Lesson 6 of 8
Particle Repair — は or が, に or で, へ or に, と or や
about 9 minutes
After this lesson you can
- Choose between に and で according to whether the place is where something is or where something happens.
- Say which jobs に does that へ cannot do.
- Choose と or や according to whether the list is complete.
- Use が rather than は when answering or asking who, in a question about identity.
Words this lesson teaches
- こうえん
- a park
- にわ
- a garden, a yard
- あそびます
- to spend time enjoying yourself
- えきまえ
- the area in front of the station
- にもつ
- a parcel, luggage
- ぜんぶ
- all of it, the whole lot
What it explains
は and が: which half is the news
は marks what the sentence is about and leaves the news to the other side. が marks the news itself. So だれが たんとうですか asks for the unknown part and the answer keeps が: さとうさんが たんとうです. Answering that question with さとうさんは たんとうです is not ungrammatical — it is an answer to a different question, the one about what Sato does. When a question word is the subject, the particle is always が, and it stays が in the answer.
に and で: being somewhere against doing something there
に marks the place something exists or ends up. で marks the place an action happens. こうえんに います is where you are; こうえんで あそびます is where the playing takes place. The verb decides it, not the noun: います and あります take に, everything you actually do takes で. The one that catches people is a place plus a verb that sounds static, like すわります — you sit down onto a chair, so it is いすに すわります.
へ and に: overlapping, not equal
For a destination both work. こうえんに いきます and こうえんへ いきます are both fine, with へ leaning slightly towards the direction and に towards the arrival. Everywhere else, に works alone. しちじに おきます is a time; にわに ねこが います is existence; へ can do neither. So the safe habit is not to alternate them freely but to remember that に is the general one and へ is the narrow one.
と and や: whether the list is finished
と joins a complete list. ポスターと カードを つくります says those two things, and that is everything. や says these are examples and there are others, which is why it often turns up with など. Choose や when you do not want to be held to the list. と has a second job you have already met — あきさんと いきます, going with someone — and there や is impossible, because a companion list is never a sample.