は

は is the topic particle — it marks "what this sentence is about". A は… can be understood as "as for A, …". It is the most frequent particle in Japanese, the foundation of the pattern A は B です.

Note the reading: as a particle, は is read わ, not は. This is a very common pronunciation mistake among beginners.

The topic is not always the subject. For example, 今日は暑いです — "as for today, it's hot": 今日 is the topic but performs no action. When Japanese needs to mark the actual subject, it uses が.

Examples

• 私(わたし)は毎朝(まいあさ)パンを食(た)べます。

  I eat bread every morning.

• 東京(とうきょう)は大(おお)きい町(まち)です。

  Tokyo is a big city.

• 兄(あに)は会社員(かいしゃいん)です。

  My older brother is a company employee.

Related patterns

• が
• も
• 〜です