Learn Hardcore Japanese: musuko ha supootu no manga ga suki de, siai no mae ni yomu to yaruki ga deru to iimasu. - My son likes sports manga, and he says that reading them before a match motivates him.

スポーツの漫画
- Very clear: “manga about sports.”
- Uses の to show a loose “about / related to” relationship.
- Feels slightly more neutral and explanatory.
スポーツ漫画
- A more compact compound noun.
- Common in titles/genres (e.g. スポーツ漫画が好きです = “I like sports manga”).
- Feels a bit more like a fixed label or genre name.

In everyday speech, both are used. In this sentence, スポーツの漫画 just makes it very explicit that these are manga whose topic is sports.

Why is it 漫画が好き and not 漫画を好き?

With words like 好き, 嫌い, 上手, 下手, etc., the thing you like/dislike/are good at normally takes が, not を.

漫画が好きです。 – “I like manga.”
テニスが嫌いです。 – “I dislike tennis.”

Grammatically, 好き is a na-adjective (形容動詞) meaning “likable / pleasing,” so the thing that is “pleasing” is marked by が as the subject:

(私は)漫画が好きです。
→ Literally: “As for me, manga is pleasing.”

Using 漫画を好き is generally ungrammatical in standard Japanese.

What does the で in 好きで do here?

好きで is the te-form of the na-adjective 好き.

Te-form (～て / ～で) is used to connect clauses, like “and / so / and then” in English.

スポーツの漫画が好きで、試合の前に読むと…
= “(He) likes sports manga, and when he reads them before a match, …”

So で here:

Is not the particle で as in “at/in/by,”
But the te-form of 好き, joining this clause to what follows.

Why is it 試合の前に and not something like 試合前に?

Both exist, but:

試合の前に
- Literally: “at the time before the match.”
- Uses の to connect 試合 (match) and 前 (before).
- A bit more neutral and complete-sounding.
試合前に
- A more compressed form, 試合前 as a compound noun “pre-match / before the match.”
- Also natural, often seen in speech and writing.

In this sentence, 試合の前に is the straightforward “before the game” expression. Both would be acceptable in most contexts.

What does the に in 前に mean here?

前 is a noun meaning “before” or “in front.” To say “before X (time)” in the sense of when, you usually say:

X の前に (action)

The に marks the point in time when something happens:

試合の前に読む – “(He) reads (them) before the match.”

Without に (試合の前読む), it sounds unnatural in this usage.

What does the と after 読む mean in 読むとやる気が出る?

This と is the conditional と, meaning something like:

“when/whenever (someone) reads (them), (then) motivation comes out,”
or “if (he) reads (them), (he) gets motivated.”

Conditional と often expresses a natural / automatic result that reliably follows the first action:

春になると暖かくなる。 – “When it becomes spring, it gets warm.”
ボタンを押すとドアが開く。 – “If you press the button, the door opens.”

So in 読むとやる気が出る, the idea is: reading them reliably leads to feeling motivated.

Then what does the second と before 言います do?

The second と (in …やる気が出ると言います) is the quotation particle.

It marks what is being said, thought, etc.:

「やる気が出る」と言います。 – “(He) says: ‘I get motivated.’”

Even without quotation marks, X と言います means “(someone) says that X.”

So:

First と (after 読む): conditional と (“when/if …, then …”)
Second と (before 言います): quotation と (“… that …,” “ ‘…,’ says …”).

How do we know who is doing the 読む and whose やる気 comes out?

Japanese often omits subjects when they are clear from context.

The sentence starts with 息子は (“as for my son”), so this topic carries over:

(息子は) スポーツの漫画が好きで、
(息子は) 試合の前に読むと、
(息子は) やる気が出ると言います。

So, all of these actions/states are about 息子 (my son):

He likes sports manga.
He reads them before a match.
He says that when he does that, he feels motivated.

Why is it 息子は and not 息子が at the start?

