kono shousetsu wa koi no hanashi desu.

topic particle

Breakdown of kono shousetsu wa koi no hanashi desu.

• です: to be
• の: possessive case particle
• この: this

Questions & Answers about kono shousetsu wa koi no hanashi desu.

How is this sentence pronounced?

It is pronounced:

Kono shōsetsu wa koi no hanashi desu.

A few notes:

• この = kono
• 小説 = shōsetsu
• は is written ha but here pronounced wa
• 恋 = koi
• の = no
• 話 = hanashi
• です = desu (often sounds closer to des in normal speech)

Why is は pronounced wa here instead of ha?

When は is used as the topic particle, it is pronounced wa, not ha.

So in:

この小説は恋の話です。

the は marks この小説 as the topic: as for this novel...

This is a very common thing in Japanese:

• 私は学生です。 = Watashi wa gakusei desu.
• 今日は暑いです。 = Kyō wa atsui desu.

Even though the character is は, the pronunciation as a particle is wa.

What exactly does この mean here?