Japanese Particles Practice Test (Part 1) - Comparing wa and ga

Comparing wa and ga

(This lesson is modified from an article written by Paul_b at TheJapanesePage)

The topic particle は wa can easily be confused with the subject particle が ga. That is because は wa overrides が ga.

In other words in a sentence, something can very easily be both the topic and the subject of that sentence. In such cases the が ga “disappears” and it looks like the は wa is acting as a subject marker.

Take this simple sentence:

わたしはクレイ です。
watashi wa kurei desu.
I am Clay.

[“I” (that is, the speaker, Clay) is the topic and now that this is known, it won’t be repeated unless the topic changes.]

What is the subject of the sentence? That’s right - “I” watashi is. But because “I” is also the topic, only the topic marker wa is used (no ga).

Now we’ll let Clay continue and say another sentence:

ねこがすき です。
neko ga suki desu.
(I) like cats.

[“cats” is the subject here. “I” is still the topic (although not spoken). He could have said “watashi wa neko ga suki desu.” but that is unnecessary because he has already established “watashi wa” as the topic in the previous sentence.]

🖌 NOTES:
❕If both are in a sentence, the wa is first.
❕If a word is both the subject and the topic of a sentence, use just wa.
❕The wa is written with a hiragana ha but pronounced as wa.