From my notes
(this was made for myself, so there will be parts missing and so on, since it is only what I found hard that I have written down)

を is used to refer to the object / thing we’re doing an action to. For example: Wash the car. Eat food. Drink soda. The “direct object” are the bolded words. We’re doing things to them, using the verbs.

The particle に is used to indicate the indirect object (i.e. who, what, or where an object is directed to). For example, in the sentence “give a present to Sandra” we are indicating that the present is going to Sandra.
The particle に is used with verbs that are associated with motion, places, dates, times, as well as indicate what an object is directed to

Particel の shows possesion
ex
あんどう の　もり ＝　Mr. Ando’s Woods
もり の　あんどう ＝　Mr. Ando of the Woods / Woods’ Mr. Ando

は/が
Mean is/are/am (depending on the tense)
がemphasizes what come before it!!
ex:
しごとがすきです
この　くるま　が　ほしい　です

はemphasizes what comes after it!!
かれ　は　にほんじん　かしら？

Hope that helped

• This reply was modified 13 years ago by  マーク・ウェーバー.

Check out this great PDF: http://www.tofugu.com/2009/03/25/japanese-particles-cheatsheet/

“all the particles”: Which particles do you mean by that? Just は、が、に、も、を、と and で? Or *every* particle in existance, including から、や、とか、ばかり、のに、etc…?
Should the teacher not be *teaching* you them throughout the course, rather than giving you one weekend to learn them all (the big ones at least)? Sounds a terrible course.

が is also used with intransitive verbs (“indirect action verbs”) – まど が しまりました (the window closed) as opposed to まど を しめます (I/he/she closed the window). は and が are tricky to get your head around, but it all comes through practice and experience.

Similar to an example from Tae Kim’s Guide (for “mo”):
トム：わたし は がくせい です。- I am a student.
メーリ：わたし も がくせい です。- I am a student too.
You can even just say わたし も to mean “Yeah, me too.”

に/へ are used to going to places, though に can also be used with times like you said. に is going somewhere with purpose whereas へ is more “going in that general direction”. Not terribly important which is used; people sometimes use them according to preference, so you will be understood.

Think of はas meaning “As for [blank], I have these things to say about it.”

An example of を…
すし を たべます – Eat sushi
ビール を のみます – Drink beer
こうえん を あるきます – Walk through the park (You’d think “to walk” would take に because it’s a motion verb, but in this case it doesn’t. Maybe it only takes を in general, I’m not actually sure)
ドア を しめます – Close door
おまえ を ころします！！！ – Kill you!! (Though I doubt you’d be so formal as to use ます form; you’d maybe say something like ころすぞ！！haha)

Just using ます form with spaces and no kanji here cause I’m assuming you haven’t learned plain form yet (and that kanji probably scare you :P).

You can’t “memorise” particles; you just have to know how to use them. If you’re asked “What does は mean?” and all you can say is the answer you’ve memorised – “Is” or something – then that doesn’t represent your understanding at all. Sounds a terrible course if I’m honest XD (After reading this back and going to edit it, I realised I already said that at the top :P)

EDIT: Bear in mind also that most (if not all of) the particles you’re asking about have plenty of other meanings too, but I’m assuming what I’ve mentioned here are the most basic uses. が can mean “but”, も can mean “as much as”, etc. You’ll learn those other meanings soon enough, though :)

Maybe I should scrap my Computer Science degree and just teach Japanese instead… I actually quite enjoyed typing this! :D Raise a generation of students that don’t even know the meaning of the word “romaji” >:D

• This reply was modified 13 years ago by  MisterM2402 [Michael].
• This reply was modified 13 years ago by  MisterM2402 [Michael].

Get learning your kana then!! I only typed two katakana words, which the meaning, at least, can be guessed from the translation. Take ドア を しめます for example: ドア is written in katakana, but since it comes before the を and the object in the translation is “door”, you should be able to guess it means door! XD Or use a dictionary…

If you are learning more than “wa” and “ga”, then you are obviously not a complete beginner, so I’m not sure why you can’t read what I wrote…? I wrote those sentences how TextFugu writes them! :D

No no no: when I said “kana” I really meant just “hiragana” haha. 99% of the Japanese I wrote was in hiragana, and you said you couldn’t read it, so I was saying that you should study more! :D Katakana *is* pretty useful, but it’s probably not essential for you just yet.

I should really have split up the first two sentences, to make it clearer what I meant.

• This reply was modified 13 years ago by  MisterM2402 [Michael].