How to use が in Japanese
Japanese grammar works by putting small words known as particles after nouns. が or ga in Japanese is one of those particles and tells you what the subject in a sentence is. Let’s take a look at exactly what a subject is and how to use が.
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What is a Subject?
Verbs are words representing movement, action, events, and states. Pretty much they tell you that something is happening. In real life though, these actions or events don’t happen on their own. They need someone or something to cause them to happen. What is that someone or something? That’s right, it is the subject.
https://japaneseuniverse.com/2024/02/18/pac-man-in-japaneseconcepts-behind-development-to-global-icon/The subject is the noun that causes those events or actions. And が follows tells you who the subject is.
When do you use が in Japanese?
が follows the subject in a sentence. Doing so, it tells you, “Hey, this is the thing that is doing something“. Let’s take a look at this in more detail.
So, we already know that が tells you what the subject is in Japanese. This is what that looks like in Japanese:
犬が走る
a dog runs
犬が水を飲む
a dog drinks water
In the two sentences above, 犬が is the subject. If you take the dog out of the sentences you are left with an unknown something running and drinking.
The Subject in English is not always the Same in Japanese
Now that we have a good understanding how が works, let’s confuse things a bit. Look at the second sentence again. We know that 犬が is the subject, but what about 水を? The details are not important now but it is called an object. The object is what the subject in a sentence is doing something to. So, the dog is who is doing the drinking, and the water is what is being drunk.
Sometimes when we translate a word from English to Japanese the object becomes the subject. This happens when specific verbs or sentence structures show up.
私は日本語が分かる
I understand Japanese
私は声が聞こえる
I hear voices
犬は水が飲める
The dog can drink water
In English, all of these words marked by が would be the object. However, Japanese makes them the subject. It is better to just remember that for words representing possibility, understanding, ability, and so on that this happens. If you want to understand this intuitively you can translate the sentences more literally:
私は日本語が分かる
For me, Japanese is understandable
私は声が聞こえる
To me, voices are audible
犬は水が飲める
for the dog, water is drinkable
To understand how these sentences work a little better you will want to read about は and what a Topic is in Japanese. For now though, it is enough to know that が in Japanese tells you what the subject is in a sentence.
