Lol Japanese has always piqued my interest... So I've always been confused with the particles は and が and their usages... I've read a lot of explanations and such but I just never understand it and which one to use in different sentences and situations. Like one of them is a subject marker and another one is a topic marker but I seriously have no idea what their differences are. Help anyone?

Particles can sometimes be lifesavers in Japanese grammar but sometimes, they can just be the opposite...

Oh yes, thanks Jigoku for the constant informative updates and such~

ichiruki! wrote:Lol Japanese has always piqued my interest... So I've always been confused with the particles は and が and their usages... I've read a lot of explanations and such but I just never understand it and which one to use in different sentences and situations. Like one of them is a subject marker and another one is a topic marker but I seriously have no idea what their differences are. Help anyone?

Here you go, though it's not much but I think this could help you:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topic_marker
If it's not, I'm gonna give some sentence for example:
むかしはギターがひけませんでした。Mukashi wa gitaーga hikemasen deshita.
In the old days, (I) couldn't play guitar.
いまはギターがひけます。Ima wa gitaーga dekimasu.
Now (I ) can play guitar.

As you seen on above sentence the subject (guitar) isn't changed. While the topic (time) is changed from old days to now. The 'は'(wa) refer to the topic (topic marker), while 'が'(ga) is refer to the guitar (subject marker). See the differences?
More examples:
わたしはインドネシア語ができます。Watashi wa Indonesia-go ga dekimasu.
I can speak Indonesian.
かれはインドネシア語ができません。Kare wa Indonesia-go ga dekimasen.
He can't speak Indonesian.

Well, actually there are more that we could dig from this particles. But I hope this one could help you.

Oh I see! After your clear explanation, I did a bit more research which pretty much cleared the last part of my confusion. Thanks, jigoku! http://japanese.about.com/library/weekly/aa051301a.htm was the site that helped me too. :3

Which brings me to my next particle-related question; を and its uses... I'm asking a lot of questions but I hope you don't mind~

Particle を (wo) usually placed after a noun and followed by a verb.
The pattern usually goes like this : noun +wo+verb.

Particle wo used as a direct object marker. Of course, the noun is the direct object.
Example:
かばんをもちます。 Kaban wo mochimasu. Carrying bag.
ほんをよみます. Hon wo yomimasu. Reading book.
おんがくをききます。Ongaku wo kikimasu. Listening music.

Particle wo also can be used to define occupation/job. But, the verbs used on this case is している/います(shite iru/imasu).
Example:
あにはいしゃをしている/います。Ani wa isha wo shite iru/imasu. My brother is a doctor.
トニーさんはうんてんしゅをしている/います。Toni-san wa untenshu wo shite iru/imasu.
Tony is a driver.

Particle wo is also can be used when you're leaving/off from certain places.
いえをでます。Ie wo demasu. Leaving (from) house.
バスをおります。Basu wo orimasu. Get off from the bus.
がっこうをそつぎょうします。Gakkou wo sotsugyou shimasu Graduate from school.

And it's also can be used to indicate movement, such as:
まいあさ、バスはうちのまえをとおります. Mai asa, basu wa uchi no mae wo toorimasu.
Every morning, the bus passing by in front of my house.
ひこうきはそらをとびます。Hikouki wa sora wo tobimasu. The plane is flying in the sky.

For more details, you can check it out in here: http://japanese.about.com/od/grammarlessons/a/Particle-O-And-No.htm

And sorry for late reply, I was very hype about Osaka Jou-Hall live and somehow forgot about this..

Konnichiwa, minna-san!! (Is that correct?)

Watashi wa koolkat96 desu. Doozo Yoroshiku Onegaishimas.

^^^Is that right>

Aaaah learning japanese, on my to-do list since so many years... One day maybe

I know some words obviously from watching animes and listening to japan music but not more.

Has anyone started from zero and learned it online with the help of some free sites ?

@HaRuRiNaMaMiToMo
that's what I'm doing when I have enough time. I found a great french website to learn and also here with the great exercices of jigoku79. I'm beginner for now

darksider59 wrote:@HaRuRiNaMaMiToMo
that's what I'm doing when I have enough time. I found a great french website to learn and also here with the great exercices of jigoku79. I'm beginner for now

What is this great site if i may ask ?

