All (Common) Japanese Particles Explained - は、が、に、を、の、etc.

[@ben-np7ul]

steps of learning Japanese: 1: this is easy 2: this is hard 3: this is easy 4: this shit is impossible 5: now I actually am getting it

[@CosmicHase]

I am on step 4

[@k0v4n0v4]

the best part is when all of the words you struggle with are kana and kanji just STICKS like crazy

[@davidGA殿]

Bro is releasing a banger at 3 am fml.

[@FreeBirdJPYT]

Oh boy, 3 AM!

[@iusearchbtw69]

What a splendid way to start your morning Saturday

[@Talia_and_the_birds]

Imagine waking up to watch a video at 4:30am 🤣😭

[@sheepcommander_]

cirno's doing her best!

[@FreeBirdJPYT]

@@sheepcommander_ the strongest fumo

[@Thomas48484]

As someone who just started learning japanese, this video was incredibly helpful.

[@NikkiDimesYT]

I've been studying for about a year and while I had general knowledge of all of these particles, it's great to have a convenient brush up video all in one place. Thank you so much!

[@heroponriki518]

what a funky

[@matzekatze7500]

Another point for the explanation of は which we see in the story with the compliment is that は sets up a contrast. It marks the topic in contrast to something else. That's why she was offended.

[@FreeBirdJPYT]

That is a good point

[@Oceanwaves-d8l]

So, it's like "your eyes are pretty, in contrast of you"? Ouch, what an easy-but-harsh mistake to make!

[@matzekatze7500]

@@Oceanwaves-d8l I think she understood it in this way, yes. Very easy mistake to make but I feel like this sense of は is the most underrated one because it can be tricky to get it.

[@mirmations7407]

thanks freebird!! before this i wasn’t really able to find goood resources on particles/anything of the sort.

[@FreeBirdJPYT]

@@mirmations7407 glad to know this video is doing its job ☺️

[@jakegearhart]

31:11 I think this makes sense to think of as "aside from sushi, we don't sell (anything) here" but where the focus is on sushi rather than what's not being sold. So meaning-wise it's closer to "we _only_ sell _sushi_ here" but construction-wise it's similar to "aside from sushi, we don't sell (anything) here."

[@guylundvall]

Indeed. While, its a rather old construction, the phrasing "We do not sell but sushi here." is the most accurate translation, I think. This kind of 'but' (as "except for") is much better than "only", imo.

[@lilyofluck371]

thanks so much!! I can't believe I couldn't find many resources on these particles, because they're integral to the basic grammar and sentence construction of Japanese ToT. It's like teaching someone to fish without the handle >.>

[@FreeBirdJPYT]

Glad you found it helpful!

[@CanSheMakeAGrilledCheese]

YES, FINALLY, THE MOST CONFUSING PART OF JAPANESE EXPLAINED

[@TheRealguyinvideo]

2:16 The topic is what everyone is talking about. The subject is what is carrying out the action (the verb)

[@davidsagitas343]

Exactly the video i needed! ありがとう

[@ellotheearthling]

cirno fumo in the background

[@FreeBirdJPYT]

@@ellotheearthling always the foomie

[@timotijerakic]

Great Explanations!

[@tydude]

I thought I had dust on my screen…

[@erniebarguckle]

Same

[@HenriqueVieira8128]

As a Portuguese speaker, I find it quite interesting that the particle ね and the contraction from Portuguese "né" have the exact same function, meaning and pronunciation in both languages despite them being completely unrelated.

[@EleetCanoe]

I heard somewhere the Portuguese gave Japanese the ne thing through contact a long time ago

[@darthslobbius487]

@@EleetCanoethat’s correct; there was a Portuguese occupation in Japan long ago where some language exchanges occurred, and so similarities are sometimes seen. Né is one such example.

[@thematthew761]

Japanese borrowed it from Portuguese

[@matzekatze7500]

​@@EleetCanoeI'm pretty sure it existed before

[@nickpatella1525]

@@darthslobbius487Unlikely to be the case. The nuances do not perfectly match, i.e. ね is not a tag question. Additionally, ね/ねえ has more use cases outside of just coming at the end of a sentence, for instance it can come in the middle of a sentence to engage the listener and check that they are following what you're saying, and it can be used as an exclamation to get someone's attention. Additionally, the timelines don't match. The Portuguese were expelled from Japan almost two centuries before the first instances of ね/ねえ appear. It is more likely that it evolved from な/なあ or の/のう, which have been in Japanese for much longer, and share similar uses.

