How to use particle wa/は in Japanese

2021年5月23日 2021年5月23日

nihongonosensei

1 What are Japanese participles?
2 The particle wa/は
3 When to use the particle wa/は
4 You may also like

What are Japanese participles?

Let’s learn the particle wa/は for now.

The particle wa/は

The particle wa/は works as a topic marker in a sentence to introduce a topic. When a word is followed by wa/は, it will be marked as a topic in a sentence.

All you need to do is just put wa/は after the word which you want to introduce as a topic.

For example, if you want to talk about “watashi/わたし” which means “I”, start conversation with “Watashi/わたし wa/は”.

If you want to talk about “nihon/にほん” which means “Japan”, start conversation with “Nihon/にほん wa/は”.

wa/は is often used when people talk about general truths or speaker's general idea, describe what something is like and explain something.

wa/は is often used for the topic of Yes / No questions and the topic which is given by someone else.

Let's look at these cases.

When to use the particle wa/は

wa/は is used in the following cases.

wa/は is used when people talk about general truths.

<Example 1>
Chikyuu wa marui.
ちきゅう　は　まるい。
地球　は　丸い。
[the earth wa/は round]
The earth is round.

If you want to talk about the general truth of "Chikyuu/ちきゅう", put wa/は after "Chikyuu/ちきゅう."

<Example 2>
Tookyoo wa nihon no syuto desu.
とうきょう　は　にほん　の　しゅと　です。
東京　は　日本　の　首都　です。
[Tokyo wa/は Japan of capital is]
Tokyo is the capital of Japan.

Here, "Tokyo is the capital of Japan" is general truth.

wa/は is used when people talk about speaker's general idea.

<Example 3>
Umi wa kirei.
うみ　は　きれい。
海　は　きれい。
[sea wa/は beautiful]
(I think) Sea is beautiful in general.

Everyone has their own way of thinking. If you want to express your own opinion about something, you can use wa/は.

wa/は is used when people describe what something is like.

<Example 4>
Kyoo wa atsui.
今日　は　あつい。
今日　は　暑い。
[today wa/は hot]
It's hot today.

Here, today is described as hot. The word before wa/は is always the target of description and the phrase after wa/は is always description.

<Example 1>
Chikyuu wa marui.
ちきゅう　は　まるい。
地球　は　丸い。
[the earth wa/は round]
The earth is round.

Here pick up <Example 1> again. "Chikyuu/ちきゅう" is the target of description and "marui/まるい" is the description. The target of description is followed by wa/は like this.

wa/は is used when people explain something.

<Example 5>
Watashi no namae wa Takuya desu.
わたし　の　なまえ　は　たくや　です。
私　の　名前　は　たくや　です。
[I of name wa/は Takuya is]
My name is Takuya.

Here, wa/は is used to explain the name of person.

Here, pick up <Example 2> again. This sentence explains Tokyo. We know this because Tokyo is followed by wa/は.

wa/は is often used for the topic of Yes / No questions.

wa/は is often used for the topic which is given by someone else.

<Example 6>
Eego wa suki desu ka.
えいご　は　すき　です　か。
英語　は　好き　です　か。
[English wa/は favorite is ?]
Do you like English?

Hai, eego wa suki desu.
はい、えいご　は　すき　です。
はい、英語　は　好き　です。
[yes, English wa/は favorite is]
Yes, I like English.

Here, English is the topic of Yes / No question because "eego/えいご" is followed by wa/は.

The topic of the answer of Yes / No question is often followed by wa/は because it is the topic which is given by someone else.

If you want to use wa/は perfectly, you need to know the difference between wa/は and ga/が. This is because wa/は sometimes can be interchangeable with ga/が grammatically even though the meaning of the sentence changes slightly.

Please visit below link to find it out.

What are Japanese participles?

The particle wa/は

When to use the particle wa/は

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