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Hi all
tl;dr – I’m having trouble understanding how using は in the question then が in the answer would make sense, as used near the bottom of this page.
OK then :)
I get the basic idea of は and が, but I’m having trouble pinning it down in some respects. Specifically, I’ve gotten to the page “Expanding On Loving And Hating” in “The things that you hate”.
Near the top, we have this section :
Q. いぬ が すき ですか？
Do you like dogs?A. はい、いぬ は すき です。
Yes, I like dogs / Yes, as for dogs, I like themThe question part I read as do you like DOGS (as opposed to cats, trees, other stuff) rather than do you LIKE dogs as in how do you feel about dogs – and that is all well and good, I understand it.
Further down that page though we have a couple of questions written in this format:
Q. あれはきらいですか？
A. Yes, I hate that thing over there Translation →
はい、あれがきらいです
Now here は and が are reversed in the question and answer – to me this means
Q. As for that thing over there, do you HATE it? (or love it, or not care)A. Yes, I hate THAT THING OVER THERE (as opposed to anything else)
which doesn’t quite seem right to me. I would have thought given the question “As for that thing over there, do you HATE it?” the answer would ALSO use は, as that thing over there has already been identified – it’s the hate that’s important – “yes I do HATE it.”
What I’d like to know is if I’m somehow interpreting this wrongly, if there is a genuine reason to use が in the answer in reply to that question…
Thanks for reading this far. Honestly trying to understand this has some strange kind of onomatopoeic effect as I’m sat here going “Wah? Gah!” a lot
:)-
This topic was modified 12 years, 5 months ago by
insanimal. Reason: trying to get the html tags right
This confused me too. I can only think は is used instead of が in the question as the person asking the question is unable to identify what he/she is referring to. So the emphasis switches to the do you hate part.
In return, the person being asked the question, identifies what the person asking the question is referring to by saying they hate it.
This is just a guess and could be completely wrong. I’d like to know if anyone can give a more certain answer.
I imagine in the second it just puts further emphasis on the object because it’s unidentified? It’s also often used to tell someone what you think of an object, is it blue, big, old..etc
が is a slippery particle.
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This reply was modified 12 years, 5 months ago by
Luke.
kanjiman8:
This confused me too. I can only think は is used instead of が in the question as the person asking the question is unable to identify what he/she is referring to. So the emphasis switches to the do you hate part.In return, the person being asked the question, identifies what the person asking the question is referring to by saying they hate it.
This is just a guess and could be completely wrong. I’d like to know if anyone can give a more certain answer.
Yggbert:
I imagine in the second it just puts further emphasis on the object because it’s unidentified?Thanks both :) I don’t think that’s it though – perhaps I should have also included the other question from that section, which is
Q. わたしのくるまはすきですか？
A. No, I hate your car. Translation →
いいえ、あなたのくるまがきらいです
“Do you LIKE my car?”
“No, I hate YOUR CAR.”Same thing except it’s very clear what we’re talking about – the car. To me
“Do you LIKE my car?”
“No, I HATE your car.”
would have made more sense.Sorry, should have included that part to start with.
No worries. Happy to help. Another theory I have is, if your just stating facts and not being asked a question then you use が to identify what you’re talking about. eg 寿司が好きですよ
If someone’s asking a question, they will emphasize the like/hate part, and it’s down to the person answering the question to identify what the speaker is talking about.
This is what I think is going on:
Q. いぬ が すき ですか？
You are the topic (あなた は left out) because you are being asked, and there can be no confusion what you are being asked about, because it’s just dogs in general. Typical question syntax.
A. はい、いぬ は すき です。
Topic is changed to dogs, because it’s already understood that it’s YOUR opinion being asked.Q. あれはきらいですか？
This time the topic is the thing. Perhaps you have already been asked about something else, or the particular thing has to be singled out between many possible ones (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_grammar#Exhaustive_ga)A. はい、あれがきらいです
You change the topic to yourself, because it’s not yet understood that it’s YOUR opinion.I could very well be wrong, tho x)
EDIT: I can’t get the stupid linking code to work. Screw it
Anonymoushttp://lang-8.com/137075/journals/1119395/ Part 1
http://lang-8.com/137075/journals/1123163/ Part 2
Maybe this lang-8 journal by my friend might help?-
This reply was modified 12 years, 5 months ago by
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I think it’s rather pointless in this case anyways. If the topic is introduced in the question, the listener will never repeat the topic.
ie)
犬が好きですか？
はい、好きです。
いいえ、嫌いです。These will be the most likely answers.
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This topic was modified 12 years, 5 months ago by
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