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I'm currently learning Japanese, and I realise that the language has something
known as a topic, something which is unheard of in English.

According to Wikipedia,

> It is written with the hiragana は, which is normally pronounced ha, but when
> used as a particle is pronounced wa. **It is placed after whatever is to be
> marked as the topic.**

So, accordingly, if I say 車は新しいです, then 車 is the topic.

But, I was given this:

> 佐藤さんは会社員です。  
>  佐藤さん **も** 日本人です。 (X)

The second sentence is wrong. From my understanding, you can use も when the
topic remains the same in a conversation. In this case, the topic is 佐藤さん, so
why couldn't you use も then? My teacher told me 会社員 is the topic, but
shouldn't the topic be 佐藤さん?
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2017-08-30T11:16:57.783
52843
2017-08-30T12:29:16.950
24003
question
particle-は particle-も topic
Where is the topic in a Japanese sentence?
You are correct that 佐藤さん is the topic in these sentences, but your
understanding that も can be used "when the topic remains the same" is
incorrect.

The actual usage of も is the opposite - it introduces a _new_ topic (or other
element in the sentence) to which the same statement applies. The word to
which も is attached should be the only element in the statement that _does_
change, not the only element that doesn't.

So the following pair of sentences would make sense:

> 佐藤さんは会社員です。 (Mr Sato is a businessman.)  
>  田中さん **も** 会社員です。 (Mr Tanaka is **also** a businessman.)

But the pair you suggested makes no sense, because も is attached to the same
thing in both sentences.

The confusion may arise because the English word "also" actually acts on the
entire sentence rather than any specific word, and so can function identically
regardless of which element has changed. For instance:

> Mr Sato is a businessman.  
>  Mr Sato is **also** a Japanese person.

In English, this makes sense and has the exact same structure as the above
pair, even though this time it's the latter element that has changed. In
Japanese, however, the structure of this pair would be different - you would
need to attach も to the latter element:

> 佐藤さんは会社員です。  
>  （佐藤さんは）日本人で **も** あります。

In these examples, the topic (佐藤さん) remains the same, so it can and usually
would be omitted in the second sentence. も in this case is not attached to the
topic, but to the predicate 日本人です (which has to be expanded into the fuller
form 日本人であります when も is used).

In a sentence with an ordinary verb rather than です, the usage of も is a little
more straightforward - it simply replaces は if the topic changes, が if the
subject changes, or を if the object changes. So:

> 佐藤さんはワインを飲みます。 (Mr Sato drinks wine.)  
>  田中さん **も** ワインを飲みます。 (Mr Tanaka **also** drinks wine.)
>
> 佐藤さんはワインを飲みます。 (Mr Sato drinks wine.)  
>  佐藤さんはビール **も** 飲みます。 (Mr Sato **also** drinks beer.)
>
> 佐藤さんが来ました。 (Mr Sato arrived.)  
>  田中さん **も** 来ました。 (Mr Tanaka **also** arrived.)
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-08-30T12:10:24.813
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2017-08-30T12:29:16.950
2017-08-30T12:29:16.950
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25107
52843
answer