3

Can anyone explain the difference between the three sentences below and also the use of the grammar?

  1. わたしのがっこう　は　日本人の　せんせい　が　います。

  2. わたしのがっこう　に　日本人の　せんせい　が　います。

  3. わたしのがっこう　には　日本人の　せんせい　が　います。

chocolate
  • 65,531
  • 5
  • 99
  • 204
Peyton Chai
  • 53
  • 5

2 Answers2

4

Simply speaking, for this example, は emphasizes the topic of the sentence,　に emphasizes the concept of location, and　には emphasizes the location as the topic.

Translating your three examples, which correspond to は,　に, and には, we get:

  1. On the topic of my school (がっこう　は), there is a Japanese teacher.
  2. At my school (がっこう　に), there is a Japanese teacher.
  3. On the topic of (the location that is) at my school (がっこう　には), there is a Japanese teacher.

All three are grammatically correct, but have slightly different nuances to them.

SSTTLL
  • 463
  • 2
  • 5
  • 2
    Actually, が is a subject marker. When the same noun phrase is semantically both topic and subject, the が is 'hidden' by convention. However I am not sure that is what is happening here. There is already a が marked subject 先生が and 学校 feels like 'just' a topic, not a topic + 2nd subject. – WeirdlyCheezy Jul 23 '16 at 06:31
  • 1
    @WeirdlyCheezy You are correct, I confused subject with topic. Editing answer to correct my mistake. – SSTTLL Jul 23 '16 at 07:34
0

Grammatical explanation is this は in your sentence is a topic marker, this に is used as a postpositional particle which indicate place and this には is a compound word of に and は and this は is emphasis.

If you use は as a topic marker, the meaning of the sentence 1 and 2 is almost same but if you can use は as contrast and emphasis, the sentence 1 and 3 have the meaning.

Yuuichi Tam
  • 24,164
  • 1
  • 23
  • 42
  • には can be simply topicalization of に, in short this は can be still a topic marker. – user4092 Jul 23 '16 at 07:26
  • @user4092 The idea about this is always difference between I and you and we discussed about this before, so we don't need to discuss about this any more. And a dictionary say that. http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/jn/167736/meaning/m0u/%E3%81%AB%E3%81%AF/ – Yuuichi Tam Jul 23 '16 at 07:43
  • It looks like the information you are hoping to convey is useful, but the last sentence is a little confusing to me grammatically. Would you be willing to give me a Japanese version of that sentence so I can confirm my understanding? – WeirdlyCheezy Jul 23 '16 at 11:30
  • Yes. もし、"は"を話題の提示として使うなら、1と2の文はほぼ同じ意味となり、もし、"は"を対比と強調として使うなら、1と3の文は、その意味を持つ. Is my English wrong? – Yuuichi Tam Jul 23 '16 at 12:03
  • @YuuichiTam I wrote it for other users to read. – user4092 Jul 24 '16 at 04:02
  • @ user4092 I think it is waste of time to discuss about this at all the time. You had better post your answer. – Yuuichi Tam Jul 24 '16 at 05:05
  • @YuuichiTam Sorry for the late response. Your English is quite good, but there were a few ambiguities I wanted to double-check. I would probably write:"The grammatical explanation is that the は in your sentences is a topic marker, the に is a post-positional particle which marks location, and the には is a compound of に and は where は is being used for emphasis.

    If you use は as a topic marker,

     – WeirdlyCheezy Aug 22 '16 at 11:55
  • ..accidental enter. Last sentence continues:

    If you use は as a topic marker, the meaning of sentences 1 and 2 is almost the same. But, if you want to use は to contrast/emphasize, sentences 1 and 3 are possible examples of such usage."

     – WeirdlyCheezy Aug 22 '16 at 12:01
  • @ WeirdlyCheezy Thank you for your suggestion. – Yuuichi Tam Aug 22 '16 at 13:54