7

たばこは体に悪いとわかってはいるものの、なかなかやめられない。

If it's は, does omitting は change the meaning in verb-te~はいる? And also, could you talk about what いる is doing?

If it's はいる, in what sense would you describe はいる's usage?

Also, as I googled for more examples, I noticed there was a general pattern of てはいる[が・けど・ものの]、... Is there something to this?

Louis Waweru
  • 5,225
  • 32
  • 55

1 Answers1

8

It's the 助詞　"は". I'll leave it to the linguists for a technical description, but the practical effect is to emphasize the verb. "Although I do know cigarettes are bad for my body, I pretty much can't quit."

rdb
  • 2,519
  • 14
  • 13
  • 3
    This は is contrastive topic. 'As for understanding that cigarettes are bad for health, I do understand, but (for practicing that), I cannot quit it.' –  Sep 22 '11 at 05:35
  • @sawa - Thanks, sawa. I don't quite understand what you mean by "(for practicing that)". Could you put it in different words? Also, is there a grammatical term in Japanese for "contrastive topic は"? – rdb Sep 22 '11 at 06:22
  • Will 'putting it to practice' be understandable? I am not sure how 'contrastive topic' will be translated to Japanese, but a straightforward one will be '対比的主題'. –  Sep 22 '11 at 06:31
  • @sawa - Thanks, I see what you mean now. The phrase would be "putting it in(to) practice". It's idiomatic. – rdb Sep 22 '11 at 07:02