Ga and Wa?

Question

When are you to use ga and wa i always get them confused. Thanks

Answer 1

Basically, "wa" is for topic, and "ga" is for subject. "Wa" is the equivalent of "as for..." and "ga" is the equivalent of "speaking of...". So, you'd use "wa" for "Watashi wa gakusei desu" (I am a student), because you can put "as for..." in the front. "As for me, I am a student," instead of "speaking of me, I am a student." The second sentence is not correct. Also, "wa" is for something that's already been mentioned.

With "ga", you use it for stuff like "Nihongo wa omoshiroi desu." (Japanese is interesting). Because you can say "Speaking of Japanese, it is interesting." "As for Japanese, it is interesting" isn't quite right. "Ga" is for something that's new to the conversation. Also, "ga" is always used after a question word, such as who, what, when, where, or why, also, the question is answered with "ga", too.

There's more information here: http://japanese.about.com/library/weekly/aa051301a.htm

And here is a database on Japanese grammar: http://www.jgram.org/

Answer 2

The "wa" particle marks the topic. The topic must be something definite, and is usually already brought up in conversation before. It is usually best translated as the phrase "as for..." or "speaking of..." (Note: this is not "ga" meaning, they are both paraphrases of "wa"). It also has a contrastive meaning - "however, as for ... now, ...".

"Ga" is best used for introducing new topics in conversation. This is the true subject marker. Japanese does not necessarily express the subject as most western languages do - most Japanese sentences are subjectless, and usually rely on topic, explicit ("wa") or implicit ("inherited" by a previous "wa", or context).

Since you can't say "Speaking of what, it is black?" (we weren't speaking of anything at that point), question words are never marked with "wa". Also, the answers follow the form of the question, and the missing word is thus marked with "ga" as well, if the question was "ga"-marked. (of course, if the question had another marker, like "o" or "ni", the answer would reflect that, too).

An interesting thing to touch here is the famous (and incorrectly named) Japanese "double subject" construction:

haha wa kami ga nagai desu.
Speaking of Mother, the hair is long.

"hair" ("kami") is the true subject. The sentence basically tells that the hair is long, and the "wa" phrase is giving us the context necessary to understand it. The equivalent of the English wording (haha no kami ga nagai desu), while technically correct, is hardly used in Japanese.

Answer 3

Ga = Georgia & Wa = Washington

Answer 4

This is Japanese obviously right?
I will be taking it this summer, wish I could help you now though..

Answer 5

Never atleast not in my language English

Answer 6

for what language