Yeah Yeah we don't have particules in France so it's hard to learn something new ^^'

I'm just 14 years old, so I think that if I start now to learn Japanese when I'll be able to go there I'll also be able to speak easily ! (but the problem is that i totally don't have the time T-T)

By the way, for HaRuRiNaMaMiToMo, me I use this website : http://www.ici-japon.com/apprendre-le-japonais it's very easy to understand :D

I was asking... Does a verb like "do" in Japanese exist ? Or we must modify the sentence ?

For exemple, how can you translate :

"I'm doing this again"

"Are you doing what I told you before ?"

Simple curiosity, but it also can be very useful ^^

jigoku79 will help you more than me but I think you can translate "to do" by "suru" in japanese but it depends on the context of your sentence.

I'll translate "I'm doing this again" by "mou ikkai shite imasu"
I'm still studying japanese so maybe i'm wrong

Hehe, I'm using this website "ici japon". It's really well explained.

Hi guys, long time no see.
Well then , let's step into next one, demonstrative prounouns such as: kore/kono/kochira, sore/sono/sochira, are/ano/achira.
You can use this pronouns for pointing something.
kore/kono/kochira　これ・この・こちら: refer to thing that close to the speaker.(this)
sore/sono/sochira　それ・その。そちら: refer to thing that close to listener.(that)
are/ano/achira　あれ・あの・あちら: refer to thing that a bit far from both of speaker and listener. (that one over there)

Kochira/sochira/achira can be used to indicate direction or to introduce a person.
Kono/sono/ano usually followed by a noun.

これ・それ・あれはわたしのほんです。Kore/sore/are wa watashi no hon desu.
This/That/That (thing) over there is my book.

この・その・あの ほんはあかいです。Kono/sono/ano hon wa akai desu.
This book/That book/That book over there is red.

こちら・そちら・あちらはあきはばらへいくみちです。Kochira/sochira/achira wa Akihabara e iku michi desu.
This/That/Over there is the road to (go to) Akihabara.

It goes the same too if u use koko/soko/asoko. But koko/soko/asoko most likely used to indicate places.
ここ・そこ・あそこはとしょかんです。Koko/soko/asoko wa toshokan desu.
This (place)/That (place)/That (place) over there is library.
==============================================================
The interrogative form for:
Kore/sore/are -> Dore
e.g.:あなたのほんはどれですか。Anata no hon wa dore desuka? Which book is yours?

Kono/sono/ano -> Dono
e.g.:どのほんがあかいですか。Dono hon ga akai desuka? Which book is red ?
*Instead of 'wa', 'ga' is used in here to identify the noun (book, the red one)

Kochira/sochira/achira -> Dochira
e.g.: あきはばらへいくみちはどちらですか。Akihabara e iku michi wa dochira desuka?
Which road that goes to Akihabara?

Koko/soko/asoko --> Doko
としょかんはどこですか。Toshokan wa doko desuka.
Where is the library?
==============================================================
Next, it's still bit related to demonstrative pronouns.
に(ni), なにが(nani ga), and なにか(nani ka).

つくえのうえになにかありますか。Tsukue no ue ni nanika arimasuka?
Is there something (up) on the table?
The proper answer would be :
(+)はい、あります。Hai, arimasu.Yes, there is.
(-)いいえ、ありません。Iie, arimasen. No, there isn't.

つくえのうえになにがありますか。Tsukue no ue ni nani ga arimasuka?
What is there (up) on the table?
The proper answer would be :
e.g:
つくえのうえにりんごがあります。Tsukue no ue ni ringo ga arimasu.
There is an apple (up) on the table.

As you can see on above sentences, the uses of 'ni'(on/in) is to indicate location.
'nani ka' means 'something', and 'nani ga' asking for further details, which is means 'what is/was it?'.
===============================================================
Below are sentences that also related to demonstrative pronouns and using 'donata'(the polite version of 'dare') which means 'who'.

あそこにおとこのひととおんなのひとがいます。Asoko ni otoko no hito to onna no hito ga imasu.
There are man and woman over there.
あそこにどなたがいますか。Asoko ni donata ga imasu ka.
Who's that over there?
まみーさんとじごくーさんがいます。Mami-san to Jigoku-san ga imasu.
They are Mami-san and Jigoku-san.　
どのひとがまみーさんですか。Dono hito ga Mami-san desuka.
Which one is Mami-san?
あそこのおんなのひとはまみーさんです。Asoko no onna no hito wa Mami-san desu.
That woman over there is Mami-san.

