に and で, は and が

I am very confused with the particles に and で. I don't understand when to use them. Many sites say they both mean in, at, and on.
And then comes the most common question. What is the difference with は and が?
:sorry:
When should I use them and how should I use them?

Amie-chan said:

I am very confused with the particles に and で. I don't understand when to use them. Many sites say they both mean in, at, and on. And then comes the most common question. What is the difference with は and が?

Click to expand...

Of course there are many other functions too, but one of the main functions for de is to mark the location of activity. What I mean by activity is verbs like asobu "play", utau "sing", taberu "eat", benkyoo suru "study", etc.

The particle ni on the other hand has, among others, the function of indicating the location of existence. In this case, the term existence corresponds to the concept conveyed by the verb aru/iru "to exist".

Amie-chan said:

When should I use them and how should I use them?

Click to expand...

The particles wa and ga have many functions. It is probably instructive to memorize one by one. For instance, you might have learned a sentence like, "watashi wa nihonji ja nai desu" (I'm not Japanese). In this case, the particle wa is present, because the predicate includes the concept of negation. So, whenever, you make a sentence with ~nai, mark the noun phrase with wa.

One thing that I would strongly suggest is that you see に and で used in lots of actual sentences. That should help you get a feel for the differences and when each is used.

Your first step in understanding them will be to stop equating them to = in, at, on, to etc. This will only confuse you. And I will just tell you now that its tough to directly translate a lot of English and Japanese, so you need to learn to think in Japanese, and not depend too much on what is the exact translation of this in English.

Read lots of simple sentences with the particles in it, and try to memorized some set phrases. Grapefruit explained the meanings quite well so I have nothing to add there. Bottom line is mastery of prep particles is hard. It is best just to get the basics down and continue to increase your vocab, and learn to say other things. It will come in time, you will develop a sense about them. Maybe not like a native speaker, but you will eventually gain intuition as to what the right particle is for each situation. Good luck.

maybe i have the solution to your problem
first of all に has many conditions , it means (from ,to , in, on ) ....
i know it's complex but i'll try to simplify it to you
1- に .. come with verbs (to) we use に to difine the person who do this verbs ..
おげます give
かします lend
おしえます teach
やまださん は イーさん に 花を おげます。
Mr Yamada gives flower to Ms lee.
三国先生は 私 に 日本語 を おしえます。
the teacher Mikoni teach me Japanese .. ( mean : give japanese to me )
2- with this verbs comes like (from) :
もらいます receive
かります borrow
ならいます learn
イーさんはやまださん に 花 を もらいました
Ms lee received flower from Mr yamada
.....
other states : に mean (on) when we use it with lines ....
いすの上 に 本 が あります。
there is book on the chair
--- で use how we do the action ... BY WHAT ??
タクシで大学へ行きました。 i went to university BY taxi
はしでかばんをたべました。 i ate meal BY chopsticks.
私は日本語でレポート を 書きました。 i wrote a report IN Japanese

NOW about が

this particle use with the verbs ( あります、います。わかります） .
and with adjectives （ 好きです、きらいです、上手です、下手です） .

with verbs we use が instead of を

私は本があります。 i have a book

日本語が分ります。 i understand japanese

私は日本りょうりが好きです。 i like japanese food

Amie-chan if you have any thing differcult just post it here in JREF