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せんせいはきびしいし... Why は and not が.

GenjiMain

後輩
29 Jul 2018
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Hi all.

I the phrase "先生厳しし、長いレポートをかかなきゃいけないし、取りません" which is a response to the question "Did you take the economics class?", why は used instead of が?

Cheers.
 
The main reason is the particle し. As you would know, し is used to list clauses, and the topic (mostly subject) of each clause is often different from each other. In that sentence, the subject of 厳しい and 書かなきゃいけない are 先生 and 生徒, resectively. The speaker is enumerating the reasons of each topic (as for the teacher, he/she is stern, as for students, they have to write long reports, and so on), so it consequently has a nuance of contrasting. That's why は is preferred.

Incidentally, が is not wrong there. If the reason is only one or only about one subject, and the particle から is used to show the reason, が is most common.
e.g.
先生が厳しいから、取りません
先生が厳しくて怒りっぽいから、取りません
 
The main reason is the particle し. As you would know, し is used to list clauses, and the topic (mostly subject) of each clause is often different from each other. In that sentence, the subject of 厳しい and 書かなきゃいけない are 先生 and 生徒, resectively. The speaker is enumerating the reasons of each topic (as for the teacher, he/she is stern, as for students, they have to write long reports, and so on), so it consequently has a nuance of contrasting. That's why は is preferred.

Incidentally, が is not wrong there. If the reason is only one or only about one subject, and the particle から is used to show the reason, が is most common.
e.g.
先生が厳しいから、取りません
先生が厳しくて怒りっぽいから、取りません

I have a follow up question regarding a phrase of similar structure. In the sentence 日本語面白いし、先生いいし、私は日本語の授業が大好きです shouldn't the same rule apply? Why is は used two consecutive times instead of は then が?
 
The structure is completely the same. Notice that I used the term "topic" for each clause, i.e., also for the second clause in your first example sentence. The second clause also has a nuance of contrasting since the two topics are contrasted to each other, of course. The subject (and also the topic) of the second clause is 生徒, as I worte in my previous post. The subject/topic is omitted since it's obvious from the context. Thus, the first sentence is actually 先生は厳しいし、生徒は長いレポートをかかなきゃいけないし、取りません. Makes sense?
 
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