tokuten wa takai ga, hikiwakeke da.

The score is high, but it is a draw.

Breakdown of tokuten wa takai ga, hikiwakeke da.

• は: topic particle
• が: but
• だ: to be
• 高たかい: high

Questions & Answers about tokuten wa takai ga, hikiwakeke da.

What does は do in 得点は高い?

Here, は marks 得点 as the topic of the sentence. The speaker is saying something about the score:

As for the score, it is high, but ...

This does not necessarily mean 得点 is the grammatical subject in the same way English uses subjects. It sets up the thing being talked about.

So the first part feels like:

Speaking of the score, it’s high.

Why is 高い used with 得点?

高い means high, and in Japanese it is very natural to describe a score, price, temperature, or level as high.

So 得点が高い / 得点は高い means that the score is high, in other words, a lot of points have been scored.

English often says the score is high too, so this matches fairly well.

What exactly does 得点 mean here?

得点 means score, points, or points scored.

In a sports context, it usually refers to the number of points in the game. So in this sentence it suggests that the game has a high-scoring result.

Depending on context, 得点 can refer either to:

• the score itself
• points earned by a team or player

Here it is best understood as the score.