De wa or dewa, noob question


What does _dewa_ mean here?

> ブラウンさん、日本語 **では** 、トイレはお手洗いと同じ意味ですよ

I haven't really studied it yet and thought it was kind of a negative used
like _janai_ , but here it means-

> Brown-san, in Japanese, toilet has the same meaning as bathroom.

Or is it using the _de_ and _wa_ particles separately or something? I think
just using _wa_ would have worked?




It's the use of the particle で + particle は, as you suggest.

で in this case marks the mean/tool...

は is a particle that marks the topic of the sentence and that can be added to
other particles like this (as a general rule, don't take this for granted 100%
of the time):

  * It absorbs が and を.

> 私は学生だ。 私 is both the topic and the subject of the sentence.
>
> これは昨日買ったんだ。 これ is both the topic and the direct object of the sentence.

  * It either absorbs or is added to the particle に.

> 庭(に)は犬がいる。

  * It's added to other case particles.

> 日本では箸で食べる。

Therefore:

> Brown-san, in Japanese, トイレ has the same meaning as お手洗い.

"In Japanese" being the topic, the hearer's attention is put on the rest of
the sentence which is the new information.

