Genki Notes || Part One (PT2, PT3)
) Im on the third edition of book one, lesson 1
1). X は Y です You can also watch tokini andys video
・X は Y です acts as a kind of formula for a lot of the basic Japanese sentence structure. • X = the topic of the sentence. • は = when used in a topic position of any sentences, は is a particle that acts as a flag, or marks the topic of a sentence.
ex) “my cat is little.” my cat is the topic of the sentence, in Japanese you would say; “僕のねこはちさいです。” 僕のねこ is marked by は, making it the topic of the sentence, what the sentence is about.
• Y = something about the topic, or what the topic is. • です = it is.
ex) in “僕のねこはちさいです。” or, “my cat is small.” we already know that “僕のねこは” is the topic of the sentence, because it is marked by は. but, what about my cat? why are we talking about my cat? he is small; “ちさいです。”
“僕のねこはちさいです。”
(僕 「ぼく」 is a masculine version of 私 「わたし」)
