Hiragana は Wa vs Ha

Heru-

Heru-

Mata aimashita ne! So, in my Hiragana writing book, Wa is listed as わ , whereas Ha is listed as は. In Rocket Japanese, Wa is は. A little confused as to what is correct. Any help is appreciated! Arigato

Emma-Rocket-Languages-Tutor

Emma-Rocket-Languages-Tutor

こんにちは (Konnichiwa) Heru-,

 

Thank you for your question! 

 

Your hiragana book is correct that is pronounced “wa” and is pronounced “ha"; however, can also be pronounced “wa" when it is used as a topic marking particle. 

 

In Japanese, the particle (wa) is used to mark the topic of a sentence. You can learn about the useage of as the particle “wa” in this lesson:

https://app.rocketlanguages.com/members/products/5/lesson/5040#making-sentences-using-the-particle-%E3%81%AF

 

So, depending on the context,   could be pronounced as either “wa” or “ha."

As part of words, is pronounced “ha" (e.g. はる (haru) “spring” or はい (hai) “yes”). 

As a particle, is pronounced “wa" (e.g. わたし は たなか です (Watashi wa tanaka desu) “(I) am Tanaka").

 

I hope this helped! 

勉強を頑張ってください! (Benkyō o ganbatte kudasai!) 

Heru-

Heru-

Domo arigato!

 

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