Quote:
Originally Posted by Lonthego
は and が is truly the bane of Japanese language learners, even those who have been studying for years..the problem is that if a Japanese textbook were to introduce all their nuances and uses, it would turn beginning students off and they might be discouraged and confused.
In terms of what you have learned so far, there COULD be は instead of が when using あります and います, especially if we are talking in terms of contrast.
You wrote 水がありますか
If you asked that, I could reply 水はありますけど。。
I have water, but..(I don't have a glass)
It's showing contrast, you do have X, but not Y..it's hard to convey in writing because in English we express this by intonation and stress, not actual words or particles.
Or you could say タバコはありますが、火はありません (or ライターはありません） I have a cigarette, BUT I don't have a light
火 = a light in this context, like we say it in English
Or you are at a party, you ask a friend if Mizuki and Ken are here, that friend might say
みずきはいるけど、けんはまだ来てないよ Mizuki is here, but Ken hasn't come yet
を can be replaced by は as well to show contrast. Showing contrast is just another huge part of the whole は が fiasco that has to dealt with..but there's no need to learn it all at once, you can pick it up as you progress. To avoid confusion most textbooks I think do not introduce both Xがありますか as in asking if you have something and also using は to show contrast at the same time, so maybe it's in another chapter or something.
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I understand they are trying not to confuse people, but it is very upseting and lazy on their half. If they are going to bother making a book to teach a language, why make mistakes?
If GA in these sentences, talks about a specific item, why wouldn't they introduce the sentence pattern with WA instead, if it is the usual thing you say.
It is like a English book saying, well to avoid confusion, we will just let you put the word 'a' infront of another word with a vowel. Or not even try to talk about the difference between A and the and let you just look stupid while talking your whole life.
But i think its worse than that, because I am very confused. I don't think it would be that hard to give a little bit of an attempt to give the difference between the two sentences Something Ga iru/aru and something WA iru/aru.
What I wanna know is, if your generally talking to someone. Maybe at their house. "hey, do you have a book?"
or. At a restraunt, just asking "do you have beer?"
What do I do?
I mean, its hard to learn a language, if nowhere explains this difference between these sentence paterns. I have all 3 of the living language books, but none of them ever gives any sentence SOMETHING WA aru/iru. Ever. So I am completely shocked when I hear that useing Ga is actually talking about specific things, yet even hearing that I am still confused.