Introduction to Japanese Study - 日本語学習入門

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33 "Ga" is another particle besides "wa" that marks the subject. Regarding sentence (a), you can use "ga" instead of "wa" as in the following sentence (1). I will indicate (a) again as sentence (2). (1)Tanakasan ga ocha o nomimashita. (Tanaka drank tea.)(2)Tanakasan wa ocha o nomimashita. (Tanaka drank tea.)Both sentences are translated the same way in English or Chinese. Consequently, many non-native speakers find it difficult to distinguish the slight difference between (1) and (2), or in other words the difference of "wa" and "ga". However, by analyzing it from the linguistics point of view, the difference of "wa" and "ga" is very clear. To explain this, I will add another sentence below. (3)Ocha wa Tanakasan ga nomimashita. (Tanaka drank tea.)Let me explain sentence (3) briefly. (3) is telling the same fact as sentence (1) and (2), "Tanaka drank tea". "Ocha" is the object and "Tanakasan" is the subject. In (3), "wa" follows the object "ocha" and "ga" follows the subject "Tanakasan". You can now see that "wa" is not a subject marker. Then what is the function of "wa"? (1), (2) and (3) all tell the same fact, but how they it is told is different. "Wa" is related to this difference (whether there is "wa" or not, and which noun is followed by "wa"). Three different sentences telling the same fact