What are Japanese participles?

In English relationships between the words of a sentence are shown mostly by word order.
In Japanese, however, the sentence function of nouns and pronouns is shown by additional words that are placed immediately after the noun or pronoun. These words, which are called particles.

In English, there are special words called prepositions. Japanese has no prepositions, but particles have many of the same functions as prepositions.

Japanese uses particles after words to mark what they are for. Particles will follow the words they control. That is why particles are sometimes called postpositions.

There are many kinds of particles like: ga/が, which is a to things you give attention marker; wa/は, which is a topic marker; o/を, which follows the direct object; no/の, which means “of” in most of the English senses of the word, and indicates possession; and ka/か, which indicates a question.

Let’s learn the particle wa/は for now.

The particle wa/は

The particle wa/は works as a topic marker in a sentence to introduce a topic. When a word is followed by wa/は, it will be marked as a topic in a sentence.

All you need to do is just put wa/は after the word which you want to introduce as a topic.

For example, if you want to talk about “watashi/わたし” which means “I”, start conversation with “Watashi/わたし wa/は”.

If you want to talk about “nihon/にほん” which means “Japan”, start conversation with “Nihon/にほん wa/は”.

wa/は is often used when people talk about general truths or speaker’s general idea, describe what something is like and explain something.

wa/は is often used for the topic of Yes / No questions and the topic which is given by someone else.

Let’s look at these cases.

When to use the particle wa/は

wa/は is used in the following cases.

1. wa/は is used when people talk about general truths.

<Example 1>
Chikyuu wa marui.
ちきゅう　は　まるい。
地球　は　丸い。
[the earth wa/は round]
The earth is round.

If you want to talk about the general truth of “Chikyuu/ちきゅう”, put wa/は after “Chikyuu/ちきゅう.”

<Example 2>
Tookyoo wa nihon no syuto desu.
とうきょう　は　にほん　の　しゅと　です。
東京　は　日本　の　首都　です。
[Tokyo wa/は Japan of capital is]
Tokyo is the capital of Japan.

Here, “Tokyo is the capital of Japan” is general truth.

2. wa/は is used when people talk about speaker’s general idea.

<Example 3>
Umi wa kirei.
うみ　は　きれい。
海　は　きれい。
[sea wa/は beautiful]
(I think) Sea is beautiful in general.

Everyone has their own way of thinking. If you want to express your own opinion about something, you can use wa/は.

3. wa/は is used when people describe what something is like.

<Example 4>
Kyoo wa atsui.
今日　は　あつい。
今日　は　暑い。
[today wa/は hot]
It’s hot today.

Here, today is described as hot. The word before wa/は is always the target of description and the phrase after wa/は is always description.

<Example 1>
Chikyuu wa marui.
ちきゅう　は　まるい。
地球　は　丸い。
[the earth wa/は round]
The earth is round.

Here pick up <Example 1> again. “Chikyuu/ちきゅう” is the target of description and “marui/まるい” is the description. The target of description is followed by wa/は like this.

4. wa/は is used when people explain something.

<Example 5>
Watashi no namae wa Takuya desu.
わたし　の　なまえ　は　たくや　です。
私　の　名前　は　たくや　です。
[I of name wa/は Takuya is]
My name is Takuya.

Here, wa/は is used to explain the name of person.

<Example 2>
Tookyoo wa nihon no syuto desu.
とうきょう　は　にほん　の　しゅと　です。
東京　は　日本　の　首都　です。
[Tokyo wa/は Japan of capital is]
Tokyo is the capital of Japan.

Here, pick up <Example 2> again. This sentence explains Tokyo. We know this because Tokyo is followed by wa/は.

5. wa/は is often used for the topic of Yes / No questions.

6. wa/は is often used for the topic which is given by someone else.

<Example 6>
Eego wa suki desu ka.
えいご　は　すき　です　か。
英語　は　好き　です　か。
[English wa/は favorite is ?]
Do you like English?

Hai, eego wa suki desu.
はい、えいご　は　すき　です。
はい、英語　は　好き　です。
[yes, English wa/は favorite is]
Yes, I like English.

Here, English is the topic of Yes / No question because “eego/えいご” is followed by wa/は.

The topic of the answer of Yes / No question is often followed by wa/は because it is the topic which is given by someone else.

If you want to use wa/は perfectly, you need to know the difference between wa/は and ga/が. This is because wa/は sometimes can be interchangeable with ga/が grammatically even though the meaning of the sentence changes slightly.

Please visit below link to find it out.

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The Difference Between the Particle “ga/が” and “wa/は”