Particles

I've been reading some basic introductions to Japanese, which focus on the 2 main particles, wa and ga. Now that I've tried going to japanese webpages, I see a dearth of new particles, and was wondering if I could get some explanations of them.

wa
used commonly in statements

ga
used to draw attention to the subject of the sentence

ha
I've never seen this in basic textbooks.. how is it used?

wo
This is new to me, but I see it quite frequently. The textbooks I've read seem to use O instead, like in 'Sushi o kudasai'. Are they interchangeable?

ni
location marker

de
usage marker

e
location marker again.. I see this in textbooks, for example 'kyoto e iketai' but seldom see it elsewhere. Is it interchangeable with ni? How is it pronounced? Yee, or eh?

And while we're at it, what're the differences between desu ka and desu ga?

there's lots of threads on particles... if i could be bothered looking i could quote the answer to everyone of your questions from somebody else. but i can't so, here we go.

wa
used commonly in statements

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um, i don't think that's the exact definition, but it's true. it's often called the "topic marker".

ga
used to draw attention to the subject of the sentence

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true again, it's often called the "subject marker". be careful though, because ga is quite a versitile particle, and often pops up as something other than the subject marker.

ha
I've never seen this in basic textbooks.. how is it used?

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this is the same as wa (see above). the hiragana character for the particle 'wa' is written as the hiragana character for 'ha'. don't ask me why. even though it is written as ha, it is read as wa.

wo
This is new to me, but I see it quite frequently. The textbooks I've read seem to use O instead, like in 'Sushi o kudasai'. Are they interchangeable?

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yes, they are interchangeable. they are the same thing even. the w is usually silent (the w can be pronounced if wanting to be extra polite. also often pronounced in songs).

ni
location marker

de
usage marker

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yeah, fair enough. it can be more complicated than that though, but that's enough for now i think.

e
location marker again.. I see this in textbooks, for example 'kyoto e iketai' but seldom see it elsewhere. Is it interchangeable with ni? How is it pronounced? Yee, or eh?

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this is like the above wa/ha example. it is written with the hiragana character 'he', but read as 'e'. so be careful, you may see it written as he. it is pronounced as an "eh" sound, but if you are not familiar with the basic japanese pronunciation, i suggest you find someone who can teach you. as for the meaning of e, it's just like ni, often used to express the action of going to a place (such as in kyoto e ikitai).

And while we're at it, what're the differences between desu ka and desu ga?

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well ka is essentially a question mark. so desu ka is asking a question. ga in this case means but. it is not the "subject marker".

this might get a bit confusing - here's an example in english.
"i was going to go to the shops, but it's raining." translating into pseudo-japanese would be "(i was going to go to the shops) ga, (it's raining)". but in japanese often things are implied, so if it's clearly raining, you could just cut that bit out. in other words "(i was going to go to shops) ga..." is ok. therefore ending a sentence in desu ga is also ok

f4senkyo69 said:

I've been reading some basic introductions to Japanese, which focus on the 2 main particles, wa and ga. Now that I've tried going to japanese web pages, I see a dearth of new particles, and was wondering if I could get some explanations of them.

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I don't think that "dearth" means what you think it does.

okaeri_man said:

f4senkyo69 said:

wa
used commonly in statements

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um, i don't think that's the exact definition, but it's true. it's often called the "topic marker".

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"Often overheard used by people talking in coffee shops" would also be a true statement, but neither really helps you understand what "wa" is all about.

Try this page for a good summary of "wa" and "ga":
Topics and focuses

okaeri_man said:

true again, it's often called the "subject marker". be careful though, because ga is quite a versatile particle, and often pops up as something other than the subject marker.

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Really? Personally, I've always considered 'ga' (along with 'o') to be among the particles with the strictest uses, while 'wa' and 'mo' (for example) are much more flexible.

Anyway, to the OP: again, see the link above.

okaeri_man said:

f4senkyo69 said:

de
usage marker

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yeah, fair enough. it can be more complicated than that though, but that's enough for now i think.

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"Usage marker"? I'm not even sure if that means anything, let alone is 'enough' to understand the particle 'de'.

okaeri_man said:

but if you are not familiar with the basic japanese pronunciation, i suggest you find someone who can teach you.

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This is really good advice.

okaeri_man said:

as for the meaning of e, it's just like ni, often used to express the action of going to a place (such as in kyoto e ikitai).

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Yes, it's a lot like "ni" except in those (quite numerous) cases when "ni" is doing something other than marking the destination of something.

jt_ said:

Try this page for a good summary of "wa" and "ga":
Topics and focuses

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And while you're there, you may as well read about cases and postpositions. In fact, just read through the whole site. It's good for basic grammar.

[Edit] Just for the sake of clarity, that was intended for the OP.

When it comes to particles I've been reading the book 'All ABout Particles' by Naoko Chino. Amazon.com: All About Particles: A Handbook of Japanese Function Words (Power Japanese Series) (9784770027818): Chino, Naoko: Books

I've found it to be a very good reference on the topic, enough detail to make the individual uses clear without getting you bogged down in technical nuances.