Help me with ga and wa and o

[TyPe-ZeRo]

Alright currently im reading Japanese for dummies (in which i am :( ) and it's going on about how ga and wa are used.

To my understanding 'wa' is used to mark a topic and 'ga' particle is used after wa and used after a noun to show to what happened to wa so im a bit confused

lets say i wanted to say "Yesterday my xbox exploded" and for exploded i think "bakuhasu" means exploded so lemme try and form a sentence

"Kino wa, ore ga no xbox o bakuhasu"

sorry if i sound retarded :(

so any help would be GREATLY appreciated :P cuz im really confused and i've been wanting to take my studying seriously and i've finally found my time to!

[Glenn]

"Kino wa, ore ga no xbox o bakuhasu"

Explode is 爆発する (bakuhatsu suru). To say "yesterday my XBox exploded," I would say 昨日XBoxが爆発してしまった (Kinou XBox ga bakuhatsu shiteshimatta). "Kinou" doesn't need "wa" unless you are saying that it was yesterday that the XBox exploded, and not two days ago, etc. You can't use "ga" and "no" concatenated like you have as far as I know. They are two different particles with different functions, and nouns only need to be marked by one particle (otherwise it would have more than one function in a sentence, and that would just be impossible). If you mark "XBox" with "o," then you are marking it as a direct object, which means that the following verb should be transitive. "Bakuhatsu suru" appears to be an intransitive verb, with its transitive version being "bakuhatsu saseru." So, you don't need "o" in this sentence. By the way, you don't really have a verb in your sentence, unless you're using "newspaper speak." "Bakuhatsu" means "explosion."

To say "my" you should use "watashi/ore/boku, etc. no X." So "my XBox" would be "ore no XBox." However, I don't think that you need "ore no" here because just saying "XBox ga" gives the impression that it's yours (I think). I know that I've heard this before in expressions like "me ga! me ga!" (my eyes! my eyes!) and similarly "ashi ga!" (my foot!).

As for the "shite shimatta" part, "-te shimau" means that some action is done completely or regrettably, and for something to explode would be both complete and regrettable, so I decided that it should be used here.

More on "wa:"

"wa" and "ga" (http://www.sf.airnet.ne.jp/~ts/japanese/message/jpnDTQuqI_wDTPlaYu9.html)
Particles ( http://www.mindspring.com/~kimall/Japanese/particles.html)
topic and case (http://www.sf.airnet.ne.jp/~ts/japanese/message/jpnDpWbx1RcDpQ_078i.html)
Re:topic and case (http://www.sf.airnet.ne.jp/~ts/japanese/message/jpnE-GRL2K7E-Fq8ifX.html)

That should be enough for now. I believe that those links will help to clear things up for you. If not, we'll be glad to help you sift through it all. :)

[TyPe-ZeRo]

Okay from reading what you said above lets see if we see eye to eye on things :P cuz im kinda slow and i'm really greatful that you've taken your time to help me, even though there are stickies meant for these types of questions :

"Kinou" doesn't need "wa" unless you are saying that it was yesterday that the XBox exploded, and not two days ago, etc.

So, wa is only used to clarify something like if I said "I went shopping yesterday" but somehow someone responds "you went shopping the day before yesterday?" and again I respond "No, Yesterday (wa)" then would the Wa Particle be used? from my understanding of what you said, its used to stress something?


If you mark "XBox" with "o," then you are marking it as a direct object, which means that the following verb should be transitive. "Bakuhatsu suru" appears to be an intransitive verb, with its transitive version being "bakuhatsu saseru." So, you don't need "o" in this sentence. By the way, you don't really have a verb in your sentence, unless you're using "newspaper speak." "Bakuhatsu" means "explosion."

You lost me. I think i have a grasp of the meaning transitive verbs, however you say bakuhatsu is an intransitive verb, what makes bakuhatsu, or an explosion NOT transitive? What is the rule of thumb one would have to know to not make another mistake like this?

To say "my" you should use "watashi/ore/boku, etc. no X." So "my XBox" would be "ore no XBox." However, I don't think that you need "ore no" here because just saying "XBox ga" gives the impression that it's yours (I think). I know that I've heard this before in expressions like "me ga! me ga!" (my eyes! my eyes!) and similarly "ashi ga!" (my foot!).

So if I wanted to keep this sentence formal, like a business meeting or something of the sort, would "watakushi no xBox" be considered correct or plain wrong. I think watakushi is the formal version of watashi or ore

As for the "shite shimatta" part, "-te shimau" means that some action is done completely or regrettably, and for something to explode would be both complete and regrettable, so I decided that it should be used here.

