WA and GA: the Deeper Secrets! The yin-yang structure of Japanese | Lesson 61

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[TheOLENISHOW]

Dolly - " I know you never watch anything with english subtitles"
Me -*literally has the subtitles on in that moment*

[littlefishbigmountain]

The day after watching this I encountered this dialogue in an anime:

「すごかった！」

「何がすごかったの？」

「とにかくすごかったの！」

Obviously (or maybe not so obviously being taken so out of context), this was a joke that the person was dodging the question. In any case, it’s a really straightforward example of this lesson in action:

“It was amazing!”

“ _What_ was amazing?”

“Anyway, it was amazing!”

Or something like that. It’s probably not a great translation, but I’m not particularly concerned with that. The point is, the question was emphasizing an inquiry into the zero subject of the sentence before, and in order to place that emphasis on _what_ exactly was being described the speaker used が in their question


Anyway, I just love it when I encounter such a nice example of something I just learned “in the wild” so shortly after. It’s quite satisfying, and really helps the information take root

Thanks for the great lesson as always :-)
I kinda watch these videos in a bit of a weird order, but they’re incredible!! There’s nothing like it anywhere else as far as I can tell, and I often recommend your channel to anyone I talk about learning Japanese with for that very reason. You truly deserve more of a following, and I believe it’s gonna happen slowly but surely. I’m just trying to do my part to help that happen 😁 (and help the Japanese learning community as much as possible by showing them this incredible resource)

Even though I admit I’ll be a little sad when the channel gets too big to answer many questions in the comments.. Especially because it’s not only interesting and engaging, but it’s often almost as informative as the videos themselves, depending on the questions!

[konstiyo]

Another episode of going down the wa ga hole. :)
thank you for the content

[arpitkumar]

Wow! This is the clearest explanation of the difference between は and が. The emphasis part did it for me

[supechube_k]

so helpful!! i was confused about the usage of wa and ga and this just made everything make sense!! keep up with the good work!!

[johncameron]

I like the concept you brought up with old and new information and how it changes throughout the sentence structure. This does help with understanding the nuance difference between two particles. And also the understanding of Zero wa and Zero Ga in sentences that are meant to be short for brevity sake.

[ringomomoiro]

I love this channel so much! Thank you for all the hardwork 😍... You made my learning so much more interesting ❣️ 😊♥️

[labdiet]

The book and the rain examples seem to be contradicting each other.
私は本を --> I bought the book (not something else)
私が本を --> I bought the book (not someone else)
However,
雨は降っている puts emphasis on rain (as opposed to snow or something).
Am I missing something?

[Jeho-vbiw]

I loved the way you said "iguana" ⸜(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝♡

[alex_blue]

I've seen this before but I forgot about Melfrog Pooftofular >.<

[ghettostreetboy]

I ordered your book "Unlocking Japanese" and I wanted to know what you think of your book now that it's already a few years old. Does the book actually provide a lot of information that isn't in any of your videos? I mainly bought it to have your information available in a more structured format that I can easily look up and of course to support you. Thank you.

[markomedia]

This lesson (61) and the next (62) are not included in the playlist for the course. Picking up your metaphor for は and が as the king and the queen, one half and the other... you can't keep them apart forever, even if it is sometimes better for the sake of the realm (my metaphor for playlist 😁)
Even if they argue a lot, they have to rule together, or chaos will devour the world 😆😉

[TyrantRC]

Hey there Dolly-sensei, I have a few questions, I hope you can help me with some of them...

In the case of Akira-senpai saying「お前みたいな半人前に、休みは → ない」(1) besides the stress that's being done on the negative, can the listener assume that she's implying that there are other things?- like more practice and training? Because I feel like there is a very faint difference between saying that in Japanese and saying in English "for trainees like you there are no rests".

In the English sentence, I feel like she's implying that until the listener becomes a full-fledge undine the listener will not rest. While in the Japanese I have a feeling that is as I described (no rest but more work), but I have no confirmation on that. So again, I know there are not really good ways to directly translate from one language to another one, but in this case (2) don't you think "trainees like you have no rest" is a better translation?- I'm probably just nitpicking but I'm wondering what do you think.

