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Questions & Answers about watasi ha asita hima desu.
What is the role of the particle は in 私 は 明日 暇 です?
は is the topic marker. It tells the listener that we’re talking about 私 (“I”). You can think of it as “As for me…” rather than a strict subject marker. In more casual speech you can drop 私 は entirely, but in polite or clear contexts you keep は to set the topic.
Why is there no particle after 明日?
Time expressions like 明日, 今日, 来週 often function adverbially and don’t require に. You can say 明日に暇です, but it sounds stiff or awkward. Native speakers normally omit に in such simple time‐of‐occurrence phrases.
What part of speech is 暇 and how does it work?
暇 (ひま) is a な-adjective (also called a noun-adjective). When it comes before です, you just insert です after it:
暇 + です → 暇です
If you remove です in casual speech, you need だ:
暇 + だ → 暇だ
So 暇 behaves like a noun that needs な when directly qualifying another noun (e.g. 暇な時間 “free time”), but here it’s simply “is free.”
Why is です used at the end, and what does it add?
です is the polite copula (linking verb) in Japanese. It turns the adjective/noun phrase into polite speech. It’s roughly like saying “am/is/are” politely. In casual speech you could say 私 (は) 明日 暇だ, using だ instead of です.
Can you omit 私 and still be understood?
Yes. Japanese often drops pronouns if context is clear. Saying 明日 暇です or even 明日 暇 (casual) is perfectly natural once the listener knows you’re talking about yourself.
What’s the word order in 私 は 明日 暇 です, and can it change?
Basic order is Topic–Time–Predicate:
私 は (topic) → 明日 (time) → 暇 (な-adjective) → です (copula)
You can move 明日 to the front for emphasis: 明日 私は暇です, or omit 私は, but you normally keep the internal order of topic, time, then predicate.
Is there a difference between 暇 and “free” in English?
They’re similar but not identical. 暇 means having time with nothing scheduled (“I have spare time”). English “free” can mean “available” (e.g. “I’m free to talk”), which matches 暇. But you wouldn’t use 暇 for “free of charge”—that’s 無料. So context matters.