Wa and Ga

Wa and ga seem to do nearly the same thing. They mark the subject of a sentence, right? So what's the deal?

Some students get the mistaken impression that ga is like a secondary wa: you can only use one wa in a sentence, so if you want another one, you use ga. This is incorrect. You may use wa more than once in a single sentence, and you might not use ga at all! Are you baffled?

It doesn't have to be this way. This article should help make the difference clear to you.

It all comes down to emphasis. In English, we tend to emphasize using voice inflection--the grammar doesn't change much. But in Japanese, they make it clear what's being emphasized by their discrimination between wa and ga.

Let's look at an example sentence. I'll read the newspaper.
This sentence is pretty flat. The speaker is just making a plain old statement. It's not really supposed to move anyone.

But what if, instead, he says, I'll read the newspaper ?
Now, we get a little emotion in the sentence. The speaker is making it clear that he, and no one else, is going to read that paper. (Don't mind my use of the masculine pronoun--my next example speaker will be female.)

Or how about this sentence? I'll read the newspaper.
This time, the speaker is saying, "Look, I'm not going to eat it, or sit on it, or anything. I'm going to read it, okay?"

Well, this illustrates the difference between wa and ga. Let's look at the particles one at a time.

Wa

Wa happens in virtually every Japanese sentence. If your teacher was anything like mine, they probably translated wa to mean "as for." That's a pretty good translation, because it captures the real essence of the particle. Think about it: When you say, "As for me, I'll read the paper," you're throwing the emphasis onto the latter half of your sentence. You identify yourself as the doer, then you say, "Me? Yeah, I was going to read the paper." So wa marks the main topic of conversation, and then it says, "Now check out what I'm going to do." So whenever you see wa, you know that something exciting is about to happen.

Notice, too, that wa differentiates the topic it marks from other possible topics. "As for me, I'm going to read the paper." = "I don't know about Bob or Joe or Sally or Jenny, but as for me, I'm going to read the paper."

That's why there's always a little pause after the wa. It's to say, "Hey, we're not talking about these other possible topics--we're going to talk about me. And what I want to say about me is...." So in a wa sentence, the most important information is going to come in the second half of the sentence.

As you will see, this is the exact opposite of ga.

Ga

Ga marks the subject of a verb. In short sentences like Hi ga nobotta. (The sun rose), it simply says, "The word I just marked is the subject of this sentence. It's going to do the action."

Ga also tends to put supreme emphasis on the word it marks. It says, "All right, buddy. This word that I'm marking is in control. Focus your attention right there." If you say, "Watashi ga shinbun wo yomu," you're saying, "I'll read the newspaper."

At this point, I'd like to quote a portion of Jay Rubin's Making Sense of Japanese, an incredible book that deals with perennial problems that Japanese students deal with. See footnote.

Examples

Let's look at a few examples.
Denwa ga naru. The phone rings. This sentence sounds pretty natural.
Denwa wa naru. The phone? It rings. OR What the phone does is ring.

Notice that in the first sentence, ga is marking the subject of the sentence. The phone does the action. It rings. No problem.

In the second sentence, our speaker has decided to make sure that we know we're talking about phones now, and then she gives us some new information about them: They ring.

It's hard to imagine actually using this one. It sounds like an answer to Denwa wa nani wo suru? What do phones do? Denwa wa naru. Phones ring. Very educational.

Here's another set of examples.
Gakkou ni itta.
Watashi wa gakkou ni itta.
Watashi ga gakkou ni itta.

Okay, which one means simply, "I went to school"? If you answered "Gakkou ni itta," you win. Remember, in Japanese, you don't have to specify the subject of the sentence if it is already known! I think that tends to be students' biggest problem. They feel like they have to put a Watashi in there somewhere, and they end up changing the feel of the sentence.

Likewise, if you're talking to someone one-on-one and you ask a question, you most likely do not need to put in anata or Miyuki-san or whatever. Who else could the question be referring to? Of course they know you're talking about them; they're the only one there!

Anyway, back to the sentences, the second one sounds like someone is going down the list: "And what did you do today? Billy? How about you, Sally? And you, Joe?" Then Mom looks at you, and you say, "As for me, I went to school." See how it sounds? That's why you shouldn't put in a Watashi wa... in the front of every sentence in which you talk about yourself. Otherwise, you sound like this: "As for me, I come from America. And, well, I don't know about you guys, but my name is Brian. Now, remember, I'm still talking about myself here, but, I want to learn Japanese. And as for me...." You get the picture! Only put in the Watashi wa if you think that the meaning would be unclear without one. Like if you've been talking about African pygmies, and all of the sudden you want to say that you, in contrast, are six foot nine inches tall, you would preface that with Watashi wa....

The last sentence says, "I went to school." It sounds like there has been some sort of misunderstanding. "Who went to school again?" "I went to school." "What's that? Did you say Jimmy went to school?" "No, I went to school! It was me!" Get the picture?

So, in conclusion, wa and ga are tough to master completely. The best way is to gain a good intellectual knowledge of what's going on with them, and then speak lots and lots of Japanese so you can do it intuitively. It's not impossible. I feel pretty comfortable with the difference, and I was 17 when I first went to Japan (proving that you don't have to be under age 5 to get an intuitive grasp on a language.) Don't worry, you'll get it.

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