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Question to Teacher: Can you say NANNIN GA IMASUKA?
Course 2 Lesson 4: For the Dogs (Mini Conversations)

z03SteppingForth

Post Date: 2006-05-25 12:59:03

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2005 Sep 27

Questions: 26
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In the sentence:

Dare ga kimashita ka? (who came?)
gakkou no tomodachi ga kimashita. (My school friends came.)

does this rule follow with ga:

if someone asks you

*nannin* ga imasu ka?
you simply can replace nannin with the number of people?
*hitori* ga imasu.

or another example:

*ato dare* ga ikimashita ka?
*saitousan to tanakasan* ga imashita.

does this rule check out?

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uchiha_sasuke

Post Date: 2006-05-26 01:43:59

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2005 Aug 15

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holy
I think that's pretty much how it goes. GA kind of emphasizes what it's marking, answering the unasked questions we all want to know the answers to. (Though in your examples the questions are asked)
I think that's why the question words nani and dare always take ga instead of wa.

JFZ Teacher (Kanako)

Post Date: 2006-05-26 10:54:52

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2003 Mar 03

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Counter = No Particle
The first example Q&A should be;

Q: [color=red:6490f1c1ed]なんにん[/color:6490f1c1ed]、いますか。([color=red:6490f1c1ed]NAN NIN[/color:6490f1c1ed] IMASUKA) = [color=red:6490f1c1ed]How many people [/color:6490f1c1ed]are there?

A:[color=red:6490f1c1ed] ひとり[/color:6490f1c1ed]、います。([color=red:6490f1c1ed]HITORI[/color:6490f1c1ed], IMASU) = There is [color=red:6490f1c1ed]one[/color:6490f1c1ed].

No particle is needed after [color=red:6490f1c1ed]a counter/number[/color:6490f1c1ed].

As for your second Q&A, it is correct.
When the subject of the sentence is a question word (e.g. DARE, DOKO, NANI), you need to use GA instead of WA. The same particle (GA) is used when you answer. (See Course 1/Lesson 3 Grammar PART 4)

Ganbatte kudasai!

Kanako @ YesJapan Teacher