This topic contains 966 replies, has 85 voices, and was last updated by 
-
Posts
-
Honestly, everything about his explanation of は and が is confusing, but what’s most confusing is the way he uses “subject” and “topic” interchangeably. Short story: the topic (marked by は) is what the sentence is about, while the subject (marked by が) is the doer of the verb. Often the topic and the subject are the same agent, in which case the は supplants the が.
Sooo… that probably hasn’t helped at all. Basically in a sentence of the form “The A is B” you’re going to use は. If A is a question word, or you don’t think your listener knows what A you’re talking about, you use が, since neither can function as the topic.
*shakes fist at は and が*
i’m reading a children’s book called “おばけ がっこう” and ran across a sentence i can’t quite translate. What does this sentence mean? 「どこを とおって いけば いいのかな？」.
And does いけば mean “if i go”?
thanksThat’s the downside of kids’ books: lack of kanji can sometimes obscure meaning. I’m kinda thinking “Where can I go now, I wonder?”
Context could help…
Thanks, Joel. I think your translation makes sense. Here’s some of the other sentences just previous to this one if it helps with context.
「さ、はやく はやく。」おばけたちが せかします。みんなで ふかい もりを とおって がっこうに むかって いきます。
どこを とおって いけば いいのかな？Yep. Mind you, realised I made a poor choice of words – that should be “should” rather than “can”. The ～ばいい construction basically means “it’d be good if I did X”, or, more fluidly, “should do X”.
通って行く means “go through”.
thanks again, Joel.
And good luck with your JLPT test!Honestly, everything about his explanation of は and が is confusing, but what’s most confusing is the way he uses “subject” and “topic” interchangeably. Short story: the topic (marked by は) is what the sentence is about, while the subject (marked by が) is the doer of the verb. Often the topic and the subject are the same agent, in which case the は supplants the が.
大人 は しお が 大すき です。
This doesn’t seem to jive with that, as obviously salt is not the doer in this sentence…
If I were trying to translate this as directly as possible I come up with:
As for adults, salt is really liked (by them).
I think this might be confusing because in the English sentence:
Adults really like salt. (A more natural translation)
The verb is like.
Where is in the Japanese sentence it works as an adjective.
So does that mean that it uses が because です is acting as the verb, so salt is the doer of the verb, basically by existing in the form of “is”? (If you can follow that)
Yeah, the AはBがC is an extremely common structure in Japanese. This is probably going to confuse matters further, but the grammar dictionary’s explanation is “In this construction, C usually expresses something about B, and BがC expresses something about A”. It adds that there’s three main categories where it’s used:
1. A is human, and BがC expresses A’s physical or mental state – for example, 大人は塩が大好きです
2. B is part of A, and C expresses something about B which, in turn, expresses something about A – for example, 花子は目がきれいです
3. B is a member of A, and C expresses something about B – for example, 辞書はウェブスターがいいですThere’s also a page of verbs and adjectives that basically require the AはBがC structure – 好き is one of them.
The dictionary’s full-on grammarese explanation is A = topic (= subject 1), and BがC is the predicate of that subject. Then within that predicate, B = subject 2, and C is the predicate of that subject.
I’ll have to work that out when I’ve had more sleep, but thanks for the response. ^_^
Best way to learn the difference is probably to just read lots of Japanese and see how they use it. I’m sure over time you’ll get used to the way it works, as if by magic :D
Suspect we’re getting into usage a bit here, but: been playing 二ノ国 in Japanese on my DS (such a good game – and, surprisingly, quite helpful for JLPT study) and I’ve noticed something: some of the NPCs call my character お前, others use おまえ, while still others say オマエ. I’m thinking it’s meant to express different levels of politeness, but isn’t that kinda subtle? How would that even be noticeable when spoken?
There’s also a bit of 君/キミ and あんた/アンタ going on too.
Hey,I’m wondering if anyone knows what “げーのー人” means?
I was playing クマトモ (A really cute game 3DS game where your goal is to become best friends with a teddy bear. Sounds strange, but I assure, it’s such a lovable game) last night, and the teddy bear asked me who my favorite げーのー人 was.From the context… I think it’s like a proformer? Or someone famous? I tried looking it up, but wasn’t able to find it in a dictionary. I dunno, I’d just like to know the real definition. Hopefully I’m on the right track. （・□・；）
芸能人 (げいのうじん)
The use of the katakana long-vowell marks in hiragana is some sort of affectation or linguistic pun, the specifics of which I’ve never been exactly certain, but yeah, that’s what it is. =)
i think it means performer. the kanji = 芸能人
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.