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は and 好き in 大仏は好きですよ

LiXiQing

後輩
28 Jan 2012
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They say that everithing you like must be marked with が in Nihongo, but if I use は instead, would it be wrong? Can I omit です too?
 
They say that everithing you like must be marked with が in Nihongo, but if I use は instead, would it be wrong?
は works as a contrastive marker, thus, it implies that the speaker likes Daibutsu but doesn't like something. For instance, it's used in the following context.

A: 菩薩は好きですか?
B: いいえ、そんなに好きじゃないです。でも、大仏は好きですよ。
A: Do you like Bosatsu?
B: No, I don't like so much, but I like Daibutsu.

Or, it works well in the following context, too.

A: 大仏を見たことがありますか?
B: いいえ、まだ見たことはないです。でも、大仏は好きですよ。
A: Have you ever seen Daibutsu?
B: No, I haven't yet, but I like Daibutsu.

In this case, "I like Daibutsu" is contrasted with "I haven't seen Daibutsu yet".

Can I omit です too?
Yes. It's a non-polite/casual version. Incidentally, 好きよ is used by female.
 
EDIT: LOL, of course I would end up writing at the same time as Toritoribe-san and getting ninja'd. Still curious if I got this right at all.


Are you familiar with the way が and は are chosen? Basically, the choice of は vs が changes the voice/focal point of the sentence, and you want to choose the right one for any given context. It's a hard thing for me to fully grasp as a native English speaker, since English uses tone and stress for that purpose, but Mike Cash once suggested a "rule of thumb": は puts the focus after it, while が puts the focus before it.

Of course, は can also be used to show contrast. Things like, "I don't like pasta, but I like bread," if I understand correctly.

So I'm not 100% certain about this since I'm still pretty much a complete novice, but I think:

大仏が好き(です|だ)。

Focuses on telling someone that it's daibutsus that you like, e.g. when answering a question about what you like.

大仏は好き(です|だ)。

Could be contrasting that you like daibutsus (and not something else), or could be putting focus on the fact that you like them, e.g. maybe an answer to a question about what you think of daibutsus.

You could also do:

大仏、好き(です|だ)

To avoid all of those connotations.

Of course, if I got any of that wrong, I'll leave it to the others to correct me.
 
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