The Basic Function of は
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- Опубликовано: 3 окт 2024
- は is one of the first particles you learn when you start studying Japanese, yet, many people, including some advanced Japanese learners, get confused about the particle. First of all, what is the particle は? What’s the function of it? Is it a subject marker? Topic marker? How is it different from the particle が? In this video, I’m going to explain the basic function of the particle は in an intuitive way so that you can get the core idea of what is the particle は.
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Examples transcript:
このペンはとても使いやすいんですよ。
このハサミはとても使いやすいんですよ。
今私の手にはハサミがあります。
今私はハサミを持っています。
このハサミは青いハサミで、とても使いやすいんですよ。
見てください。この動画の中央に赤い塔がありますよね。あれはさっぽろテレビ塔です。
真ん中に見える塔はさっぽろテレビ塔です。テレビ塔は札幌の中央にある電波塔で、1957年に建てられました。
みなさん、実はですね、あのトイレはとてもきれいです。
この動画の右側に写っていませんが、公衆トイレがあります。
この動画では見えませんが、右側に公衆トイレがあります。あのトイレはちょっと古いですが、まあまあきれいです。
見てください。テレビ塔のちょっと左に女の人が手を挙げている像がありますよね。
あの像は泉の像と言って、大通公園のシンボルの一つなんですよ。
あのー、すいません、この公園にトイレはありますか？
ありますよ。トイレはあそこです。
あのー、すいません。トイレって知っていますか？
え、トイレですか？当たり前じゃないですか。
え！本当に知ってるんですか！トイレってあのー、おしっこしたりうんちしたりする、あのトイレですよ？
知ってますよ。バカにしてるんですか？
あ、知ってるんだ！よかったー！あのーすいません、ここら辺にトイレはありますか？
いや、あなたに答えたくありません。
トイレって知っていますか？
うちの同僚に山口って人がいるんだけど
田中さん、ご兄弟はいますか？
はい、姉と弟がいます。
へえ、そうなんですか。お姉さんは札幌に住んでるんですか？
いえ、姉は今大阪に住んでいます。
じゃあ弟さんは？
弟は私と一緒に住んでいますよ。
このペンはとても使いやすいんですよ。
このペンはとても書きやすいんですよ。一年前に本屋で買ったんですけど、気に入っちゃって、それからずっと使っています。前使ってたペンよりもずっと書きやすくて、一度使ったらもうやめられないんですよ！
私の彼は、一見不真面目に見えるかもしれないけど、みんなが思っているより、そんなバカじゃないんだよ、大学卒業してるし。しかも私と一緒にいるときはとてもジェントルマンで、とても真面目で優しいの。まあちょっとはやんちゃなところもあるけど、でもすごく頼りになるっていうか、しかもハンサムだし背が高いし、いや自慢してるんじゃないけどね、でも、ほんとにみんが思っているよりいい人っていうかー、この前もわたしが疲れてるときに弁当作ってくれたしー、しかもマッサージまでしてくれてー、なんていうんだろ、もうほんとー、超ベリー素敵な男って感じ？
私の彼一見不真面目でバカみたいに見えるかもしれないけど。
私の彼は一見不真面目で
このペンすごく使いやすんだよ！
このペンはすごく使いやすいんですよ！
このペンめっちゃ使いやすい！
あの店のラーメンめっちゃうまいよ！
いやー、うちの大学の英語の先生めっちゃ美人でさ、俺毎回すごく行くの楽しみにしてるんだよね！
Bro goes above and beyond just to teach us Japanese for free. ありがとうございます
Free of charge
Are you stupid?
He gets ad revenue, people literally become millionaires just from that alone
@@wasps1yrjust like 100er oder youtubers
Kaname is the GOAT of intermediate / advanced Japanese language education on RUclips and it's not even close.
You're absolutely right. All the other channels are for like beginners I already know the basics I'm trying to get to almost fluency and I need the harder questions answered and just more demonstration and examples of natural speaking
I studied Japanese from 7th to 12th grade. I studied for four years in college. I lived in Japan for a year. And no one ever came close to explaining it to me to where I could understand. Now I actually feel like I understand it, so thank you for this!
I have always been confused about “は“ and “が”. Thank you for explaining it so clearly. Your lessons are very helpful.
One of the best explanations of は vsが I’ve come across in RUclips.
It's similar to "the" and "a" in English. I actually used similar examples when I was teaching English in Japan.
I bought a bike yesterday.
The bike is red.
This is a great explanation of the "wa"/"ga" differences. Thank you for covering this!
