kyou wa hakubutsukan ga yasumi desu.

topic particle

Breakdown of kyou wa hakubutsukan ga yasumi desu.

• です: to be
• 今きょ日う: today
• が: subject particle

Questions & Answers about kyou wa hakubutsukan ga yasumi desu.

How do you read this sentence?

It is read:

きょう は はくぶつかん が やすみ です。

Word by word:

• 今日 = きょう
• 博物館 = はくぶつかん
• 休み = やすみ

A small note: 今日 is not read こんにち here. In this sentence, it is きょう, meaning today.

Why is 今日 followed by は instead of に?

Here, は marks 今日 as the topic: as for today.

So 今日は gives a feeling like:

• Today, ...
• As for today, ...

You usually do not use に with common time words like 今日, 明日, and 昨日 in this kind of sentence.

So:

• 今日は博物館が休みです。 = natural
• 今日に博物館が休みです。 = not natural here

Why are both は and が used in the same sentence?

Because they are doing different jobs.

• は marks the topic: 今日 = today
• が marks the thing being described: 博物館 = the museum

So the structure is roughly:

• As for today, the museum is closed.

Japanese often has both a topic and a subject in the same sentence.