Learn Hardcore Japanese: watasi no tuma ha kaisyain desu ga, syuumatu ha ie de yukkuri simasu. - My wife is an office worker, but on weekends she relaxes at home.

私の妻は → "As for my wife, ..." (main topic)
週末は → "As for weekends, ..." (subtopic: specifically talking about weekends with respect to the wife)

The sentence structure is basically:

As for my wife, she is an office worker, but
as for weekends, (she) relaxes at home.

So multiple は is fine: they mark what you’re framing the statement around.

Why is は used after 妻, not が? What’s the difference between は and が here?

In this sentence, 妻は is setting "my wife" as the topic, not simply marking it as the grammatical subject.

は: marks the topic (what we’re talking about), often gives a broad, background statement.
が: marks the subject and often introduces new, specific, or contrasting information.

私の妻は会社員です = "As for my wife, she is an office worker" (neutral, descriptive).
If you said 私の妻が会社員です, it can sound like:

"It’s my wife who is the office worker" (contrastive/emphasizing my wife among others).

For a simple description about someone you’ve already introduced, は is most natural.

What exactly does 会社員 (かいしゃいん) mean? How is it different from words like サラリーマン or 社員?

会社員 (kaishain) literally means "company employee" and is a neutral, relatively formal word.

会社 (kaisha) = company
員 (in) = member, staff

Differences:

会社員: general "company employee," gender‑neutral, polite and safe in most situations.
サラリーマン: comes from "salaryman"; usually implies a male office worker, more casual, can sound stereotypical.
社員 (shain): employee of a specific company, often used with the company name:
- トヨタの社員 = an employee of Toyota.

In your sentence, 会社員 is the best neutral choice.

Why is there です before が? What does ですが do here?

ですが here links two clauses:

です (desu): polite copula ("is/am/are") ending the first statement.
が (ga): conjunction meaning "but" or "although."

So 会社員ですが = "she is a company employee, but..."

Nuances:

ですが is softer and more polite than just でも at the start of the next sentence.
Often in conversation, ですが can also feel like a soft transition rather than a strong "but," almost like "and" or "and yet."

Here it’s: "My wife is an office worker, but on weekends she relaxes at home."

What does で mean in 家でゆっくりします? Why not 家に?

で (de) marks the place where an action happens.

家でゆっくりします = "relax at home" (home is the place where the relaxing is done).

に (ni) is more for:

destination (where you go to) → 家に帰ります = I go/return home.
location of existence → 家にいます = I am at home.

Here, ゆっくりします is an action, so you use で:

家でゆっくりします = (She) relaxes at home.

What exactly does ゆっくりします mean? Why is します used with ゆっくり?

ゆっくり (yukkuri) is an adverb meaning "slowly," "leisurely," "unhurriedly," or "at ease."

When you say ゆっくりします, it means something like:

"take it easy"
"relax"
"spend time at leisure"

Grammatically, します is the general verb "to do," used with many adverbs and noun-like words:

勉強します – do study → study
運動します – do exercise → exercise
ゆっくりします – do leisurely → relax / take it easy

So 家でゆっくりします = "She takes it easy at home."

Why is the subject omitted in the second part 週末は家でゆっくりします? How do we know it’s still "my wife"?

In Japanese, if the subject is clear from context, it’s usually dropped.

The main topic "my wife" (私の妻) was already set with 妻は. Until something clearly changes, Japanese listeners will assume that topic continues.

So the full idea is:

私の妻は会社員ですが、(私の妻は) 週末は家でゆっくりします。

Repeating 私の妻は again sounds unnatural and redundant.
Omitting repeated subjects is very standard in Japanese.

Why is the verb します in "present tense" if we’re talking about a regular habit on weekends?

Japanese non-past tense (～ます / dictionary form) covers both:

present ongoing actions
future actions
regular habits / repeated actions

So ゆっくりします can be understood from context as:

"relaxes (as a regular habit)" in this sentence.

We know it’s habitual because of 週末は ("on weekends"). You don’t need a special tense like "does" vs "will do"; Japanese uses context instead.

Is 妻 (つま) the normal way to say "my wife"? What about 奥さん or 嫁 or 家内?

妻 (tsuma) is a polite, neutral word to refer to your own wife when speaking formally or in public.

Other options and nuances:

奥さん (okusan): usually used to talk about someone else’s wife; using it for your own wife can sound a bit too casual or old-fashioned, but you’ll hear it.
嫁 (yome): literally "bride/daughter-in-law"; casually used by some men for "my wife," but can sound old-fashioned or somewhat sexist, depending on context.
家内 (kanai): humble word historically meaning "inside the house"; older/formal generation sometimes use it for their own wife.

In textbooks and polite conversation, 妻 is a safe and appropriate choice for "my wife."

Could we say サラリーマン instead of 会社員 for "office worker"? Would the sentence change?

If your wife is female, saying サラリーマン is possible but a bit odd, because it historically implies male office workers.

More natural alternatives:

会社員です – neutral, gender‑neutral
会社で働いています – "works at a company" (more descriptive)

If you really wanted a borrowed word, オフィスワーカー exists but is less common.
So 妻は会社員です is the best standard, natural phrasing.

Why is 週末 (しゅうまつ) used without any particle before は? Could I say something like 週末に instead?

In the sentence, 週末は uses は directly after the noun to make "weekends" the topic:

週末は家でゆっくりします = "As for weekends, (she) relaxes at home."

If you said 週末に家でゆっくりします, then:

に marks when the action happens ("on/at weekends").
It’s grammatically fine, but you wouldn’t also put は right after it (✗ 週末にはは…).

Both are correct, but the nuance differs:

週末は…: shifting the topic to "as for weekends".
週末に…: just indicating time ("on weekends") without making it a contrastive topic.

Can the word order be changed, like 週末はゆっくり家でします?

Japanese word order is somewhat flexible, but not everything sounds natural.

Natural: 週末は家でゆっくりします。
- [Time] 週末は → [Place] 家で → [Manner] ゆっくり → [Verb] します

週末はゆっくり家でします is grammatically possible but sounds unnatural, because ゆっくり more naturally comes directly before the verb or after the place:

家でゆっくりします
or ゆっくり家で過ごします (if you change the verb to 過ごします, "spend (time)").

For learners, a safe pattern is: [time] + は/に + [place] + で + [manner] + [verb].

Why is it 会社員です and not 会社員だ here?

です (desu) is the polite copula. だ (da) is the plain/casual copula.

会社員です → polite/formal style
会社員だ → casual/informal style

The whole sentence uses です / ます style (です, します), so です is required for consistency.

If you made it fully casual, it would be:

俺の嫁は会社員だけど、週末は家でゆっくりする。 (very casual, manly, with different word choices)

The original is textbook‑polite, so です is correct.

Could we omit 私の and just say 妻は会社員です? Would the meaning change?

You can say 妻は会社員です, and it will usually still be understood as "my wife" from context, because normally you talk about your own wife.

Nuance:

私の妻は会社員です: explicitly "my wife" (clearer, slightly more formal or explanatory).
妻は会社員です: "My wife is an office worker" but with the "my" implied.

Both are natural. In real conversation, Japanese often omit possessives (my/your/etc.) when context makes them obvious.