The difference between は and が particle part 1

私がRachelです。 あ、Rachelさん。 私はRachelです。 あ、私はRachelです。 アメリカ人です。 趣味が料理です。 あ、趣味は料理です。 Oh、趣味は料理です。 旅行するのは好きです。 あー、旅行するのが好きですね。 はとがとなんでこんなにややこしいねん、この野郎！ Oh、す、すみません。 え？ Hi、皆さん、こんにちは。 Welcome back to my channel。 I'm Miku from Real Japanese。 If you are new here, I am Miku and I am a teacher who wants to teach real Japanese in fun way。 そう、よろしくお願いします。 Anyway, I know that Rachel is not alone here。 I get this all the time from my students。 Like, why Japanese people? Why Miku sensei? Why do you do that to me? I confuse with ga and wa all the time。 Why? And I go like, I'm sorry, I'm terribly sorry, but that's why I'm here with you。 Mastering particle doesn't seem so important, but here is the thing, Japanese people can pick up on those mistakes pretty well, and your Japanese might sound a little bit weird to them if you make mistakes with particles, so this lesson is quite important。 In this video, I'll be teaching the difference between wa and ga particle and their function。 It will be useful to you whether you just started learning Japanese or you're intermediate level, but you want to take your Japanese to another level。 And I think this video will be a little bit longer than normal, so get yourself coffee or tea and sit with me like you're hanging out with your Japanese friends。 And let's learn about particles。 OK、are you ready? Let's start。 So first of all, what is wa particle? Wa particle is a topic marker。 So what I mean by this is that what I say before wa particle is what I'm gonna talk about。 For example, if I say 私は教師です。 私は教師です。 which means I am a teacher, the topic is 私。 Topic is 私。 So I am letting the other person know that I'm gonna talk about myself。 If I want to say, this is my phone, I would say これは私の携帯です。 これは私の携帯です。 So I am saying I'm gonna talk about this。 This, これは, is my phone, 私の携帯です。 A lot of people think that this wa particle is the verb to be in English, like is, am, are. But in Japanese sentence, the verb always comes at the end of the sentence。 So this です is actually the verb to be。 If you wanna be casual, you can just omit this です at the end and say これは私の携帯。 これは私の携帯。 If I say 私は教師です, many people think that in this sentence, the main focus is 私, but it's not。 私 is just a topic, and I'm letting the other person know that I'm, I'm gonna talk about myself。 But the main focus in this sentence is the fact that I am a teacher。 If I say 私はMikuです, the main focus is that I am Miku。 Miku is the main focus, not 私。 But if I say 私がMikuです, it's different。 When I say 私がMikuです, I am saying I am the one who is Miku。 Let's say someone says to my friends, "Are you Miku? Are you Miku? " And I wanna say, I'm next to her, I wanna say, "No, no, no, no, not her。 I am the one who is Miku。 " In that case, I would say 私がMikuです。 私がMikuです。 So if I use this ga particle in this sentence, 私がMikuです, I am focusing on the fact that I am Miku, not her。 So the focus changes into 私, not Miku。 Of course, it goes same with the sentence with adjectives。 Let's say, this movie is interesting, you would say この映画は面白い。 この映画は面白い。 And the main focus is the fact that this movie is interesting, right? OK, another example。 If I say 明日はテストです。 明日はテストです。 Tomorrow, we'll have exam。 The main focus in this sentence is the fact that we are gonna have a test。 We are gonna have an exam tomorrow。 But if someone says 今日はテストです。 今日はテストです。 Today, we'll have exam。 And I wanna say, "No, no, no, no, no, not today。 Tomorrow is the day we are gonna be having exam。 Tomorrow。 " I would say 明日がテストです。 明日がテストです。 Instead of saying 明日はテストです。 So if I use ga particle like this, the focus goes to the thing that I say before ga。 So tomorrow, 明日が, tomorrow is the main focus in the sentence。 When you say, "This is an apple," in English, the main focus is on apple, right? You're not saying, "This is an apple," right? You're just saying, "This is an apple. " So focus is on apple. In that case, in Japanese, you say, これはりんごです。 