Really appreciate the deeper understanding on "simple" concepts like は particle
I watch/listen to Kaname sensei's video to understand NUANCES and how real Japanese talk, things you just never learn on the textbook. Language can be overwhelming because it's so diverse and people use it differently in different context. But at the same time so interesting
Everybody says は is a topic marker in japanese but few explain it clearly. Your explanations were very helpful. Thank you so much, Sir
Just saw the notification and I'm already recommending this to my friends, even before watching it, because your videos/lessons are always the best!! 😃
Greetings from Brazil ~
I started learning Japanese a few weeks ago, but I have been watching Kaname's videos a year or so prior, he teaches in such a clear way that even before I understood a word in Japanese, everything seemed very clear and easy, which is the mark of an amazing talent in teaching, anytime I see a new video on this channel, I'm glad.
Thank you very much for your time and effort!
"It's going to take a while to explain it and I don't want to do it"
やはり日本語の文法ですよね。
Great introduction to は, かなめ先生！
Was just outside with my cat having a snack thinking to myself "I've been studying Japanese for 2 years now. If I overthink it, I lose sense of how は and が behave in accordance to each other, as much as I FEEL like I understand it".
Perfect timing. ありがとうございます！
Best teacher ever!
ありがとうございます。
かなめ先生‼
Excellent lesson, the best one i have ever heard about wa and ga. For English speaking people particles are the hardest subject. Please lessons about all fourteen particles would be a huge plus. Thank you!
In a supermarket, for example, a customer might ask 人参はありますか？ or 人参はどこですか？ I've always wondered why は is used here instead of が, and now you've answered this for me. Thank you.
New video on my birthday yey, this was probably the best explanation about the two particle I have seen so far. Thank you!
I've heard you should introduce concepts with が but getting a detailed breakdown on why is great.
かなめ先生、さすが! 勉強になった。ホントにありがとうございます
so like 'a' and 'the'
Really really really good explanation. Thank you so much kanameさん
This came at the perfect time, Kaname sensei. I've just started learning about particles. Thank you!
Another great subject! Thank you. Love that you are going over the basics. There's so many little things that are easy to miss when learning.
かなめ先生の教えの方法は最高と思います！めっちゃ分かりやすいし、上手な英語で教えてし、面白い例文はいっぱい性格があるし。
「は」について、未だ最初から一分半まで、この動画でもう新しいインフォメーションを学びました。す～ごい！
Hey, here’s a corrected version of your writing, thought it might help ya:
かなめ先生の教え方は最高だと思います！上手な英語で説明してくれるしめっちゃ分かりやすいし、あと例文も個性的で面白いです。
この動画の最初の一分半だけでも「は」について知らなかったことをいっぱい学ぶことができたからびっくりしました！
Noteworthy changes:
* 教えの方法 → 教え方: "教え方" is a more natural expression for "teaching method."
* し → Combined some sentences for smoother flow while using し repeatedly.
* いっぱい性格がある → 個性的だ: "性格" is more about personality in humans, while "個性" fits better for describing unique characteristics of things like example sentences.
* 未だ doesn't fit the context here so I removed it and rephrased the sentence.
@@masatami Thanks, I appreciate you taking the time. I'll have to look over these changes and take note of them as best I can.
Right now, I'm essentially pushing above my level to practice new things, 'cause you gotta use it to remember it, and start to figure out how things work. Building things in a way where you can succeed in expressing yourself, even if you don't have all the best pieces yet, etc.
As my vocabulary and comprehension improves, I'll be able to shadow better and build a better intuition of what actually sounds right.
And here we have another very interesting video from かなめさん
“as for” “regarding” “on the topic of” “what about?” (If used as a question 〜は？) are probably the closest English translations of は
Thank you very much! I had an inkling about the meaning of は, but I couldn't wrap my head around the difference to が and when to use which. This made it a lot clearer.
I am a proficient speaker and this helped me understand mistakes I make in formal writing better, even though I'm pretty sure I've read some of the linguistics research it's based on. I'll get corrected by my boss less now. Cheers.
Such great explanations that I watched the video twice in a row! Thanks Kaname sensei!
So you are talking about が as "subject," but one thing that greatly helped me was thinking of it as the "identifier" particle. So it's not in opposition to は, exactly, but is complementary and different in purpose. Any sentence where you need to identify something, が is used (even multiple times) to identify something specific.
Consider お祭りではあんこが入ったお菓子を売ります -- Although red bean paste is being identified, the subject of the sentence sure isn't that, it's some anonymous seller(s), at least from an English perspective. "Some vendors at the festival sell red-bean-paste-filled sweets." Or, "They sell sweets at the festival that are full of red bean paste."
Oh, by the way, your videos are amazing. Thank you.
