is one of emphasis. In English we make a difference in emphasis by using a louder voice somewhere in the sentence. We say ‘I like MOVIES’ or ‘I LIKE movies,’ depending on which part of the sentence we want to bring out. In Japanese, the particle ga focuses our attention on the words preceding it, but the particle wa releases our attention to focus on some other part of the sentence. So, eiga ga suki desu means ‘I like MOVIES,’ but eiga wa suki desu means ‘I LIKE movies.’ When there is a question word in the sentence (like dare ‘who,’ dore ‘which one,’ dono ‘which,’ and doko ‘where’), the attention usually focuses on this part of the sentence, so the particle wa is not used: Dono tatemono ga eki desu ka ‘Which building is the train station?’ Since our attention is focused on ‘WHICH building,’ the answer is Ano tatemono ga eki desu ‘THAT building is the train station.’ If the question is Ano tatemono wa nan desu ka ‘What is that building?,’ our attention is released from ano tatemono ‘that building’ by the particle wa and concentrates on ‘WHAT,’ so the answer is Ano tatemono wa eki desu ‘That building is a TRAIN STATION,’ or just Eki desu ‘It’s a train station.’ Some sentences have both a topic—or several successive topics—and a subject:
あなたは日本のアニメが好きですか。
Anata wa Nihon no anime ga suki desu ka.
Do you like Japanese anime?
あなたは日本のアニメは好きですか。
Anata wa Nihon no anime wa suki desu ka.
Do you LIKE Japanese anime?
Because the difference in meaning between wa and ga is largely one of emphasis, you can often take a sentence and change the emphasis just by substituting wa for ga. The particle wa can be thought of us an “attention-shifter”: the words preceding it set the stage for the sentence, and serve as scenery and background for what we are going to say. This can lead to ambiguity. The sentence Tarō wa Hanako ga suki desu (literally, ‘Taro as topic, Hanako as emphatic subject, someone is liked’) can mean either ‘Taro likes Hanako’ (It’s HANAKO that Taro likes’) or ‘Hanako likes Taro’ (It’s HANAKO that likes Taro). The situation usually makes it clear which meaning is called for. If you have both wa and ga in a sentence, the phrase with wa usually comes first: the stage is set before the comment is made.
Sometimes two topics are put in contrast with each other: Kore wa eigakan desu ga, sore wa ginkō desu ‘This is a movie-theater, but that is a bank.’ (The particle ga meaning ‘but’ is not the same particle as the one indicating the subject.) In this case, the emphasis is on the way in which the two topics contrast—in being a theater on the one hand, and a bank on the other.
2.9. か ka
The particle ka is placed at the end of a sentence to show that it is a question. It is as if we were pronouncing the question mark:
あの家です。
Ano ie desu.
It’s that house.
あの家ですか。
Ano ie desu ka.
Is it that house?
A common way of asking a question in Japanese is to give two or more alternatives, one of which the answerer selects.
あの人は日本人ですか。中国人ですか。
Ano hito wa Nihon-jin desu ka. Chūgoku-jin desu ka.
Is he Japanese or Chinese? (Literally, ‘Is he Japanese. Is he Chinese?’)
Alternative questions are further discussed in Note 7.8.
2.10. の no
The particle no shows that the preceding noun “modifies” or “limits” the noun following. The particle no is often equivalent to the English translation of, but sometimes it is equivalent to in or other words.
| 私の本 watashi no hon | my book |
| 日本語の本 Nihongo no hon | Japanese (language) books |
| 私の友達 watashi no tomodachi | my friend |
| 部屋の中 heya no naka | the inside of the room |
| 家の外 ie no soto | the place outside the house |
| ここの学校 koko no gakkō | the schools of this place, the schools here |
| 東京の銀行 Tōkyō no ginkō | banks in Tokyo |
| アメリカの新聞 Amerika no shinbun | American newspapers |
| 日本の会社員 Nihon no kaishain | company employees in Japan |
The expression NOUN + no is sometimes followed directly by the copula desu ‘is (equals),’ as in:
| 「これはだれのですか。」“Kore wa dare no desu ka.”“Whose is this?” | 「石田さんのです。」“Ishida-san no desu.”“It’s Ms. Ishida’s.” |
2.11. に ni
The particle ni indicates a “general sort of location” in space or time, which can be made more specific by putting a place or time word in front of it. The phrase heya ni means ‘at the room, in the room.’ To say explicitly ‘in(side) the room,’ you insert the specific place word naka ‘inside’: heya no naka ni. Notice the difference between gakkō ni imasu ‘he’s at school, he’s in school’ and gakkō no naka ni imasu ‘he’s in(side) the school (building).’
A NOUN PHRASE + ni is not used to modify another noun, and it does not occur before desu ‘is (equals)’; it is usually followed by arimasu ‘(a thing) is (exists)’ or imasu ‘(a person) is (exists in a place).’ To say ‘the people in the room,’ you connect heya no naka ‘the inside of the room’ with hito ‘the people’ by means of the particle no: heya no naka no hito.
The particle ni is also used figuratively:
友達に言いました。
Tomodachi ni iimashita.
He said TO his friend.
It sometimes shows “purpose”:
散歩に行きました。