これはりんごです。 But for example, someone is holding, let's say, a pear, and then he says, これはりんごです。 これはりんごです。 And you wanna say, "No, no, no, no, no, no. This is an apple, not that. This is an apple. " You wanna focus on the fact that this is an apple. In that case, you say, これがりんごです。 これがりんごです, not that.Okay, another example. So let's say your older sister ate your mom's cake, and your mom is so angry, and h- she's like, "Who did it? Who did it? " You know? And you wanna say, "My older sister is the one who ate the cake, not me. " In that case, you'd say, お姉ちゃんが食べた。 お姉ちゃんが食べた。 To focus on that onee-chan is the one who ate it.Okay, so to summarize, when you use は particle, は particle is the topic marker, so what you say before は is the topic, and you are letting the other person know what you're gonna talk about. And the main focus is the thing that you say after は particle. And when you use が particle, what you say before が is the main focus. So you wanna say, "This is something. This is someone. " Okay? Did you understand? Okay, let's go to next example. 「ミク先生は英語は上手ですね」。 「え？ あ、ありがとう」. What happened there? She wanted to compliment me, but she ended up offending me. Why? So usually, when we say someone is good at something, we use が particle. So someone は something が 上手。 For example, if I wanna say, "John is good at soccer," I would say, ジョンはサッカーが上手。 ジョンはサッカーが上手。 And formally, ジョンはサッカーが上手です。 ジョンはサッカーが上手です。 If you're talking about yourself, and you are saying, "I am good at something," you wouldn't use this word 上手 because it sounds a bit arrogant. So you have to say, "I am okay at something," to be humble like Japanese people. So in that case, you can use this word 得意。 得意。 It's noun adjective, and you can use like this, "I am okay at guitar. I am good at guitar. " You would say, 私はギターが得意です。 私はギターが得意です。 And if you wanna say, "I am horrible at something," you can use this phrase 下手。 下手。 It's also noun adjective, and you can use it like this. For example, "I am horrible at sports," you can say, 私はスポーツが下手です。 私はスポーツが下手です, formally. And if you wanna be informal, you can say, 私はスポーツが下手。 私はスポーツが下手。 Anyway, if you wanna say, "John is good at soccer," you would say, ジョンはサッカーが上手。 ジョンはサッカーが上手。 But if you say, ジョンはサッカーは上手, it means completely different. This は particle's function is completely different, and it shows contrast. So if I say, ジョンはサッカーは上手。 ジョンはサッカーは上手, it sounds like John is good at soccer, but not at anything else, or not at other things.So when Rachel said, ミク先生は英語は上手ですね。 ミク先生は英語は上手ですね, it sounded like she was saying, "Miku Sensei, you are good at English, but not at anything else," and it sounds so offensive.So when you are meant to use が but you use は, this は particle acts completely differently, and it shows contrast. So if you wanna say, "I like fish," you'd say, 私は魚が好き。 私は魚が好き。 And this 私は, you can omit it because we assume that people know we are talking about ourselves, so you don't have to repeat 私は, 私は, 私は all the time. You can just say, 魚が好き。 So this 好き, noun adjective 好き, always goes with が particle, right? But if you say, 魚は好き。 魚は好き instead of 魚が好き, it sounds like you're saying, "I like fish, but I don't like meat," or, "I don't like something else. "So if you wanna say, "I like soccer, but I don't like basketball," you can say, サッカーは好きだけど、バスケは好きじゃない。 サッカーは好きだけど、バスケは好きじゃない。 Or, for example, "I like beer, but I don't like wine," you can say, ビールは好きだけど、ワインは好きじゃない。 ビールは好きだけど、ワインは好きじゃない。 So how do you say, "I like dog"? Simple sentence, "I like dogs. " How do you say? 犬が好き。 犬が好き, right? But if you say 犬は好き犬は好き。 It sounds like again you say, "I like dog, but I don't like cat. " You, it sounds like you're saying, 犬は好きだけど、猫は好きじゃない。 犬は好きだけど、猫は好きじゃない。 Okay, so how do you say, "I like ramen, but I don't like sushi"? How do you say? ラーメンは好きだけど、寿司は好きじゃない。 ラーメンは好きだけど、寿司は好きじゃない。 