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Course 2, Lesson 1, Grammar Notes 8 : The Topic Particle 'wa'

8. The Topic Particle 'wa'

The particle 'wa' presents the topic of one's utterance ("As for item X, it is such that . . . "). It puts forward the item that you want to talk about and comment on.

You may have noted that the topic phrases in sentences such as 'Mary san wa 3-nensei desu (Mary is a third-year student)', and 'watashi no senmon wa nihongo desu (My major is Japanese language.)', are the subjects of those sentences.

A topic phrase, however, need not be the subject of a sentence. We see three sentences in the dialogue of this lesson where non-subject phrases are made topics with the help of the particle 'wa'.

Mary san, shuumatsu wa taitei nani o shimasuka.

Mary, what do you usually do on the weekend?

kyou wa Kyoto ni ikimasu. (I'm going to Kyoto taday.)

In the avove two examples, 'wa' promotes time expressions as the topic of each sentence.

Its effects can be paraphrased like these:

"Let's talk about weekends: what do you do on weekends?" "Let me say what I will do today; I will go to Kyoto."

bangohan wa? (How about dinner?)

tabemasen. (I will not eat.)

In this example, 'wa' is used in directing the listener's attention and thereby inviting a comment or completion of a sentence.

You may also note that the broached topic, 'bangohan', does not stand in subject relation to the verb, but is rather its direct object.