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Chapter 2

The topic particle

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は

The topic particle

The topic particle (は) marks the topic of the sentence.

It uses the ‘は’ (ha) hiragana, but is pronounced ‘wa’. This and the ‘exceptions’ are the only time you’ll see ‘は’ pronounced as ‘wa’.

  • Good day: こんにちは = konnichiwa

    Good evening: こんばんは = konbanwa

    Equals: は = wa

But first…What is a particle?

Particles are small words that indicate relations of words within a sentence. Most Japanese learners are not fond of their particles.
We have them in English too, such as ‘I go to the shop’ or ‘I go in the shop’. However, Japanese has a few extra particles we don’t have, which is why you might find them difficult! They also don’t use the ones  English does have in the exact same way!

Let’s look at an example:

Watashi wa gakusei desu.

I am a student.

The ‘は’ particle is placed directly after the topic, marking what came before as ‘the topic’. This particle says‘hey, this part of the sentence is the topic’.

Context and translation :

  • Few languages use this particle.

    Japanese and Korean are most known for it, and some languages such as Mongolian have similar grammatical features.

  • In short…

    …it’s a new concept to many Japanese learners.

  • One of the difficulties of the topic particle…

    …is that it doesn’t have an English translation.

  • This leaves you with 2 options…

    … detailed below!

  • Note:

    Do not get into the habit of translating ‘は’to ‘is’. It won’t work.

    ‘です’ is ‘is’.

1 Your first option is to practice and get good at identifying the topic of a sentence. This is also probably the best way, as it means you have a better understanding of Japanese sentence structure.
2 Many people struggle with ‘は’, and therefore lots of methods to make it easier have been thought up! The one I recommend is thinking of ‘は’ as ‘as for’.
With this method, anything before the は particle is translated as 'as for'.
kanojo wa gakusei desu.
Lit: As for her, is student.

Note: Japanese doesn’t use ‘a’ or ‘the’.

Identify the topic of the following sentences:

おめでとう

Did I mention? ‘は’ and ‘です’will appear in future lessons solely in hiragana!