Questions tagged [particle-が]

助詞「が」. Nominative case particle, typically indicating the subject of a verb or other predicate. Also a conjunctive particle and, in Classical Japanese, a genitive case particle.

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What's the difference between wa (は) and ga (が)?

When is it correct to use は but not が, and when is it correct to use が but not は? Are there any times when you can use either without changing the meaning of the sentence? How does switching change the meaning of a sentence?
nevan king
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The difference between が and を with the potential form of a verb

When using the potential form of a verb, I was taught that the particle を becomes が. However, in real life this seems to not always be the case. I've even heard Japanese people use を instead of が quite often. What's the difference between the…
phirru
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Pronouncing が as 'nga'

I'm a beginner and am learning from CD (Pimsleur). There are two native speakers going through the dialogue. One, the man, pronounces が as I would expect - 'ga'. The other (female) pronounces it as 'nga'. How common is the latter? Which should I…
Synesso
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Why is it 日本語がわかります instead of 日本語をわかります?

From what I understand, は is the topic marker, が is the subject marker, and を is the object marker. One of the first sentences I learned doesn't seem to fit the rules I described above. The sentence is: わたしは日本語がわかります. watashi wa nihongo ga  …
Alan C
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が and に interchangeability and difference in meaning

Consider these sentences: だれ{が・に}これが出来るか だれ{が・に}日本語が分からないか When both が and に are acceptable, what is their difference in meaning and practical usage?
Flaw
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Passive form - The exact difference between を and が

I've seen this question asked before, but i feel the answer didn't quite answer all my questions, so here goes. Now, I am rather sure that this: ケーキが食べられた Means: The cake was eaten. (by someone) Now, recently I've noticed a few cases where the…
Daniel Safari
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を vs が with use against 好き?

The difference between が and を with the potential form of a verb. and Is it true that all nouns must be able to accept a が particle and a を particle? are noted as possible duplicates; however, I haven't seen an analogous structure. The examples I…
Wolfpack'08
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Double subject construction?

I've recently been having trouble with constructions that seem to mark two subjects in the same clause. I've only encountered them in ~の方が... constructions, but I can't seem to make sense of them grammatically. Here are some…
Billy
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Different meanings of こわい

I was watching this video (it's actually a really good series, despite the odd presentation). In it, there is the example: おばけがこわい。 Ghosts are scary. No problem there, but the series has been talking a lot about how the zero-pronoun marks the…
user3856370
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私は猫が好き and 猫は私が好き

I started reading basic grammar of Japanese, and found this sentence: ねこがすきです。 I like cats. I thought が is the subject particle, so I supposed that ねこ would be the subject of the sentence. すき seems to mean "like". So I expected ねこがすきです to mean…
Damkerng T.
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What's the difference between -ga and -o when they are used to designate a direct object?

During the past month I've been addicted to Japanese. I've listened to about 10 online tutorial video courses and read about as much printed lessons. I am determined to learn Japanese, but I am really a newbie so my question may be very basic, but…
Armen Tsirunyan
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Why does 「電話は切れた」 sound more adversarial than 「電話が切れた」?

I noticed that while 「…、電話が切れた」 sounds just like a neutral phrase ("... and the call got cut off."), 「…、電話は切れた」 sounds more like you were negatively affected / that the person on the other side intentionally cut off the call. Are there any other…
Darius Jahandarie
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Nominalization with のが、のを

I've just learned to nominalize verbs with のを but as I was looking for more info on the web I saw that this is also done with のが and こと. The question "What is the difference between the nominalizers こと and の?" uses のを and のが as if they were the same…
Julian
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に vs. が in the ~てほしい construction

I know there are already a few questions about this topic on this website, however none of them seemed to really help me with the issue. The ~てほしい contruction is used to express that someone wants someone/something else to do something. Now, my…
Kaskade
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Why is this sentence ungrammatical? 「お寺が公園のとなりです。」

I wrote this sentence (meaning "The temple is next to the park") in my Japanese course and my teacher said it's wrong, because I was supposed to use a は instead of a が. My understanding is that there is always a が in a sentence, which may or may not…
Wolf
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