Page 89 - Basic Japanese

particles—remember they just indicate the relationship

between the preceding words and those that follow.

2.8. ga

The particle ga shows the subject. In Eiga ga suki desu ‘I like
movies,’ the particle ga shows that eiga ‘movies’ is the

subject of suki desu ‘are liked.’ The difference between the

particles wa and ga is one of emphasis. In English we make a
difference in emphasis by using a louder voice somewhere

in the sentence. We say ‘I like MOVIES’ or ‘I LIKE movies,’
depending on which part of the sentence we want to bring

out. In Japanese, the particle ga focuses our attention on the
words preceding it, but the particle wa releases our attention

to focus on some other part of the sentence. So, eiga ga suki

desu means ‘I like MOVIES,’ but eiga wa suki desu means ‘I LIKE
movies.’ When there is a question word in the sentence (like

dare ‘who,’ dore ‘which one,’ dono ‘which,’ and doko ‘where’),
the attention usually focuses on this part of the sentence, so

the particle wa is not used: Dono tatemono ga eki desu ka ‘Which
building is the train station?’ Since our attention is focused

on ‘WHICH building,’ the answer is Ano tatemono ga eki desu

‘THAT building is the train station.’ If the question is Ano
tatemono wa nan desu ka ‘What is that building?,’ our attention

is released from ano tatemono ‘that building’ by the particle

wa and concentrates on ‘WHAT,’ so the answer is Ano
tatemono wa eki desu ‘That building is a TRAIN STATION,’ or
just Eki desu ‘It’s a train station.’ Some sentences have both

a topic—or several successive topics—and a subject: