Confusion with the particles

Hello everyone!

I wish to receive some help concerning some Japanese sentence I came across this morning, which is confusing me quite a lot. I hope some of you will be able to explain things to me

I received a flashcard from a website, which states the below

私は、肉は食べないが、魚と卵は食べる。

but

魚がエサを見ている

Now my understanding was that wa followed the subject of the sentence and that the object should be preceded by (w)o を

Why is the sentence

私は、肉は食べないが、魚と卵は食べる。

and not

私は、肉を食べないが、魚と卵を食べる。

the first ha following watashi is following the subject => no problem however niku is NOT the subject of the sentence and neither are sakana to tamago? Or am i understanding the sentence wrong? Niku is not eating anything and neither are sakana or tamago?

Also, would we not say

私は魚と卵を食べる。and 私は、肉を食べない ??

I am very confused and it is kind of driving me mad haha.

Can a gentle soul please clarify this for me?

Many thanks and a lovely day to you all !

は is not just is/am/are. は is a topic particle not subject..
Think は as 'as for/about'

so '私は、肉は食べないが、魚と卵は食べる' means:
'About me, As for the meat (I) don't eat (it) but as for the fish and egg, (I) eat (them)'

abhishek said:

は is not just is/am/are. は is a topic particle not subject..
Think は as 'as for/about'

so '私は、肉は食べないが、魚と卵は食べる' means:
'About me, As for the meat (I) don't eat (it) but as for the fish and egg, (I) eat (them)'

Click to expand...

It is the contrastive use of は.

I don't wish to sound nasty here, but thinking of は as equating to English modal verbs and mentally treating it as "as for" are both poor habits to get into.

Mike Cash said:

thinking of は as equating to English modal verbs and mentally treating it as "as for" are both poor habits to get into.

Click to expand...

Apologies, I know the topic particle essentially identifies what it is that we're talking about... I just could not come up with a better English translation.

ok. Thank you very much to both of you for your replies.

So would my suggestions : 私は、肉を食べないが、魚と卵を食べる。 be wrong?

And what about 私は魚と卵を食べる。and 私は、肉を食べない? These are correct aren't they?

How would you Mike explain the use of ha there? how would you translate it in English so i understand when to use it?

Thank you !

Those は are the contrastive marker, as Mike-san already pointed out. It's used to emphasize the comparison between 肉 and 魚と卵.

Japanese grammar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia