助けて, 問題です

[emperor]

こんにちわ、みんな。私は日本語の初心者です。
Could you guys teach me about particles?
especially how do differentiate は and が?
As i know that: は is topic marker and が is subject marker. But how?
Another is the question about が and を. ( を is object marker)

For example: I like comic very much.
"漫画を大好きです。"??
"漫画が大好きです。"??

 

[TronDD]

I'm not perfectly clear on the differences either, so hopefully someone can correct me.

は marks a topic. The topic may or may not be the subjuect, too. The easiest way to understand it is to translate <noun>は as: 'As for <noun>' or 'About <noun>'.

Ex.
今日は、クリスマスです。 As for today, it is Christmas. - Here the topic and subject are the same.
今日は、私が行く。 As for today, I go. - We are talking about 'today', the topic, but 'I' is the actual subject of the verb 'go'. The subject does the action.

Japanese drops known parts of the sentence whenever it can, which is why the first example isn't:
今日は、今日がクリスマスです。

 

[Kuzzy]

I will leave the topic of は vs が to someone else, but I can touch on を and your example question.

The を particle marks the direct object of a verb. It's really pretty much as simple as it sounds. In your example, you are using 好き, which is an adjective. Since it is not a verb, the correct sentence is:

漫画が大好きです。

If you want to think of it in a very literal sense, you could translate it as "the thing which is very enjoyable (to me) is manga". On the other hand, if you were to use a verb, such as 読む (to read), you would mark the direct object with を:

漫画を読む。
I read manga.

Here, the verb is acting upon the object. In your example, 大好き is only describing 漫画 as something you like very much rather than acting upon it as a verb. I hope that makes the を particle a bit more clear for you!

 

[emperor]

ありがとう、kuzzy さん。Thanks for helping~~~

 

[Buntaro]

Nucifera,

Here is a quick listing of some of the articles:

kawa e oyogu. = swim towards the river
this means swimming towards the river, but not necessarily swimming into the river.

kawa ni oyogu = swim into the river
to enter into the river while swimming

kawa de oyogu = swim in the river
to swim within the limits of the river

kawa o oyogu = swim the river
to swim the length of the river

 

[emperor]

Buntaroさん、いろいろありがとう。

 

[Buntaro]

Nucifera-san!

Sorry for not getting back to you sooner, but I have been busy flying airplanes. (I am an airline pilot.)

Wa vs. Ga.

First, you know what a subject and verb is English.

"I study Japanese," where "I" is the subject and "study" is the verb. Japanese has something English does not -- a topic. (I have never seen this part of speech in any other language.)

"Watashi wa Amerika jin desu" = "I am an American," where Watashi is the the topic of the sentence.

"Dare ga erabemashita ka? Watashi ga erabemashita." = "Who was chosen? I was chosen," where Watashi is the subject of the second sentence.

It is possible for a sentence to have both a topic and a subject.

"Watashi wa onaka ga suite imasu" = "I am hungry," which is literally translated, "As for me, my stomach is empty."

So, in your example, "Watashi wa manga ga suki desu" = "I like manga," literally translated, becomes, "As for me, manga is liked (by me)."

 

[moofs]

I'm not sure but with the を particle, it has to be followed by a verb or verb phrase(or nothing).

So, 漫画を大好きです。 is grammatically incorrect. You can say either 漫画が大好きです。 or 漫画は大好きです。, where the former is specifically talking about 漫画 only while the latter talks about 漫画 but not limited to just 漫画。

 

[nice gaijin]

Aome more clarity on が; when used with a verb, the verb must be intransitive, unless the subject is performing an action (transitive) on another object.

The use of transitive and intransitive verbs aren't normally taught to beginners, but I think it's an important part of learning particles. Here's a short list. even numbers are transitive, and odd numbers are their intransitive counterparts.

1. 開ける to open (as in "I open the door")
2. 開く to open (as in "the door is open")
3. 閉める to close ("I close the door")
4. 閉まる to close ("the door closes")
5. 伸ばす to grow ("John's growing a beard")
6. 伸びる to grow ("your hair has grown a lot!")
7. 沸かす to boil ("go boil some water")
8. 沸く to boil ("the water is boiling already)
and so on...

These are some examples of special verbs that have transitivity pairs; there is a way to conjugate most verbs to make them intransitive, but I'm getting ahead of myself here....

Here are some sample phrases using transitive versus intransitive verbs:

ドアが開いている。
the door is open

マイクさんがドアを開ける。
mike opens/will open the door

Notice that in the first sentence where I use the intransitive verb, and the door is the subject, whereas the second sentence uses the transitive verb, and the door becomes the object receiving the action from the subject. This is a key distinction to make when using particles with these kinds of verbs.

you could never use the transitive 開ける with ドア, unless you have a subject performing the action, so ドアが開ける is right out. The door itself is opening, it is not opening something else.



~~~
another way to look at が is to think of it as a marker for new information, which is why it is used alongside the question words, the "do" part of the "こそあど" set (dore, dare, docchi, donna, doko). There are of course other uses for it, but i found this useful when deciding when to use it in the beginning. Not only is が used with the question words, but it is also used with the answer. This is because the question is asking for new information, and in the answer you are providing the conversation a new subject.

so when someone asks
誰がドアを閉めた？
who closed the door?

The answer would be
マイクさんがドアを閉めた。
Mike closed the door.

I can not think of a situation where a question word would be followed by は... so that's certainly something to avoid.

Particles are very challenging, I hope some of this helps. 頑張って下さい。

 

[Buntaro]

Another thing about GA is that, as Nice Gaijin is alluding to, some verbials require GA, and should be memorized as one phrase:

Zutsuu ga shimasu. (I have a headache.)

Onaka ga suite imasu (I am hungry.)

Teeburu ni, empitsu ga arimasu. (There is a pencil on the table.)

~~ ga suki desu. (I like ~~~, for example, manga.)

~~~

Do not analyze these sentences as to why they have GA, just memorize them.

 

[Buntaro]

Here is an addition to my GA list:

Nioi ga shimasu. (Something stinks; a bad odor)

 

[emperor]

Thanks for your help, guys.
Regarding to this sentense "Watashi wa onaka ga suite imasu"(私はお腹が空いています。）.
Can I make it become "Watashi no onaka ga suite imasu" (私のお腹が空いています。）It also means "My stomach is hungry", isn't it? Is it possible or have any differences??

Is onaka a noun??

 

[Buntaro]

Nucifera.

"Watashi no onaka ga suite imasu."

--> This sentence, although grammatically correct, is a sentence that a native Japanese speaker would never use. It quickly identifies you as someone "still learning Japanese."

I come across this all the time with my Japanese students who are learning English. They compose English sentences that are grammatically correct, but not what a native speaker would say. This is something a student just has to get over. It is the same with people learning Japanese.

~~~

Yes, onaka is a noun.