Hi everyone! I’m reading a book about introduction to Japanese grammar and language and stumbled upon some example sentences where I can’t get my head around. The current chapter focuses on past-present-future, so the explanations are not picking up this detail. I just write them in romanji, since I would surely fail miserably using the Japanese keyboard:
1) Ashita akachan ga umaremasu.
-> No ‘wa’ after ashita, but subject is declared by ‘ga’
2) Ashita wa yuki ga furimasu.
-> ‘wa’ defines the sentence’s topic (ashita) and ‘ga’ defines the subject
So what I don’t get is: why is ‘wa’ not needed on the first sentence? It seems to be optional in a case where ‘ga’ can substitute the role of ‘wa’? Can the sentences be understand differently, despite the fact they tell different information?
Thankful for help!
1 comment
Simple time phrases such as “this morning”, “today”, “last week”, etc., don’t need a particle. It’s not really related to が at all. Example number two can also be written as 「あしたゆきがふります。」
Particle は is a bit nuanced in that it can make things seem contrasted. It can be tricky to explain, but it’s easier with further context. For example, if someone asked “will it snow soon?” and you replied with あしたはゆきがふります, you’re saying that it will snow tomorrow, but probably not any other days, so you’d be contrasting ‘tomorrow’ with ‘other days’. Because of this, yes, using は can sometimes change the interpretation of a sentence, but not too drastically.