Difference Between Japanese particles wa (は) and ga (が)

[HitokageProduction]

thanks

[sbtrackrunner]

Ohhhh, so it's like someone asks, "who are you", i would say "watashi wa Sammy desu" someone asks "who is Sammy" i would say "watashi ga desu", correct?

[Seedofwinter]

Very well done. Explanation skills are amazing. You're crafted to be a teacher. Believe it.

[vibes17]

ありがとうございます！

[LadyKamileD]

I love you.

I'm starting to understand now.

Thanks!!!

[Acrynomis]

Thanks dude!

[LunaXenoLovegood]

ありがとうございます！This clarified things up wonderfully! :D

[mattosso83]

Thanks for making that more clear!

[GunUDwnAt2nd]

これが有用なビデオです Is this a correct way of expressing that this is the one video that is useful among all the videos i have watched on this subject?

[ipodnanno]

こいちはハンサムですね＾＿＾ haha

[tankmusic]

thank you so much i understand it ALOT better now :)

[nelmsters]

damn that was hella helpful. thank you.

[pemirsawan]

Terima kasih, thank, this is help me understanding the difference between wa and ga in a simple way

[lilkittychan]

OMG thank god someone that explains it in a simple way that doesn't make my brain explode :P

[paulobamu]

THANK YOU!

[docfeelgood777]

i'm new to the japanese language, so the concept of particles has been very foreign to me. this helped a lot!

[HASHlRAMA]

so you could use WA when you are introducing like:

watashi wa Daniel desu.

and if someone is mistaking you for someone else, you could say like:

watashi ga Daniel desu.

am I correct or I'm getting it wrong, thanks for answering.

[MsSeaKittens]

So helpful! Thank you Koichi.

[Matsuya338]

Something I see a lot in students is this so remember this, though you have more than likely heard it before. Once the subject is stated you dont have to keep stating it in the conversation. It is referred to automatically from then on out unless the subject is changed. If you keep repeating it it begins to sound un-natural. Something to keep in mind. =]

[WrathsBride]

If you are male, though, wouldn't you use "boku" or "ore" instead of "watashi"? I thought "watashi" was used by females only...

[LithiumPop]

@WrathsBride "Watashi" is gender neutral. You're thinking of "atashi" which is used strictly by women.

[WrathsBride]

@LithiumPop Ah, okay. Thank you. :)

[MrKurisuDesu]

@WrathsBride what @LithiumPop says is true, but I have heard that "watashi" can be seen as too formal for situations whereby you are say.. chatting to friends, this would be the reason why people are encouraged to use "boku" / "atashi". Although I still do not quite get the full use of the word "boku", I know you can say "Boku no namae wa (your name)" but, can you say like "boku wa genki desu." ? or something.. so confusing. :S

[WrathsBride]

@MrKurisuDesu Thank you for your input as well. :) And as for the "Boku wa genki desu.", I was just taught to say, "Genki desu." after someone asked me "O-genki desu ka?" I think you can forego the "I" in most japanese sentences... :X

[XF0N]

if you used "ga" in a normal conversation would that be informal?

if i emphasized 'I' in "I am Anthony" it would sound a little rude/conceit.

[metaphoricrocky]

That was really grammery.



[starlitblur]

not sure if you still check this  but, why is the "ha" symbol used for the "wa" particle?

[MrKurisuDesu]

@starlitblur Yes it is. :)

[Gingababe123]

wait i watched namasensei's particle lesson and he said that when using wa ur enphasizing what comes before it

[moonlight13o5]

No No ThankYOU!

[luvdefleppard1]

i should come here often lol now i understand.

thanks!

[eliisekate]

I hate particles

[HealerInstict]

That was a very good way to explain it simply.Thanks a lot for the effort.

[abcChickenRice]

this is actually more helpful than my jap teacher =.=

[XAFinalFantasyX]

AGH!!!THANK YOU SO FREAKIN MUCH!

[darkoon2]

DAmn i finally understand

[dss2mtm]

I really like this and the lesson too from Fighting Shodoka. Thank you both!

[signupsigma]

A lot of energy.

