Sorry I forgot to thank you Elizabeth but that was a big help, どうもありがとうございました！
And now ladies and gents I am here to bother you all with Q&C once again! Muahahaha...ha...help me...
1: 谷さんは頭がいいが、横田さんもいいです。
"Tani is intelligent, and so is Yokota."
(From All About Particles by Naoko Chino)
Now the main problem have here is when が because 'and'. I don't understand when you can use が in this manner, is it only in written Japanese or something?
2:お花見のときは、どこへ行っても人でいっぱいだ。
"During flower-viewing time, there are crowds of people wherever you go."
(Same book)
Ok I have two questions about this sentence, 1: why is it not お花見のとき
には, because I thought that is what would emphasise the "during". 2: 「人
でいっぱいだ」この「で」は手段の「で」ですか？
3: ジョンさんは、日本料理なら何でも食べます。
"John will eat any [kind of] Japanese food."
(Same book)
No problems understanding anything in this sentence I just want to try and say "If its Japanese food, John can eat up to any amount", or something to that effect. Is the correct way (or one of) to say this:
ジョンさんは、日本料理ならいくらでも食べます。?
Again any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!
I assume you are asking about connotations of those particles in contrast to others; If you are after denotations, please refer to dictionaries.
1: 谷さんは頭がいいが、横田さんもいいです。[/COLOR]
"Tani is intelligent, and so is Yokota."
when you can use が in this manner, is it only in written Japanese or something?
Translation and the interpretations
I cannot quite agree with the translation above.
I think it is :
Tani is brainy
but, so is Yokota.
As to the interpretations(
Please note that it depends on context!!)
Could imply:
1)Tani has got a brain but that is only thing he has, when we think about it Yokota is intelligent too and ...
2)Tani is intelligent but Yokota... wonder which is better
3)Tani is intelligent, and so is Yokota.(Speaker used が wrongly as a conjunction in place of それに).
谷さんは頭がいい
が、横田さんもいいです。
が marked bold is a conjunction and is often used for negation. Thus, the sentence could insinuate that the speaker is not thinking well of Tani: otherwise why he/she has to negate Tani's intelligence? There are, however, exceptions.
Exception
谷は頭がいい
が、横田も悪くない。
Tani is intelligent but, Yokota is not bad too.
(Or could be used for Euphemism but let me skip those)
Lastly, in Japanese, negatives(such as not or but ) work sometimes differently from English. I always have trouble whether I should be saying yes or no because Japanese はい and いいえ are sometimes used differently from English Yes and No.
I cannot think of an example now though, I generally rephrase to avoid confusion.
が as object identifier
1)谷さんは頭
はいいが、...
（Subject omitted）
2)谷さんは頭
がいいが、...
(Subject omitted)
Connotations
While with (2) the speaker at least seems to agree that Tani is intelligence and regard that as important in whatever the evaluation of him, but with (1) the speaker could be taken to disregard such as something useless or irrelivant.
The effect is probably due to the fact that after the use of は in the particular way as in (1), only negation of the previous statement can follow, while with が, sentence could be concluded without negation coming after.
2:お花見のときは、どこへ行っても人でいっぱいだ。
1: why is it not お花見のときには, because I thought that is what would emphasise the "during".
2: 「人でいっぱいだ」この「で」は手段の「で」ですか？
As to (1), you can use "には", there is not much difference form はin the given context. But stick with Toritobe-san 's advice.
If I am to be fussy and think of the times that I would use them apart, there are many cases, then one of those would be when I need to emphasise the flow of time. These are advanced stuff, however.
春には花がさく。
(It will flower in the coming spring)
春に花が咲く
（it flowers at spring）
春は花が咲く（ものだ）。
（Come spring, they/it blossoms）; To think about it, 花 in this case must be a generic or figurative expression.
Like people normally do not care whether they say on accident or by accident, we do not pay much attention when either works.
2: 「人
でいっぱいだ」この「で」は手段の「で」ですか？
Explaining spatial arrangement of objects sounds like a betrer explanation to me: like filled with people/bottles or crowded with people.
Intrinsic to our brain functions and thus easy enough to understand but impossible to explain unless we know how human brain deals with spaces, objects and their relationship. It is beyond me yet.
