Question About the Particle が

[Archonen]

I might sound a bit ignorant for this.
However, despite the risk, I have to ask.

How can I tell whether the が in a sentence is the "Subject Marker" version, or the "But" version?
All I can tell from the two examples given in the Particles page is that the "Subject Marker" version comes after a noun, and that the "But" version always comes after the "Subject Marker" version, and sometimes at the end of the sentence, as a sort of cliffhanger.

Can anyone tell me whether my assumptions are correct, or if I need to know something else?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thank you for your time, guys.

[furrykef]

Generally, context will help. As your studies progress, it will become increasingly obvious when が is a subject marker and when it's a conjunction; likewise, it will be obvious when は is the particle "wa" and when it's part of a word and should be read "ha", etc.

To directly answer your question, though, the conjunction が will occur after a verb, whereas the subject marker will appear after a noun. (If you can't tell whether you're looking at a verb or a noun, then the meaning of が isn't your primary problem anyhow. ) The conjunction が will also usually have a comma after it (or maybe an ellipsis if nothing comes after it); in speech, there will usually be a pause. So I don't think there are any ambiguous contexts where it might look like it has either meaning.

- Kef

[Archonen]

I see.
Thank you for the answer.