Japanese Particles: は (wa)
THE PARTICLE は (wa)
The particle は WA (spelled with the hiragana HA for historical reasons) indicates the main topic of a sentence. In English it would be similar to starting a sentence with “as for…” or “speaking of…”. Most of the times the main topic of the sentence is identical to what is called the subject in English.
Example sentences:
私は学生です。
(watashi WA gakusei desu)
I’m a student. (Literally: As for me, I’m a student.)
昨日は休んだ。
(kinou WA yasunda)
I took a rest yesterday. (Literally: Speaking of yesterday, I rested.)
この映画は面白いです。
(kono eiga WA omoshiroi desu)
This movie is interesting. (Literally: As for this movie, it was interesting.)