In the last lesson, we learned about the は (wa) particle, which sets the topic of conversation in Japanese. Remember this sentence we looked at in the last lesson:

私は学生です。 (Watashi wa gakusei desu. — As for me, I'm a student.)

Looking at our close translation, also recall how in the last lesson we compared は (wa) to some ways that we might use the colon (:) in English. You can see that in this example, the rest of the sentence after we set the topic (私 (watashi, I))—a noun (学生 (gakusei, student)) and the copula です (desu)—directly relates to the topic marked by は (wa). In other words, the topic, 私 (watashi), happens to be both the topic of the sentence and its grammatical subject.

However, this does not always have to be the case. In English, it's unclear whether colon usage is necessarily grammatical or more stylistic, but note that it could certainly be used to introduce one topic before a related thought or sentence with a completely different grammatical subject (that's why the comparison is useful):

- USA: 88% of adults can read.
- England: 99% of adults can read.

With that in mind, let's return to the other mysterious example in Japanese from the end of the last lesson:

試合は私のチームが勝った。 (Shiai wa watashi no chīmu ga katta. — As for the game, my team won.)

Observe how in this example, the sentence begins by clarifying the topic (試合 (shiai, game)), then follows it with a different statement about that topic that itself would be considered grammatically complete in English—a statement that gives us information about a different subject (私のチーム (watashi no chīmu, my team)) and what that subject did (勝った (katta, won)) in respect to the overall topic.

Now, if that distinction sounds strange to you, consider that although we might generally think of a "topic" and a "subject" of a sentence as roughly the same thing in colloquial English, remember that completely different grammatical functions exist in Japanese. Here at nihonkarano.com, we're not trying to learn how to convert English grammar into Japanese 1:1, nor vice versa. Instead, we're trying to learn Japanese as it really is. And though they might be translated into English similarly in certain situations, in Japanese, two different 助詞 (jyoshi) exist that allow us to define a sentence's topic and its subject explicitly without the complicated constructions or colon shenanigans that we might need in English. The 助詞 (jyoshi) which marks the topic, as we've previously learned, is は (wa), whereas the 助詞 (jyoshi) which marks the subject—the focus of this lesson—is が (ga).

More Examples of が (ga)

While the distinction between が (ga) and は (wa) may be particularly foggy—and thus illuminating—for native English speakers, before we dive deeper into that, let's take a step back and make sure we understand the fundamentals of が (ga) first.

To put it simply, the crucial function of が (ga) is to establish grammatical relationships between a given noun and other words in the sentence. Specifically, it tells us that what follows が (ga) relates directly back to the previous noun, with that noun being the subject. In this function, we can actually construct a sentence quite similar to the primary example from our previous lesson, with only a slightly different implication (again, we'll return to this difference a bit later):

私が学生です。 (Watashi ga gakusei desu. — I am a student.)

In addition to the copula, you can easily imagine (and now, understand!) が (ga) being used to relate a subject noun to verbs that convey more action than mere equality:

犬が泳ぐ。 (Inu ga oyogu. — The dog swims.)

As you can see, が (ga) itself isn't that complicated, as its function is quite similar to the English concept of a grammatical subject. Now, let's return to comparing が (ga) and は (wa).

Differences Between が (ga) and は (wa)

If you've studied some Japanese previously as an English speaker, you may have encountered some confusion regarding が (ga) and は (wa), or at least some mentions of how this particular grammar point can be difficult for English-speaking learners. Even if you haven't, you might be somewhat puzzled by the first example in the previous section, where we simply swapped が (ga) for the は (wa) in our student example in order to produce a sentence that seems quite the same from an English-translation perspective. Again, sometimes translations can be misleading. Let's look more closely at the Japanese of all of our examples so far in order to illuminate the crucial differences between が (ga) and は (wa).

が (ga) and は (wa) Separately

First, more on that puzzling pair of examples we mentioned earlier.

私が学生です。 (Watashi ga gakusei desu. — I am a student.)

