Learn Hardcore Japanese: watasi no titioya ha kaisyain desu ga, syuumatu ha kazokuzenin to issyo ni kouen wo sanposimasu. - My father is an office worker, but on weekends he takes walks in the park together with the whole family.

父 (ちち)
- Used to talk about your own father to an outsider (teacher, friend, coworker, etc.).
- Humble / neutral.
- You normally don’t use 父 when you are speaking directly to your father.
父親 (ちちおや)
- Literally "father as a parent" (the parental role).
- A bit more formal or descriptive than 父.
- Can sound slightly more objective or explanatory, like “my father (as a parent / in terms of his role).”
お父さん (おとうさん)
- Polite form; used when:
  - talking to your father: 「お父さん、ただいま。」
  - talking about someone else’s father (respectful).
  - talking about your own father inside the family, especially to children.

In this sentence, 私の父親 is a polite, explanatory way to say “my father” to someone outside the family. You could also say 私の父 here without being wrong; it would just sound a bit more plain and less “explanatory.”

Is 私の necessary in 私の父親? Can I just say 父親は or 父は?

You can definitely drop 私の:

父は会社員ですが…
父親は会社員ですが…

Japanese usually assumes that 父 / 父親 without a possessive means “my father”, unless the context clearly says otherwise. So:

私の父親は会社員ですが…
Sounds a bit more explicit: “My father is a company employee, but…”
(Useful in writing, or when you want to be especially clear.)
父は会社員ですが…
父親は会社員ですが…
Both are very natural in conversation and are usually preferred because they’re less wordy.

So 私の is not grammatically required; it’s just adding clarity or emphasis that it’s my father.

Why is the particle は used after 父親 and again after 週末?

は is a topic/contrast marker, and you can have more than one は in a sentence when you’re layering topics or contrasts.

私の父親は会社員ですが、…
- First は marks 私の父親 as the main topic:
  “As for my father, he is a company employee, but…”
週末は家族全員と一緒に公園を散歩します。
- Second は marks 週末 as a contrastive sub-topic:
  “On weekends (as opposed to weekdays), he takes a walk in the park with the whole family.”

Nuance:

父親は sets the person as the main subject of the whole description.
週末は highlights a time frame with a feeling like “when it’s the weekend, (this is what happens).”

So the structure is roughly:
“As for my father, he is a company employee, but on weekends, he walks in the park with the whole family.”

What exactly is the role of が in 会社員ですが? Is it just “but”? How is it different from でも?

Here, が at the end of 会社員ですが is a conjunction meaning “but / although.”

X ですが、Y。
= “X, but Y.” / “Although X, Y.”

In this sentence:

私の父親は会社員ですが、週末は…散歩します。
→ “My father is a company employee, but on weekends, he takes walks with the whole family in the park.”

が vs でも:

が
- Used within the sentence as a connector.
- A bit more formal and smooth, common in written and polite speech.
でも
- Usually starts a new sentence or clause:
  - 会社員です。でも、週末は…
- Feels more spoken / casual and a bit more separate: “He’s a company employee. But on weekends…”

The meaning overlap is large. In polite, connected sentences like this, Xですが、Y is very standard.

Why is it 週末は and not 週末に?

Both can appear in similar contexts, but the nuance is different:

週末は
- Uses は as a topic or contrast marker.
- Emphasizes “as for weekends” or “on weekends (in contrast to other times).”
- Good for habitual actions: things that usually happen on weekends.
週末に
- Uses に as a time marker (“at / on (time)”).
- More neutral, pointing to when something happens, without strong contrast.

In this sentence, the idea is:

“My father is a company employee, but when it’s the weekend, he does this routine with the family.”

That contrast (weekday worker vs weekend family time) is nicely expressed by 週末は.

If you said:

週末に家族全員と一緒に公園を散歩します。
it’s grammatically correct, but it sounds more like a straightforward statement of timing, without highlighting the “weekend vs weekday” contrast as strongly.

Why do we need both と and 一緒に in 家族全員と一緒に? Could we just use one of them?

You often see Xと一緒に together because they reinforce each other:

Xと = “with X” (X is the companion).
一緒に = “together (with)” / “as one group.”

So:

家族全員と一緒に = “together with all the family members.”

Can you drop one?

