Difference between “wa” and “ga” Wednesday, Dec 14 2005
Level 1 11:33 am
As promise, today I will explain one of the most confusing particles faced by most Japanese Learning Students.
1. Mr. Tony eats bread. - Toni-san wa pan o tabemasu.
2. Mr. Tony eats bread. - Pan wa Toni-san ga tabemasu.
The difference of the above two sentences is that (1) is talking about “Toni-san” and (2) is about “pan (bread)”. In another words, (1) is answering a question such as “What Toni-san eats?” and (2) such as “Who eat bread?”.
Either sentence does not necessarily need a question, but the main interest is “Toni-san” in (1), and “pan” in (2). The essential difference of (1) and (2) is the topic. The topic in (1) is “Toni-san”, and “pan” in (2).
The expression “Toni-san wa…” in (1) indicates that “Toni-san” is the topic, so the speaker is talking about or making question about “Toni-san”, and this is the function of “wa”. You can let the people know that you are talking about X by saying “X wa…”, and this function is called topic marker in the field of linguistics.
In other words, “wa” is a topic marker and “ga” is a subject marker. The topic can be anything that a speaker wants to talk about (It can be an object, location or any other grammatical element). In this sense, it is similar to the English expressions, “As for ~”.
“Wa” is used to mark something that has already been introduced into the conversation, or is familiar with both a speaker and a listener. (proper nouns, genetic names etc.) “Ga” is used when a situation or happening is just noticed or newly introduced.
Another example will be the combination of “wa” and “ga” in one sentences
Mr. Tony is staying in this house. Mr. Tony is a teacher.
Toni-san ga kono ie ni sunde imasu. Toni-san wa sensei desu.
In the above example, “Toni-san” is introduced for the first time. It is the subject, not the topic. The second sentence describes about “Toni-san” that is previously mentioned. “Toni-san” is now the topic, and is marked with “wa” instead of “ga.”
Almost all future lessons will be using “wa” and “ga”. So the more you read , the more you will understand. Stay Tune !!!
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December 14th, 2005 at 10:25 pm
Getting a real handle on the natures of ga and wa is tough, and it’s good that you point out how the choice of particles answers different questions even if the translated English sentence is the same.
パンを食べました。(”What did you eat?”)
私はパンを食べました。(”I know what Tony ate. So how about you?”)
私がパンを食べ余した。(”Hey, who ate the bread?”)
Often, the particle wa corresponds to “the” in English, and ga corresponds to “a”.
Also, it helps to remember that wa emphasizes what comes after, and ga emphasizes what comes before. “Toni-san ga kono ie ni sunde imasu” says to me “it’s Tony who lives here.”
But I’m still just a novice trying to get a hang of this amazing language. There are still times when I read real Japanese and can’t figure out why ga or wa was chosen.
November 8th, 2006 at 11:37 pm
It kind of confuses me - I understand the first part of “wa” being topic marker and “ga” being subject marker, but from my intuition I would say the second part is the other way around, that is, when you talk about something that has already been mentioned, you use “ga”. I know it’s not true, it’s just hard for me to remember. But I’ll try ^_^.
March 27th, 2007 at 4:50 am
“Toni-san ga kono ie ni sunde imasu.” - To put the emphasis on the house instead of Tony, could I say: “Kono ie ni wa Toni-san ga sunde imasu”?
March 27th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
Hi Mmaddin,
You may use this as well but it is not commonly use for Japanese.
November 29th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
What i understand so far is ga is subject marker. A subject is a person/thing that is doing an action so it should be a proper noun. but topic may not be. It can be anything. Ex. let us consider these two sentences.
1) Tokyo is a big city - Here Tokyo is topic but cannot be subject. Here i will use wa.
2) Smith ate bread - Here Smith is subject he can do some action. Here i will use ga.
Pls. correct me if i am wrong.
