doa wa sono shunkan ni aita.

topic particle

Breakdown of doa wa sono shunkan ni aita.

• に: indirect object particle
• その: that
• ドア: door

Questions & Answers about doa wa sono shunkan ni aita.

Why are there spaces between the words?

In normal Japanese writing, there are usually no spaces between words.

So this sentence would normally be written as:

ドアはその瞬間に開いた。

The spaces here are just a learning aid to make the parts easier to see.

Why is ドア written in katakana?

ドア is a loanword, from English door, so it is written in katakana.

Katakana is often used for:

• foreign loanwords
• onomatopoeia
• emphasis
• some technical terms

So ドア is the standard way to write door in Japanese.

Why is there は after ドア?

は marks the topic of the sentence.

So ドアは means something like:

• as for the door
• the door, ...

The sentence is telling you what happened with the door: it opened at that moment.

This does not necessarily mean strong contrast by itself. Often it just introduces the thing being talked about.

Why not use が instead of は?