Learn Hardcore Japanese: musume ga sukina kasyu no konsaato ni mo ikeru to ii desu ga, tiketto ha ninki desu. - I hope we can also go to a concert of the singer my daughter likes, but the tickets are popular.

Here, 娘 is the subject of 好き, so が is natural. Using は inside such a clause (娘は好きな歌手) sounds ungrammatical or very odd in standard modern Japanese.

So:

main sentence subjects/topics: often は
subjects inside relative clauses: typically が

Could you also say 娘の好きな歌手 instead of 娘が好きな歌手? Is there a difference?

Yes, 娘の好きな歌手 is also possible and common, and in most contexts it means practically the same thing:

娘が好きな歌手 – “the singer that my daughter likes”
娘の好きな歌手 – “my daughter’s favorite singer”

Nuance:

娘が好きな歌手 makes the inner sentence 娘が好きだ more explicit; it clearly marks 娘 as the subject of 好き.
娘の好きな歌手 treats 好きな more like an adjective and 娘の more like a possessor (“my daughter’s favorite singer”).

In everyday conversation, both are fine and normally interchangeable here.

What does the の in 歌手のコンサート do?

の is linking 歌手 (singer) and コンサート (concert) in a possessive/attributive way:

歌手のコンサート = “the singer’s concert” / “a concert of that singer”

So the structure is:

娘が好きな歌手のコンサート
→ “the concert of the singer whom my daughter likes.”

Why is it コンサートにも行ける and not just コンサートに行ける? What does も add?

も means “also / too / as well,” and it attaches to the particle that comes before it.

コンサートに行ける – “(we) can go to the concert.”
コンサートにも行ける – “(we) can also go to the concert.”

This implies that there is something else you’re already doing or hoping to do (e.g., going somewhere else), and in addition you hope you (also) can go to this concert.

If you remove も, you lose that “also/as well” nuance and just say you can (or hope to) go to the concert.

What is the role of 行ける here? Why not just 行く?

行ける is the potential form of 行く (“to go”), and it means “to be able to go / can go.”

行く – to go
行ける – can go / be able to go

In this sentence:

コンサートにも行けるといいです – “It would be nice if we could go to the concert too.” / “I hope we can also go…”

Using 行ける emphasizes the possibility or ability to go, which fits nicely with the “I hope” nuance of といいです.
If you used 行くといいです, it would sound like “It would be good if we go,” but 行けるといいです is the natural way to express hoping that it will be possible to go.

What does ～といいです mean in 行けるといいです?

The pattern:

(plain form verb) ＋といいです

expresses a wish or hope about the future. So:

行けるといいです
→ “I hope (we) can go.”
→ “It would be nice if (we) could go.”

Key points:

It’s not a direct quote; と here works like “if/that” in this fixed pattern.
If you say it to the person involved in the wish, you often soften it to ～といいですね (“I hope you can…”) or ～といいんですが (“I hope (we) can, but…”).

So 娘が好きな歌手のコンサートにも行けるといいです = “I hope we can also go to the concert of the singer my daughter likes.”

Why is there a が after いいです: いいですが? Isn’t が usually a subject marker?

Here, が is not the subject marker. It’s the conjunction が meaning “but / however.”

So:

行けるといいですが、チケットは…
≈ “I hope we can go, but as for the tickets…”

This clause‑final が is common in polite speech to introduce a contrast or an excuse, similar to けど in casual speech.

So in this sentence:

娘が好きな歌手のコンサートにも行けるといいですが、
“I hope we can also go to the concert of the singer my daughter likes, but…”
チケットは人気です。
“…the tickets are very popular (i.e., in high demand).”

What does チケットは人気です really mean? “Tickets are popular” sounds strange in English.

Literally:

チケット – tickets
は – topic/contrast marker
人気 – popularity / popular (na‑noun)
です – polite copula

So チケットは人気です literally is “As for the tickets, (they) are popular.”

In natural English, this usually means:

“The tickets are very popular.”
“The tickets are in high demand.”
“The tickets are hard to get (because they’re so popular).”

Japanese often uses 人気 this way to imply “very sought after,” and the “hard to get” nuance is easily understood from context, even if it isn’t said explicitly.

Why is it チケットは人気です with は, instead of チケットが人気です?

Both are grammatically correct, but the nuance is different:

チケットが人気です。
Neutral statement: “The tickets are popular.”
チケットは人気です。
は makes “tickets” the topic and often adds a contrastive nuance.
In this context (after …といいですが “I hope we can go, but”), it feels like:
“As for the tickets, (unfortunately) they’re popular / in high demand.”

So チケットは人気です ties into the が (“but”) before it and sets up a mild contrast with your hope of being able to go. It hints: “We want to go, but the tickets are (too) popular.”

Could you say チケットが人気です here instead? Would it change the feeling a lot?

You could say チケットが人気です, and it wouldn’t be wrong. The difference is subtle:

チケットが人気です。
→ Simple factual statement, “The tickets are popular.”
チケットは人気です。
→ Topic/contrast: “As for the tickets, they’re popular (you see).”
It feels a bit more connected to the previous clause and to your personal situation.

In this particular sentence, チケットは人気です better supports the implied meaning: “We hope to go, but (given that) the tickets are popular, it might be difficult.”

Who is the subject of 行けるといいです? Is it “I,” “we,” or “my daughter”?

Grammatically, the subject is omitted, which is very common in Japanese. The actual subject is understood from context.

Possible understood subjects:

“I”: “I hope I can go…”
“we” (speaker + family/friends): “I hope we can go…”
“my daughter”: “I hope my daughter can go…”

Context decides which is most natural. Given 娘が好きな歌手 (“the singer my daughter likes”), a very natural reading is:

“I hope we can also go to the concert of the singer my daughter likes…”

If you want to make it explicit:

娘が行けるといいです。 – “I hope my daughter can go.”
私たちも行けるといいです。 – “I hope we can go too.”

Is the word order fixed? Could I say something like 好きな娘の歌手のコンサート instead of 娘が好きな歌手のコンサート?

Word order for modifiers in Japanese is relatively flexible, but the relationships between words change when you reorder them.

娘が好きな歌手のコンサート
→ “the concert of the singer whom my daughter likes”

If you say:

好きな娘の歌手のコンサート

it most naturally parses as:

好きな娘 – “(someone’s) beloved/favorite daughter”
の歌手 – “daughter’s singer” (already odd)
のコンサート – “the concert of that singer”

This gets confusing and doesn’t express “the singer my daughter likes.” It sounds more like “the concert of the singer of (my) beloved daughter,” which is not what you want.

To express “the singer my daughter likes,” you really need a clause like:

娘が好きな歌手
or
娘の好きな歌手

and then add のコンサート after that.