Particle が

[milami88]

Originally Posted by RadioKid

Then, I do not understand why only "GA" is referred to use with the first appeared subject.

So you mean, the guy in the video is kind of wrong? Could you give me an example where は would be used to introduce new information?

Btw. English is not my native language. I

Still the difference between は/が is pretty vague to me. I hope if I watch/read/hear a lot of Japanese, I will get the "feeling" on how to use it correctly.

[RadioKid]

>So you mean, the guy in the video is kind of wrong?

No, I don't mean he is wrong. It would be make sense for non-Japanese.

He says "GA" is used to refer to something "first time in the conversation". I have not such point of view. It is new to me.

In the movie, he explained "introducing new thing" as one functionality of "GA". It is acceptable for me.

>Could you give me an example where は would be used to introduce new information?

Does "将棋はチェスに似たボードゲームです:SHOGI WA chess NI NITA board game DESU" not work?

Or, how about "'ODORU SAM'MA GOTEN' is a name of a Japanese TV show" ?

As he mentioned in the movie at 14:00, "GA" is used to mark the subject. But it is confusing that there are three class of "GA": as a conjunction (DAGA, SORE WA MACHIGAI DA), as the subject marker (SORE GA MONDAI NANO DA) and the object marker (WATASHI WA SOBA GA SUKI DA). I can not explain this issue in smart manner.

[milami88]

Thanks for the examples. You are right, は can obviously be used to introduce something new as well.

As for the 3 different が:
1. Conjunction: yeah it is a bit confusing, but we have to live with the fact that the subject marker and the conjunction coincide in form. There are also words like these in other languages as well. For example, the word "general". It can mean "general" as a rank in the army, or "general" in the meaning of 一般に or maybe 大抵.

2 and 3: I always think of the が used after an object like of a subject e.g.

私はそばが好きだ。
I try to think of this sentence not as "I like soba" but "As for me, soba is desirable". In this case soba is the subject of the sentence.

[RadioKid]

>私はそばが好きだ。
>In this case soba is the subject of the sentence.

If "SOBA" is the subject, then do you mean "SOBA likes something"?

[milami88]

No, I mean "soba is desirable/likable". Since from the grammatical point of view "好き" is an adjective.

Then "soba" would be the subject and "is desirable" would be the predicate.

Another example: the weather is nice. The sky is blue. Soba is likable.

Or 車がほしい　- of course you can translate it as "I want a car", then the grammatical function of "car" would be an object. But I prefer to think of it as "the car is desirable". In this case "car" is a subject.

[RadioKid]

>No, I mean "soba is desirable/likable". Since from the grammatical point of view "好き" is an adjective.

In the case of "私には蕎麦が好ましい:WATASHI NIWA SOBA-GA KONOMASHII", "好ましい:KONOMASHII" is an adjective.

I saw this kind of opinion before. But I can not accept "好き:SUKI;like" as an adjective.

Or, "好き:SUKI;like" could have the characteristic to have the objective with "GA".

I'm still confusing about this kind of use for "GA". I just keep using "GA" like as other Japanese use.

[milami88]

Hmmm well have you heard about 2 types of adjectives: い - adjectives and な-adjectives?
やさしい人です。
好きな料理です。

If you believe me or not, suki is an adjective. Here is a great japanese online dictionary:

suki - Jisho.org

As you can see, it is a noun and a na-adjective. By the way, you can translate here all those grammatical terms you know in japanese into English But I know you are a native speaker. You just speak, you don't really think WHY you speak like this. It is natural to you

[RadioKid]

>Hmmm well have you heard about 2 types of adjectives: い - adjectives and な-adjectives?

Yes, I know. it depends on each adjective.

>If you believe me or not, suki is an adjective. Here is a great japanese online dictionary:

I understand "好きだ：SUKI-DA" or "好きです：SUKI-DESU" is "verb clause" which works as a verb like "like".

Then what? Sorry, I have no time to post which follows that right now.