が (1)　
　

昔昔... お爺さんが...
mukashi mukashi ... ojiisan ga ...
Habia una vez un anciano

Significado (1):

The Subject Of A Sentence

Perhaps the most common way to use が is to mark the subject of the sentence. This can be a little confusing as times because many times the subject of a sentence is also the topic of the sentence, and the topic gets the particle は (wa).

So there are a couple of strategies that I want to share with you to help you know when to use が correctly.

The first piece of advice comes from a gentleman named Tae Kim who says: “I call it the identifier particle because the particle indicates that the speaker wants to identify something unspecified.”

This helps explain why が gets used so often with question words such as “who” in Japanese.

誰が来るの？

dare ga kuru no?

Who is coming (to the party)?

It also helps explain why people will point to themselves and say things like 「私が？」 for “me?” when they want to ask if someone is talking about them.

Another thing to keep in mind, and this is related to that last tip, is that が presents new information in a conversation. For Ejemplo, if you were going for a walk with a friend and you saw a cat, you would say:

あそこにネゴがいる！

asoko ni neko ga iru!

There’s a cat over there!

Since neither of you knew there was a cat, you are presenting new information when you point it out. From this point on in the conversation however, you both know about this cat’s existence and so when you talk about it further you might actually use は instead.

Another little trick to knowing when to use が is to think of this particle as “the one, the thing” in English. If you can say something like “Yamada is the one who ate the cake” then you can just replace those two words with the が particle.

山田さんがケーキを食べました。

yamada san ga kēki o tabemashita.

Yamada (is the one who) ate the cake.

The final piece of advice that I have is simply to read and listen to a lot of Japanese. When you get a lot of input, over time you begin to get a natural feel for when it is right to use が and when you should actually use another option (such as は).

This strategy is actually how most people understand and use most of the grammar in their native language. They don’t actually know “the rules” for when to use it, but they’ve heard is countless times and they have an unconscious understanding of when it is correct.

Estudiamos が en el JLPT5. Aquí vemos nuevos usos.

が ga se utiliza para introducir en la conversación elementos que no han aparecido anteriormente.

あそこで子供が走っています。
asoko de kodomo ga hashitte imasu
Hay niños correteando por allí

El típico ejemplo de este uso de が ga se da en los cuentos.

Al contar un cuento presentamos primero a los personajes mediante が ga y luego sacamos a algún personaje como tema para contar algo de él.

昔昔山を越え赤鬼と青鬼が住んでいました。
mukashi mukashi, yama o koe aka oni to ao oni ga sunde imashita.
Hace muho tiempo, más allá de las montañas, vivían un ogro verdec y un ogro azul.

Su, una vez introducido un personaje en la historia, quisiéramos contar algo de él lo sacaremos como tema mediante la partícula de tema ga para contar algo de él, (que se había ido al monte a cortar leña o al rio a pescar o lo que sea) que es de lo que se trata.

赤鬼と青鬼が住んでいました。
mukashi mukashi, yama o koe aka oni to ao oni ga sunde imashita.
Hace muho tiempo, más allá de las montañas, vivían un ogro verdec y un ogro azul.

赤鬼は子供が大好きで、いつもどうやったら友達になれるか考えていました。
akaoni wa kodomo ga daisuki de, itsumo douyattara tomodachi ni nareru ka kangaete imashita.
Como al ogro verdec le gustaban mucho los niños andaba siempre pensando en cómo hacerse amigo suyo.

Estas frases las explico en detalle aquí.

が se utilizatambién para introducir en la conversación elementos que, aunque hayan aparecido anteriormente, se han desactivado ya en la mente del hablante.

Vimos esto también aquí

Used To Connect Clauses

I don’t really like using the word “clauses” since it brings back bad memories of grammar class when I was in middle school.

Is it just me?

Anyway, I looked up the definition and the key part is that a clause is “a grammatical unit, below the sentence in rank” which is not a bad way to think of it.

So, it’s not quite a full sentence but it’s more than just a word.

At any rate, the particle が is commonly used to connect two clauses together which then forms a complete sentence.

Usually, we do this in English with the words “but,” “although” or “and.”

The particle が can effectively function as any of those three words above when connecting clauses together in Japanese. I would say that “but” is by far the most common translation.

映画は好きだが、アニメは好きではない。

eiga wa suki da ga, anime wa suki de wa nai.

(I) like movies, but not anime.

If you are familiar with the Japanese word けど (kedo) for “but” then using が in this way should be easy since they both mean the same thing, but が it typically seen as being more formal.

That means が will typically appear more in writing or in situations like a business meeting or a speech where formality is important, but when people are speaking with friends they will usually opt for けど instead.

Lastly, I think it’s important to keep in mind that が can sometimes mean “and” in these situations, although it’s not quite as common.

If you’re reading something and you see a が connecting two clauses, and thinking of the word “but” doesn’t make any sense, try substituting it for “and” and see if that solves the problem.

kimi

Japolatino

The Subject Of A Sentence

Used To Connect Clauses