-なければ more verbs!

[Glenn]

I've also heard that は is for animate, が is for inanimate.

Where did you hear this? I'm pretty sure I've never seen it presented that way.

 

[Damicci]

は wa and が ga, the Noun Markers

は wa and が ga cause much confusion among beginners, but their relationship can be summed up by replacing は with the phrase "on the topic of" to distinguish it from が. Note that in actual use, the "regarding the", "on the topic of" or "as for the" is not usually written since it is not normal English style. This format is only used to better show the main difference between は and が in this lesson. (Additional note: は is normally 'ha' on the hiragana chart, but when used as a particle, it is pronounced 'wa'.)

Example:

「ねこがたべています。」 (Neko ga tabete imasu.) translates literally as "The cat is eating."

「ねこはたべています。」 (Neko wa tabete imasu.) translates as "Regarding the cat, (it) is eating."

は is generally more flexible, because the "it" can be assumed, and is therefore recommended to novices who have not grasped the difference between the two. が specifically requires a verb to modify it, and if used incorrectly, can make the speaker seem silly.

Nevertheless, use of は is similar to changing the subject in a conversation, and foreigners are easily recognized because they change topics every sentence. While the relationship may seem complicated, once grasped it is much easier to understand.

Another way to look at this is が introduces a new subject, and は can be used to refer to that subject which which was mentioned before.

Example:

「ねこがいます。」(Neko ga imasu.) translates as "There is a cat."

「ねこはたべています。」(Neko wa tabete imasu) "Regarding the cat (that was mentioned before), (it) is eating."

So, when が is used, the thing in front of it is being emphasized, and when は is used, the emphasis is on what follows it.

は also has the specialized function of being used for comparisons as well.

Example:

「ねこがいます。」(Neko ga imasu.) translates as "There is a cat."

「いぬがいます。」(Inu ga imasu.) "There is a dog."

「ねこはたべていますけど、いぬはたべていません。」(Neko ha tabete imasu kedo, Inu ha tabete imasen) "The cat is eating, but the dog is not." or you can think of this as "As for the cat it is eating, but as for the dog, it is not."

Now it makes sense.

 

[Glenn]

Oh, I thought you were showing where the animate/inanimate discrepancy was explained. Yeah, that explanation looks pretty good to me.

 

[Damicci]

I think this gets confusing because I was taught that when saying things like the car is pretty you are supposed to use ga even though the car is the topic.

車がきれいです。
But If I were to say that woman is pretty then I should use ha/wa
女の子はきれいです。

Here we are talking about animate and inanimate objects.

But I do recall no matter if it is animate or not you would use ga when stating the liking of certain subjects like 歌田が好きです or あの車が好きです。

either way we now no the correct usage of ha/ga but will still get it wrong.

 

[Glenn]

I think this gets confusing because I was taught that when saying things like the car is pretty you are supposed to use ga even though the car is the topic.

車がきれいです。

But 車はきれいです is a perfectly legitimate sentence depending on context (as everything does, especially in Japanese), so I don't see why anyone would say that wa is for animate and ga is for inanimate. Also, 田中が来た is a perfectly legitimate sentence, too, which further shows that it has nothing to do with animate/inanimate. I'd still like to know what the source for this claim is.

 

[Elizabeth]

But 車はきれいです is a perfectly legitimate sentence depending on context (as everything does, especially in Japanese), so I don't see why anyone would say that wa is for animate and ga is for inanimate. Also, 田中が来た is a perfectly legitimate sentence, too, which further shows that it has nothing to do with animate/inanimate. I'd still like to know what the source for this claim is.

Only half jokingly, it probably comes from a heuristic overgeneralizing watashi and the person being addressed in the majority of cases taking "wa" which contrasts to the "sore, kore" series and most nouns before "wakaru" with ga.

 

[Glenn]

Yeah, I had thought something along those lines what the cause of it, too. But still I'd like to see the actual exposition.

 

[Elizabeth]

I think this gets confusing because I was taught that when saying things like the car is pretty you are supposed to use ga even though the car is the topic.

車がきれいです。
But If I were to say that woman is pretty then I should use ha/wa
女の子はきれいです。

Here we are talking about animate and inanimate objects.

But I do recall no matter if it is animate or not you would use ga when stating the liking of certain subjects like 歌田が好きです or あの車が好きです。

either way we now no the correct usage of ha/ga but will still get it wrong.

The bottom line is that this animate/inanimate distinction is impossible because you would end up making sentences having more than two topics which is usually forbidden in Japanese grammar (two is confusing enough, particularly if they were both animate). Even though 80% of the time は is left out when the subject is clear or doesn't need added emphasis.

一般的に日本語では、１つの文章の中に２回以上「は」が出てくると文法的に
おかしな文章です。

Plus such a rule would make sentences like the following unintelligible without a way of telling which one, if either, is thinking of the other as sick.

あなたは、私が 病気か何かみたいに言うのですね。

 

[Damicci]

I am not arguing for the animate/inanimate rumor just stating reason swhy people believe in this rumored rule.

too me it makes total sense now how to use ha/wa and ga but i will still make mistakes as even in english i had a hard time determing the subject from the topic, which is why i probably have a hard time with japanese grammar. I can't even understand english grammar