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Prepositions
Japanese has none. It has particles, and they come after the word they mark — postpositions. They are the load-bearing wall of the language: word order is loose because the particles say who did what to whom, and dropping one is a bigger error than getting a verb ending wrong.
The core set
| particle | job | example |
|---|---|---|
| は wa | topic — "as for…" | 私は学生です — as for me, student |
| が ga | subject, and new information | 誰が来ましたか — who came? |
| を o | direct object | ご飯を食べます — eat rice |
| に ni | destination, time, indirect object, existence | 東京に行く · 三時に · 友達にあげる |
| で de | place of an action, means | 家で食べる · バスで行く |
| へ e | direction (softer than に) | 東京へ — written he, said e |
| と to | with, and (exhaustive) | 友達と行く · 犬と猫 |
| の no | of / possessive, and much more | 私の本 — my book |
| から kara | from | 九時から |
| まで made | until, as far as | 五時まで |
| も mo | also, too — replaces は/が/を | 私も — me too |
は vs が — the famous one
Both can look like "the subject". They are not doing the same job.
- は sets the topic: "you know the thing we're talking about — here's something about it."
- が presents new or contrasted information, and answers "which one?"
| 私は田中です | As for me, I'm Tanaka. (introducing yourself) |
| 私が田中です | I am Tanaka. (out of these people — the one you're looking for) |
| 誰が来ましたか | Who came? — the answer is new, so が |
| 田中さんが来ました | Tanaka came. |
| 田中さんは来ました | As for Tanaka, he came. (…and the others?) |
A rule of thumb that carries you a long way: question words always take が, never は — and so does the answer to them.
に vs で — both look like "in"
The difference is whether anything happens there.
| 東京に住んでいます | I live in Tokyo — に, because you're located there |
| 東京で働きます | I work in Tokyo — で, because work happens there |
| 部屋にいます | I'm in the room (existence) |
| 部屋で勉強します | I study in the room (action) |
に is a point — of arrival, of time, of existence. で is a stage on which something is performed.
The particle you can drop, and the ones you can't
In casual speech を and は often vanish: ご飯食べた？ gohan tabeta?. に and で never do — they carry too much meaning.
の does more than "of"
私の本 — my book 日本語の先生 — a teacher of Japanese 木のテーブル — a table of wood 赤いのをください — the red one, please (の as a pronoun) 行くのが好きです — I like going (の turns a verb into a noun)
That last use is everywhere: の nominalises a whole clause so it can take a particle.
Reading order
Because the particles do the work, the order of the phrases is free and the verb stays last:
私は 明日 友達と 東京で 寿司を 食べます I / tomorrow / with friends / in Tokyo / sushi / eat
Move any of the middle blocks and the sentence still means the same thing — see Word order.
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