Episode 16 – Japanese Made Easy

Full Episode Audio (download link is to the right of the volume icon)

Exercises Only

Welcome to Japanese Made Easy Episode 16. In this episode we’ll add a new use of the が (ga) particle.

A lot of beginning and even intermediate students continue to ask the question.. What’s the difference between は(wa) and が(ga), when really they should be asking. What’s the difference between を(o) and が(ga).

So, in this lesson we’ll answer this need to know difference.

Before we do that, let’s do a quick review of our previous が(ga) usage.

Naoko and Chris are walking through their neighborhood. Chris mentions wanting to grab a sandwich. They turn the corner and Naoko notices a convenience store before Chris does. In casual Japanese, how would she point out and mention the fact that the convenience store exists?

コンビニがある。(Konbini ga aru.) 

Just at that moment, Chris notices Kenta, who is a mutual friend. He points and in Japanese literally says. “Kenta exists!” What would that be in Japanese?

健太(けんた)がいる。(Kenta ga iru.) 

Ok, review is over now let’s get to the good stuff. A new usage of が(ga).

As usual, no grammar rules.

This is an easy cognate you probably already know, but just in case please repeat…

ドア　　ドア (doa)

For this lesson imagine it’s Saturday afternoon, and You, Me, Chris and Chris’s friend Billy are going to go to the Osaka zoo.

We all meet at my place first, which is on the 18th floor of the building I live in. We get in the elevator to head down. As the elevator

ドア (doa) closes a recorded voice says..

ドアが閉(し)まります。 (Doa ga shimarimasu.)  That was an actual recording from an automated door near my home. Listen again.

ドアが閉まります。(Doa ga shimarimasu. )  Our native speaker will say it a little more clearly…

ドアが閉まります。(Doa ga shimarimasu.) 

Let’s break that down.

ドアが閉まります。(Doa ga shimarimasu. )

Recording: ドアが閉まります。(Doa ga shimarimasu.) 

We have door, then が then we hear the verb

閉(し)まる (shimaru)  in the polite masu form

閉まります (shimarimasu)

So we know the recording was saying something about the door, but if you try to figure out what ga is doing based on the typical old school grammar rule explanations of wa and ga, you end up thinking..

So is ga telling us the door the subject, or is door the topic, or is it the subject and the topic at the same time…so why not wa, and why ga, and the usual wa ga panic ensues. So, we won’t be doing it that way.

Let’s get the meaning of

閉まります (shimarimasu)  from context.

The elevator door had been open for about 5 seconds so we made a dash for it. My friend said, Hurry up, the door is about to

閉まる (shimaru)  It was 5:30pm and my dad asked me to go buy some stamps at the post office. I said, “It’ll have to wait until tomorrow. They aren’t open. They always

閉まる (shimaru)  at 5:00 sharp.”

So that gives us door, ga and the action word “to close”.

閉まる (shimaru) 

There is another verb that also means to close, but for now I just want to focus on が. We’ll get more into verbs in a later episode.

Since the dictionary form is also the future tense, and the masu version is the same thing but just more polite…

閉まります (shimarimasu) 　it’s also future tense.

So, we could translate this as, “The door will close.”

We’ll dig deeper into this, but give it a try. Using your best elevator recording voice try saying… “The door will close.”

ドアが閉まります。(Doa ga shimarimasu.) 

The first hint about this usage of ga, I’d like to bring up is..

In the sentence, is anybody doing anything to the door?

To contrast for example, if somebody asks me what I drank with breakfast, I could reply…

オレンジジュースを飲(の)みました。 (Orenji jyūsu o nomimashita. )

We use を because I’m doing something to the juice, I’m drinking it. But this one…

The door will close. In the sentence, there isn’t any mention of anybody doing anything to the door. Ponder that and let’s move on.

Ok, back to our day trip to the zoo by train. We arrive at the station and upon stepping outside we notice that everybody has umbrellas. Then, you hear a lady say to her friend..

雨(あめ)が降(ふ)っている。(Ame ga futteiru.)  Then I say, “Oh Jeez.. We’re gonna get wet. Anybody bring an umbrella?”

Just in case you don’t know the words in this sentence yet, let’s get them from context.

First just listen

雨(あめ) 雨 (ame) 

In winter the white stuff that falls from the sky is called snow. When it’s not cold enough to become snow, the water that falls from the sky is called

雨 (ame)  So we say rain, in Japanese it’s

雨  (ame) 

So how about the…

降(ふ)っている (futteiru) 　part.

I’m sure you already have an idea, but for the sake of consistency again, lets learn the dictionary form.

The weather report on January 1st, said it will be 30 degrees below, and all day long snow will definitely

降る (furu)  from the sky.　

My 6 year old son asked me “Why is the Sky blue?

Why does rain 降る (furu) from the Sky?” so

降る (furu)  is used when talking about snow or rain falling.