[fullmetalfan1996]

The difference?

"Watashi GA Koichi desu" would be used in the J-dorama where your evil twin shows up and convinces everybody you know that he's you, and in the moment of truth when your girlfriend is holding the gun toward the two of you standing next to each other, you scream "WATASHI /GA/ KOICHI DESU!!!"

[Silehfy7]

Interesting. That's a different way to explain it, indeed. Thanks for your contribution.

[Bakerb1942]

Thank you Koichi

[XxXxXx7771]

Finnnnaaallllyyy!!!!! i got some damn help at least... i am struggling with these two particles for a looonnnggg time....... i am trying to learn Japanese with videos and sites online....... and i just can't understand whatever they try to explain about these two particles...... at least i got a little help from this video... thank you sooo much

[Konnochiwa10]

Thanks very much I helped me alot! :)

[jcali619]

He is such a sweet boy isn't he? Teaching others is a very admirable trait.

[nathanpitones]

I really suck at particles. Often times I place in the wrong particle or forgetting to put in the particle.

[h4xnoodle]

Definitely helpful. In my years of learning this language it has never been so clear!

[tvducky]

dude..you're the man. ありがとうごさいます

[bestiaccia]

Very useful, thanks!!

[raftomi]

good one :)

[Sturlei]

ej cool that was so helpful 

[aftereffects2013]

thanks so much, now i understand the meaning of HA and Ga

[StarofRiley]

そうか、はとが have different emphasis..これはかっこいいを知る。

[ueekahi]

oHHH

I thought ga was for when you already used wa in a sentence, YOU CANNOT DOUBLE WA.

Now i get it...

Watashiwa kuma desu

i'm BEAR

watashiga kuma desu

I AM,bear

[PodgeShmog]

that was really helpful! thanks!

[mikadohirokawa]

You understand the difference very well, good job.

[thejade9]

kochi wa busaiku des neeeeee

[TheSC5]

nice boobs

[ladysaraby]

Thank you for this video, the information was pretty useful so maybe you could help me with this next issue: in the basic, simple phrase "Watashi wa (name)" why is the -wa- written differently?

[LightningAndRain]

doumo arigatou gozaimasu :)

[cjmsawa]

Very helpful! Thanks very much!

[sheryl0430]

love it ! perfect explanation...

[Gustavoveg02]

nice explanation, thanks

[MrXetalig]

Thank You! you just solved one of my biggest doubts!

[antiisaacbarbie17]

Thank you! I have a final exam tomorrow and I now have... about 5 more particles to go :((((

[kingtubenino]

wow that helped alot thanks

[Iamisfp]

Sore dewa = that is goodbye? (end of video)

[Magnaillusion]

I tend to say this a lot, but I love you. Both particles are clearer to me now.

[wllOvOllw]

@Magnaillusion

they are more complicated than this, ga can b eused in many different instances, he only pointed out the MAIN thing is HA, which is common sense to anyone learning or knowing the language

[hotterthenubitch]

i love your hand movements XD

[alprocessor090]

本当にありがとう　：D



[lovley187]

Guy you are effing legendary i swear stress be gone

love love love love ^_^ domo arigato gozaimas love love love you

[natorious94]

thank you thank you thank you thank you thank youuuuuu! Very very helpful!

[cookiesncream78]

ありがとう～

omgsh hahaha this helped! thank you!

[Tanysh22]

Thanks for this!!! :D YOur awesome! 

[Legionario21]

definetly helped

[BlazeCyndaquil]

Yep, basically, how I see it. The wa particle indicates that in A (wa) B, A is B. And in A (ga) B, B is A. Basically, in how he was saying it. It would be like I am koichi in the first example, and in the second example you would be saying Koichi is me. That is how I see it.

[angelicous200711]

thanks it helps alot :D

[000HEL]

thankue

[philomena1980]

Very helpfull thnx .. (>_^)/

[atamagomu]

thanks. been living in Japan for 3 years now, and I still cant get my particles down correctly. this helps a little bit in the battle against grammar.

[shylildude]

a better question would be what the difference between wa and ha?

