...wa...desu.

New Vocab:

• tomodachi = friend
  
• kore = this
  
• sore = that
  
• Nihonjin = Japanese person
  
  Today's lesson marks the first lesson of many to come on Japanese particles. Particles are important to the Japanese language since they define what words are doing in a sentence. The first particle I am introducing is "wa". "Wa" marks the topic by following it in the sentence. "Wa" is used in one of the most common, simple Japanese sentence structures. This sentence structure is "(topic) wa ... desu" (the '...' can be anything else in the sentence).
  
  Example:
  
  "Watashi wa Jones desu." = "I am Jones."
  
  Remember from a previous lesson that "desu" means is/am/are
  
  If you are struggling with what is meant by a topic marker, just think of "wa" translated as "as for (topic)". Therefore, the above sentence could be translated as "As for me, I am Jones."
  Let’s look at a few more examples.
  
  "Tomodachi wa Nihonjin desu." = "My friend is Japanese." or "As for my friend, he is Japanese."
  
  "Kore wa hon desu." = "This is a book." or "As for this, it is a book."
  
  "Sore wa inu desu." = "That is a dog." or "As for that , it is a dog."
  
  Remember the desu box from a previous lesson. We can insert the different tenses for desu.
  
  "Tomodachi wa Nihonjin dewa arimasen." = "My friend is not Japanese." or "As for my friend he is not Japanese."
  
  Practice looking around the room and use this sentence structure out loud. Remember if you do not know the Japanese word for an object then just use the English word in its place. Also, use the desu box too for review.
  
  Example:
  
  "Sore wa homework deshita" = "That was my homework."
  
  Have fun! See you at the next lesson.