[@OfficialIvy2006]

In case someone didn't tell you before, が doesn't actually marks something a subject, but rather identifies something unknown (i.e. in answers to questions), emphasizing what comes before. Tae Kim called this the "identifier particle" in their grammar guide. ケーキがおいしいです。This sentence, meaning "Cake is delicious." has context nuance of what is delicious, i.e. "Cake is (the one that is) delicious." The same can be done for questions as well when something unidentified is mentioned first. 何がおいしいですか？"What is (the one that is) delicious?"

[@matoikazamaki9522]

It's identifying the subject specifically, so you can't really say that it doesn't mark it. It's just that japanese being a topic prominent language, it doesn't rely on expliciting the subject so much, meaning that when it does it's usually to mark the focus on it (and thus identifying it). But you can't use が to "identify" anything else than the subject.

[@Minastir1]

目は綺麗です, は has the extra meaning of excluding everything else, if you don't want that, you can use も

[@RpRm]

This stuff was such a huge barrier to get behind... finally. Now I also know why direct translations for those particles sounded strange and artificial, I think just watching the wa/ga part made the process of building sentences so much easier! Vocabulary can be picked up anywhere, anytime, if you get behind the structure of the language, but those tiny particles are the real deal. This revelation also already has some implications regarding the other particles.(I only watched the first part, yet)

[@Jellylamps]

I really needed that tea break

[@FreeBirdJPYT]

I needed it more than you :D

[@steesy-loly]

ty for also explaining the grammar of the english sentences, im learning japanese using english videos but english isnt even my first language XD. So this helped a lot!!

[@minejaller]

really nice video, though im missing the honorable mention of へ 👍🏻

[@InfernusFlamesKaito]

Been loving these videos

[@FreeBirdJPYT]

@@InfernusFlamesKaito thank u ☺️ it’s

[@poof117]

Bro! Amazing video, please make more. You make me think of cure dolly and jouzu juls with your approach to grammar. Thanks again🎉🎉

[@frenchertoast]

I really hoped you would be covering all of the different "ifs" in japanese (なら、ならば、たら、と、もし、もしも, and maybe more). I know they're linguisticly not particles, but so isn't けど, and they have the same type of confusion surrounding them.

[@matzekatze7500]

What is the confusion there for you?

[@coolbrotherf127]

I wish I had this when I started learning years ago. Would have made my learning a lot faster than trying to look up these in textbooks and language forums.

[@ghustaffstrudiewic6926]

That was quite good

[@hitathighs]

22:38 do not expect the PvZ song!

[@RiotSSB]

Another fantastic video! Thank you!!!

[@TylerCMilligan]

It's just called a 24-Hour Clock Military time is good for America. Could also say Continental Time. I think US railroads used this too and it was referred as railway time too

[@vertical6866]

great video

[@haranodo]

first of all, good to know you're feeling better! secondly, godly video

[@randomchumbud121]

Great video! Btw, we call KZbin “ユーチューブ” not “ユーチーブ” it’s fine though I just wanted to say. Edit: You wrote it right at later time! I didn’t even need to say that my bad 😣

[@udonge1043]

amazing video. i think you should deep fry the creature in your background

[@SrIgort]

Holy shit i hope these things just click for me in the future 😭

[@Rodrigo-pg7jj]

gracias! no entendia nada de las particulas! hace mas videos asi!

[@billygoatguy3960]

good video

[@FreeBirdJPYT]

thank u

[@user-qy1gw9is4m]

発音ガチおもろい草

[@WaffleCake]

This man is making me fall in love with him without even a grain of direct effort. Bless you man.

[@FreeBirdJPYT]

@@WaffleCake first time I’ve heard that 😂

[@talkingtakotaco8611]

Cirno

[@pokhuthird1194]

KZbin isn't splitting the video into chapters for the chapters that only have 1 letter. You can fix this by adding a few more letters, so maybe you can write を (o) instead, and similarly for the other chapters. Also, what textbooks do you recommend?

[@FreeBirdJPYT]

fixed it! as for textbooks, I'm not sure. I've used a couple. I would not recommend Genki, but I would recommend日本語総まとめ

[@NuclearEars]

​@@FreeBirdJPYT Why not Genki?