[lcdrdata]

@shylildude wa, the particle, is shown with the hiragana for ha. if you see ha as a particle it is pronounced wa

[Rosala]

oh... I love you for this >.<'

[aimmaster18]

がんばって！私は日本語がべんきょう。 ありがとうございます。

[rss313]

For those interested in more wa vs. ga discourse, check out Jay Ruin's "Making Sense of Japanese" where he gives a full 20+ pages on those two particles, guaranteed to confuse you forever :)

[CalebMartling]

An easy way to learn Japanese right from your home or wherever you go - check the video out - youtube.com/watch?v=wfseANZtMN­g

[jlkanaka]

wow, I have just discovered your videos and find them wonderful - thank you!

[stmc247]

wait, I thought は is "ha" instead of "wa". Isn't wa わ?

[11YoPEEPS]

@stmc247 the particle "wa" is written "は" but still said as "wa"

exp.

私はデスティニーです (I'm Destiny)

is romanized as "watashi wa desutinii desu" not "watashi ha desutinii desu"

[OkamikiYatsube]

@11YoPEEPS When used as a particle, HA is said as WA, but it keeps the same kana.

I know, they wanted to make it worse.

[AnimalThings]

Hello, just wanted to let you know you're videos are greatly appreciated, they are so well explained/put together etc. I usually tell friends who are learning Japanese to check you're videos out. Thank you for you're hard work!

[visceraViSAGE]

Wow this helped me somewhat~!

Thanks. :'D

[Profilesrubiks]

tl;dr version : "wa" is used to emphasis the word after, "ga" is used to emphases with word before it, like saying "I am koichi, me, me koichi, not that turtle, not that bottle of sprite, MEMEMEMEMEM" derp :P

[XxTMNTuploaderxX]

@Profilesrubiks i lol'd xD

[StrewnAsunder]

oooooo thank you, helpful

[headhunter1027]

You really explained the difference well. It really helped me understand the difference by the end of the video. Thanks a bunch.

[TokioKoos83]

That is going to help me in a lot of cases! Thanks so much for making it sound so simple for situations like this. ^^

[vmichial]

damn that kicked ass...ありがとうございました！

[PullarBearBear]

I don't believe it. It's just a short 2minutes and 45seconds and i can understand it already. Spending hours on some textbook or teaching site doesn't help me, it only makes me confused.

[GoldenQueen100]

It's funny I just realized I've never heard a Japanese word with the letter L oh and you really helped me with my wa and ga issue

[AugustoMoura88]

You rock, man!

I finally understood it! :D

[Paco604]

This makes a WORLD of sense now.

Seriously. I went through most of my studies going like "WTF?!"

[hotcrotch]

THANK YOU SO MUCH!,, xD

[ziggletron]

i generally just use wa in all situations but now i am enlightened...:D

[ziggletron]

i generally just igored ga and used wa because i just couldnt figure out the difference, but now i am enlightened...:D

[chickensoup1992]

I understand now. Thank you.

[MissWeerdo]

Ahaaa, now I get it! This was a great video!

[HapaLife]

You look hapa, so am I. My Dad never taught me Japanese -_- so I'm doing it on my own now

[ippon0813]

Thank you!!!

[crystyra]

Thank you! I've read alot of explanations, but none were more clear than this one! :-D

[TheBnkAi]

and what means the particle "wo" ?

[mydearcassandra]

@TheBnkAi

Noun and Particle "wo" makes direct Object.

Similarly, noun and Particle "ni" makes indirect Object.

If Noun is "watashi", perhaps it's the same as "mich" and "mir" in German.

your friend mydearcassandra

[MikePinkney]

helped a lot! =] thanks

[Neosakai]

Thanks, I learned something from this

[mathozero]

神樣

[Unicornzilla]

WA emphisies what comes after it.

watashi WA [name] desu

emphasies the [name] part

to show [name] is the person i am.

GA is similar but emphasies what comes before

watashi GA [name] desu

emphasises I(watashiwa)

to show that I am the [name] here

basically : )

just replace [name] with your name, and your good.

[VANDREAD4000]

Thank you very much man, you're awesome! anata wa sugoi desu yo!

