Japanese Particles

Since I started my current language learning schedule in September of last year, I’ve used immersion methods both in my various listening lessons and in my Duolingo app, without referring to any kind of grammatical guides. But this week while I was listening to my level one Japanese lessons in Pimsleur, I heard something new that I had to investigate.

Up until now, “wa” (は), has been used as a main word marker. In my lessons it was described as a word that translates to “as for,” so “watashi wa” (わたしは) would mean “as for me” or “I am.” Why わ and は sound the same but have different hiragana characters was also a mystery to me, and it turns out that は is normally “ha,” but becomes “wa” when used as a particle. So I was starting to think of “wa” (は) as a subject marker, but this week I started hearing “ga” (が) in sentences where I expected a “wa,” so I had to look it up.

According to JapanesePod101, “wa” (は) is a topic marker, and while it can identify the subject, it can also identify objects and verbs. “Ga” (が) is a subject marker, however sometimes the subject and the topic can be the same word. So when should “ga” (が) be used? After reading various lengthy and confusing explanations of this, I found one description on Reddit that makes some sense to me, providing the general guideline that when a word is both the topic and the subject of a sentence, that the topic marker “wa” (は) is preferred, but there are nuances to this. So I refer back to JapanesePod101 which notes that “ga” (が) can place emphasis on a subject or differentiate a word from the other words in a sentence.

Different sites tend to use the sentence “I like cats” as an example for this. Preply gives an example using this sentence, and says that “ga” (が) is used when the subject and topic are different in a sentence, but it was driving me crazy because in their example they are identifying “cats” as the subject of the sentence “I like cats,” but I know that grammatically, “I” is the subject and the word “cats” is the object 😱 So I had to break it down a little to understand what’s happening here. In Japanese, this sentence becomes more like “Cats are liked (by me),” where the “by me” part is only implied in the Japanese version. And when we look at the English sentence “Cats are liked,” the word “cats” becomes the subject. So this is very tricky, indeed.

English	I like cats.
R­ōmaji	Neko ga suki desu.
Japanese Hiragana	ねこが すきです。
Japanese Kanji/Hiragana (common)	猫が好きです.
English version of the Japanese	Cats are liked (by me).

• ねこ (neko) (猫 in kanji) – cat (猫 is a jōyō “daily use” kanji)
• が (ga) – subject marker
• すき (suki) (好きin kanji) – like
• です (desu) – to be/is/are/am

In a situation like this, I would fall back on my immersion and just use what native speakers use.

There are also other word markers that I would like to identify for organizational purposes, so here is a simplified table with all of the Japanese particles that I am aware of:

Particle	Marker	Description
“wa” (は)	topic	“wa” (は) is a topic marker, and can identify the subject, objects, and verbs
“ga” (が)	subject	“ga” (が) is a subject marker, especially when the subject is first introduced in conversation
“wo/o” (を)	object	“wo/o” (を) is the direct object of an action verb and follows nouns and noun phrases
“mo” (も)	inclusive	means “also” or “too,” can replace “wa” (は), “ga” (が), or “wo/o” (を)
“no” (の)	possessive	like the “‘s” in English
“to” (と)	conjunction or quotation	means “and” or “with,” or can be used before a quote
“ka” (か)	question	used at the end of a sentence like a question mark
“ni” (に)	direction or time	marks a time or place when something happens or a place towards which someone or something moves, can mean “to,” “from,” “by,” or “at”
“e” (へ)	direction	similar to “ni” (に), but with more emphasis on the journey or direction, can mean “to” but not “from,” “by,” or “at”
“kara” (から)	starting point	means “from,” “since,” or “after,” as in “ima kara” (今から) which means “from now”
“made” (まで)	endpoint	means “until” or “to”
“de” (で)	location or context	indicates location of action or how something is done, can mean “in,” “by,” or “at”
“ya” (や)	inclusive list	indicates an incomplete list, means “and” or “such as,” as in “I went to the store and to the post office, among other places”
“ne” (ね)	agreement or confirmation	usually at the end of a sentence, like the phrase “isn’t it?”
“yo” (よ)	emphasis	usually at the end of a sentence, like the phrase “for sure”

Japanese particles are a large part of the language, so becoming familiar with this list will be an important step for me. I’ve already heard most of these word markers many times in my lessons, so I know this will be very a useful reference for me. Now that that’s sorted (some), I’m off to do my Duolingo.

Until next time, take care!

Soredewa, mata jikai made! Ogenkide!

それでは、また次回まで！お元気で!