Note : For human and living things, you should use 'imasu', and for non-living things 'arimasu' should be used.

thanks for this .. i'll start studying

Arigato Leyh/darksider59 for the site, it looks great and well explained, i just started lesson 1. The romaji part is actually easy but i have a huge problem with the hiragana i don't know any of them so i will have to learn them all and i found that difficult
Especially when the whole sentence is in hiragana I just feel like it's impossible to know all, and then there are the katakana and the kanji... It seems you have to learn everything, it would be hard to just learn the romaji part.

Anyways time to study i'm sure it will be ok

Thanks jigoku for this lesson

And I love the sentence:

まみーさんとじごくーさんがいます。Mami-san to Jigoku-san ga imasu.
They are Mami-san and Jigoku-san.

Hi everybody

So I have a question about how to form a certain sentence.
I know how to form comparative/superlative form ("Tokyo is bigger than Osaka","He's the best guitarist" ...) but how do you do if you want to say "There are more cats than dogs here" ?
In fact I just want to know how to form comparative/superlative sentence without adjective .sweat.
Is "猫は犬よりここにあります"(Neko wa inu yori koko ni arimasu) correct ?

Spoiler:

@babaloued
Well, you'll still need adjective to form that sentence. Because the adjective emphasize the comparison between both of the objects, whether its larger, smaller, cuter, etc.
The correct sentence for above sentence would be goes like this:
ここには犬より猫のほうが多いです。Koko ni wa inu yori neko no hou ga ooi desu.
There are more cats than dogs in here.

@jigoku79

Oh I see
So if I want to translate:
There are more fried foods in Japanese cooking than French cooking.

It goes:
揚げ物はフランスの料理より日本の料理の方が多いです。Agemono wa furansu no ryouri yori nihon no ryouri no hou ga ooi desu.

For Android users, I recommend to Download Obenkyo :3

Thanks for the lessons jigoku! I’ll write it in my notes!!

babaloued wrote:There are more fried foods in Japanese cooking than French cooking.
It goes:
揚げ物はフランスの料理より日本の料理の方が多いです。Agemono wa furansu no ryouri yori nihon no ryouri no hou ga ooi desu.

Yup, that's correct too. But you can make it like this too: 揚げ物料理はフランスのより日本のほうが多いです。Agemono ryouri wa furansu no yori nihon no hou ga ooi desu. And 'No' on above sentence is refer to agemono ryouri. ..
@yhanika @xTimoMamix : you're welcome!

Small question: is it necessary to add "~ no hito" when mentioning "otoko/onna" in a sentence?

I've heard a lot of people in the movies just say "ano otoko/onna" and I thought otoko/onna is not just gender indicator, it's "human" gender indicator. Isn't it? Or is it just a matter of politeness actually?

Medios wrote:Small question: is it necessary to add "~ no hito" when mentioning "otoko/onna" in a sentence?

I've heard a lot of people in the movies just say "ano otoko/onna" and I thought otoko/onna is not just gender indicator, it's "human" gender indicator. Isn't it? Or is it just a matter of politeness actually?

Hmm, I'd say no, it's not necessary to add '~hito' on 'otoko/onna'. According to books, yup, sometimes it's necessary to add those but it depends on the context of the sentence.
Example:
A: 赤ちゃんはもう生まれましたか。Akachan wa mou umaremashitaka. Your baby is already born?
B: はい、もう生まれました。Hai, mou umaremashita. Yes, already born.
A: 男か女のか。Otoko ka onna no ka. Is it boy or girl?
B: 男です。Otoko desu. A boy.
On above sentence it's clearly seen that B no need to add '~hito' on his/her answer.

For human gender indicator, 女性(josei): female, 男性(dansei): male, are often used. In Japanese, although the gender of animals is often ignored, but mostly they use 'otoko' or 'onna' for that. So, otoko/onna are not definite human gender indicator.
Hope it helps..

It sure does. Thank you. v^^

jigoku79 wrote:For human gender indicator, 女性(josei): female, 男性(male) are often used.

By the way, did you mean "dansei" for male?

Medios wrote:It sure does. Thank you.

jigoku79 wrote:For human gender indicator, 女性(josei): female, 男性(dansei): male, are often used.

By the way, did you mean "dansei" for male?

Yup, I forgot to write it down..

tofu may i ask something, would you give hiragana alphabet to me? thanks. i like this forum