Shitte shimatta, and you say that it means an action was done completely or regrettably. So would it be possible to use this in a positive way? As in "John has completed his report." doing something like this wouldn't be regrettable but it was "done completely"


Alright sorry if I might've sounded a bit rude or something but I just wanted to be as clear as possible without any confusion. Again I wish to thank you for helping me out on this Japanese :P

[Glenn]

So, wa is only used to clarify something like if I said "I went shopping yesterday" but somehow someone responds "you went shopping the day before yesterday?" and again I respond "No, Yesterday (wa)" then would the Wa Particle be used? from my understanding of what you said, its used to stress something?

It can be used as a contrastive marker or a topic marker. It is most often a contrastive marker in negative sentences, but can also mark contrast in positive sentences. Really, not having "wa" allows something to be a focus, that is, emphasized. It gets kind of tricky at this point, though, and I get confused when to use which sometimes.

Alright, let's say someone asks "what did you do yesterday?" You can answer "I went shopping (yesterday)." Here, "yesterday" is old information, so it can be omitted or marked with the topic marker. In Japanese, it would be this: "Kinou nani o shita ka." "(Kinou wa) kaimono ni itta." Now, someone could ask "Did you go shopping today?" To which you could reply "No, I went shopping yesterday." Here, "yesterday" is contrasted in the answer with the "today" in the question, so you would use the contrasting marker "wa." In Japanese, it would be: "Kyou kaimono ni itta ka?" "Iie. Kinou wa kaimono ni itta yo." I think that all of this is better explained here (http://www.sf.airnet.ne.jp/~ts/japanese/topicfocus.html).

You lost me. I think i have a grasp of the meaning transitive verbs, however you say bakuhatsu is an intransitive verb, what makes bakuhatsu, or an explosion NOT transitive? What is the rule of thumb one would have to know to not make another mistake like this?

It is intransitive because the XBox explodes, but it doesn't cause any effect on any other thing. If the XBox blew up the TV, then you would use a transitive verb (bakuhatsu saseru). "Blow up" in English can be either transitive or intransitive, and in this case it is transitive (the case of the XBox blowing up the TV). For more on this see transitive/intransitive verb pairs (http://www.sf.airnet.ne.jp/~ts/japanese/message/jpnEUwEoW7XEUhMPq0e.html).

So if I wanted to keep this sentence formal, like a business meeting or something of the sort, would "watakushi no xBox" be considered correct or plain wrong. I think watakushi is the formal version of watashi or ore

Right, watakushi is the most formal way to refer to yourself, and it would be appropriate for business situations and such.

Shitte shimatta, and you say that it means an action was done completely or regrettably. So would it be possible to use this in a positive way? As in "John has completed his report." doing something like this wouldn't be regrettable but it was "done completely"

That's right, it can just mean "do completely," and it can also be used in the non-past form. E.g. Kuji made ni shukudai o shiteshimau tsumori da. (I plan to have finished my homework by 9 o'clock.)

[mdchachi]

> Kino wa, ore ga no xbox o bakuhasu


The key points are

- there's usually no need to put wa on kinou, kyou, etc. When in doubt leave it off. (Unless of course it's clearly the topic as in "Yesterday was cold.")
- "no" never follows "ga". "Ore no xbox" is better. (And the "ore no" is usually left unstated.)
- "bakuhatsu" means "explosion." bakuhatsu-shita or bakuhatsu-shimashita means "exploded." As Glenn said, this last is intransitive hence you wouldn't use the "o" particle.
- your xbox is the subject and is what exploded, hence it should take "ga."

Therefore we end up with:

kinou (ore no) xbox ga bakuhatsu-shita

Actually "kinou wa" is not necessarily incorrect. So don't worry about that aspect. At this point, you don't need to worry about differences in nuance.
Also don't worry about shimau/shimatta. You've already got plenty to digest.


The transitive/intransitive thing is an important part of the language and difficult to grasp because we have words that fulfill both roles. For example "I broke my xbox" and "My xbox broke". In English we use "broke" for both transitive & intransitive. In Japanese they are different (kowasu vs kowareru). Don't worry about this too much either. Advanced learners don't always get these right either. For now, just be aware of the issue.

[PaulTB]

昨日我がxboxが爆発なさいました。
sakujitsu waga xbox ga bakuhatsu nasaimashita. <-めちゃくちゃ変！ ;-)