In your example, あんこ is the subject of the verb 入った while the unnamed seller is the subject of 売ります
Very helpful! ありがとうございました！This channel explains so much that Duolingo doesn’t bring up at all. Very grateful for the content ❤
I really appreciate Kaname sensei’s lessons.
It is unfortunate that you chose to use the word “focus” loosely to mean both the new thing you point out, and then that thing as it becomes the topic you make new comments about.
The term ‘focus’ is used in general linguistics to refer to the new information. In English we mark focus with emphasis: louder, longer and higher pitch. In Japanese the particles が and も mark focus.
The very opposite of ‘focus’ is the topic, also called presupposition or background. In Japanese ‘topic’ is marked with は.
Kaname Sensei does a good job of showing that when you first point something out from the background, you focus on it, mark it が. Next you can make it the topic that you comment on: the は puts it in the background, and the new information you add becomes the new ‘focus.’
My explanation is not as clear as Kaname sensei’s. But it would have been better it he hadn’t used the word focus loosely to mean both ‘focus’ (new info), and its opposite, (topic/background/presupposition.)
THIS!! a criminally low amount of beginner learners understand that は does not correlate to "am/is/are" in English! The very concept of "sentence topic setup" is important but very rarely talked about and this causes many people to overuse は and just sound jarring
Thanks!
I always thought you couldn't use は with いる or ある, this is really interesting. Thanks for the video my guy
I think that's yet another strange rule burned into our brains from Genki and the like... Kaname is the GOAT!
@@Sage-zs9qy they make a point that you're supposed to use が with those kinds of verbs not so you don't use は, it's so you don't use を
I'd guess it's because in most situations, if you say "this exists", you're probably saying it to inform the other person of something they might not know. Otherwise, it's less likely you'd say the sentence in the first place, since the existence is already understood. Therefore, 「何々がある」is much more common to inform someone of that existence.
Perhaps something like ”テーブルに七つサンドはあるんだけど、二人で全部を食べられないでしょう。” would work, because at a glance, anyone would know there are 7 sandwiches, therefore は can be used, but it still makes sense to mention their existence before saying that there's no way just 2 people can eat them all.
TL;DR: 「何々はある」is probably uncommon simply because you're stating the existence of something you both already know exists, so it's usage is bound to be more limited.
Almost 2 years of Kaname sensei and we're only getting は vs が now
この動画が好きです
Amazing language nerd content. I never knew は was so complex!
えっとね〜、この説明は特別なんですね。他の日本語の先生はこんな説明していなくて本当に勉強になっていますがまだちょっと困ります。最初の説明によって、「は」は "the"という助詞のように見えて「が」は「a」という助詞の方に見えたけど、後半分のところでまるで逆になったみたい。多分この動画を何回も聞かなければ行けませんが絶対しっかりその違いを分かるようにします
In other words with は the new information is after the particle
with が the new information is before the particle
Yea I've always heard people that teach Japanese explain it by drawing a parralel with the way we put emphasis on words in english. As in "this is a TOILET" vs "THIS is a toilet."
In Japanese, for the first one you would use wa, and for the second you would use ga, right?
I appreciate your contents! Thank you.
Thanks Kaname you are awesome
"There's such a thing called a "bathroom", ever heard of it?" 😂
best japanese video i have watched in a while :>
Hard for me to focus on such long videos, but は is such a big topic it deserves a number of smaller videos focused on various aspects.
On thing that has always bothered me is にごり。I once had a pretty good one-page summary, but it still bugs me pretty often, especially in books where the markings are unclear (if ruby is present).
Very helpful. Thanks!
I've always comapred は as being the title of a chapter in a book for some reason, so once I've said [topic]は I don't feel the need to mention it again unless the topic changes to something else.
Excellent video !
Kaname is the best
In these cases, が and は are similar to English indefinite and definite articles. 画像の右側には公衆トイレがあります。On the right hand of the picture there is a public toilet. トイレは古いけど、まあまあ綺麗です。The toilet is old but it's fairly clean.
Return of the king.
Fantastic video. Nice shirt too.
I now know more about this one particle than the rest of the Japanese language. Which isn't a high bar, ground level even, but it's still true.
Thank you!
Thank you!
I hope next lesson, you can make a video for ば form v.s たらsensei😊
pleaseee do a full video on って >
2:30懐かしい😊
Kaname sensei, at 5:38 you mention the statues to the left of the tower, but the English subtitles say they're to the right.
Use your eyes. It is clearly on the left.
