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Until now, we have used the topic particle after the subject of the sentence.
	The subject was the topic of our sentences, because we wanted to say something about the subject.



	We did this because when talking about the subject, we assumed the subject was already known to the speaker and the reader, and the new piece of information was what came after the は particle.
	In fact, every time we say X は, the sentence keeps its meaning if we remove X は from the sentence.



	In case we want to introduce the subject, or the subject is the description instead of the thing we want to describe, we use が instead of は after the subject.



	Using が and は well is very complicated, and you don't need to understand their difference fully right now.
	We hope that during the course, it will become clearer to you when to use which.



	When the subject is a question word, we cannot use the topic particle は.
	We have to use が in this case, because the subject cannot be a topic already known to the speaker.
	If we remove どれが from the first sentence in the table below, its meaning will have changed.
	However, in a sentence like あれはきれいです, we can drop あれは and the meaning is still the same, if we assume the speaker is still speaking about the same object.


<table class="ui fixed celled table">
	<thead>
		<tr>
			<th>English</th>
			<th>Japanese</th>
		</tr>
	</thead>
	<tbody>
		<tr data-item="25316"></tr>
		<tr data-item="25329"></tr>
	</tbody>
</table>


	The response to a question with a question word will also use the が particle.
	In the second example, これ is a new piece of information, therefore we use が.
	Note also that we cannot drop the subject and just say あなたのです,
	as Person B would not be identifying specifically which object is Person A’s.



	TLDR: が is used when the focus is on the subject, and は is used when the focus is the comment on the subject.

The subject particle が

The verb to be

Hiragana 1

Kanji 1

Writing hiragana 1

Writing kanji 1

Hiragana 2

Kanji 2

The question particle か

Writing hiragana 2

This one and that one

Writing kanji 2

Reading exercise 1

Reading exercise 2

Hiragana 3

Negating nouns

Writing hiragana 3

The topic particle は

Kanji 3

The possession particle の

い-adjectives and な-adjectives

Here and there

There is, there are

Writing kanji 3

Kanji 4

Group 1 verbs, direct and indirect objects

Group 2 verbs

Hiragana 4

Verbs in the past tense

Negating verbs

Invitations and the particle と

Negating past verbs

Writing hiragana 4

Reading exercise 3

Writing kanji 4

Reading exercise 4

Kanji 5

Nouns and the past tense

This and that

The group 3 verbs する and 来る

The discourse particles ね and よ

The location particles に and で

Hiragana 5

Writing hiragana 5

Writing kanji 5

The destination particles に and へ

Kanji 6

The origin particle から

Hiragana 6

Relative positions

Conjugating い-adjectives

Writing hiragana 6

Writing kanji 6

Hiragana 7

Writing hiragana 7

Kanji 7

Conjugating な-adjectives

How are you?

The particle も

The word ちょっと

Reading exercise 7

Katakana 1

Kanji 8

Numbers up to 10

Numbers from 11 to 99

How much is it?

Numbers from 100 to 999

Introduction to counters

Writing kanji 7

Writing katakana 1

Writing kanji 8

The 回-counter

Reading exercise 8

Katakana 2

How old are you?

Telling time: hours

Time and the に-particle

Reading exercise 5

Reading exercise 6

Kanji 9

Writing kanji 9

The days of the week

The months of the year

Telling time: minutes

Writing katakana 2

Using 〜間 to indicate duration

Greetings

The adjective いい

Like and Dislike

Katakana 3

Kanji 10

Let's and Shall We with the verb stem + ましょう

Expressing Desire: Nouns

Expressing Desire: Verbs

Expressing purpose with the verb stem + に

Writing katakana 3

Writing kanji 10

Katakana 4

Kanji 11

Reading exercise 9