Learn Hardcore Japanese: haha ha watasi ga syukudai wo dasanai to okoru. - My mother gets angry if I don't turn in my homework.

Even though 母 is also the one who 怒る (gets angry), the sentence presents her first as the topic rather than as a simple grammatical subject with が. Using は often implies the speaker assumes the listener already knows who the mother is and wants to say something about her pattern/behavior.

Why does the sentence use 私が instead of 私は?

Inside the part 私が宿題を出さない, 私が marks 私 as the subject of that embedded clause with が.

The overall sentence structure is:

Topic: 母は
Embedded clause: 私が宿題を出さない (“I don’t hand in homework”)
Conditional particle: と
Main verb: 怒る (“[she] gets angry”)

So:

私が = I (as the doer of “not handing in homework”)
母は = my mother (topic and also the one who gets angry in the main clause)

Using 私は宿題を出さないと怒る would more naturally mean “I get angry if I don’t hand in homework”, which is strange, because it now sounds like I am the one getting angry. The sentence needs to distinguish:

Who doesn’t hand in homework (私が)
Who gets angry (母は)

That’s why が is used with 私 inside the clause, and は is used with 母 at the sentence level.

What exactly is the role of と in 出さないと怒る here?

In this sentence, と is a conditional particle, meaning something like “if” or “when(ever)”.

私が宿題を出さないと怒る literally has the sense of:

“When/if I don’t turn in my homework, (my mother) gets angry.”

This と-conditional is often used when:

The result is a natural/automatic consequence.
The relation is general or habitual (whenever A happens, B follows).

So unlike the と used for quotations (as in 「…」と言う), here it links a condition (私が宿題を出さない) with its result (怒る).

Why is 出さない in plain negative form and not 出しません?

出さない is the plain (dictionary) negative form of 出す.

In this sentence, everything is in plain style:

母は (plain)
私が宿題を出さないと (plain)
怒る (plain)

Japanese tends to keep formality consistent within a clause or sentence: if you start in plain style, you normally stay in plain style.

If you wanted a more polite version, you would change all the relevant verbs, for example:

母は、私が宿題を出さないと怒ります。

But in the original, the speaker is simply using casual/plain speech, so 出さない matches 怒る in level of politeness and form.

What does 宿題を出す literally mean, and why does it mean “to turn in homework”?

Literally:

宿題 (しゅくだい) – homework
出す (だす) – to put out, to take out, to submit, to send, etc.

So 宿題を出す literally is “to put out the homework” or “to submit the homework.”

In school contexts, Xを出す commonly means “to hand in / submit X”:

レポートを出す – hand in a report
申し込みを出す – submit an application

So 宿題を出さない = “(I) don’t hand in/submit the homework.”

Who is getting angry in this sentence, and how do we know?

The person getting angry is 母 (the mother).

We know this because:

母は is the topic at the beginning.
The main verb at the end of the sentence is 怒る, and there is no other subject change in the main clause.

The inner clause 私が宿題を出さない clearly belongs together, and then と怒る attaches to the topic 母は.

So structurally:

母は – as for my mother, she…
私が宿題を出さない – if I don’t submit homework
怒る – (she) gets angry

Japanese often omits repeated subjects, so 母 is not repeated before 怒る, but it is still understood to be the one doing the getting angry.

Why is 怒る in dictionary form and not something like 怒っています or 怒りました?

怒る in plain non-past form here expresses a general/habitual action:

母は私が宿題を出さないと怒る。
→ “My mother gets angry if I don’t turn in my homework.” (This is her usual reaction.)

Non-past plain form in Japanese can mean:

Future: “will get angry”
Habitual: “gets angry (generally, whenever this happens)”
Present fact

Using 怒っています would emphasize “is angry (right now)”, and 怒りました would describe a specific past event. But this sentence describes a recurring pattern, so 怒る is appropriate.

Could this sentence also mean “My mother gets angry at me for not turning in my homework”? There’s no に after 私, so how is that nuance expressed?

The sentence primarily states a condition and result:

Condition: 私が宿題を出さない – if I don’t turn in homework
Result: 母は怒る – my mother gets angry

It does imply that her anger is because of my behavior, but it doesn’t explicitly say who she directs her anger at.

If you want to explicitly show “angry at me,” you can say:

母は私に怒る。 – My mother gets angry at me.
母は私が宿題を出さないと私に怒る。 – If I don’t turn in my homework, my mother gets angry at me.

In the original, the focus is more on her reaction than on the target of her anger, but in context it is naturally understood as anger directed at the speaker.

Can 私が or 宿題を be omitted in this sentence?

Yes, in natural conversation, Japanese often omits information that is clear from context.

Depending on context, you might hear:

母は宿題を出さないと怒る。
(Omitting 私が. It still usually implies “if I don’t turn in homework.”)

Or even:

母は出さないと怒る。
(Omitting both 私が and 宿題を, if it’s already obvious you’re talking about homework.)

However, the full sentence 母は私が宿題を出さないと怒る。 is clearer for learners, because it shows all the roles:

私が – I am the one not handing in homework.
宿題を – homework is what is being not handed in.
母は – my mother is the one who gets angry.

Can I change と to たら or なら? How would that change the nuance?

You can use たら or なら, but the nuance shifts slightly.

母は私が宿題を出さないと怒る。
– General, automatic result.
– “Whenever / If I don’t turn in my homework, my mother gets angry.”
(Strong sense of this always happens.)
母は私が宿題を出さなかったら怒る。
– Using 〜なかったら (“if I didn’t / if I don’t (end up) doing it”).
– Can sound a bit more like a specific situation or conditional scenario, often future or hypothetical.
母は私が宿題を出さないなら怒る。
– なら often introduces a condition more like “in the case that / if it’s true that…”.
– Feels a bit more like: “If (it’s the case that) I’m not going to turn in my homework, she will get angry.”

The original と is the most natural if you want to express a habitual, dependable consequence.

Can I change the word order to 私が宿題を出さないと母は怒る? Is that still correct?

Yes, 私が宿題を出さないと母は怒る。 is grammatically correct and understandable.

Japanese word order is relatively flexible as long as:

Particles stay attached to the correct words.
The verb comes at the end of the clause.

Both:

母は私が宿題を出さないと怒る。
私が宿題を出さないと母は怒る。

mean essentially the same thing: “My mother gets angry if I don’t turn in my homework.”

The difference is subtle emphasis:

Starting with 母は highlights “as for my mother…”
Starting with 私が宿題を出さないと puts more initial focus on the condition itself.

How would I say the same idea more politely?

To make the sentence more polite, you mainly change the verb ending to the ます-form:

母は、私が宿題を出さないと怒ります。

This keeps the same structure but uses 怒ります instead of 怒る.

If you also wanted to soften the overall tone (for example, when speaking to a teacher), you might add some slight padding:

母は、私が宿題を出さないと怒るんです。 (polite explanation form)
母は、私が宿題を出さないと怒ってしまいます。 (adds a nuance of “ends up getting angry”)

But the straightforward polite conversion is simply:

母は私が宿題を出さないと怒ります。