I am really despairing. Recently, I was forwarded a link by my Japanese
colleague. It is about the proper use of "は" and "が".

<https://www.alc.co.jp/jpn/article/faq/03/19.html>

What is stated here, turns my world upside down. According to the link, the
proper usage of "は" and "が" heavily depends on whether these are used in a
verbal clause (動詞文) or in an adjective (形容詞文) respectively noun clause (名詞文) .

**1) Noun Clause (名詞文)**

佐藤さんは社長です。

Talking about Satou-san, he is a company president. (Maybe, Tanaka-san is a
soccer player.)

佐藤さんが社長です。

Talking about the company president, it is Satou-san. (and not Tanaka-san)

**2) Adjective Clause (形容詞文)**

佐藤さんはやさしい。

Talking about Satou-san, he is a kind person. (Maybe, Tanaka-san is sporty.)

佐藤さんがやさしい。

You want to know, who is kind? It is Satou-san. (and not e.g. somebody else of
this group)

**3) Verbal Clause (動詞文)** ????Contrary to my assumptions????

佐藤さんが来た。

Talking about Satou-san, he a came. (Maybe, Tanaka-san is still on the way.)
????

佐藤さんは来た。

The person who came is Satou-san. (and not e.g. Tanaka-san) ????

Hopefully, there is a misinterpretation from my side. Maybe, someone can give
a comment on what is stated in the link above.
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2018-02-12T02:17:05.597
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question
particle-は
Proper Use of "は" and "が" Noun
I don't think the actual distinction here is between noun/adjective/verbal
clauses. It's easy to think of verbal clauses that behave in exactly the same
way as the noun and adjective clauses listed, eg.

> 佐藤さんはワインを飲んでいます。  
>  佐藤さんは毎日映画を見ます。

In these cases, は is the neutral choice, and rephrasing them to use が would
indicate a specific question being answered ("who is drinking wine?" or "who
watches movies every day?") in the same way as the noun and adjective clauses
mentioned.

The reason why 佐藤さんが来た behaves differently is because when talking about
someone arriving, they're usually not yet a natural topic of conversation.
It's unlikely that two speakers happened to feel like discussing Satou-san
and, as an extension of that conversation, decided to mention that he just
arrived. More likely is that Satou-san just arrived, and this is why he is
suddenly brought up. As such, が is generally used in this sentence, because
one of the main functions of が is to introduce new information.

Incidentally, if two speakers _were_ talking about Satou-san and decided to
mention that he arrived as part of that discussion, using は would be perfectly
natural, eg. 「佐藤さんっていつも来るのが遅いよね。」「あ、佐藤さんは今来たみたいだよ？」 In fact, in a case like
this, using が would be strange, because it would imply that the subject has
changed even though it has not.

Also, in your question you seem to assume that changing the が to a は in
佐藤さんが来た has the _same effect_ as changing the は to a が in the given
noun/adjective clauses, but this is not the case at all. When using が instead
of は in (for instance) 佐藤さんが社長です, this emphasises "It is _Satou-san_ who is
the president.", as if to answer the question "Who is the president?"

But when using は instead of が in 佐藤さんは来た, this does not mean "It is _Satou-
san_ who came", and cannot answer the question "Who was the person that came?"
(In both of these cases, が would still be the correct choice.) Rather it means
"Well, as for _Satou-san_ , he came...", with an implied contrast to other
possible topics (people who may not have come). This sentiment is always
expressed using は, never が.

For instance, consider the following usages:

> 「お前は何で来なかったの？佐藤さんは来たよ！」  
>  「お前は何でまだ社長になっていないの？佐藤さんはもう社長だよ！」

Regardless of what type of sentence we're dealing with, this kind of
_contrastive_ usage always requires は. The difference is that the 佐藤さんは社長だ
uses は by default, so when seen in isolation it doesn't necessarily seem like
a contrastive usage, whereas 佐藤さんは来た uses が by default, so there must be some
other reason such as this contrastive usage to justify the use of は instead.

In other words, both 佐藤さんは来た and 佐藤さんが社長だ imply some kind of special emphasis,
but this is only because they are both different from the default form you
would expect from that sentence. The _type_ of emphasis is completely
different. Some types of emphasis require は, and others require が, and this
overrides whatever the default usage would be.
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2018-02-12T10:42:58.343
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answer