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+--- Thread: Teaching Wa and Ga (/thread-9265.html)
Teaching Wa and Ga - imabi - 2012-03-31
I got quite a bit of help in explaining the particles wa and ga. I'm just wondering if any of you guys would mention anything more. Of course, practice will only make perfect for the learner, but I really want to make sure that I have personally covered what is necessary for my students to understand. Thanks in advance.
Teaching Wa and Ga - Tori-kun - 2012-03-31
Magamo had explained it very well once, I recall, but cannot find the link unfortunately. Anyone?
Teaching Wa and Ga - imabi - 2012-03-31
I know Magamo did. I have already made sure to mention the points that were brought up then. I am leaning to more in Japanese sources on the matter. I am just wondering what things could be elaborated more and how.
Teaching Wa and Ga - syntoad - 2012-04-01
The best way to teach wa vs ga is to remember that there is no such thing as wa vs ga.
Wa stands alone as its own grammar point. Wa gives a topic to the sentence like saying "oh hey, about xxx, ....)
Ga contends with other particles like o and ni. Ga, ni and o, all link with the verb, ga is the thind performing an action, ni is the goal/target, and o is the object. Wa on the other hand does not have anything specific to do with the verb, rather it gives context to the entire sentence.
There are occasions where wa and ga are interchangable and the only real difference is that ga brings more focus to the thing it is attached.
Example.
Tanaka wa keeki o tabemashita. (Hey about tanaka... he ate the cake)
Tanaka ga keeki o tabemashita. (Tanaka (specifically) ate the cake)
Tanaka wa keeki (no tame) ni tabemashita. (Tanaka ate for the cake)
Tanaka wa keeki ga tabemashita. (Hey, about tanaka... the cake ate him. Oh no!)
At least this is my understanding of it. People always seem to be hung up on when to use wa and ga because they are taught as being so similar, when really they have completely different functions in my mind.
Teaching Wa and Ga - sikieiki - 2012-04-01
syntoad Wrote:The best way to teach wa vs ga is to remember that there is no such thing as wa vs ga.Due to the fact that you stated where wa and ga are interchangeable which makes a subtle difference in meaning, it is often the case where a learner sees wa where ga was expected, or vice versa, causing confusion and many overly large explanations of the matter.
Wa stands alone as its own grammar point. Wa gives a topic to the sentence like saying "oh hey, about xxx, ....)
Ga contends with other particles like o and ni. Ga, ni and o, all link with the verb, ga is the thind performing an action, ni is the goal/target, and o is the object. Wa on the other hand does not have anything specific to do with the verb, rather it gives context to the entire sentence.
There are occasions where wa and ga are interchangable and the only real difference is that ga brings more focus to the thing it is attached.
Example.
Tanaka wa keeki o tabemashita. (Hey about tanaka... he ate the cake)
Tanaka ga keeki o tabemashita. (Tanaka (specifically) ate the cake)
Tanaka wa keeki (no tame) ni tabemashita. (Tanaka ate for the cake)
Tanaka wa keeki ga tabemashita. (Hey, about tanaka... the cake ate him. Oh no!)
At least this is my understanding of it. People always seem to be hung up on when to use wa and ga because they are taught as being so similar, when really they have completely different functions in my mind.
彼の背は低い
彼は背は低い
彼は背が低い
As far as I know, the above phrases are gramatically correct and frequently used according to google. In the end, they pretty much mean the same thing. Because of this, its difficult to nail down particles because it seems at times that their usage is arbitrary. I wont even mention particle omission, which makes learning Japanese all the more absurd.
Teaching Wa and Ga - nadiatims - 2012-04-01
I think one problem may that when people initially start learning and grammar patterns are taught via sentence pairs, they see something like:
私は田中と申します
I am called Tanaka
And make the connection は marks the thing doing the action (which often is the case semantically). The teacher may say something like は is the topic marker, but unless they take the time to explain what that even means it's probably not all that useful.
Then later on が is introduced and they suddenly think what the heck? which one do I use? But really they were misunderstanding は all along, and it's not really a matter of choosing between the two of them. They serve different roles syntactically and semantically.
Teaching Wa and Ga - callmedodge - 2012-04-15
I was under the impression, and I learned this from a native Japanese speaker in Japan, that in the cases where wa and ga are interchangable, you use wa to put more emphasis on the topic. Direct translations are difficult at the best of times and it`s best to try not think of either wa or ga producing a certain meaning.
That`s just what I`ve been told and have noticed through living in Tokyo anyway.
Teaching Wa and Ga - nadiatims - 2012-04-16
Actually I think the usual explanation is that が emphasizes the thing before it and は emphasizes the predicate more. Is that what you're talking about? That explanation is nonsense of course..
Teaching Wa and Ga - Tzadeck - 2012-04-16
nadiatims Wrote:That explanation is nonsense of course..Err, no. It's a simplification, like all explanations of complex concepts, but it's a very useful simplification.
(Jay Rubin and Eleanor Harz Jorden both seem to find it to be a useful enough explanation to mention it)
Teaching Wa and Ga - chamcham - 2012-04-16
I have a japanese friend that wrote his master's thesis on "Wa vs. Ga".
So, even for native speakers, it is not an easy question to answer.
The best explanation of "Wa vs. Ga" that i've ever seen is in "Making Sense of Japanese" by Jay Rubin. It is 20 pages and really eye-opening.
Teaching Wa and Ga - callmedodge - 2012-04-16
chamcham Wrote:I have a japanese friend that wrote his master's thesis on "Wa vs. Ga".Thanks for mentioning that book. It`s just jumped to the top of my must-have list. Cheers!
So, even for native speakers, it is not an easy question to answer.
The best explanation of "Wa vs. Ga" that i've ever seen is in "Making Sense of Japanese" by Jay Rubin. It is 20 pages and really eye-opening.
Teaching Wa and Ga - vix86 - 2012-04-16
I don't suppose anyone actually has a link to the post where magamo went over は・が？
Teaching Wa and Ga - imabi - 2012-04-16
I believe I have decided on what and what not to address and how. Thank you all for trying to add in more advice. I have tried to make sure I have not missed anything.
Teaching Wa and Ga - Onelove_yo - 2012-04-16
imabi Wrote:I believe I have decided on what and what not to address and how. Thank you all for trying to add in more advice. I have tried to make sure I have not missed anything.http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=3254
That one?