We use different words for to fall off of something, or to fall over, fall down. etc.

Recalling what the lady said to her friend… How would that translate?

雨が降っている (Ame ga futteiru.)  We have

雨 (ame)  or rain, then が (ga)  then

降っている (futteiru) , which we could translate as “falling” giving us literally

“rain ga falling”

In natural English, simply… “It’s raining.”

Since this is focused on particles, I won’t go into the “futteiru” form of the verb. That’s a basic that we cover in Japanese Mastery Method.

I’ll just mention the SLT for eiru… which is “current situation is” so you can think of this as … Rain が (ga)  current situation is to fall. In otherwords, it’s raining.

How would you say “It’s raining” in Japanese?

Literally.. Rain ga, current situation is to fall.

雨が降っている。 (Ame ga futteiru.)  While were at it, again how would you say.. The door will close. Literally, door ga will close.

ドアが閉まります。 (Doa ga shimarimasu.) On a side-note. An announcement is for the general public, which is why the masu or polite form is being used.

Earlier we talked about how in the sentence, there wasn’t anybody doing anything to the door, that it was just going to close. A recorded voice just announced, “The door will close.” and then the door closed.

How about for

雨が降っている。(Ame ga futteiru.)  Is anybody doing anything to the rain? Or.. is it going to fall on it’s own, by itself. Ponder that…

Ok, Back to the zoo.

As you walk to the zoo entrance, everybody put’s their umbrellas away. The sun is shinning and you hear a lady say…

雨が止(や)んだ。(Ame ga yanda.)  There, we hear the word rain, and it’s no longer raining. The skies are clear, people put their umbrellas away. So given the situation, you take this to mean that it’s stopped raining.

雨が止んだ。 (Ame ga yanda.) 

There are a few different words for “to stop” in Japanese. This one is often used with rain or snow, but not for example “The car stopped at the light.”

Try saying It’s stopped raining. Literally… Rain ga stopped.

雨が止んだ。 (Ame ga yanda.) 

Ok, let’s try those out. Point out to a friend the fact that it’s raining. Literally, rain ga current situation is to fall. How would you say that in natural Japanese.

雨が降(ふ)っている。(Ame ga futteiru.)  and polite…

雨が降っています。 (Ame ga futteiru.) 

It stopped raining.

雨が止んだ。 (Ame ga yanda.)  and polite..

雨が止みました。 (Ame ga yamimashita.) 

雨が止みました。(Ame ga yamimashita.)  And again, notice nobody is doing anything to the rain.

It stopped all by itself.

Recalling a previous usage of ga, bringing up and pointing out that something exists with ga aru or ga iru. For example, at the park you see a cute dog, so you bring it up and point it out..

見(み)て！(Mite) 可愛(かわい)い 犬(いぬ)がいる。 (Kawaii inu ga iru.) 

Notice that in these new situations we are still bringing up and pointing out something. The recording brings up and mentions.. “The door will close.”

A person brings our attention to the fact that it started raining, or has stopped raining.

Also, I’ve mentioned a few times the idea that nobody is doing anything to the door, or the rain, it is the door and the rain, that are doing the action in the sentence. The door will close. Rain is falling. The rain stopped.

So let’s get the Super literal translation. We’ll call this が (ga) usage Bringing up or Pointing out that somebody or something, is doing an action on it’s own, with ga plus the action word.

In the beginning of the lesson I mentioned the important question that students don’t generally know they should be asking …

That is, “What’s the difference be を (o)  and が (ga) ?

To find out, let’s do some native language integration and get a feel for this pattern. Let’s contrast two main ideas. First we’ll take some simple ideas and add either the “を”(o)  particle, or “が”(ga)  particle.

Keiko drank some orange juice. We’ll just change the part that needs を or が (ga) so that’s

She, orange juice を (o) drank. Because she is doing something to the juice, she’s drinking it.

Eric turned on the TV…

He, TV を (o) turned on. He did something to the TV. He turned it on.

Ok, you’re probably getting a feel for it, but lets keep going with some more examples.

Imagine a house that has a reputation for being haunted. Me, you, and Chad go in. Suddenly, behind us we hear a sound then a widow slams shut.

You say, “Ok, that’s a little spooky.” The window が (ga) just shut.

Chad screams, “The window just shut by itself!”

I say, “Calm down Chad. No.. it’s chilly in here, so I just reached over and the window を (o) shut.”

It was chilly, so we went around and each window を (o) shut. That is, we went around and shut the windows.

Then suddenly, a door in front of us swung open. You say, “That’s weird. The door が (ga) just swung open.”

Chad screams, “OMG, the door が (ga) just opened by itself.”

I say, “Calm down Chad. Look, there’s no door knob. “So I, the door を (o) opened with my foot.” That is, I opened the door with my foot.