家族全員と公園を散歩します。
- Grammatically OK.
- Still means “walk with the whole family,” but sounds a bit less explicitly “together as a group.”
- In real speech, people do say this.
家族全員一緒に公園を散歩します。 (no と)
- Also possible, but now 家族全員 is more like “the whole family (as a subject/group),” and 一緒に modifies how they do the action:
- “The whole family (all of us) take a walk together in the park.”
- Natural in some contexts, especially if you later add で or reorder:
  - 家族全員で一緒に公園を散歩します。

Using 家族全員と一緒に clearly says:
“He walks together with the entire family,” treating the father as the main person and the family as his companions.

What does 家族全員 mean exactly? Does it always include the speaker? Does it include parents?

家族全員 (かぞくぜんいん) literally means “all members of the family” / “the whole family.”

It typically includes everyone who is considered part of the household/family:
- Parents + children, and possibly grandparents if they live together.
Whether it includes the speaker depends on context, but in many everyday sentences, especially like this one, it implies:
- “our whole family” = including the speaker, unless context makes it clear otherwise.

In this sentence, 家族全員と一緒に most naturally means:

“with all of us in the family” (mother, father, children, etc., including the person speaking, if they are part of that family).

It doesn’t inherently include or exclude certain people; it just means “everyone who counts as family in this context.”

Why is it 公園を散歩します with を? I thought locations usually take で (like “in the park”).

This is a very common point of confusion.

With 散歩する, Japanese often uses を to mark the area/path you move through, not the place where the action happens:

公園を散歩します。
= “(I) take a walk through the park.”
(Here, the park is like the “route” or “space” you move around in.)

Think of を here as marking the space that the movement travels through, similar to these:

川沿いを歩く。 – “Walk along the river.”
街をぶらぶらする。 – “Wander around the town.”

By contrast, で usually marks a place where an action occurs, especially non-movement actions:

公園で弁当を食べます。 – “I eat lunch in the park.”
公園で遊びます。 – “We play in the park.”

You can sometimes hear 公園で散歩します, but 公園を散歩します is more idiomatic when you mean walking around inside/through the park.

What is the difference between 散歩します, 散歩に行きます, and 歩きます?

All relate to walking, but with different focus:

散歩します
- “Take a walk / go for a walk.”
- Emphasizes the activity of walking for leisure.
- Often used with を to mark the area:
  - 公園を散歩します。 – “(I) walk around the park.”
散歩に行きます
- Literally “go to (do) a walk.”
- Emphasizes the act of going out in order to take a walk.
- Very common for describing intention:
  - 犬と散歩に行きます。 – “I’m going to go walk the dog.”
歩きます
- Simply “walk.”
- Neutral; can mean just the physical act of walking (not necessarily for fun):
  - 駅まで歩きます。 – “I walk to the station.”
  - 1時間歩きました。 – “I walked for an hour.”

In your sentence, 散歩します nicely captures the idea of a relaxing family stroll in the park.

Can the word order of the sentence be changed? For example, can I move 週末 or 家族全員と一緒に around?

Yes, Japanese word order is fairly flexible as long as the particles stay with the right words.

Original:

私の父親は会社員ですが、週末は家族全員と一緒に公園を散歩します。

Some natural variants:

私の父親は会社員ですが、週末は公園を家族全員と一緒に散歩します。
(Puts 公園を before 家族全員と一緒に.)
私の父親は会社員ですが、家族全員と一緒に週末は公園を散歩します。
(Emphasizes “together with the whole family,” then adds that this is on weekends.)
私の父親は、週末は家族全員と一緒に公園を散歩します。会社員ですが。
(More unusual but possible; now the “but he’s a company employee” is almost an afterthought.)

General rules:

The verb (散歩します) usually comes at the end.
Elements like 週末は, 家族全員と一緒に, 公園を can be rearranged, but:
- Keep は, と, を, etc., attached to their phrases.
- Don’t break 家族全員と一緒に in the middle unless you really know what you’re doing.

The original order is very natural and neutral-sounding.

What level of politeness is です / ます here? How would this look in more casual speech?

です / ます is the standard polite form used in:

Talking to people you’re not very close to (teachers, coworkers, etc.).
General narration in textbooks and formal contexts.

Your sentence is polite:

私の父親は会社員ですが、週末は家族全員と一緒に公園を散歩します。

A more casual version, speaking to a close friend, might be:

うちの父は会社員だけど、週末は家族全員と一緒に公園を散歩するよ。

Changes:

うちの父 instead of 私の父親 (very natural in casual speech).
だけど instead of ですが (casual “but”).
Verb from 散歩します → 散歩する (plain form).
Optional sentence-final よ to sound conversational.

So the original is polite but not overly stiff—perfect for general explanation.