68373
Previously, I learnt basic expressions like “アダムさんは先生です。”,”アダムさんは医者ですが。” I
thought は functions like “am/is/are” in English. But when I start learning
Japanese verb this morning, I got a bit confused. “ひろしさんはテレビを見ません。” what is
は’s function in this sentence?
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-05-20T22:18:41.103
68371
2019-05-21T14:29:53.833
33958
question
grammar
What is the function of は in the context?
は absolutely, definitely does **not** mean 'am/is/are'. That role is played by
です in your example sentences.

は marks the **topic** of the sentence i.e,

> Thing I want to talk about **は** what I want to say about it.

There is no equivalent concept in English so it causes a lot of confusion for
many Japanese learners. It is commonly translated (very clumsily) as 'as for'
e.g.

> アダムさんは先生です  
>  As for Adam, (he) is a teacher. = Adam is a teacher.  
>  アダムさんは医者ですが  
>  As for Adam, (he) is a doctor, but ... = Adam is a doctor, but ...  
>  ひろしさんはテレビを見ません  
>  As for Hiroshi, (he) doesn't watch television. = Hiroshi doesn't watch
> television.

In all these examples I'm marking the thing I want to talk about (i.e the
person) with は and then saying something about them.

The topic doesn't have to be just a single noun. It can be a long and complex
phrase e.g. "As for that man stood on one leg on the edge of the mountain over
there **は** he's going to fall off."

If you're learning from a resource that just teaches you phrases without
teaching you the grammar properly, you're going to enter a world of pain.

Finally, here's a
[link](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/22/whats-the-difference-
between-wa-%E3%81%AF-and-ga-%E3%81%8C) that we normally send people to look at
on は/が related questions. It may be a bit confusing at this stage, but it
might help.

Footnote:

I wonder if アダムさんは医者です **が** was a typo for アダムさんは医者です **か**. The latter would
obviously be "As for Adam, is (he) a doctor?" = "Is Adam a doctor?".
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-05-20T23:09:21.430
68373
2019-05-21T14:29:53.833
2019-05-21T14:29:53.833
9831
7944
68371
answer