---
In the same manner, for a sentence like「イグアナに餌をやった」"I fed the Iguana", since this is an action where you use を、If you were to use は as in「イグアナに餌【は』やった」、(3) will the speaker be stressing the action「やった」?- like if the action was exciting or important (I imagine a kid saying this)... and since there are no more expectations about what other things can this kid give to the Iguana, there is probably no contrast and one can assume he's not trying to be explicit about specifically giving the Iguana food.

Again with the same example, if I say instead「イグアナ『には』餌『を』やった」(4) Is that understood as "(I) fed the iguana(in contrast to other animals I could be feeding)"?-, and (5) I'm also wondering how would a speaker naturally express that he "fed the Iguana" to someone that doesn't know he has an Iguana (while also being conscious that the listener doesn't know this)?-.

---
I think I can summarize my general doubt as (6) is there any relation between making a contrast and stressing the non-topic part of a clause when using は? or is it better to see this as two different separate functions of は?

---
I know this is a very long text but I tried to format it in a way that is easy to read, feel free to answer some of the «6» questions I made instead of everything. And thank you again for your video. <3

[wizokuro]

Hi Dolly,

I've read and watched your explanation of "wa" vs "ga" in your book and in your video, where you used the うなぎ example to illustrate the difference between those particles. However, (let's use the same うなぎ example), if the waiter comes back with the うなぎ dish and asks "who ordered うなぎ？" by saying 「うなぎはどちらの方ですか？」、then I can reply with 「私がうなぎです」 which implies 「私が注文しました」。

According to your explanation from the book and from the video, 「私がうなぎです」should literally mean "I am an eel". However, that's not the case here. Would you mind explaining what's going on here?

[monx]

Voice at 13:55 suddenly sounded non-robotic

[akkimylo]

I'm sorry if you've mentioned this before in a previous video. I'm having a little trouble understanding the concept of "logical" and "non-logical" structures, as you describe them. Watching a video of yours a few months ago I somehow got the idea that non-logical means you could replace は with a different, logical particle for the sentence to have the same meaning but I don't think that's true at all (I can't see how I'd replace は inモニカさんはコーヒーが好きだ). It'd be very grateful if you could clear that conclusion or point me to a video of yours that explains it. That confusion aside, is that "throwing the emphasis forward" function of は the reason I hear very often people saying 悪くはない instead of 悪くない? I understand what they mean but I've never seen a book explain this usage. Does は after adverbs simply emphasize the verb they modify? Does that change the grammatical structure of the sentence at all? Thanks again for your content!

[Knight-Cyberia]

Hi Dolly-sensei. Again I've something that is making me crazy, I've found this lines in an anime and I can't understant why they are writted like that
あなたに私は撃てないわ
あなたに私は殺せない



those lines were said by the villian to the mc; I never use english translations, except for this times when something is bizarre like this; the english translation is

"you can't hit me"
"you can't kill me"


I watched 2 of your videos about the "に" particle and, until now, it made sense as an "objective particle", I always use your example of "私がさくらにボールを投げる", but in that lines don't fit with that logic, either with the translation... I think.


If you want more context those lines come from the anime "yurikuma arashi" - episode 3, minute 16:40


Thank you in advice.

[zamyrabyrd]

Google Translate gives two versions of "I fed the iguana" and "the iguana was fed by me". The 2nd uses 'wa"!

[colinleamy]

My only problem with these videos is the digitized voice. I'm not sure if you are using a voice changer or if it is your mic but it is often quite off putting and distracting and sometimes causes me to have difficulty understanding you. Relatability is key to subscriber growth and views and in my opinion the voice issue is the only thing holding back your potential but that is just my 2 cents.
However aside from that, these videos are perfect and you deserve so many more subscribers.

[supechube_k]

so does は exist in every sentence like が?