Grammar Info

N3 Lesson 1: 9/22

ってAs for, Speaking of, Casual は (Sentence topic marker)

Used primarily in spoken language

Structure

Sentence topic + って

Details

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About って

Although って can be used as a casual quotation marker in Japanese (replacing と), it is also frequently used as a casual topic marker (replacing は). This is something that occurs primarily in spoken language, and will come directly after the sentence topic, in exactly the same way as the adverbial particle は usually would.

Examples

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    このパスタって美味(おい)しいよね。

    As for the pasta, it is delicious, don't you think?

    あの(ひと)って(だれ)

    As for that person, who is it?

    先生(せんせい)って(やさ)しいね。

    As for the teacher, she is nice, don't you think?

    ギターって()けますか?

    As for guitar, can you play it?

    (ふゆ)って(さむ)いけど、(ゆき)綺麗(きれい)だ。

    As for winter, it is cold, but snow is pretty.

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って – Grammar Discussion

Most Recent Replies (6 in total)

  • IcyIceBear

    IcyIceBear

    スマホって 高くないですか?
    Smartphones, are they not expensive?/aren’t they expensive?
    (Almost in a rhetorical way, like speaker already knows or suspects they are indeed expensive )

    スマホって 高いですか?
    Smartphones, are they expensive?
    (Sounds like they genuinely don’t have any clue whether they are cheap or not)

    I would expand but it’s 2 am and I’m tired lmao hope this helps so last a little bit

  • Isurandil492

    Isurandil492

    I see, the question tag carries the negative form, so it’s just that the translation is a bit loose. Question answered, thank you very much.

  • Alloran

    Alloran

    You can use スマホって高くなくない? to mean “Aren’t smartphones inexpensive?” ない with rising intonation is often used, without a particle, in casual speech merely to indicate a question (and is overwhelmingly the commonest pattern for invitations). Also 高くないじゃない?

    With a touch more distance, スマホって高くなくないですか?

    You can also nominalize the relative clause with の or, more casually, ん:

    スマホが高くないんじゃない?This is like “Isn’t it that…” and would be very likely if e.g. their cheapness was the cause of something you were just talking about.

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