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Questions tagged [は-and-が]

「は」と「が」. The difference between the は (topic) and が (subject) particles.

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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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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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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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って vs が. JLPT question

I'm looking through JLPT N3 questions and have come across this one: A: ねえ　（　　　）　どんなひと？ B: とても親切でいい人だよ The possible answers are: 田中さんが 田中さんで 田中さんって 田中さんでも Number 4 makes no sense at all. "Tanaka-san but"? Number 2 is a bit weird. We're not…
Josquius
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Problems with は and が

Consider: [A] 猫が好きだ To me this means [A']"I like cats." Contrast this to: [B] 猫は好きだ To me this means [B']"I like cats (among other animals)" I based my understanding of [B] from Derek Schaab's answer to "What is the difference between “に” and…
Flaw
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Use は or が with ある when the phrase doesn't explicit the place

I'm studying japanese from not that long and a doubt came to my mind studying ある and いる verbs, so sorry in advance if the question isn't clear. If we take those two phrases as example: A.　つくえはへやにあります B.　へやにつくえがあります For what I've understood, in the…
Giorgio Antonioli
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On the usage of 「は」 and 「が」 in a poem by 谷川俊太郎

In a poem named 「生きる」 by 谷川俊太郎, the poet described "to live" with many instances. In the instances put forward in the penultimate stanza, the poet put 「が」 after the subjects, such as in 「犬が吠える」, 「地球が廻っている」, etc. However, in the final stanza, the…
null
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Usage of が in this paragraph

Once again I have been stumped over the usage of particles in a passage from my textbook. 先生: 最近、アメリカでも魚や豆腐を食べている人が増えてきたらしいです。 学生: はい。 先生: アメリカでも、ヘルシーな食べ物[が]{L}人気[が]{L}出てきたということです。 The paragraph continues but I don’t see the point in typing out…
Dave07
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は significance in ゲームは上手いですね

I'm confused by the reaction to は in this exchange A:「ゲームは上手いですね!」 B:「ゲーム「は」.....」 source context: http://neetsha.jp/inside/up/1/2/12840/24.jpg
ORTA
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「それがなにか」 v.s. 「それはなにか」

According to Weblio, 「それがなにか（問題）」 is similar to "So what", e.g. I'm wondering why the topic marker 「は」, as in 「それはなに」, is not used here. After all, "As to that, is there any thing wrong" sounds very close to "So what".
null
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は vs が in 私は言うように書いてください。

I have the following sentence in my anki app: Please write it down as I tell you. 私は言うように書いてください。 However my instincts tell me this should not be は but が. Am I correct?
Muhd
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は and が usage in a weird case

I know that there are tons upon tons of resources on this question because I did a thorough search in google before this post but they don't seem to address my case. I saw this used in a tutorial that I recently looked at: エーティーエムはありますか？ Here the…
J. Crimson
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Why wa in Karaoke wa suki desu ka?

I recently came across an example in a text book カラオケは好きですか。 and was not sure why wa was used here instead of ga?
Ignas
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は and が with 何 & こそあど

One of my textbooks said that you cannot use the particle は with 何 and undefined words of the こそあど. Yet I'm sure I've heard これは何ですか。 many times before, and これが何ですか。 sounds unnatural to me. What is the correct usage?
Philip Seyfi
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が vs. は in のが/のは...である cleft-sentence structure

The following is a sentence from the Japanese Wikipedia article about Berlin: ベルリンという名称が歴史的文書で最も古く遡れるのが1244年である。 I understand the sentence, but I would have expected 遡れるのは here instead of 遡れるのが, just like a prototypical cleft-sentence. Would the…
Kaskade
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