Sorry, I know that the “は vs が” differences are already explained at length. I’ve felt that I had a solid understanding of these particles for a long time now, but I’ve recently found myself having trouble with this distinction in sentences regarding speaking a language.
In my course, I often use sentences such as the following:
> Can you speak English?
>
> 英語が話せますか。
But today, I’ve found myself being marked wrong for using the same particle in a similar sentence:
> I do not speak English.
>
> 英語が話しません。 *(marked incorrect)*
>
> 英語は話しません。 *(corrected solution)*
By my current understanding, I thought that は would be used to address the person in this sentence, rather than the language that they don’t speak. It seems I may be mistaken, according to the course.
In my search for answers online, I’ve also seen others using the を particle for these purposes, which I hadn’t even considered for this scenario.
Overall, I mean to ask two things here:
1. What is the difference between these two sentences, which requires the use of different は or が particles between them?
2. How does を fit into these sentences? Is it correct to use を here? How does it affect the meaning of the sentence?
3 comments
は is commonly used in negative sentences. It’s not strictly incorrect to use を or が there, but it’s almost always more natural to use は when speaking negatively.
話せます means “can speak” so 英語が話せます more literally means means “can English be spoken”. The implication is can it be spoken *by you* or, more naturally, “can you speak English. Your response means “English doesn’t speak”. The correct answer more literally means “English, I don’t speak it”.
I highly recommend the first few videos in this series. The CGI “doll” thing is weird, but the content is solid! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwcTI9qvO-U&list=PLg9uYxuZf8x-FpkArMEoVVfw10TDT9I1h