On Tue, 12 May 1998, Deuce wrote:

"Wa" and "ga" serve identical functions.  The only difference is that
"ga" implies more emphasis.

wa and ga actually serve quite different purposes.  Wa is the topic
marker, ga is more of a subject marker.  There is a distinct difference
which is not really explainable to native english speakers
except via example.

Agreed.  "Wa" is a topic marker, "ga" a subject marker.

  Watakushi wa Nihongo ga wakarimasen. 
  (I don't understand Japanese.)
  topic: me (watakushi)
  subject: Japanese language (Nihongo)

The topic is what the sentence is about, but the 
subject is what is being done with/for/to/by/etc. the 
topic in relation to it.  Also, "ga" is not always 
the object marker for verbs: active verbs (sleep, 
eat, look) use "o" or "wo" as their marker, but 
inactive verbs (want, have) use "ga", as in my 
example.

Just my two yen...
Shunsuke



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