こんにちは。スマイル日本語アカデミーのゆうこ先生です。今日のレッスンは助詞についてです。Today's lesson is about particles. I know many learners get confused about Japanese particles. So, in today's lesson, I want to talk about particles. Please know that the ones that I'm going to cover in this lesson are not all the particles that we have in Japanese. The function I explain for each particle here is not the only function for that particle, either. One single particle can have multiple functions and it's impossible for me to cover everything in one lesson, so I am going to teach you only the basic ones today, ok? People struggle with Japanese particles in the same way as we, Japanese people struggle with English prepositions. In English, one preposition has multiple functions too. The same preposition can mark a time expression like this or a place like this. And other times, different prepositions mark time expressions and places like these. They are so confusing to us Japanese, so I completely understand why people get confused about Japanese particles too. Many students ask me how they can master particles quickly but, to be honest, there is no quick and easy way. The only way to get the hang of particle is to use them over and over in your own sentences and learn from the mistakes so that your brain stores enough data to know which one to use. For instance, I still don't know exactly why I cannot say at Sunday or in home. I don't know the reason. I just know that's not the way it is in English because I have used these prepositions enough in my sentences and now, saying "at Sunday" or "in home" does not sound right to me, which means my brain has stored enough data about these prepositions. But I know it's going to be a long way to reach that point, so today I am going to cover the basic particles that people often get confused at the beginning level. They are を, が, と, や, か, で and two kinds of に. Ok, let's begin. では、はじめましょう。 Today I'm going to explain these particles for these functions. The particle を marks a direct object. が marks things you like, subject of existence or a specific topic within the main topic of the sentence. These three particles mark places. で marks a place of action, this に marks a destination, and this に marks a place of existence. These three particles connect nouns. と is used when you say A and B. や is to say A and B, for example. か is to say A or B. For the particle とやか, you can watch this lesson to learn more. I will leave the link to the lesson in the description box below. Ok, let me start with these three particles that mark places first. で for a place of action, に for a destination, and another に for a place of existence. I'm going to use Kyoto as an example place, ok? When you are not sure if you should mark a place with で or に, what you have to look at is NOT the place, which is Kyoto in this case. You have to look at the ending of the sentence. Why? Because the verb at the end of the sentence decides the function of the place in that particular sentence. Take a look at the first sentence. It has 行きました went, right? That means Kyoto in that sentence is a destination as in "I went TO Kyoto." So, you have to mark it with the particle に. You can also mark it with the particle へ. It is another destination marker. But に is more conversational and preferred in spoken language, so I'm going to stick with に in this lesson, ok? Now, take a look at the second sentence. You have the verb 食べました ate, which means the place, Kyoto, in this sentence is a place of action. You did the action of eating in Kyoto, so you have to mark it with the particle で. What did you eat in Kyoto, by the way? You ate sushi, right? So, this sentence means "I ate sushi in Kyoto." 京都ですしを食べました。 In the third sentence, you have the verb あります exist. And here, what exists is marked by the particle が, which is おてら, a temple. So, in this sentence, the place, Kyoto, is the place of existence where a temple or temples exist. That's why you have to mark it with the particle に. 京都におてらがあります. Temples exist in Kyoto, meaning there are temples in Kyoto. I hope you now see the difference between these three particles to mark a place. But please be careful not to misunderstand. When you have a place in your sentence like this, it doesn't mean that you always have to use one of these three particles to mark it. Again, it all depends on what you have at the end of the sentence. For instance, let's say you still have Kyoto in your sentence but now you say 好きです at the end. So here, Kyoto is a place that you like. It's not a place of action, destination, or place of existence. So, you cannot use particle で or に here. When you like something, you have to use the particle が to mark it, so here you have to say 京都が好きです。I like Kyoto. 京都が好きです。 