[mayakathleena]

i love you.

THANK YOU SO MUCH. I WAS HAVING SUCH A HARD TIME!

SUBSCRIBE! <3

[iceymanjack]

my problems are solved

[eleongo]

so does it means が is for someone does not confirm whether there is a person named Koichi?

[ColbyLeung]

Anata Wa Sugoi Desu

[neiily]

love how you explained it =) thank youuu!

[kennylex]

So, lets se if I get it.

My friend say, "watashi wa jimu desu", but Jim is my name, so I say, "iie watashi ga jimu desu".

Is that correct?

[Donyale6230]

This is the best explaination that I have seen and heard so far. Thank you.

[muffex3]

THANK YOU, it really helped me (Y)

[tada76]

This really helped me explain the differences to my friends studying japanese! majide arigatou!

[belovedoo]

Can you explain が and は In a real sentence....??

For example in this case

スパーGA9時からあいています。

What if i put は in there??? How does it change? What is the use of GA in that case?

Thanks in advance

[Hioushi]

This is the best explanation I ever had. 5/5!

ありがとう！

[yasaitomodachi]

すごいやくにたった！

Thank you for this! Very clear and helpful explanation. ^_^b

[KissnUpAndBleedn]

mmh did this video help? 5 STARS!

[shionuzuki09]

Wow!!! Thank you so much!!! I am a beginner in Japanese. I have spent 4-5 hours straight trying to understand and you made it so simple! Thank you so much!

[TheBlablax]

Perfect! Thanks!

[zaldude]

yay! I know what the difference is now thank you! (arigatoo gozaimasu! ^_^) BUt I do have one question... When writing Japanese, why do you use the character "ha" to represent the character "wa"? Coz it seems like you're SAYING "watashi wa Koichi desu" But it's WRITTEN "watashi ha Koichi desu". What's up with that?

[skwerl23]

@zaldude good question, wa is ha, thats the sad thing, it is very confusing when reading it as a beginner. there is a hiragana for wa, and i have seen it there too, so i am as curious as you. but if you read ha liek that (after a word you know) it is wa

[skwerl23]

@zaldude doing a little research

HA (は) means the subject, and that is the only time it is pronounced wa.

where わ is the real WA and is used for words such as watashi わたし and thats why there is a wa.

if you spelled it

はたし it would be hatashi. not watashi.

subject is HA は and always pronounced WA

this is due to the way the language evolved from what i have gathered, HA marks the subject, but is pronounced WA, and for that sake is spelled WA in romaji

[zaldude]

@skwerl23

yeah I guessed that, but still... Thanks!

ALSO! ^_^ you see words like "chotto matte" which is actually spelt (romaji) "cho-tsu-to ma-tsu-te". But it's not only with the repeted "t" sound. "sakka" and "kokko" are also examples ("sa-tsu-ka" "ko-tsu-ko"). What I'm wondering is that, is the "tsu" acting as something almost like a particle except for the pronunciation of words? Is is to make a pause in the word or something???

(btw, I know that "cho", is "chi" and "yo" put together)

[skwerl23]

i have done more research on the desu vs masu and actually masu is usually in conjunction with a verb. like tabemasu (eat)

its the politeform

some words use imasu at the end like ikimasu (go)

thats why you hear imasu a lot. imasu itself can translate to "exist" which in a sense is a verb. koko wa neko ga imasu. (sorry if its bad japanese) but it roughly means here is a cat. or here exists a cat. and is not really directly changable with desu.

[skwerl23]

a comment on your last post however you have a good eye. when spelling japanese there are a few exceptions. tsu　つ ya　や yu　ゆ yo　よ all have secondary uses つ can be used as a consanant to replicate the following consanant if it is smaller notice the difference さつか　さっか see how its smaller a smaller ya, yu or yo change sounds that end in I (ki mi ri etc...) kiyo きよ kyo きょ see how its smaller.

[cuttie16]

haha omg i love you XD, nice lesson, really helped me out ^3^

[SHENAKU]

very good explaination and lesson. Thanks arigatoo and what did you say at the end? soretewa?

