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㊦ へ ←

→ ㊦ が(2)


㊦ が (1)

Particle


A particle which indicates the subject.
【Related Expression: は1

Key Sentences

(ks). 降っている・います。

Rain is falling.


Examples

(a). 私の部屋にはステレオあります。

There is a stereo in my room.

(b). あ、のり子走っている。

Oh, Noriko is running.

(c). A:このレストランは何美味しいですか。B:ステーキ美味しいです。

A: What is good in this restaurant? B: Steak is good.


Notes

1. marks the subject of a sentence when the information expressed by the subject is first introduced in a discourse. When the subject is presented as the topic (that is, the information has already been introduced into the discourse), however, the topic marker は replaces . (⇨ は1) Consider the following discourse, a typical opening in folktales, which illustrates the different uses of and は.

In the first sentence, おじいさん 'old man' appears for the first time in the discourse; おじいさん is the subject but not the topic in this sentence. Therefore, it is marked by . The second sentence tells something about the old man introduced in the first sentence. おじいさん is now the topic; therefore, it is marked by は rather than . Note the parallelism here between and は in Japanese and 'a' and 'the' in English.

2. is also replaced by は if the subject is in contrast with another element. For example, in Example (c), B could also say:

Here, ステーキ 'steak' is newly introduced in the discourse and is not the topic; yet it is marked by は. This is because ステーキ, in this case, is being contrasted with other food.

3. Since Interrogative words like 何 'what', 誰 'who' and どこ 'what place' can never be topics, they are never marked by は, as in (3).

4. The subject in subordinate clauses is marked by unless it is a contrasted element, as seen in (4).

Note that topics are not presented in subordinate clauses.

3. In relative clauses, the subject may be marked by の, as in (5).

(⇨ Relative Clause, Note 3)

6. In some expressions, elements which are considered to be direct objects are presented as subjects and are marked by .

(⇨ は~が)

7. To sum up the important rules concerning ,

【Related Expression】

The topic marker は is often mistaken for a subject marker. It appears to be a subject marker because it often replaces .

(⇨ は1)


㊦ へ ←

→ ㊦ が(2)