anata wa gakusei desu ka.

topic particle

Breakdown of anata wa gakusei desu ka.

• です: to be
• 学がく生せい: student
• か: question particle

Questions & Answers about anata wa gakusei desu ka.

Why is は pronounced wa here instead of ha?

When は is used as the topic particle, it is pronounced wa, not ha.

So in あなた は 学生 です か。, the spelling is は, but the pronunciation is wa.

This is a special rule for the particle:

• は as a normal syllable in a word: usually ha
• は as a particle: wa

So the sentence is read as:

anata wa gakusei desu ka

What does the particle は do in this sentence?

は marks the topic of the sentence.

In あなた は 学生 です か。, the topic is あなた. The sentence is saying something like:

As for you, are you a student?

That sounds unnatural in English, but it helps show what は does. Japanese often organizes sentences as:

• topic + comment

So here:

• あなたは = as for you
• 学生です = are a student
• か = makes it a question

Why is there no separate word for are like in English?