Questions on p. marticles "ga" and "wa"

[Hitokiri]

Sensei explained this to us in my Japanese class but I am still confused.

She explained the particle marker "ga" but I am still at a lost on what it means or why it is used. I guess I did not grasp it.

As well, I am still a tad bit confused at the subject marker "wa" in some instances. I understand why it is used in things like "Watashi wa", "kore wa", or "Tanaka-san wa", etc. But for other uses besides those, I can't seem to point my finger on.

A answer or two is much appreciated from the more advanced Japanese students.

[shooraijin]

wa = topic
ga = focus

That's the clipped linguistics application. In practise, even if you don't understand why, you'll get 90% of it by using 'wa' except with:

- "Idioms" like 'x ga aru, x ga iru [need], ...' (these aren't really idiomatic -- more special cases of transitivity -- but you can think of them that way for simplicity)
- Wh-words almost never use 'wa' (i.e., nani ga, dare ga ... "who is that" -> "kore wa, dare?" ... 'who went to the store' -> "dare ga mise e ikimashita ka?")

[Hitokiri]

wa = topic
ga = focus

That's the clipped linguistics application. In practise, even if you don't understand why, you'll get 90% of it by using 'wa' except with:

- "Idioms" like 'x ga aru, x ga iru [need], ...' (these aren't really idiomatic -- more special cases of transitivity -- but you can think of them that way for simplicity)
- Wh-words almost never use 'wa' (i.e., nani ga, dare ga ... "who is that" -> "kore wa, dare?" ... 'who went to the store' -> "dare ga mise e ikimashita ka?")

Ah ok. I just had alot of trouble with "ga" but I am slowly understand it's meaning. Thanks