few examples: -
I don't know. -
I don't drink coffee. -
Unfortunately, there is no tea. ## When to use が (ga) in a sentence Here are six situations where the decision to use が (ga) over は (wa) in a sentence is meaningful. These six points are all counterpoints to the above six points introduced for は (wa), so you may wish to review them in tandem. Again, note that the point of this article is _specifically_ to contrast the usage of が (ga) and は (wa). For a thorough list of grammatical structures where が (ga) is used, refer to the が (ga) section of our [master post on Japanese particles](/blog/japanese/japanese-particles-guide#the-case-particles-%E3%81%8C-%E3%81%AE-%E3%82%92-%E3%81%AB-%E3%81%B8-%E3%81%A8-%E3%81%A7-%E3%81%8B%E3%82%89-and-%E3%82%88%E3%82%8A). ### Use が (ga) to introduce new information into a conversation In English, we use "a" to introduce new information into a conversation. In exactly the same way, Japanese uses が (ga) for this purpose. Consider the same two example sentences from the は (wa) section above: -
Once upon a time, there lived an old man and an old woman. The old man went to the mountains to cut firewood, and the old woman went to the river to do the laundry. -
When I returned home, there was a bear. The bear was eating my lunch. And notice how が (ga) is used the first time the old couple and the bear are mentioned, but how は (wa) is used when they are mentioned for a second time. Similarly, we can invert our example sentence about the teacher: -
Sami is a teacher.
→ The decision to use が (ga) here indicates that you think the listener doesn't know who the teaacher is—in other words, you're providing information that is new to them. Now, kind of a fun one—using what we've said so far, take a stab at this sentence: -
The sky is _blue_!
→ You've used が (ga) with something that is, presumably, common sense. This communicates your surprise: it's contrary to what you'd expected. Perhaps it's been rainy and the sky has been grey for several days—or perhaps you're a dwarf and have spent your entire life underground and are seeing the sky for the first time. ### Use が (ga) when making observations Whereas the sentences in the above section somehow involved the speaker's personal opinion, replacing the は (wa) with が (ga) makes them feel more objective: as if you're simply recording events as they unfold. - Observation:
Snow is falling.
→ This is happening, and that fact doesn't change whether you notice, care, or exist. -
The natto is in a bowl.
→ This is a factual observation, and you're not passing any sort of judgment on the situation (such as that it would be better for the natto to be in the garbage, instead). -
The train is here.
→ Again, this is simply an observation: you're standing there on the platform, killing time on your phone, then you hear a horn and look up. The train is in front of you. -
The child is crying.
→ You're not commenting on whether it's good or bad that the child is crying, or arguing that it is or isn't in children's nature to cry—you're simply stating an observation. ### Use が (ga) to point a finger / pick something out of a group / make an exclusive statement I wrote a few sentences trying to separate "exclusive が (ga)" from "contrastive は (wa)", but I kept getting tripped up on a certain point: isn't singling one thing out the same as separating it from literally everything else, which is a form of contrast? So, instead of reading those failed explanations, please observe these two memes I found on [a subreddit I won't name on this family-friendly website](https://www.reddit.com/r/FUCKYOUINPARTICULAR/):
Of all the places lightning could have struck, the forces that be picked that one specific guy's couch.
Similarly, the below sentiment is directed at one single person in particular:
The point in the first meme isn't the other rooms that lightning _could_ have stricken, but the one very specific room it _did_ strike. Similarly, we don't care about all the men Nicole Kidman is happy to not have in her life—every lumen of joy beaming from her rosy cheeks in this photograph is directed very, very specifically at Tom Cruise.
So anyway, when you want to raise one thing on a podium to the exclusion of everything else—to reach into a box of a hundred plushies and say you want _this_ one in particular—you use が (ga) to do that.
Observe:
- (I) don't like _coffee_.
→ This is the same sentence from up above in the contrastive は (wa) section, but the は (wa) has been swapped out with が (ga). Here, the focus isn't directed to the things you'd _rather_ be drinking. Instead, it's kind of like you just went out on a date with your partner, and they know very well that you don't like coffee, but they still ordered you a coffee. You're emphasizing that you hate, very specifically, _coffee_. -
Apples are Aomori's specialty.
→ By using が (ga) here, you're shining a spotlight on apples. Aomori actually produces many things, but for now, we don't care about any of that. We're reducing the world to just two things: Aomori and apples. -
_This_ is my pencil.
