明日 の 夕方 は 都合 が いい です か。ashita no yuugata wa tsugou ga ii desu ka.
Are you available tomorrow evening?
Breakdown of ashita no yuugata wa tsugou ga ii desu ka.
はwa
topic particle
ですdesu
to be
かka
question particle
がga
subject particle
Questions & Answers about ashita no yuugata wa tsugou ga ii desu ka.
What does the の between 明日 and 夕方 do?
- It links the two nouns so that 明日 modifies 夕方: 明日の夕方 = “tomorrow’s evening.”
- This noun-to-noun linker is very common in Japanese. In English we don’t usually say “tomorrow’s evening,” but in Japanese it’s the natural way to say “tomorrow evening.”
Why is は after 夕方? Could I use が there?
- は marks the topic: 明日の夕方は… = “As for tomorrow evening, …”
- In this sentence, the thing being evaluated is your 都合 (convenience), not the time itself. So the time is a topic, not the grammatical subject.
- Don’t replace that は with が. A structure like 明日の夕方が都合がいいですか is unnatural here because 都合 is the subject of いい (it already has が).
Why is there a が before いい (都合がいい)?
- It’s the pattern X が いい/悪い meaning “X is good/bad.” Here, 都合 (convenience/availability) is the subject of the adjective いい.
- Negative: 都合が悪い = “(someone is) not available / it’s inconvenient.”
What exactly does 都合 mean?
- 都合 (つごう) means “one’s circumstances/convenience,” especially regarding schedule and availability.
- 都合がいい = “fits my schedule / works for me.” It’s not about moral “good,” but about whether you can make it.
- Opposite: 都合が悪い = “doesn’t work / I can’t make it.”