Again, what matters is the end of the sentence. As you see here, if you have 行きました, Kyoto is the destination but when you have 好きです, Kyoto is what you like. Ok, let's move on to the next group. The particle とやか that connects nouns. As I said, you can learn about these three particles in more detail in this lesson, but the bottom line is they connect only nouns. These three particles とやか do not connect verbs, adjectives, or sentences. Please remember this, ok? For example, you cannot use the particle と to connect two actions like "wake up" and "exercise" as in "I wake up at 6:00 and exercise" We don't use particles to connect actions. We do something completely different in Japanese but I'm not going to cover that in this lesson since it's going to be too much information, ok? Please watch this lesson to learn how to connect actions and this lesson to learn how to connect adjectives in Japanese. Ok, let's get back to the particles, とやか. It's perfectly fine to use these particles to connect two place names like this. Kyoto and Osaka. So, the first one, Kyoto と Osaka means Kyoto and Osaka. The second one, Kyoto や Osaka means Kyoto and Osaka, for example. And the third one, Kyoto か Osaka means Kyoto or Osaka. Let's add the same endings to these three sentences. 行きたいです. "want to go." What particles would you add here? You can figure this one out, right? The answer is に, the destination marker because you have "want to go" in the sentence. So, you have to say "I want to go TO Kyoto and Osaka" by marking these pairs with the destination marker に. Now, these sentences are complete. The first sentence means I want to go to Kyoto and Osaka. The second one means I want to go to Kyoto and Osaka, for example. The third one means I want to go to Kyoto or Osaka. Ok, now let's move onto the next particle. The particle が. As we discussed earlier, が marks things that you like as in 京都が好きです "I like Kyoto." And, of course, that's not the only function of this particle. が has so many different functions but today, I am going to cover three of them, ok? が also marks a specific topic within the main topic of the sentence like this. Here, the main topic is Japan 日本 and that's why it's marked by the topic marker は, and Kyoto is the specific topic inside the main topic, Japan, here. So, this sentence means "As for Japan, Kyoto is famous" 日本は京都が有名です。 You can also say something like this by changing the specific topic about Japan. 日本は人がしんせつです。As for Japan, people are kind. Or, as for Japan, the cities or towns are clean. 日本は町がきれいです。 Like this, the particle が can mark a specific topic related to the main topic of the sentence. And one more function of the particle が that I want to cover in this lesson is this. が also marks the subject of existence like this. "In Japan, Kyoto exists" meaning "There is Kyoto in Japan." 日本に京都があります。 If you want to say "There are temples in Kyoto" as we did earlier, you can go like this, right? 京都にお寺があります。 If you are not familiar with how to express the existence of things or people in Japanese, please watch this lesson. I'll leave the link to the lesson in the show-more section below. Ok, let's cover one last particle in today's lesson. The particle を. This Particle marks a direct object in the sentence. So, you have to use the particle を to mark things that you eat, drink, watch, study, create, wash, and so on. But, of course, you will never eat Kyoto or drink Kyoto, right? So you may think there is no case that we use the particle を to mark a place name like Kyoto. But there is, actually. When you treat Kyoto as a place that somebody knows, for instance. Then, you have to mark it with the particle を, so when you ask a question, "Do you know Kyoto?" you have to go like this. 京都を知っていますか。 Or, if the city of Kyoto is something that you have been studying about or researching, then again you have to mark it with the particle を as the direct object of your study like this. 京都を研究しています。 So now as you know, it's completely possible to mark this one word, Kyoto with all of these particles depending on the context of the sentence. I'm going to repeat myself one more time, ok? What matters is not the word itself, but the predicate at the end of the sentence. You have to pay attention to the context of the sentence to choose the correct particle for each word in the sentence. I hope this lesson helped you to better understand how particles work in Japanese. Join my online courses to access comprehensive Japanese lessons like this one anytime you want. The courses are self-paced and there is no time limit to complete each course. You can learn Japanese at your own pace with my support. The best price to get all the grammar courses from Japanese 1 to 5 is to sign up for the Complete Package. Find all the information including the lesson list for each course in the show-more section below. In the next lesson, I'm going to give you some exercises on particles. I want to see how well you can use particles now after this lesson. If the exercise is already published by the time you are watching this video, you should find the link in the description. Otherwise, I will see you in the exercise next week. では、また次のレッスンで会いましょう。