Vocabulary dictionary

Kanji dictionary

Grammar dictionary

Sentence lookup

test
 

Forums - で vs に and は vs が

Top > 日本語を勉強しましょう / Let's study Japanese! > Anything About Japanese



avatar

I’d like to know the difference in the jobs of the で particle vs the に particle. Also people have tried to explain this second thing to me before but I just don’t get it. When do you use は vs が. I’m very confused so for this one dumb it down as much as you possibly can, please. ありがとうございます

0
6 days ago
avatar

に vs で:
> Think of に as "where something goes or exist" and で as "where an action happens" fe : きます means "I go to school" because school is the destination. にいます means "I'm at school" because you r simply there. But します means "I study at school" because studying is an action that happens there.

は vs が:
> The easiest way to think about them is that は means "as for..." (the topic); while が means "this is the one..."(the focus), it helps in emphasizing. For example, です means "As for me, I'm a student" (You are the topic here); But if someone asks "Who is the student?" u would answer です "I am the student"
So は talks about something you already have in mind, while が points out or identifies something important or new.
が is also used when you are bringing new topics that the listener doesnt know about.
And thats why you would see が being used in answers when questions are asked.

3
5 days ago
avatar
ミラ :)
Level: 55

I've heard miltiple ways of thinking about it, but I think this one was most helpful for me.

に is used like a target, motioning towards a direct location. Like "る," which is saying "I return home," (home being a specific location). に is also used when talking about a time something is taking place. For example, "8に、く," meaning "At 8:00, I go to the school". (If you dont know, へ, pronounced え in this situation, is used like に but more general and focusing on the journey more than the actuall destination).

で basically denotes a place at which an event is taking place. For example "した", meaning "I studied at home". Home is the place where you are studying.

は and が are very similar, but different in nuance. I like to think of it as が puts the emphasis on the subject (which is the word before the が), while は puts more emphasis on what comes after. for example, somebody might say "くなった", basically putting emphasis on and saying "I*** became strong", whereas a less cocky individual may say "くなった", translating to "I became strong".

Don't worry too much about following the exact definitions or usages shown in the dictionary, the most important thing is to listen and observe, and you'll catch onto a pattern even if you don't realize it. I hope this gave you a basic idea of what to look out for, and I apologize if I got some things wrong. Good luck! :)

1
5 days ago
Getting the posts




Top > 日本語を勉強しましょう / Let's study Japanese! > Anything About Japanese


Loading the list
Lv.

Sorry, there was an error on renshuu! If it's OK, please describe what you were doing. This will help us fix the issue.

Characters to show:





Use your mouse or finger to write characters in the box.
■ Katakana ■ Hiragana