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ADAMO, [Tombe la neige]

The song 「雪が降る」 by アダモ goes --> ♪♪ 雪は降る あなたは来ない ... ♪♪

  1. Is there a good explanation for the difference between the title and how the song begins? -- 雪が vs. 雪は ...

  2. Are the following alternative words better or worse?

    The song starting as -->  ♪♪   雪が降る あなたは来ない ... ♪♪


Related: Use は or が with ある when the phrase doesn't explicit the place

One obvious relationship is this :

By applying naruto's excellent summary, the following explanation is possible.

「雪が ... 」 in the title introduces the subject (snow) for the 1st time (e.g., "a boy"), and when it is mentioned the 2nd time, it should be "the snow"

雪は降る == The snow (that we are talking about) is falling. [thematic]

          There could be a new tag [ particle-がvs.は ]
                   -->   Thanks, oals, i just added it.
Community
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HizHa
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    Actually, I think this question is not really related to [Use は or が with ある when the phrase doesn't explicit the place](http://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/39180/use-%E3%81%AF-or-%E3%81%8C-with-%E3%81%82%E3%82%8B-when-the-phrase-doesnt-explicit-the-place)。 – Hugh Chiou Sep 14 '16 at 10:21
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    `when it is mentioned the 2nd time, it should be "the snow" 雪は降る == The snow (that we are talking about) is falling. [thematic]` <- The は in 雪は降る here is not D-①[thematic] but D-②[contrastive]. – Chocolate Sep 14 '16 at 21:33

2 Answers2

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When someone wants to put two things as comparison in Japanese, they will say Aは...Bは...。 So in this song, it will be better to use は...は...。 I think maybe it can mean - Even the snow is already falling, but you still do not show up. To emphasize the feeling of disappointment.

Hugh Chiou
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    @chocolate "has already fallen" or "is already falling"? – virmaior Sep 14 '16 at 08:22
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    @virmaior えっ、どっちでしょう、わかんないです・・ `has already fall` になってたんで、 fall を fallen にしたんです・・ – Chocolate Sep 14 '16 at 10:03
  • Thank you both for correcting me. Sorry for poor English. fallenよりfallingの方が相応しいと思います。なので、fallingに直します。 – Hugh Chiou Sep 14 '16 at 10:13
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    (私は snow keeps falling とか it keeps snowing って感じだと思いますけどね・・・「雪は降りつづける、でもあなたはいっこうに来ない。。」みたいな。。。) – Chocolate Sep 14 '16 at 10:21
  • It already started to snowはどうですか。多分こういう意味でしょうか。According to the whole song, I finally think show is falling would be better – Hugh Chiou Sep 14 '16 at 10:24
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    ええと、歌詞のあとのほうに、「あなたはこない　いくら呼んでも　雪だけが　ただ　降るばかり」っていうのが出てくるんです。まあ、それで、そういう感じかな、と・・ – Chocolate Sep 14 '16 at 10:29
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The particle「が」is used in a lot of contexts to explain a characteristic of something. In the song title, it is simply attaching a behavior to a subject, so, in a general sense:

*snow* --> "fall" [action]

The song title conveys: this thing (snow) does thing (fall). No additional or deeper meaning can be extracted of this sentence.

In the lyrics part, the story is totally different. When the author uses 「は」there, it is (in addition to stating the action that the subject is doing: to fall), giving you a notion of sequential actions, essentially: the passing of time. That nuance gives the sentence a deeper, sadder meaning: 

Snow *keeps falling (and falling, ...)* and you still (don't/won't) come.

It could even be interpreted as "She'll never come back", but that's just a personal interpretation (I don't know the song / know the rest of the lyrics).

Cadu
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