Thanks a lot…
November 29th, 2007 at 2:58 pm
Hi Kuppusamy,
You are correct but “ga” not necessarily use only for person / thing. In Japanese, “ga” and “wa” are the most difficult particles for anyone who is studying Japanese.
The most important rules to remember for these 2 particles is : “wa” is a topic marker and “ga” is a subject marker
November 30th, 2007 at 9:23 pm
So if you would put emphasis on a particular word, for example the difference between “Don’t eat THAT” and “Don’t EAT that”, which one would you use? I have the feeling one should be “Kore wa tabenai” and the other should be “Kore ga tabenai”, but I don’t know which is which.
November 30th, 2007 at 9:59 pm
Hi Watson,
Anything which is “negative” (i.e DON’T eat something) is “wa”. You cannot use “ga” for negative sentence.
Thanks
December 1st, 2007 at 2:36 am
Hey Tony, thanks a lot! You really helped me out!
December 1st, 2007 at 6:04 pm
My Pleasure, Watson.
January 2nd, 2008 at 9:47 pm
hi tony,
in watson’s case, what if it is in affirmative?
i will EAT that.
and
i will eat THAT.
how should wa and ga be used?
January 2nd, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Hi Kat,
For “i will EAT bread” = “Watashi wa pan o tabemasu” and “i will eat BREAD” = Pan wa watashi ga tabemasu.
Eat cannot be a topic because it is an action.
October 15th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Still not clear,
Explain with more simple way plz
October 29th, 2008 at 8:10 am
Hi all, I’m a Japanese and I just started to teach my friend Japanese. He asked me how to use “wa” and “ga”. So I tried to find how to use “wa” and “ga” even though I am a native speaker of Japanese. This web-site encourages me so much! How did you learn Japanese so good!
Anyway, I have to teach him how to use “ga” and “wa” tonight! And I will teach him as follows and this teaching is just for beginners. (If my teaching is wrong, Please correct me!)
1.WHEN YOU WANT TO SPECIFY “WHAT” OR “WHO”, YOU USE “GA”.
WHAT IS FLYING? UFO OR BIRD OR MAN? MAN IS FLYING!(hito ga ton de imasu!)
WHO IS EATING? EMI OR MARI OR TARO? TARO IS EATING.(taro ga tabe te imasu)
WHAT IS COMING? BUS OR TRUCK ? BUS IS COMING.
(basu ga ki masita)
WHO WILL DO THIS? YOU OR HE?I WILL DO IT.( (sore wa) watashi ga shimasu)
2.WHEN YOU WANT TO DESCRIBE SOMETHING , YOU USE “WA”.
I AM A STUDENT.(watashi wa gakusei desu)
I TAKE A WALK.(watashi wa sanpo wo simasu)
SHE IS BEAUTIFUL.(kanojo wa kirei desu)
HE IS FROM U.S.A.(kare wa amerika kara kimasita)
WHAT ARE YOU EATING? RICE OR BREAD? I’M EATING RICE.(watashi wa gohan wo tabete imasu)
jyane mata(see you later)
October 29th, 2008 at 8:23 am
Hi Hiroyuki,
The examples you used are good. Easy to understand. I would suggest you to explain a bit deeper so that your friend can capture the real usage of “wa” and “ga”. This way it is easier for him/her to use these 2 words in the conversation.
Thanks
November 16th, 2008 at 10:34 am
i am not certain if i’m correct, but is this how wa and ga are used? (i’ve been having real difficulty understanding the distinction!)
“what is bread?” answer: pan wa kore ga desu.
“what is this?” answer: kore wa pan ga desu.
and also, in those sentences, would ga be necessary to use? and if not, how do you know when it is necessary, and when it isn’t?
i’ve been teaching myself japanese and this is my first week, so please excuse me if i’m making huge mistakes, haha.
also, i haven’t yet learned the characters, so if possible please don’t use them to me! lol i’m sorry!
thanks