Trying to grok the difference は and が particle

Hi everyone!

I just watched this excellent video at YouTube that explain the difference between は and が particle, and as I’m trying to wrap my head around it, some questions about it.


  1. AFAIK, the main difference between the two is what part of the sentence it will give focus to. Also, it seems there’s a congruency of particle usage when answering question. Consider the following:

Scenario 1
A: どんなポケモンが丸い?
B: プリンが(丸い)。

Scenario 2
A: 丸いポケモンはどっち?
B:(丸いポケモンは)プリンだ。

Now, let’s flip the question and answer to get something like this

Scenario 1’
A: どんなポケモンが丸い?
B:(丸いポケモンは)プリンだ。

Scenario 2’
A: 丸いポケモンはどっち?
B: プリンが(丸い)。

My question about this is: is it valid to break congruency? Will the answer end up making not much of sense?


  1. At the video, there is this example sentence:

イタリアはピザがおいしいです。

Which is translated in the video to “Italia has delicious Pizza”.

Will the meaning change if we change the は particle to の particle like this:

イタリアのピザがおいしいです。


Thank you, everyone!

イタリアはピザがおいしいです gives the sense that the fact that their pizza being delicious is something important about Italy that you are expressing.

イタリアのピザがおいしいです suggests that the subject of discussion was already narrowed down to pizza or Italian food, and you’re specifying that Italy’s pizza is delicious.

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Thanks @Leebo, I think I got it

I’ll try to reiterate and expand it a bit then. Correct me if I’m wrong :slight_smile:


  • The sentence with は structure is talking about the trait of Italy as a county (since it is the topic as indicated by the は particle). The dish “pizza” itself is rather broad and can be specified further with additional の particle to the Pizza. (e.g. Mushrooms Pizza, キノコのピザ)

e. g. イタリアはキノコのピザがおいしいです

  • The sentence with の particle is saying that the dish “Italian Pizza” itself is delicious. If I’m getting this right, this mean we could be not talking about Italy at all. We might be talking about local neighborhood pizza joint depending on the topic at hand indicated by は particle.

e. g. この店はイタリアのピザがおいしいです

I would agree with that statement, yes. If you’re using この or ここ it’s very clearly not Italy (unless you happen to be in Italy, speaking Japanese!)

Remember that for a sanity check you can often replace __は with “as for __” and see if it makes sense. So your earlier example sentence イタリアはピザがおいしいです can be “Italy has delicious pizza” or “As for Italy, the pizza (specifically) is delicious.”

As a bit of nuance, a native speaker once explained to me that if you make a statement with は but no が in it, you’re implying that there’s something left unstated - likely in contrast to whatever it is you did say. The listener will be thinking about the hidden meaning.

An example I make - let’s say I’m at a bar with friends, having something to eat and drink. If I say ビールが好きだ it’s very clearly “I like (this) beer.” が tends to be used with 好き and talking about things you like. If however I were to say something like ビールは好きだ it could imply something like “I (generally) like beer (…but this one, maybe not so much)” or “I like beer (but there’s something I’m implying I don’t like, maybe the food).”

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Duly noted, good sir

You touched one other things I’m unsure with, which is kind of neat. All I know of this construct is that it will come off as rude. Why is it assumed to be a contrast by default? Is it a case of “it is what it is”? Would be lovely if this point can be elaborated.

Because that’s how it functions. Like in many situations in English, saying “as for” would have an implied contrast as well.

I think the classic example is the old going to someone’s house and saying “今晩はおいしい!” which (unintentionally?) sounds like on other nights the food sucks.

I’ve heard 今日はきれいですね as an example, but it’s the same idea.

The polite way to say it would be 今日も

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Sure!

I’ll link you to one of the top posts of all time from Reddit’s /r/learnjapanese sub, Let me try and explain は and が for you.

Bear in mind that these particles have a wide range of use. Quoting from that post:

The most useful resources I’ve ever come across talking about this topic are The Structure of the Japanese Language and Japanese A Linguistic Introduction , which, even though written by professional linguists, still use 58 and 13 pages respectively (yes you read those numbers correctly) to explain the various uses of and differences between は and が

A native Japanese speaker comments later:

I’m Japanese but I didn’t know the meanings of “は” and “が”.

So I think in practice, you’ll absorb a lot of this from immersion and it can be difficult even for native speakers to exhaustively explain.

In any event, section 5 of that post I linked covers the contrasting usage of the particle. To paraphrase, if you were saying “John came to the party but Mike didn’t” or “I buy magazines but don’t read them” you mark both things with は. It’s just something the particle can do.

So if you make a statement that includes a は but…

  • You haven’t already introduced the topic into conversation
  • You don’t have a が marking the specific thing you want to refer to
  • You don’t have another は to show what you’re contrasting

…it’s kind of like you’re leaving the listener hanging.

I don’t know how “rude” it is… I feel like there’s a lot of nuance in the language, leaving things unsaid, “reading the air” etc. I don’t have enough firsthand experience to have a feel for how it tends to come across.

Thanks, These are some good example sentences! I can kinda see how it comes off as rude now.

A bit of tangent, but just wanna check: 今日がきれいですね is no go, right? It seems doesn’t make any sense to me.


@jerseytom That is so cool! I’ll be sure to read it thoroughly.

Bear in mind that these particles have a wide range of use. Quoting from that post:

The most useful resources I’ve ever come across talking about this topic are The Structure of the Japanese Language and Japanese A Linguistic Introduction , which, even though written by professional linguists, still use 58 and 13 pages respectively (yes you read those numbers correctly) to explain the various uses of and differences between は and が

That’s a lot! Learning the intricacies as I go sounds like a good plan. Thanks!

That literally means that today is pretty… the others are used when talking someone else, the implied subject of きれい

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Understood. Thank you.

A fun one springs to mind because I was replaying Final Fantasy 7 a while back, and there’s a scene where Yuffie leads you into a trap, but before she can spring her trap, you get attacked by other people. So your team is all like “yuffie what did you do!” And she’s like
知らない知らない!これはアタシとカンケーないって!
And whoever is with you is like
これ『は』?『は』とはどういうことだ?ほかのことなら心当たりがあるというのか?

Which, if you don’t follow, basically she says “”no no! I don’t know anything about this!” Using は
And then the other is like “は? What does that は mean? So if it was a different (trap) you’d know all about it, then?”

So yeah she gives herself away with a particle. Oops.

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I would say that all of these things that は does are related to the fact that it’s marking a topic of discussion. Whether you’re speaking English or Japanese, the topic is always implicitly compared to those things that are not the topic. If we’re talking about my house and we say “It has a small front yard,” then we’re comparing it to other houses, which tend to have larger front yards.

Likewise, the topic is the background against which your conversation occurs, so marking something as the topic tends to de-emphasize it, while marking it with が will emphasize it (since it’s the subject case particle).

So I think a lot of it makes more sense when you think about what the word “topic” means, outside of the context of Japanese grammar.

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