kono ryou ni wa gaikoku kara kita ryuugakusei ga takusan sunde imasu.

Many international students from foreign countries live in this dorm.

Breakdown of kono ryou ni wa gaikoku kara kita ryuugakusei ga takusan sunde imasu.

• は: topic particle
• が: subject particle
• この: this
• に: location particle

Questions & Answers about kono ryou ni wa gaikoku kara kita ryuugakusei ga takusan sunde imasu.

What is the role of に and は together in この寮には? Why not just この寮に?

に marks the location: 寮に住む = “to live in the dormitory.”

は is the topic marker: it marks what we’re talking about in this sentence.

Putting them together (寮には) does this:

• 寮に = “in the dorm”
• 寮には = “as for in this dorm / in this dorm (specifically/contrastively)…”

So この寮には is like:

• “As for this dorm,” or
• “In this dorm (in particular), …”

You could grammatically say この寮に外国から来た留学生がたくさん住んでいます, but it would sound more neutral and less like you’re presenting “this dorm” as the main topic. With には, you’re highlighting “this dorm” as the context you want the listener to focus on.

Why is が used with 留学生 instead of は?

In this sentence:

• 留学生がたくさん住んでいます。

が marks 留学生 as the grammatical subject: it tells us who is doing the action (住んでいます = “are living”).

If we used 留学生は, it would shift 留学生 to the topic: “As for international students, in this dorm, many live (here)…” That’s a slightly different nuance and would usually require restructuring the sentence.

Here, the main point is:

• In this dorm, the people who live here are “international students who came from abroad.”

So この寮には is the topic (where we’re talking about), and 留学生 is the subject (who is living there), so が is appropriate.

Why is (past tense) used in , even though the students are still here?