The Particle は

The particle は is pronounced ’わ’。

I love particles. I was teaching a lesson on English phrasal verbs a few weeks back and I gave the 'official' explanation which was met with blank stares from my students. Then I told them that particles are essentially the 'garbage can' of grammar. Anything that does not fit into another part of speech like nouns, adjectives, etc. are particles. I told them all they have to remember is that particles are 'thing-a-ma-jigs.' They liked that!

I think TextFugu did a particularly nice job of explaining Japanese particles.

However, unlike the particles in English phrasal verbs, は actually serves a grammatical purpose.

は in Action

AはBです

は means 'A is B.'

AはBじゃありません

 は means 'A is not B.'

 AはBでした

 は means 'A was B.'

AはBじゃありませんでした

 は means 'A was not B.'

~Happy, Happy Japanese Learning to You!~