[fh1mahfanzai]

'the way how i understand WA is like english "is". GD INFO

[CanisSkye]

Would it be like emphasizing in America? For example, I am Koichi. You can also go I AM Koichi. or even I am KOICHI. Is it like that in a sense? Or am I taking it the wrong way?

[hinatasbfriend]

most likly not usually only one particle is used after a noun in japanese and to say "I am KOUICHI." you would have to use both. plus emphisise in Japanese is mainly just to show the main topic of the sentence like advance warning about what the speaker is going to talk about and the topic can be dropped in Japanese unlike in English if you think that the person to whom you are speaking already knows the topic. Hope that may have cleared it up..... never been really good at explaining things.

[MrFandl]

wow thx helped me a lot!

[GhaleonNow]

Helpful, thanks!

[suebee115]

arigatoo gozaimasu!! this was so helpful!

[yuriythebest]

thanks!!

[NatePessoa]

ah~ that helped a LOT! So ga would be like: You are with a friend and someone mistakenly calls him Koichi and then you would go; No! Watashi ga koichi desu.

[1suazo1]

WOW... dat was surprisingly very understandable lol

thnx

[lolwtfwuut]

thanks a lot

[ShinobiFreak77]

very nice video, but...could do with a little intro, for example, i was wondering what Koichi meant until I realised it was your name near the end of the video

[Vespene]

Here's how I remember

は = am

が = is

I know it's weird but it works in a lot of situations.

[stand2reason]

no. not really. it's more a matter of emphasis.

[RPGodess]

lol-true but then u would be blocking out the desu. desu is the one that means am-desu is like equivalent to most verbs so if u put wa for am, than it would mean i am am koichi :DDDDD

[metalaxiz]

わかりました

どうもありがとございます

Keep making more. U seem good at it :)

[Unicornzilla]

@metalaxiz He is good at it ;] silly head!

[firekitten19]

Thank you ^_^

[xxBastardxx67]

just wondering wat is he saying at 1:50

anata wa no namae nan desu ka??

is that right??// dudes on steriods when he speaks :]

[chisholm48]

"Anata no namae wa nani desu ka." meaning,

"You ('s) name (subject) what is (?)" or,

"Your name what is?" ("What is your name?")

[H2Johnston]

'anata no namae wa nan desu ka?'

[xxBastardxx67]

ohhhhhhh awsome thank u soo much! c:

[Alexoflondon]

Hi Koichi,

That helps alot. It has clarified things.

Thanks!

[Renmaru245]

arigato koichi ^_^

[hatman900]

That makes sense,

ありがおうございます！

[panadesu]

When contrasting certain objects ..

me: omizu ga arimasuka?

store clerk: omizu ga arimasen demo osake wa arimasu.

Anyone know if this is right?

[undeadmuffin]

damn, this really helped. Thanks. Is there a free source to help with all the particles?

[XxChocomintsxX]

that wa and ga is a pulling hair problem.. i almost lost hope and was near tears cuz i didnt understand the difference at all.. YOU ARE MY HERO! =D

thank you so much ^_^ *hugs*

[VampireAyame]

anata ga kawaii desu

[TheTayCow]

your cute :D and thanks this was really helpful and clear! arigato! i'm still learning but now i feel i have a better handle on this

[imbetz]

Wow, well put. I think I get it a little more clearly. =D

[XxDarkDiazxX]

Wow that was actually very helpful and easy to understand, thanks!

[sulemgothica]

Thank you!! more easy than other videos or webs. ^___^

[blackjin23]

arigatou gozaimasu

[3aiz3rbi]

great video man

im ur fan

[by3by3noW]

Arigato!

[AgentCell]

I thought that the particle "WA" emphasized the word before "WA" and not after it. Because in other sites they said that the particle "WA" emphasized the word before it.

[mistymorning119]

oh that was helpful!! arigatou gozaimasu! I have been trying to figure out the difference for years lol

Who are you? Watashi WA misty desu.

Who is Misty?

Watashi GA Misty desu.

...GOTCHA!!!

[iam7805]

Arigatou. This is actually easy to understand.

[gregyx]

Whoa finnally i get it xD

Your movie rocks^^