@@colinjames2469 He says 左 (left) in Japanese - both in speech and subtitles - but translates it as "right" in the English subs. @denpa-san is correct
Please show us the function of が next, 先生
I was going to ask what the point of the particle is if the subject may be straightforwardly implied by the sentence itself, but you kinda answered it by mentioning speakers regularly omit it for this reason
In more complex sentences (or formal ones) there's no way you're going to be able to get your point across without は
Thank ye kindly in advance.
THANK YOU *BOW*
>>>この動画は
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FINALLY
Ever since I started learning Japanese, I used は many times.
Example:この歌は美しくて大好き。
You can't use だ after 美しい because it's a "i-adjective"
@@matoikazamaki9522 Fixed.
@@matoikazamaki9522 I fixed that.
That looks like you're saying "I like that song and I'm beautiful" because the focus/topic of the sentence is yourself/僕は. Maybe この歌は美しくて大好き would be better.
@@masatami I was trying to say “I like the song and it’s beautiful.” In Japanese. Is there other way?
i thought the purpose of は was chewing
I think there's a typo. You wrote 左 but wrote "right"
HE DID IT THE MADMAN ACTUALLY DID IT
Can you make a video about ては/では?
動画ありがとうございます！ちなみに、「公衆トイレ」って言いましたが、その誰でも使っていい場合は「公共何とか」も言えますか？
すみません、かなめさん、
「〜的」の機能が使い方を教えてください🙏🏻
Finally
I follow this channel because the way Kaname Naito explains Japanese grammar and vocab is amazing. But this video doesn't explain the difference between は and が very well; it's pretty messy, honestly.
I didn't find it messy at all. I learned something new in the first 1.5 minutes.
_If you both already know or can visualize the subject, you can use_ は。
僕の頭にキャップはある。("There's a cap on my head." I used は because it's immediately obvious I'm wearing a hat.)
_If you're referring to something they might not already be seeing or visualizing, use_ が。
この袋に弁当がある。("There is a bento in this bag" Here, I used が because there's no way for them to know the contents of the bag at first, so they're not visualizing it until I mention it, or show them.)
@@ryo-kai8587 the "How は vs が will destroy your Japanese" video, by Jouzu Juls, explains it much better. At least, for me...
This explains when I should NOT use は, but it doesn't explain why I shouldn't just use が all the time instead. When is it wrong to keep using が and preferable to use は instead?
Japanese is considered a topic-prominent language, and since は is the topic particle, it's very hard to avoid using it.
が marks the subject, but given that Japanese tend to use the topic-comment structure, using が instead gives a "identifier" kind of vibe to your sentence. So when you use this subject marker instead of the topic marker, it's like insisting on who is doing the verb or who is being the state. For example if you were with friend A and you met friend B randomly in the mall, it would be weird if you said to friend A: あの人がBです, because that would be like saying "B is this person" instead of "this is B".
Another way to look at it is X は Y would be the answer to "what did X do?", while X が Y would be the answer to "who did Y?"
For example:
私はケーキを食べた could be the answer to "what did you do yesterday?", the new information is the comment "Ate a cake", and 私は's role is to indicate that the comment is about me.
私がケーキを食べた would be the answer to "who ate the cake?", here eating the cake isn't the new information, the information is that 私 is the one identified as the culprit of doing the verb 食べた, and it's が's role to specify that.
It's a bit simplified but the more you read and listen to japanese, the more you'll get used to which particle suits which situation and phrasing best.
@@matoikazamaki9522 Thank you for the clarification!
で助詞もおしえますか？
はT?
Why is ha pronounced wa when there is わ
Marry me
Don't you dare. He's mine!
He's married
@@ansyyxux define "married" 🤪
@@NotTheDAHASAGLOL
you thirsting over this man in the comments of his videos is so funny to me😂
Still doesn't explain why it read wa not ha... I guess I will never know.
It's a remnant of the old kana orthography
Thanks... Can you elaborate more please? I didn't get it.
@@varut2090 the "wa" sound used to be written as は in many words, then it was changed to わ for most of them except for the topic particle.
@@masatami Thanks a lot! Thank you for taking the time... I get it now. Really appreciated it.
Thank you so much for your clear explanation and examples!!! You are the best!!!
When I lived in Japan, when my Japanese friends would correct me, I asked them to please explain the rules on when to use wa vs. ga. The answer I always got was, “It depends… don’t worry, people will understand you” [because you are a foreigner]. 🙂
I think that's more of an "It's too hard to and/or I don't think I can explain it clearly" sort of situation. Maybe they don't even clearly understand the logic behind it enough to explain in detail, but they just know intuitively how to use them properly. It takes a special talent to clearly illustrate these nuances, and that's why we have Kaname-sensei! I'm sure your friends meant well, and were technically right, but that doesn't help when your goal is mastery of the language, and eventually achieving natural speech.