jinsei wa nagai desu.

Life is long.

Breakdown of jinsei wa nagai desu.

• は: topic particle
• です: to be
• 長ながい: long
• 人生じんせい: a person's life or lifetime

Questions & Answers about jinsei wa nagai desu.

How do you read 人生 は 長い です?

It is read:

じんせい は ながい です
jinsei wa nagai desu

A natural pronunciation guide for an English speaker would be something like:

• jin-sei
• wa
• na-gai
• desu

A few notes:

• 人生 = じんせい
• 長い = ながい
• です is often pronounced more lightly in real speech, closer to des than a fully strong de-su

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Why is は pronounced wa here?

Because は is being used as the topic particle.

When は is a particle, it is pronounced wa, not ha.

So in this sentence:

• 人生は = jinsei wa

This is one of the first pronunciation exceptions learners meet in Japanese. The writing stays は, but the pronunciation becomes wa when it marks the topic.

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What does は do in this sentence?