Originally posted by: HelpfulDuo https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/25383017
Hiragana はusually sounds as "ha", as in はい (hai - yes) and はち (hachi - eight). When はis used as a topic marker (a particle), it is pronounced as "wa". The particle はis often placed after the noun which is the topic of the sentence.
The Particle は is written as は , but pronounce as わ.
| Japanese | わたし | は | アメリカ じん | **です。** |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Romaji | watashi | wa | amerika jin | desu |
| Functions | noun | particle | noun | linking verb |
| English | I | - | American | am |
私はアメリカ人です。
～は ～です。= A is B.
【Example】
・わたしはにほんじんです。
watashi wa nihon jin desu (= I am Japanese.)
・あなたは カナダじんです。
anata wa kanada jin desu (= You are Canadian.)
・わたしはfがくせいです。
watashi wa gakusei desu (= I am a student.)
If you want to describe something, you can add the adjective after the particle は .
【Example】
そらは あおいです。
sora wa aoi desu (= The sky is blue.)
・ケーキは おいしいです。
ke-ki wa oishii desu (= The cake is delicious.)
・デュオリンゴ は たのしいです。
Duolingo wa tanoshii desu (= Duolingo is fun.)
Hello and Good evening!
The common greeting in Japanese, こんにちは (Hello.) also ends with は . It's pronunciation is わ (wa). So you write こんにちはは with "ha", but say "konnichiwa". This confuses even the native Japanese speakers who would write こんにち "わ by mistake because it.s written just as it sounds.
The best way to remember is, こんにちは comes from kanji 今日は. You can read it as きょうは (kyo wa) in everyday conversation, or こんにちは (kon nichi wa) in a formal speech introduction. こんにちは originates from the longer and complete sentences asking "How are you doing today?" (こんにちは いかがですか。) or"How nice it is today!" (こんにちは よいてんきですね。). Later the second part of the sentences were eliminated; consequently, ** こんにちは** remained as the greeting expression for "Hello".
The same goes for こんばんは (Good evening.) 今晩は (kon ban wa) is the beginning sentence of "Tonight is ..." or "This evening is...". So both greeting expressions end with topic marker は , so it should be pronounce as wa.
こんにちは konnichi wa = Hello.
こんばんは konban wa = Good evening.
