kono shouhin wa mishiyou desu.

topic particle

Breakdown of kono shouhin wa mishiyou desu.

• です: to be
• この: this
• 商品しょうひん: item

Questions & Answers about kono shouhin wa mishiyou desu.

How is this sentence read aloud?

It’s read:

この しょうひん は みしよう です。

In normal writing, it would usually appear without spaces:

この商品は未使用です。

A natural pronunciation is roughly:

kono shōhin wa mishiyō desu

A few pronunciation notes:

• 商品 = しょうひん
• 未使用 = みしよう
• The particle は is written ha but pronounced wa in this sentence.

Why is は pronounced wa here instead of ha?

Because は is being used as a particle, specifically the topic marker.

When は is part of a word, it is usually pronounced ha.
But when it functions as the topic particle, it is pronounced wa.

So:

• この商品は = As for this product, ...

This is one of the first pronunciation exceptions Japanese learners encounter.

What exactly is この doing here?