Japanese Grammar In Its Natural Habitat
Wild Nihongo!
わ (Female Assertion)

わ (Female Assertion)

わ (Female Assertion) Japanese Grammar Lesson

Grammar Type: Particle

Essential Meaning: Weak Female Assertion Marker

Construction: Sentence + わ

Notes:

  • わ is used by female speakers to express a weak assertion or volition. わ can also indicate friendliness or intimacy depending on the context.
  • わ can follow any declarative sentence, but it can NOT follow volitional forms of verbs. It would be redundant to combine a volitional verb ending with a volitional ending particle.
    • E.g. *私わたしは行いきましょうわ。[I will go.] わ cannot follow volitional verbs.
  • わ cannot be used in interrogative sentences because there would a mismatch in meaning between the assertive わ and the interrogative か.
    • E.g. *ジャクソンさんは学生がくせいですかわ。[Is Mr. Jackson a student?]
    • E.g *ジャクソンさんは学生がくせいですわか。 [Is Mr. Jackson a student?]
  • Other sentence final particles besides か (such as ね or よ) can be used in conjunction with わ, but they must go after わ.
    • E.g. 私わたしは行いくわね。[I will go, OK?]
    • E.g. 私わたしも行いくわよ。[I will go too.]

Example Sentences:

私わたしも明日あしたのパーティーに行いくわ。[I will go to the party tomorrow too.]

大木おおきさんはまだ学生がくせいですわ。[Oki-san is still a student.]

大木おおきさんはもう帰かえりましたわ。[Oki-san already went home.]

この部屋へやは小ちいさいわ。[This room is small.]

WILD Examples:

At 1:50, listen for the following line: さようならしてあげるわ [I’m doing you the favor of leaving you.] In this case わ, emphasizes the singer’s volition to leave her cheating boyfriend.
At 2:00, listen for this line: 夢ゆめのためにベストを尽つくくすわ [I’ll try my best for the sake of my dream.]
From 1:56, listen for this line: 同おなじ本ほんを読よみ返かえして、また絵えを描kく, もう飽あきたわ [Reading the same books over again, Drawing pictures again, but I’ve already lost interest]
The final line of this song at 3:30 goes like this: 少すこしも寒さむくないわ [I’m not cold whatsoever]
Listen to this line from 0:30: 勉強べんきょうはしないよりもしておいたほうがいいわ [Rather than not studying, you had better study.]
Listen to this line at 0:50: うっせぇ、うっせぇ、うっせぇわ [Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!] うっせぇ is a very casual and aggressive way of saying うるさい [Shut up / Loud].

***YouTube videos may be region-locked depending on your country of origin. If you experience issues, please try using a VPN set to a United States IP address.***