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-あっ、トロが来た。

-トロって何ですか。

I have read that って is the equivalent of the topic marker は. (is これって何ですか just as natural as これは何ですか？)

Are there situations when we can't use って　instead of は？

Enguroo
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  • Related: https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/50294/7810, https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/39670/7810, https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/15004/7810 – broccoli facemask Jun 05 '19 at 08:16

1 Answers1

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「って 」is an informal equivalent of 「というのは」.Therefore, it is used in the same situations than 「という」in spoken spoken language rather than written.

トロって何ですか トロというのは何ですか "What doesトロ mean?" or "What is トロ?"

When using informal speech, the は particle is sometimes ommitted, and that's why you don't see it in your sentence either.

In this case, というのは indicates the meaning of A, so AというのはB, is asking for the meaning of A, but というのは has also other usages. See it here.

EDIT: turns out that some fonts refer to って as the equivalent of は as well. However, my knowlegde on this is limited.

jarmanso7
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  • I was confused because I saw that って can be an equivalent of は　here - https://jisho.org/search/tte (meaning 9). But you've made it clear now. Thank you! – Enguroo Jun 05 '19 at 05:15
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    I visited some of the links posted by broccoli forest, and there people reference って as equivalent of は in some instances. I'm not sure. – jarmanso7 Jun 05 '19 at 08:59