私は学生です。 (Watashi wa gakusei desu. — As for me, I'm a student.)

On the surface, these two examples might seem quite similar. In fact, in Japanese, only one character is changed between the two, so how couldn't they be? However, note that our attempted close translations reveal a quite important difference that separates them.

In the first example, using が (ga) to mark 私 (watashi, I) as the sentence's grammatical subject, our translation into English is quite simple. The verb/copula です (desu) directly acts upon that subject, 私 (watashi), to draw an equality between it and the other noun, 学生 (gakusei, student).

However, looking at the other example, you may notice that the topic marked by は (wa) only implicitly relates back to the verb. Since the topic is 私 (watashi, I) and the statement is roughly "is a student," it can be assumed that I am the one who "is a student." However, it's crucial to note that there is no grammatical subject marked by が (ga) in this example, and we have already seen examples where a sentence's established topic is completely different from the established subject, and thus the sentence's verb doesn't have a direct grammatical connection back to the topic. In fact, let's return to one of them now.

が (ga) and は (wa) Together

試合は私のチームが勝った。 (Shiai wa watashi no chīmu ga katta. — As for the game, my team won.)

Recall this example from earlier. Here, we can see the usage of は (wa) and が (ga) together in one sentence. In a way, this quite clearly shows the difference in the two functions of the different 助詞 (jyoshi). は (wa) sets the topic of the overall thought, and then が (ga) is used in the following statement to define the grammatical subject (私のチーム (watashi no chīmu, my team)) of the verb (勝った (katta, won)).

This example shows quite clearly the difference in how we might use these two 助詞 (jyoshi). Note that we could easily exchange what comes before the は (wa) to create a similar sentence with a completely different topic:

大会は私のチームが勝った。 (Taikai wa watashi no chīmu ga katta. — As for the tournament, my team won.)

Notice how our understanding of the grammatical core of the statement is unchanged, despite the topic being completely different from our original example. This implies that the topic marked by は (wa) is only loosely connected to the rest of the sentence and not really in a grammatical way as we might understand from an English perspective. It doesn't affect the functional meaning of the rest of the sentence other than setting its overall context.

On the other hand, observe what happens if we take the original example and swap out the subject marked by が (ga):

試合は相手が勝った。 (Shiai wa aite ga katta. — As for the game, the opponent won.)

Notice how in this example, the change brought about by the different subject ripples out through the rest of the sentence, specifically recontextualizing the verb (in this example, someone different is "doing" the winning!). In this, we can see that が (ga) establishes a vital link between the subject and the rest of the sentence, specifically the verb. Remember that this relationship between a noun and a verb is only, at best, implied in our example using only は (wa). However, whatever follows a が (ga) relates directly back to the subject that precedes it. This, in fact, is the main function of the が (ga)—it marks the subject noun that performs a verb.

With this concept in mind, we can begin to study other 助詞 (jyoshi) in the following lessons. Let's look at one final example:

試合は私がボールを投げた。 (Shiai wa watashi ga bōru o nageta. — As for the game, I threw the ball.)

In this example, we see not only the は (wa)-marked topic—once again, 試合 (shiai, game)—and the が (ga)-marked subject, 私 (watashi, I), who is performing the verb (投げた (nageta, threw)). But we can also see a new noun (ボール (bōru, ball)) marked by a new 助詞 (jyoshi), を (o), which marks the noun that our verb is performed upon. We'll learn more about this 助詞 (jyoshi) in the next lesson.

Conclusion

Hopefully, this lesson has helped you better understand the が (ga) particle in Japanese as well as its differences from は (wa). Beyond that, despite the similarities with English's grammatical subject, we hope that it has begun to make you more comfortable with grammatical concepts in Japanese not mapping 1:1 to ones that exist in English.

In the next lesson, we will tackle the を (o) 助詞 (jyoshi) seen in the last example.

Until next time,

これからもよろしくお願いします。

Kore kara mo yoroshiku onegaishimasu