Question:
Can somebody please tell me the difference between, "を、が、は " when it comes to Japanese sentences.
Like, I know how to make a sentence like, "この花は美しいです” When "は" is used as, "Is" but what are を and が used for? Somebody please help, and don't send me a link to some site either. I just want a good answer please, thanks.
Answer:
This must be one of the hardest things when studying Japanese.
wo, ga and wa and called joshi (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_pa…It is easy to distinguish wo from wa and ga
I think wa and ga is mostly hard to use!
When using wo in a sentence. A verb usually follows it.
For example: Kore wo tabetekudasai. (Please eat this.)
Watashi wa neko wo katteimasu. (I own a cat/ I have a cat.)
Mizu wo nomimashita. (I drank water.)
Wo depicts a movement or action.
While wa and ga are usually used in sentences that has a statement.
Wa, usually points to a vague object, while in ga the object in the sentence is specific.
While wa puts focus on the sentence as a whole, not the subject!
Ga puts focus/emphasis on the subject more than the sentence as a whole.
Okay, that is really hard to explain..
But here are some examples:
Watashi wa tabemashita. (I already ate.) This is just a plain statement, saying that the subject already ate.
While in:
Watashi ga tabemashita. (I ate it.) It is a statement that says, none other than I has eaten. And this also implies that there is a specific object(food) in the background.
Further examples in conversation:
Using wa:
A: Issho ni gohan tabemasuka? (Would you like to have lunch/dinner together?)
B: Iie, watashi wa tabemashita no de. (No thanks, I already ate.)
Using ga:
A: Dare ga watashi no keki wo tabeta? (who ate my cake?)
B: Watashi ga tabemashita. (I ate the cake.)
Also another thing I learned in class about wa and ga.
When telling a story, and you are introducing a noun (character, name, object) in your story for the very first time. 'ga' is used rather than 'wa'.
This is quite advanced, and I do not advise you to think much about it, it's like an FYI.
Have you heard of Momotaro?
This is something interesting from my textbook. It's an excercise where you have to guess if you should put wa or ga in the ( ).
The story starts like this:
Mukashi mukashi aru tokoro ni ojiisan to obaasan ( 1) imashita.
Ojiisan (2 ) yama he shibakari ni, obaasan (3 ) kawa he sentaku ni ikimashita.
ANSWERS: 1) ga 2)wa 3)wa
Since the author is introducing these two characters for the first time in the story, he used the particle ga, but in the second sentence, the two characters have been already introduced, so now he used wa.
If you say: Kono hana wa utsukushii. You're just stating the flower is beautiful.
BUT if you use ga instead as in: Kono hana ga ustukushii. You are saying that, that flower in particular, compared to any other flowers present is the most beautiful. You are putting emphasis on the subject (the flower)
