Questions & Answers about kore wa atarashii hakken desu.
What does これ mean exactly?
これ means this and refers to something near the speaker.
It often has the sense of this thing or this one. In this sentence, これ is the thing being talked about: this is being identified as a new discovery.
Why is は pronounced wa here?
When は is used as the topic particle, it is pronounced wa, not ha.
So:
- これは is read kore wa
This is just a standard spelling convention in Japanese. When は is part of an ordinary word, it is usually pronounced ha.
What does the particle は do in this sentence?
は marks the topic of the sentence: what the sentence is about.
So これは has the feeling of:
- As for this, ...
Then the rest of the sentence says something about it:
- 新しい発見です = is a new discovery
Japanese often uses a topic + comment structure, which is a little different from how English usually explains sentences.
