Japanese Learning: Making an Object the Topic of a Sentence; Word with “o” turns to be Word with “wa” and placed at the beginning of the Sentence

Do you remember the construction of a transitive verb predicate sentence? That was;

1. [Subject] wa/ga [Object] o [Transitive Verb] masu/masen/mashita/masendeshita.

Example; Watashi wa Repo’oto o mou Kakimashita. (I have already written a report.)

In the construction 1, you see that the subject is followed by “wa” or “ga”.

– wa : particle to indicate the topic of the sentence

– ga : particle to indicate the subject of the sentence

However, since a subject is so important in a sentence, it could be the topic at the same time, and vice versa (the topic can also be the subject). Sometimes you need to choose one of “wa” or “ga” for the subject marker.

2. [Subject] wa/ga [predicate].

– “wa” is used when you explain the nature/condition/action of the known subject.

– “ga” is used when the sentence is to identify what the subject is.

Above mentioned are basics. Then let us learn things that are a bit beyond the basics. Suppose you are going to say a transitive verb predicate sentence. Usually, you want to make the subject the topic. But you want to make the object the topic, given that the subject is not so important that the subject can be omitted.

1. [Subject] wa/ga [Object] o [Transitive Verb Predicate].

Example; Watashi wa Repo’oto o mou Kakimashita. (I have already written a report.)

2. [Topic = Object] wa [Transitive Verb Predicate].

Example; Repo’oto wa mou Kakimashita. (As to the report, I have already written it.)

<Let me complete this post tomorrow,,,,,,>

This post was written with reference to the exercise A5 on Section 17 of “Minna no Nihongo (2^nd Edition)” published by “3A Corporation”