watashi wa shinsetsuna sensei ga suki desu.

topic particle

Breakdown of watashi wa shinsetsuna sensei ga suki desu.

• です: to be
• 私わたし: I
• 先せん生せい: teacher

Questions & Answers about watashi wa shinsetsuna sensei ga suki desu.

Why does this sentence use both は (wa) and が (ga)? Don’t they both mark the subject?

They do different jobs.

• は (wa) marks the topic of the sentence – what we’re talking about.
  • 私 は = “as for me / speaking about me”.
• が (ga) here is tied to 好き and marks the thing that is liked.
  • Pattern: X は Y が 好きです。
    Literally: “As for X, Y is liked.”
    Natural English: “X likes Y.”

So in 私 は 親切な 先生 が 好きです。:

• 私 は = as for me (topic)
• 親切な先生 が = the kind teacher(s) are the thing that is liked
• 好きです = is liked / I like

You could loosely map it as:

I (topic) – kind teacher(s) (liked-thing) – like

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Why is it 先生が好き and not 先生を好き if it means “I like the teacher”?