I’m taking really basic Japanese lessons (only sentences and phrases, no writing in hiragana/katakana/kanji) because the school requires everyone to learn a third language, and I picked Japanese for that. I’m learning on this website called Marugoto.
In the website, a girl says to her friend before they’re about to order food at a restaurant: “Kono mise WA chiizu-baagaa GA oishii desu yo.”
That sounds to me like she’s saying “this shop is cheeseburger that is delicious”. But I really don’t know.
Please help me understand why that is correct, and why couldn’t it have been “kono mise NO chiizu-baagaa WA oishii desu yo”?
I don’t understand the grammar particles like ‘wa’ ‘ga’ ‘no’ very well, though this is how I’ve always understood it like this:
wa = is
ga = that is (“Sakana ga suki desu.” = Fish is what I like/the one that I like.)
‘no’ I think is for possession.
3 comments
Your construction is not wrong, but it is not exactly right. Because you intend for the shop’s cheeseburger to be what is talked about. So you want the が particle as opposed to は. Unless there is some context that would imply you did not bring up the subject in the first place. Kind of weird unless you are discussing the food you had today or something.
は marks the topic. It is not “is” at all. Think of it as a little flag that says whatever comes before is what you are talking about.
が is the “exclusive” sentence subject – often times it is completely omitted because it is not important to declare it. It is more complex than this, but this is the core usage.
For a basic breakdown.
私が行きます . Is emphasis on “I” as the one who is going. As “I” am what we are talking about, as opposed to anything else. It is all about “I”.
私は行きます Is softer, but still says “I” will go. The missing “<topic> が” is known from context. Say a party or something. Someone asks “Who is coming to the party? and you say, “私は行きます.” You are not the subject, the party is. The は denotes “As for me” essentially. Just do not think of it in concrete terms because it is a marker, not a set replacement or a word itself.
It’s quite confusing why your school would offer Japanese classes but not teach the writing system. Learning materials (wether it’s a book or online) will have kana and kanji; learning materials with romaji (the Japanese spelling in Roman alphabet) will never really get you anywhere in the long run.
(aka do go and learn kana, it doesn’t take that
long)
As for your question: the difference or distinction between haは and gaが is one of the mostly discussed topics in Japanese learning communities and is often either oversimplified and adapted to English speaking equivalents, or overwhelmingly complex. We’ll stick with the simple answer:
Your sentence means: As for this restaurant, the cheeseburgers are good.
(nobody talks like this in English, but that’s as close as it gets; we’d just say: the cheeseburgers are quite good here/I heard the cheeseburgers are really good here)
haは acts like a topic marker (the restaurant) whereas gaが defines the cheeseburgers (kinda like the subject; but you cannot transfer meanings of particles 1:1 zu English all the time.)
Your learning materials however should cover that so I’d suggest to keep going.
noの, among other functions, is a possession marker, yes. Your suggestion of この店のチーズバーガーは美味しいですよ; kono mise no chizu baga ha oishii yo is not wrong either; I’d only drop the haは unless you really emphasise those exact cheeseburgers.
So, go with この店のチーズバーガー美味しいです. Sounds a bit more natural in my ears. Depending on where the restaurant ist, ano あの might be better than konoこの in this case.
I’m just a beginner too, but the way I was explained ha/ga is
>”ha” sets the preceding word as topic and makes the listener curious about what comes NEXT. “ga” however puts the listener’s attention onto the PREVIOUS word.
Using your example, it would mean something like: As for this shop *(listener: yes, what about it?)*, it’s the cheeseburgers *(and not the ramen or steak etc)* that are delicious. Try thinking of ha of ‘as for’ instead of ‘is’.