[@FreeBirdJPYT]

@@NuclearEars they don’t explain verbs well

[@townaldtrump1316]

🎉clear enough

[@askadia]

Looking for "receptive auxilliary verbs" on google gave me no result. Could you provide a source for your claim about Japanese having receptive auxilliary verbs? Thank you

[@bennybarcellos6098]

I'm no expert, but here's my best guess at what's happening here. What most texts (and Wiktionary) call "passive" form is formed by attaching られる to the mizenkai form. られる isn't itself a conjugation - it is an "auxiliary" verb that turns the verb into a new, passive verb. So, there's the auxiliary part. The argument against treating the japanese passive as an english "passive" might come from Jay Rubin's book - www.google.com/books/edition/Making_Sense_of_Japanese/HSkOEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1. At least, that book is famous enough that many people will have likely read it there. It also comes up in a Cure Dolly video where it is argued that the passive isn't really passive and should be called the "receptive" form. I honestly can't find any other mention of this anywhere, and I can't force myself to watch Cure Dolly videos, so I could be talking out of my ass. For something that the video author states with such apparent authority, you think it would be easier to find corroboration... It was overall a pretty helpful video, and I ended up doing a lot of additional research based on some stuff he said that I didn't know.

[@creeperking0017]

the oldest komment is 5 hours ago, my youtube says it was uploaded 1 hour ago 😭 the video that broke youtube

[@FreeBirdJPYT]

It was a premiere

[@queahs]

that's what し said. の but seriously though i have a question. why is it 死に神 and not 死の神?

[@FreeBirdJPYT]

死に is the noun form of 死ぬ so this isn't a particle here.

[@チヱ]

Your analysis of ｢私はイチゴが好きです。｣ is inaccurate. It's a common explanation that teachers give learners, but it breaks down in further analysis, so actual grammarians have a different explanation. In this sentence, 私 serves as both a topic and a subject, イチゴ is an object, and 好き is an adjectival noun. This usage of が is called object-marking が, and it shows up in sentences like ｢誰が英語が上手ですか？｣ and ｢僕がお寿司が食べたいことを、何度言ったら分かるのですか？｣. If you are to recognize 英語 and お寿司 in these sentences as subjects, then it would result in a double-subject construction. Double-subjects are allowed in Japanese, but we know these sentences don't have double-subjects because omitting the first subject would make an elliptical sentence, something that doesn't happen with true double-subject sentences.

[@GT7Takumi]

Your wild if you think anyone here is reading all that 😭

[@adriangd5040]

this NEEDS a pin

[@plaidratz]

@@GT7Takumiit’s a moderately sized paragraph that’s trying to help? how is it wild to read 5 sentences? of all people, it would be the viewers of a video like this to want to read this.

[@matoikazamaki9522]

​@@GT7Takumi brainrot comment from someone's whose attention span has been irreversibly damaged by tiktok type of content

[@GT7Takumi]

@@matoikazamaki9522 mans genuinely offended over a comment 💀

[@trektn]

In the end i still didnt get the particles

[@FreeBirdJPYT]

@@trektn that’s fine. It takes practice

[@technomancer_066]

sentance

[@atPhamThanh-vt3mt]

I've been taught that the particle を indicates the place that will be crossed/passed through after the action (using verbs of motion). For example, 橋を渡る。So does this mean it's a new function of を or it's just an example that fits your description. Can you explain it for me pls?

[@FreeBirdJPYT]

@@atPhamThanh-vt3mt yeah it could be that as well. Anything that’s the direct object grammatically of a verb. Like I want to say “I’m looking at the moon” I would say 月を見ている. Even though in English we use “at” in Japanese the direct object of 見る is 月 so we use を

[@atPhamThanh-vt3mt]

@@FreeBirdJPYT oh okay thanks

[@wakeinjunenrico]

I'm still confused about ga/wa and basically the difference between what's a subject and what's a topic.. like should the wa and ga be switched in "ore wa ochinchin ga daisuki nandayo" (sorry for pink guy reference)

[@FreeBirdJPYT]

The topic is 俺 and the subject is おチンチン

[@justbear9641]

2:45 aww, but i am sorry, i like cirno fumo more than you.

[@DanielMemeSmith]

Baka fall

[@FreeBirdJPYT]

@@DanielMemeSmith funky fall

[@MyJapaneseLove]

umm why isn't there the particle て even though it's one of the most used ?

[@zezus001]

て is not a particle unless you mean って or the te form

[@FreeBirdJPYT]

@@MyJapaneseLove that’s not a particle, it’s the form of a verb.

