Learn Hardcore Japanese: watasi ha kuroi neko ga suki desu.

は is the topic marker. It tells the listener that 私 (“I”) is what we’re talking about. It doesn’t necessarily mark the grammatical subject—in this case, it simply sets 私 as the theme: “As for me…”

Why is が used after 猫 and not another particle?

が marks the thing you like when you use 好き. In Japanese, adjectives like 好き (“liked; pleasing”) take が to indicate their “object.” So “黒い猫が好きです” literally means “Black cats are pleasing (to me).”

What kind of word is 好き? Is it a verb or an adjective?

好き is a な-adjective (sometimes called a “noun adjective”) or you can think of it as a noun meaning “liking.” It behaves like an adjective in that you say 好き + です or 好き + だ, but you cannot conjugate it like a true adjective (e.g. you can’t say 好きくない).

Why is です added at the end?

です is the polite copula. It doesn’t add extra meaning beyond politeness and formality. In casual speech you could say 私は黒い猫が好きだ or even drop だ in very informal contexts: 私、黒い猫好き.

Why is there no particle between 黒い and 猫?

黒い is an い-adjective modifying 猫 (“cat”). In Japanese, adjectives directly precede the noun they modify without a particle, just like in English we say “black cat” rather than “black of cat.”

What’s the difference between 黒い猫 and 黒猫?

黒い猫 uses an adjective + noun structure (“a cat that is black”), while 黒猫 is a compound noun (“black cat”) where the color and animal form a single word. In most contexts they’re interchangeable, though 黒い猫 emphasizes the color attribute more explicitly.

Can I drop 私は and just say 黒い猫が好きです?

Yes. If the topic (you) is obvious from context, you can omit 私は. Japanese often drops pronouns when they’re understood. 黒い猫が好きです alone means “(I) like black cats.”

Why is the word order 黒い猫が好きです instead of “好きです黒い猫”?

Japanese is generally Subject/Topic + Object + Verb/Predicate. 黒い猫が (object marked by が) comes before 好きです (the predicate). Verbs and predicates always go at or near the end of the clause.