Okay, so I will show you another example. Satoshi, サトシは声はかっこいいね。 え、声だけ？ 僕の、僕のひげは？ Okay, now you might know why Satoshi was offended, right? What was wrong with the sentence? So when we talk about someone's appearance, we use this grammar someone は something が adjective. Someone は something が adjective. For example, if you wanna say, "Tom is tall," I would say, トムは背が高い。 トムは背が高い。 Or, "Tom has got blue eyes," I would say, トムは目が青い。 トムは目が青い。 Or for example, "Catherine's got long hair," how do you say? キャサリンは髪が長い。 キャサリンは髪が長い。 Or how do you say, "Catherine's got nice smile"? キャサリンは笑顔が素敵。 キャサリンは笑顔が素敵。 So this grammar construct can be used to express someone's appearance, but also you can use for sentence like, "Osaka has got good food," or, "Food is good in Osaka," you can say, 大阪は料理が美味しい。 大阪は料理が美味しい。 Or for example, "Kobe is famous for Kobe beef," you can say, 神戸は神戸ビーフが有名。 神戸は神戸ビーフが有名。 Or, "Japan has an interesting culture," you can say, 日本は文化が面白い。 日本は文化が面白い。 Or, "Japan has got lots of nature," you can say, 日本は自然が多い。 日本は自然が多い。 So then coming back to the skit with Rachel and Satoshi, Rachel said, サトシは声はかっこいいね。 サトシは声はかっこいいね。 So again, this は particle acts really differently. It shows contrast. So it sounds like, "Satoshi, your voice is cool, but not anything else. " So here Rachel needed to say, "Satoshi, you've got cool voice," サトシは声がかっこいいね。 サトシは声がかっこいいね。 And then Satoshi will be really happy. え、ありがとう。 If you tell me, "Miku, you've got cute moles," oh, こっちだね it's here. "Miku, you've got cute mole," if you say, ミクはほくろはかわいいね。 ミクはほくろはかわいいね, you are saying, "Miku, you, your mole is cute, just your mole. " That would make me so sad. If you tell me, ミクはほくろがかわいいね。 ミクはほくろがかわいいね, "You've got cute mole," that, that's a compliment. That's a good compliment, because I'm proud of my mole. Okay, so to summarize, the difference between は particle and が particle is that は particle can be used as a topic marker. So what I mean by this is that what I say before は is the thing that I'm gonna talk about. And が particle can be used to emphasize the word before が, and also it can be used to describe someone's appearance, and it can be used with adjective like 好き, 嫌い, 上手, 下手, 得意, et cetera. But when you're meant to use が particle but you use は particle, は particle acts really differently. It shows contrast. Okay, did you understand? Let's go test it. Okay, challenge time. So this is how it works. I will say sentence in English and give you three second, and after that I will say in Japanese. If you think three second is not enough, you can pause this video and give yourself a little bit of time to think, and start the video again. Okay, there will be 10 sentences. Let's go. Number one. "I like Japanese culture. I like Japanese culture. " 日本の文化が好き。 日本の文化が好き。 Okay, number two. "Today is my day off. Today is my day off. " 今日は休み。 今日は休み。 Okay, number three. "Yuki has got, uh, big eyes. Yuki has got big eyes. "ユキは目が大きい。 ユキは目が大きい。 Number four. Shota is good at dancing. Shota is good at dancing. ショウタはダンスが上手。 ショウタはダンスが上手。 OK。 Number five. This is yours, Miku. This is yours, Miku. Not that one. This one. これがミクのだよ。 これがミクのだよ。 Number six. Miki has got short hair. Miki has got short hair. ミキは髪が短い。 ミキは髪が短い。 OK。 Number seven. Who is driving? Who is driving? I am driving. I am driving. 誰が運転する？ 誰が運転する？ 私が運転する。 私が運転する。 OK。 Number eight. I am horrible at painting pictures. I am horrible at painting pictures. 絵が下手。 絵が下手。 OK。 Number nine. Italy is famous for pizza and pasta. Italy is famous for pizza and pasta. イタリアはピザとパスタが有名。 イタリアはピザとパスタが有名。 OK。 Number ten. I like dogs, but I don't like cats. I like dogs, but I don't like cats. 犬は好きだけど、猫は好きじゃない。 犬は好きだけど、猫は好きじゃない。 OK。 Let me know what score you've got in the comment section. またね。 え？ 声だけ？ 僕のひげは？ One more thing. If you can subscribe this channel, that would be amazing. You know? I love you. You legend. Loving your work. ありがと。

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