は marks the topic (“as for…”), while が often marks the grammatical subject or introduces new, focused information.

Here, we’re making a statement about the son in general, so 息子は is natural:

息子はスポーツの漫画が好きで…
“As for my son, he likes sports manga and…”

If you used 息子が, it would sound more like you are contrasting him with others or newly introducing him as the one who (for example) likes manga, in a specific context. The default “talking about my son” tone is with 息子は.

Why is 好き written as 好きで and not something like 好きです here?

You can’t connect two full sentences directly with です the way English uses “and.” In Japanese, you typically:

Put the first predicate into te-form, and then
Continue with the next clause.

So:

❌ 息子はスポーツの漫画が好きです、試合の前に読むと… (awkward)
✅ 息子はスポーツの漫画が好きで、試合の前に読むと…

好きで is the te-form of the na-adjective 好き, functioning like “(he) likes …, and …”.

What does やる気が出る literally mean?

Breakdown:

やる気 – “motivation / willingness to do something / drive.”
- Literally “feeling of doing.”
出る – “to come out / appear / emerge.”

So やる気が出る literally is “motivation comes out,” i.e. “I/He get(s) motivated,” “motivation wells up.”

Other related expressions:

やる気がない – “have no motivation.”
やる気が出てきた – “I’ve started to feel motivated.”

Could you also say やる気になる instead of やる気が出る? Is there a difference?

Both are possible, but there’s a nuance:

やる気が出る
- Motivation appears / wells up from inside.
- Very common, natural in exactly this kind of sentence.
やる気になる
- Literally “become motivation” → “become motivated.”
- Also acceptable, but やる気が出る is more idiomatic for describing motivation naturally arising.

In this sentence, やる気が出る is the most natural collocation.

Why is it 言います (non-past) and not 言いました or 言っています?

Non-past 言います is often used to state:

Someone’s habitual way of speaking, or
What someone (generally) says / claims / tends to say.

Here, the idea is not about one specific time he said it, but:

“He says (that) when he reads them before a match, he feels motivated.”
→ It’s his usual statement.

If you used:

言いました – “said (once / at that time).”
言っています – “is saying / keeps saying (now / around this time).”

So 言います matches the general, descriptive tone of the sentence.

Can we say …やる気が出ると言っています instead of …と言います?

Yes, you can say:

…やる気が出ると言っています。

This often implies:

You are reporting what he is currently saying or
What he has been saying (e.g., recently or habitually).

Nuance:

と言います。 – Neutral statement of his general claim.
と言っています。 – Feels more like “he is (always) saying that / he keeps saying that / he’s saying (right now) that…”

Both are grammatically fine; the original just chooses the simpler, neutral と言います.

Why is the verb 読む in dictionary form before と, and not 読んだ or 読むとき?

For the conditional と, the verb normally appears in dictionary form (non-past):

読むと – “when/if (he) reads, (then)…”
行くと – “when/if (he) goes, (then)…”

Using 読んだと would make it past: “after he read, he said …” but that is a different structure, and you would more naturally use ～たら or ～とき for many “when/after” meanings:

読んだら、やる気が出ました。 – “When he read (them), he got motivated.”
読むとき、… – “When (he) reads / at the time of reading, …” (focuses on the time, not the automatic result).

In this sentence, we want a general, automatic result: “When(ever) he reads (them) before a game, he gets motivated,” so 読むと is exactly right.

Where is the direct object “manga” for 読む? Shouldn’t it be 漫画を読む?

Yes, the full form would be something like:

スポーツの漫画を試合の前に読むと、やる気が出る…

However, since スポーツの漫画 has already been mentioned in the previous clause (スポーツの漫画が好きで), Japanese often omits repeated information when it’s clear from context.

So the sentence is understood as:

(スポーツの漫画を) 試合の前に読むと、やる気が出ると言います。
→ “(When he reads those sports manga before a match, he says he gets motivated.)”

Omitting the object here is natural and typical.