[@WilliMel]

bro u still didn’t explain は and が any different from the textbooks hate to break it to you. It’s more than just those two examples

[@ChernPlayz]

Best video i found on particles, but i have some question: 1) i seen a video saying b4 at 8:40 which is like in eng, u will add に if there is at, on, in + time, for example "at 7am" ７時に, but words like "this morning" that doesn't require "at, or, in" don't need to add に, so it's just be 今朝 2) why tf do i learn 午前 and 午後 for lol 3) 25:49 so the func of の is like a gerund like? also what's the difference between の and こと normaliser

[@FreeBirdJPYT]

@@ChernPlayz you learn 午前 and 午後 because it roughly approximates to a.m. p.m. and for words that talk about generalities and time, you don’t use it. You use it with stuff that would translate things like “o’clock” or dates.

[@ChernPlayz]

@@FreeBirdJPYT i just finished watching the vid, i also like kaname and cheif :D, anyways can u answer my 3rd question tq :>

[@FreeBirdJPYT]

@@ChernPlayz the difference between こと and の is that こと is a noun, not a particle. I originally had a section that explained the differences, but it varies mostly by expressions.

[@tydude]

toe

[@linfyuan6754]

英語には「は」の意味と等しい言葉存在しないと思うんです

[@FreeBirdJPYT]

英語には助詞がないですので等しい言葉存在がありません。

[@Oceanwaves-d8l]

2:08 Duolingo uses "ケ-キ*は*おいしいです"??

[@Otskaa-k9x]

It's putting emphasis on ケーキ like, LOOK AT THIS CAKE! it is oshi 😋

[@Oceanwaves-d8l]

@@Otskaa-k9x Oh thanks! So it could be bother は or が but が is less emphasis?

[@Otskaa-k9x]

@Oceanwaves-d8l i think I might have been mistaken, a youtube video later and I'll try to explain, the fundamental difference between the は and が particles is where they place emphasis, は(topic partical) for example points empathy this way;「__ は→____」 while が points empathys this way 「__←が___」 This sentence for example, 「これ__おおきいぬです」 は would say, "this right here?? Is big dog!" (Topic partical) While が would say "THIS! is a big dog." Like in the video, the guy says, "for example you ask what a big dog is" (Subject partical) Again! Sorry for the confusion!

[@Otskaa-k9x]

@Oceanwaves-d8l so yeah it can be both, however, they both have as much emphasis, just in opposite directions

[@Oceanwaves-d8l]

@@Otskaa-k9x Ah ok! Thank you so much for the explanation! :)

[@elijahjflowers]

Is Kaname Naito quality though? From what i've seen, he goes in depth pretty well about w/e topic he's speaking on. I don't like watching his videos because he comes off as a smug asshole, but that's 100% my opinion.

[@FreeBirdJPYT]

@@elijahjflowers he is good, I like his videos. Personally though I think his example sentence segments/dialogue goes on way too long.

[@matzekatze7500]

Why insulting him though lol

[@FreeBirdJPYT]

@@matzekatze7500 I’m not insulting him, I’m criticizing his contact. Those are different things.

[@matzekatze7500]

@@FreeBirdJPYT I meant the comment above

[@hpux735]

Wait... Has duo been teaching me 午後 for no damn reason!? I use 24-hour time (the better name than "military time") at home anyway, I'd much rather use than than 午後.

[@FreeBirdJPYT]

@@hpux735 yeah they use 24H time. Duolingo is awful. It will teach you hiragana and katakana, but it’s more of a video game than anything. It’s good for children though

[@Givetheplant]

Is busuu/japanese from zero/genki good resources? I have the books and app

[@creeperking0017]

using kreepypasta musik it makes it hav such a sad undertone like ur telling something genuenly depressing

[@FreeBirdJPYT]

@@creeperking0017 what creepy pasta music?

[@creeperking0017]

@@FreeBirdJPYT oh i mean ur bakground musik of choiss, its komonly used in kreepypastas so the entire video almost has like this "sad tale" energy

[@FreeBirdJPYT]

@@creeperking0017 you mean Gymnopedie?

[@creeperking0017]

@@FreeBirdJPYT yuessss

[@arozinos863]

It's funny because you get taught all of that in Genki, yet you still bash textbooks. How about you actually read a textbook before stopping people from buying it? I really like your video, but I just don't understand this textbook bashing everywhere.

[@FreeBirdJPYT]

i completed both Genki textbooks. my beef with genki is the way they deal with verbs

[@tempeztfox]

Valid lol​@@FreeBirdJPYT

[@retrofilmwork]

I ditched genki halfway. I'm better at my language now. Sometimes books aren't for a few people.

[@arozinos863]

@@retrofilmwork Yeah, but that's not a flaw of the book is it

[@retrofilmwork]

@@arozinos863 you are a genki person are you?