Then, we hear what sounds like crying… You say, “That’s weird. In this abandoned house a baby が (ga) crying? Chad screams, and I say.. Calm down Chad… It’s probably just the cat we saw out front. The cat が (ga) meowing.

Hopefully you got a feel for the difference between を (o) and が (ga) usages.

In each of these nobody is taking any direct action upon any particular object. It’s just happening on its own.

At first it was brought up and pointed out that the door が(ga)  swung open, but then I said that I, the door を(o)  opened using my foot.

It was brought up and pointed out that the window が(ga)  shut seemingly on it’s own, but then I pointed out that I, the window を closed.

The cat が(ga)  meowed. That is, it did the meowing on it’s own. Nobody in the sentence took any direct action on any object.

Now that you have a feel for what’s going on, really as always it’s best to just repeat and use a ton of these patterns until you don’t have to think about it.

So.. all in casual Japanese let’s go through some useful phrases.

Point out to a friend the fact that the elevator door is going to close.

Say.. watch out. The door is closing.

気(き)を付(つ)けて！ (Ki o tsukete.) ドアが閉(し)まるよ。(Doa ga shimaruyo.) 

It’s raining.

雨(あめ)が降(ふ)っている。(Ame ga futteiru.) 

It stopped raining. or.. The rain stopped.

雨が止(や)んだ。(Ame ga yanda.) 

Masaharu showed up at the party. You see him and mention it to a friend.

正治(まさはる)が来(き)た。(Masaharu ga kita.) 

There’s a typhoon going on, you notice a bird and point it out.. “Look.. a bird is flying.”

見て！(Mite) 鳥(とり)が飛(と)んで(い)る。 (Tori ga tondeiru.)  (When casual the い tends to be dropped)

It’s snowing.

雪(ゆき)が降っている。 (Yuki ga futteiru.) It’s windy. More literally, the wind is blowing.

風(かぜ)が吹(ふ)いている。(Kaze ga fuiteiru.)  The phone rang.

電話(でんわ)が鳴(な)った。(Denwa ga natta.)  The baby is crying.

赤(あか)ちゃんが鳴(な)いている。(Akachan ga naiteiru.)  Yep, phones ringing and babies crying use the same verb in Japanese.

More literally though… The baby ga, current situation is to cry.

Those examples will be in the practice audio, so just repeat them until they are naturally memorized.

Ok, let’s get one more vocabulary word and we’ll wrap it up. A word that might come in handy at the zoo. First just listen.

逃(に)げる　 逃げる (Nigeru) 　 We’ll get the meaning from context.

Alcatraz was supposed to be the most secure prison in the world, but still three men did

逃げる (Nigeru) 

When the monkeys were put into a new ultra secure enclosure at the zoo, they tried to get out every way they could think of.

They finally gave up, realizing it was impossible to

逃げる (Nigeru) 

So 逃げる (Nigeru)  has the same general usage as Escape in English.

You come home to find that your pet hamster, from it’s cage,

逃げた 逃げた (Nigeta) 

You mention this fact to a family member. Literally saying.. Hamster, or

ハムスター ハムスター (hamusutā)

under it’s own power, is the doer of the following action, escaped. What would that be in natural Japanese?

ハムスターが逃げた 。 (Hamusutā ga nigeta.) Polite… The bird escaped.

鳥(とり)が逃げました。 鳥が逃げました。(Tori ga nigemashita.) 

You’re at the zoo in Osaka, and suddenly you hear over the loudspeaker a warning siren. “Then an announcement.”

ライオンが逃げました。 ライオンが逃げました。 (Raion ga nigemashita.) 

Chris says.. “Hmm.. sounds like something about a Lion…”

ライオンが逃げました。(Raion ga nigemashita.) 

ライオンが逃げました。 (Raion ga nigemashita.) 

Billy hasn’t studied が(ga) either, and suggests that maybe they’re going to feed the lions. You though, now understand that it is the lion, under it’s own power, that did the action. It escaped.

As people scream and panic around you, you tell your friends there’s a lion on the loose.

Calmly, you reach into your back pack, take out your running shoes and put them on. Chris says, “Don’t bother. You can’t run faster than a lion.”

To which you reply.. “I know. I just have to be faster than you.”

For homework, do some of your own native language integration exercises such as

“Mellissa, orange juice を (o) drank.”

Snow が (ga) stopped. It stopped snowing.

Do three of those. Then, do another complete set later in the day or before bed, when you wake up , etc.

The reason to do this in English with just the particles is to get a feel for word order and particle usage without worrying about the meaning of every single word which can be overwhelming.

Once those are smooth go ahead and switch it all to Japanese.

And of course take advantage of the practice audios always available at

JapaneseMadeEasy.com　See you in the next lesson…

…ドアが閉まります。(Doa ga shimarimasu.)