好き・上手・ほしい Take が, Not を

You want to say I like sushi. Your brain lines up I = 私, like = 好き, sushi = 寿司, and — because like is a verb that takes an object in English — it reaches for the object particle を and produces ×寿司を好きです. It is wrong, and it is the single most common particle mistake English speakers make in Japanese. The fix is one character: 寿司が好きです. This page is about why が (not を) is right for a whole cluster of high-frequency words, and about the one mental switch that blocks the error for all of them at once. For the full teaching treatment, see 好き・嫌い・上手・下手 (+ が); here we drill the error itself.

The error, in one swap

The reflex to fix is を → が with these words. Watch the swap:

That is the whole error and the whole cure. Now the important part: the same を → が swap fixes an entire family of words, so you are not memorizing a list of exceptions — you are learning one pattern.

The words that trip everyone up

Every word in this cluster feels transitive to an English speaker — like, dislike, be good at, be bad at, want all take a direct object in English. In Japanese they are adjectives (or, with ほしい, an adjective too), and the thing English would call the object is marked が.

Why が and not を — they describe a state, not an action

Here is the insight that makes が feel obviously right instead of arbitrary. を is the particle for the direct object of an action — パンを食べる ("eat bread"), 本を読む ("read a book"). Something is being done to the pan, to the book. But with 好き, nobody is doing anything to the sushi. 好き is not an action; it is a state, and the grammar treats it the way English does not.

The clean way to feel it is to mistranslate on purpose: 寿司が好きです is not "I do-like sushi" but "sushi is likeable (to me)." Read that way, が is suddenly correct for the ordinary reason — 寿司 is the subject whose state (being likeable) is described. There is no object because there is no action. English hides this because it packages the state as a transitive verb; Japanese lays it bare as an adjective + subject.

Grasp that once and the whole class is inoculated at the same time, because a large family of "experiencer" words works identically — the experienced thing takes が: できる ("can do"), 分かる ("understand"), 見える／聞こえる ("be visible/audible"), いる／ある ("exist/have"). The full contrast is on が vs を with desire and ability, and the subject-marking logic on が as subject marker.

Where the experiencer goes: は or には

If the sentence names who does the liking, that person is the topic, marked は (or には for emphasis / contrast), while the liked thing keeps its が. So a full sentence has two marked nouns — but never a を:

私は寿司が好きです literally maps to "As for me, sushi is likeable." Two nouns, two roles — experiencer (は) and the thing whose state is described (が) — and zero を anywhere.

ほしい and 〜たい obey the same rule

The same trap catches want. ほしい ("want [a thing]") is an い-adjective, so the wanted thing takes が — never を:

And 〜たい ("want to do"), which grafts onto a verb stem, behaves like an adjective too — so the object of that verb very often flips from を to が:

(を is not wrong with 〜たい — ビールを飲みたい also occurs — but が is the more idiomatic, adjective-flavored choice, and it is the one that keeps you clear of the 好き/ほしい error. The が-vs-を nuance with 〜たい gets its own page: を vs が with 〜たい and the potential.) The point for now: want words join like words on the が side of the line.

Common mistakes

1. Marking the liked thing with を. The core error — English like is transitive, so learners default to を. These are adjectives; use が.

2. Using を with 上手 / 下手 / 得意 / 苦手. Same transitive-verb reflex, same fix — the skill's target takes が.

3. Using を with ほしい. ほしい is an い-adjective ("is wanted"), so its target is が.

4. Marking the experiencer with が instead of は. When you name who likes something, that person is the topic (は); the liked thing keeps が. Two nouns, but only one が-role for the thing.

5. Boasting with 上手 about yourself. Grammatically fine, but 上手 about your own ability sounds immodest in Japanese. Downgrade to できる or a softened 得意.

Key takeaways

• 好き, 嫌い, 上手, 下手, 得意, 苦手, ほしい (and usually 〜たい) mark their target with が, never を — the top particle error for English speakers.
• They are adjectives describing a state, not transitive verbs: 寿司が好き = "sushi is likeable," so 寿司 is the subject, and there is no object for を to mark.
• Fix the reflex by mistranslating: "X is likeable / wanted / a strong point" → が becomes obvious.
• The experiencer is the topic: 私は … 〜が 好き — two nouns, one が-target, no を.
• The same logic covers できる, 分かる, 見える, 聞こえる — learn it once, block the error everywhere.