に/で and が/は/を particles: when do I use them?

3 comments

1. What material have you used to study?

   > I understand を as being used for “a/an” or referring to a thing in general and が meaning “the

   Have you used any grammar reference at all?

2. CureDolly has a great guide for this on YouTube, but a very loose/basic overview is:

   は: Topic Marker

   が: Subject Marker

   を: Direct Object

   で: At/By Means Of (eating by means of chopsticks, going somewhere by means of a train)

   に: Ultimate Target of Action (going to a place, doing something for someone)

   と: A Quotation or And

   や: When Listing Items in a Non-Exhaustive List

   This isn’t all the particles or everything they can do but it’s some basic ones and a baseline understanding. Once you understand particles, your understanding of Japanese with your 3 years of experience will sky rocket, I’m excited for you 🙂

3. I’ll make it quite simple here:

   +++に/へ: both is to show the way you’re going. Very simple use. Put the particles between the place and the verb and you’re done. But…
   東京へいく:

   へ is used when you want to say the general direction. In this case, it means you want to go to the direction of Tokyo. You may or may not have a final destination in mind, but your moving direction is Tokyo.
   東京にいく:

   に is used when you want to express the place you actually want to go. Maybe you have an important meeting in Tokyo and you have to go there, not anywhere else.

   ​

   +++が/は: these 2 are the hardest to use correctly. Both have 4-5 ways to use. But most of the time, it’s down to 2 general uses. I won’t go into details of all the ways to use both of them. And I recommend you to just remember all the sentences in which they are used. When you’re good enough in Japanese, search the differences for yourself in Japanese material. Don’t use English material for differentiating particles. This is the most common difference between the 2:

   (1) お母さん「が」（台所で）ごはんを作っています

   (2) お母さん「は」（台所で）ごはんを作っています

   Most english sites will tell you that が is a subject marker and は is topic marker but that probably tells you almost nothing. Above is an example. Both are correct but has very different meanings. In English, you can translate it as “Mom is making food in the kitchen.” but in Japanese, they express very different way of perceiving the scene.

   が is the subject marker and it will show you the relationship between the Subject and the verb, which, in this case, is the mother is making food in the kitchen. Plain and simple. You see your mom making food. You describe it exactly so with が. You describe the state of the subject.

   は however is a topic marker. Which means you’re talking about your mom in general. And in this example (2), it has the expression of she happens to be making food in the kitchen. You’re talking about your mom, and currently, she’s making food. You’re not exactly describing her state.

   Understanding the expression of the sentence is very important. in (1), you’re describing your mom state of being. In (2), your mom is the subject of the conversation and you’re talking about her. This is the fundamental uses of the 2 particles.

   Second most common difference:

   私は社長だ

   私が社長だ

   Both simply means: I’m the president of the company. But when you use が, it actually mean, you’re the fcking president of the company! You’re the man! While は simply means that you’re introducing yourself. が has the use of giving very strong impression to what you want to say.

   ​

   +++を/が: This one will surprise you. を is a very simple particle. You describe an object and the action you would do to that object. For example: ボールをなげる (Throw the ball). But when you use the たい form of a verb, which is saying you “want” to do something, it’s another whole story.

   (1) ゲームをしたい

   (2) ゲームがしたい

   So, which one do you think is right? First one?

   So, ゲームをする means “I play game”. Quite simple. But if you want to say: “I want to play game.” then what? したい is want to do something so just change it to ゲームをしたい, right? Actually, no. を only let you describe the exact overall picture of the situation. It doesn’t carry the “feeling” part of what you want to do to the object. If you say ゲームをしたい to a Japanese, they will understand you just fine. They won’t correct you, which is fatal to Japanese learners. They will take it as 変な日本語 (weird Japanese or foreigner Japanese). ゲームをしたい actually means that you love the action of playing game itself, not loving the game. You just want to do that action, and not out of the love of that object.

   If you use が, it marks the object that is “game” and what you want to “do” to that object, which is “play”, so ゲームがしたい actually means, You love game and you want to play game.

   That’s all you need to know for now I guess? When you’re better at Japanese, try relearning the particles using Japanese material. It’s very helpful.