Breakdown of kanozyo ha utyuu ga daisukide, syourai ha tenmongaku wo benkyousite kagakusya ni naritai to itte imasu.
Questions & Answers about kanozyo ha utyuu ga daisukide, syourai ha tenmongaku wo benkyousite kagakusya ni naritai to itte imasu.
In Japanese, 好き / 大好き behave grammatically like adjectives (specifically na-adjectives), not like verbs such as "to like."
The basic pattern is:
- X が 好き = "I like X" / "X is liked"
- X が 大好き = "I love X" / "X is really liked"
So the thing that is liked is marked with が, not を.
を is used for direct objects of verbs (食べる, 読む, 見る, etc.), but 好き is not a verb, so it doesn’t take を.
Therefore:
- ✅ 宇宙が好き
- ❌ 宇宙を好き (unnatural in this context)
は and が are doing different jobs here.
- 彼女は introduces the topic: "as for her / speaking of her..."
- 宇宙が marks the subject of the adjective 大好き: "space is (what she) loves."
So the structure is:
- 彼女は (topic: we are talking about her)
- 宇宙が大好き (statement about her: space is what she really loves)
A loose breakdown:
- 彼女は = "As for her,"
- 宇宙が大好き = "space is (the thing she) really loves."
This topic–comment structure (topic with は, subject with が) is very common in Japanese.
大好きで is the て-form of the na-adjective 大好き.
- For i-adjectives: 高い → 高くて
- For na-adjectives: 静かだ → 静かで, 便利だ → 便利で
- 大好きだ → 大好きで
The て-form here is used to connect clauses, like "and" in English.
So:
- 宇宙が大好きで、将来は…
≈ "She loves space, and in the future, she wants to study astronomy…"
大好きで links the reason/background (she really loves space) with what follows (so she wants to study astronomy and become a scientist).
将来は is 将来 + は, so 将来 is being treated as another topic.
- 将来 = "the future"
- 将来は = "as for the future," / "in the future (as for that time),"
Here は can have a slightly contrastive or framing nuance:
- 彼女は宇宙が大好きで、将来は天文学を勉強して… → "She loves space, and as for her future, she wants to study astronomy…"
It sets up the time frame or context of what follows.
Without は, 将来 would just function more neutrally as an adverb ("in the future"), but 将来は highlights it as the topic of that part of the sentence.
The verb 勉強する is put into て-form: 勉強して.
The て-form here has a linking / sequencing function:
- 天文学を勉強して、科学者になりたい
= "study astronomy and (then) become a scientist"
So the structure is:
- 天文学を勉強して = "by studying astronomy / studying astronomy and then..."
- 科学者になりたい = "she wants to become a scientist."
If you said 天文学を勉強したい, the focus would be "she wants to study astronomy," and then you'd need to separately say she also wants to become a scientist. The original sentence instead presents "study astronomy and (then) become a scientist" as one connected plan.
The verb なる ("to become") uses に to mark the resulting state or role:
- X に なる = "become X"
- 先生になる = become a teacher
- 有名人になる = become famous / a celebrity
- 医者になる = become a doctor
- 科学者になる = become a scientist
So:
- 科学者に なりたい = "(I/she) want(s) to become a scientist."
Using を with なる is not correct in this pattern.
The particle と here is the quoting particle. It marks the content of what is being said (or thought, etc.).
Pattern:
- 「…」と 言う = to say "..."
- … と 言う = to say that …
In this sentence, everything from 宇宙が大好きで、将来は天文学を勉強して科学者になりたい is what she is saying. That whole clause is the "quote," even though there are no quotation marks.
So:
- 宇宙が大好きで、将来は天文学を勉強して科学者になりたい と 言っています。
= She says that she loves space and that in the future she wants to study astronomy and become a scientist.
Without と, 言って wouldn't know what exactly is being "said."
言っています (言っている) here doesn’t always mean a literal, ongoing act of speaking at this moment. It often expresses:
- A habitual statement: something she regularly says
- A current state of what she is saying/thinking nowadays
So:
- 〜と言っています。
≈ "She says (that) ~." / "She is (currently) saying that ~."
If you used 言いました, it would frame it as a one-time event in the past:
- 〜と言いました。= "She said (at that time) that ~."
In the given sentence, the idea is more like "She (always) says she wants to become a scientist" or "She says (these days) that she wants to..." so 言っています is more natural.
なりたい is the -たい form of the verb なる ("to become").
Formation:
- Take the ます-stem of the verb:
- なる → なり (same stem as in なります)
- Add たい:
- なり + たい → なりたい
〜たい expresses the speaker’s (or subject’s) desire to do something:
- 食べる → 食べたい = want to eat
- 行く → 行きたい = want to go
- なる → なりたい = want to become
So 科学者になりたい means "want(s) to become a scientist."
Japanese often omits repeated subjects when they are clear from context.
- The main topic at the beginning is 彼女は ("as for her...")
- Everything that follows is understood to be about 彼女 unless something else is clearly introduced.
So in:
彼女は宇宙が大好きで、将来は天文学を勉強して科学者になりたいと言っています。
All of these are about 彼女:
- (彼女は) 宇宙が大好きで、
- (彼女は) 将来は天文学を勉強して、
- (彼女は) 科学者になりたいと、
- (彼女は) 言っています。
The pronoun she does not need to be repeated in Japanese.
Both are grammatically fine but carry slightly different nuance.
宇宙が大好きで、将来は…
- The て-form here gently connects background and result.
- Roughly: "She loves space, and in the future she wants to…"
宇宙が大好きだから、将来は…
- から gives an explicit reason–result relationship.
- Roughly: "Because she loves space, in the future she wants to…"
So:
- で (て-form) = softer link; can feel like "and", often leaving the causal link implicit.
- から = stronger, explicit "because–therefore" relationship.
In everyday conversation, the original 大好きで sounds natural and slightly less heavy-handed than clearly stating "because."
Can the word order be changed, for example putting 将来は earlier:
彼女は将来は宇宙が大好きで、天文学を勉強して科学者になりたいと言っています?
That particular rearrangement is not natural, because it ends up implying:
- "As for her future, she loves space"
(将来は宇宙が大好き = "in the future she will love space"),
which is not the intended meaning.
将来は is better placed near the verb it modifies (勉強して / なりたい) as a time expression:
More natural options:
- 彼女は宇宙が大好きで、将来は天文学を勉強して科学者になりたいと言っています。
- 彼女は、将来は天文学を勉強して科学者になりたいと言っています。宇宙が大好きなんです。
So you can move pieces around, but you must be careful not to change what modifies what.
将来は should clearly modify her plans (勉強して / なりたい), not her current feelings (宇宙が大好き).