Noun particle

A noun particle is any morpheme that denotes or marks the presence of a noun.^[1] They are a common feature of languages such as Japanese and Korean.

Korean particles

Main article: Korean postpositions

Korean noun particles are postpositional, following the word they mark, as opposed to prepositions which precede the marked word.

Korean noun particles include the subject particle i/ga (이/가), the object-marking particle eul/reul (을/를), and the topic-marking particle eun/neun (은/는), all of which show allomorphy.^[2]

Japanese particles

Main article: Japanese particles

Like Korean, Japanese noun particles follow the noun being marked, and can serve any of several functions in a given sentence.

1:

昨日

Kinō

スーパー

sūpā

へ

e

行きました。

ikimashita.

昨日 スーパー へ 行きました。

Kinō sūpā e ikimashita.

Yesterday, I went to the supermarket.

In this example, "e" is the noun particle for "sūpā" ("supermarket"). This particular noun particle denotes direction towards a place, being "supermarket."

2:

昼ごはん

Hirugohan

は

wa

私

watashi

が

ga

ピザ

piza

を

o

食べた。

tabeta.

昼ごはん は 私 が ピザ を 食べた。

Hirugohan wa watashi ga piza o tabeta.

I ate pizza for lunch. lit. As for lunch, I ate pizza.

The three noun particles ("wa," "ga," and "o") all serve different functions:

• "wa" - topic marker ("hirugohan" - lunch)
• "ga" - subject marker ("watashi" - I)
• "o" - object marker ("piza" - pizza)