How would you say this?

[izzyreincarnated_501977]

How would you say "Can you give me example sentences on how the particles "が" and "は" are used in a sentence?" in Japanese?

Thank you very much. ^^

[Skydog287_500137]

EDIT: Woops! I totally misread your post.... you were asking about how to translate that... ^^; Sorry! I guess I'll keep my post here anyways if it helps still somehow, lol. As for the translation, my friend said it would be: 「が」と「は」の助詞が文章内でどのように使われるか例文を教えてくれませんか?

ーーーーーーーーーーーー

You dare ask the forbidden question!

Haha, just kidding, but that question has made all my Japanese friends struggle with trying to explaining it. xD I guess it tends to just be something that comes natural to them so they don't think much about why it's used. I'd compare to trying to explain how we know when to use "That" vs "It" in English, it's something that comes natural to native speakers. At least in my personal experience, lol.

Although I guess you are just asking for examples... either way I will try to help til someone much more experienced than I comes along to this thread!

One example that was used in my Japanese class yesterday exactly was: コーヒーがすきです / Koohii ga suki desu
コーヒー = koohii = Coffee
すき = suki = like/desirable
In English you'd translate it as "I like coffee." But a more literal translation would be like "Coffee is what is desirable." Suki gets translated often as "like" in English, but in Japanese it is an adjective, so "desirable" is a more fitting word in my opinion.

Think of が as an "identifying" particle, it helps me at least when I think of it that way. Where は is more like saying "As for blank".

So like きょうはさむいです！ / Kyou wa samui desu! So it is like saying "As for today... it is cold!"
If you used が here it would be like saying "It is today that is cold!", but I'm sure today isn't the only day that is cold, so は makes more sense here.

You also use が with question sentences. Like if you were to say "Who is the one that is the teacher?" / だれがせんせいですか？If you were the teacher you would reply わたしがせんせいです。From what I was told you usually answer question sentences that use が with が in your reply as well. Kind of like saying "I am the one that is the teacher." If you use は with that sentence it is like saying "I'm A teacher." Implying that you aren't necessarily the teacher they are looking for/referring to but someone that happens to also be a teacher.

Disclaimer, I still consider myself very new to Japanese. I just hope this helps til someone with more detailed explanations comes along! And please correct me anyone if I said anything wrong, thank you!

スカイラー (Skylar)

Edit: Spelling

[izzyreincarnated_501977]

That makes a lot of sense! I think I get it now. Thanks you so much for the info and translation!
^^

[community.japanese]

Izzyreincarnated san,
"Can you give me example sentences on how the particles "が" and "は" are used in a sentence?" in Japanese?” means 「助詞の“が”と“は”が文の中でどう使われるかが分かる例文をあげてくれませんか。」

スカイラーさん、
どうもありがとうございました。
Yuki 由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com