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As far as I understand the は particle marks the theme of the sentence.
Sometimes it happens to be the subject, sometimes not. Is there any difference
between this two formulation of the same idea?

  1. わたしはきのう何もしませんでした。

  2. (わたしは)きのう何もしませんでした。

  3. きのうは何もしませんでした。

As far as I understand in the first one _I_ am the theme, while the third one
has _yesterday_ as its theme. The second one is just the first one with the
subject omitted. 2. And 3. differ for the presence of は. Are they both
grammatically correct?
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2021-10-03T21:22:44.197
90609
2021-10-04T04:02:29.813
2021-10-04T04:02:29.813
48241
48241
question
grammar particle-は time
Usage of は in two different phrases
Your sentences are all grammatically correct, but as a response to a question
like "What did you do yesterday?", the third sentence is the most natural. The
second one sounds unnatural because it lacks a topic.

The first one is natural in casual conversations only when saying わたしは
explicitly is natural, for example when asked like "I went on a picnic
yesterday, how about _you_?" Otherwise, we usually just drop わたしは and choose
きのう as the topic.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-10-04T00:55:25.467
90612
2021-10-04T00:55:25.467
5010
90609
answer