niwa particle meaning

[prt1987]

Hi,

What is the meaning of the following sentence in Japanese:
aano niwani naniga arimasu ka

Also, why have we used ga in this sentence? How will the meaning change if we use wa instead of ga?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Morphling]

What's in the garden.

Wa is topic marker, a concept not available in English. ga is subject marker. For words like nani, you usually have to use ga.

Whole books have been written about these 2 particles so I wouldn't worry too much about the fine differences yet.

 

[Toritoribe]

It's "ano" , not "aano".

"Ano niwa ni nani ga arimasu ka" means "What is in the garden?", as Morphling-san translated, whereas "Ano niwa ni nani wa arimasu ka" is asking if there is "that thing" in the garden. "Nani" is a pronoun for something inappropriate to say or the speaker don't remember the name here. The intonation is different from the interrogative "nani", though.