→ Imagine that a supernatural force has shaken up your entire university lecture hall. Nobody is hurt, but all 100 of y'all's pencils have mysteriously been transported from your desk to a box in the middle of the room. You walk up to the box, look for a second, and then see your pencil—you hold it up, triumphantly, and announce: _this_ is your pencil. Now that we've established this point, let's look at the same sentence from up above in the "use が (ga) for new information" section: -
Sami is a teacher.
→ When you use が here, the nuance is similarly that there are many people that _could_ be the teacher, but _Sami_ specifically is the teacher. Imagine you're in a room with several people, and this sentence is the response to "who/which one is the teacher?" ### Use が (ga)... or は (wa)... to equate two things Whereas は (wa) is used for one-way relationships (situations where A=B, but B=/=A), が (ga) is used when you can equate things in a two-way fashion (A=B and B=A.) To give a couple classic examples of this, consider: -
That person is Sami.
→ Here, it's equally valid to say _that person is Sami_ and _Sami is that person_. It doesn't matter which way you organize the sentence because thing A and thing B are the same. To indicate this two-way equality, we use が. -
Tokyo is the the capital of Japan.
→ Again, it would also be accurate to say _the capital of Japan is Tokyo_. Since we can swap the order of the parts of the statement without making it false, we connect them with が (ga). _(Note: You can also optionally use は (wa) for two-way relationships, but I've chosen to attribute it to が (ga), just to keep the sections separate.)_ ### Use が (ga) to introduce something that modifies something within a sentence, but not the entire sentence This section is tied very closely to は (wa) section above, in which we said は (wa) attaches to the part of a complex sentence that could form a complete sentence in and of itself. Conversely, attach が (ga) to the thing that is only related to part of a sentence—often something that is adding description to a noun. As we can see in those same two sentences from above: -
The cake that the woman made yesterday was very delicious.
→ "That the woman made" serves no purpose except to add more information about the word "cake", so we attach が (ga) to it. You could also attach の (no) to it, instead, if you prefer. -
When he came to our place, I had already gone out.
→ 彼がうちに来た is not a standalone phrase but rather something that adds more specificity to とき. Since "when he came to our place" isn't a complete sentence, が gets attached to 彼. ### Use が (ga) with question words If you use a question word in a sentence, and it doesn't come before だ・です, attach が (ga) to the question word. For example: -
Who is right, and who is wrong? -
What in the world is going on?.
-
What's wrong with that?
_(literally, "the where of that cannot go?")_ ## Already read like six articles but still don't get the difference between は (wa) が (ga)? That's OK. To be totally honest, I started studying Japanese in 2014 and have passed [the JLPT N1, the highest-level proficiency level test of Japanese](/blog/japanese/jlpt-n1-overview), but I couldn't have written this article off the top of my head. Knowing stuff _about_ a language isn't the same as _understanding_ the language. If that seems weird—did you know that [English adjectives have a fixed order they're required to go in](https://www.ym-language-services.com/en/the-order-of-adjectives-in-english/)? - ✅ Migachu is a cute purple mascot. - ❌ Migachu is a purple cute mascot. Weird, huh? It blew my mind when I learned that. Basically, what I want to say is that you don't _need_ to memorize all of this information. The real way to make progress in Japanese is simply by spending time interacting with it—reading books, watching anime, having conversations, and stuff like that. This should make intuitive sense: it's how you learned your native language, and you speak that language pretty well! The reason that spending time with Japanese (which we call getting "input") is so important is that, when you do so, you will inevitably run into tons of sentences that include は (wa) and が (ga)—such as this one below:
And, over time, as you see more and more sentences that include は (wa) and が (ga), it'll just kind of sink in. You'll develop an intuitive feel for how these particles work and what sort of nuance they lend to a sentence.
If this is the first time you're hearing about this approach to learning languages, we've actually got [an entire guide to learning Japanese with Netflix](/blog/japanese/learn-japanese-with-netflix).
Go check that out and try Migaku—it's totally free for 10 days, and you don't need to give us your your credit card information or anything like that 💪
## Conclusion
は (wa) and が (ga) can get pretty complex, but pretty much all of their usages boil down to the same essential two points:
- は (wa) marks what you're talking about, and can potentially affect several consecutive sentences
- が (ga) marks the thing/person doing a sentence's verb, and affects only the specific sentence it appears in
So long as you get that, it's OK. You'll gradually work out the details, over time, as you spend more time interacting with Japanese media.
Good luck!