> 大英雄が無職で何が悪い

(What's wrong with a great hero being unemployed) (?)

I think understand the meaning of the sentence but I equate the "で" with the
English "with", rather than think about why で is specifically used here. How
different would it be if は was used instead of で? What's the nuance of this で?
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2016-11-14T02:56:49.857
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question
particle-で
Why is で used in 「大英雄が無職で何が悪い」
> 大英雄が無職で何が悪い。  
>  A great hero is unemployed, and what's wrong (with that)?  
>  A great hero being unemployed, is there anything wrong?

This で is _not_ the particle で which usually means "with (a tool)", "by (a
method)", "at (a place)", etc.

This で is the [te-form of the Japanese plain copula
だ](http://www.japaneseprofessor.com/reference/grammar/conjugations-of-the-
japanese-copula/). It's the same で found in "私は学生 **で** 、あなたは会社員です" and
"今日は日曜日 **で** 学校は休みだ". The te-form is used to [denote a reason/cause of the
following clause](http://www.learn-japanese-adventure.com/te-form-cause-
reason.html) in the original sentence, so it's not possible to split it into
two sentences.

大英雄が無職は何が悪い would not be grammatical because "大英雄が無職" does not form a noun
phrase. Well, it's possible to [use こと to turn it to a noun
phrase](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/1395/5010) and say:

> 大英雄が無職 **であること** は何が悪い。  
>  What's wrong with a great hero being unemployed?

...although this still looks a bit awkward. You can say 大英雄が無職であること **の**
何が悪い, where の is used to link two nouns (大英雄が無職であること and 何).
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2016-11-14T03:26:17.393
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answer
The は would not be an appropriate substitute for the で. This で is comparable
to the use of で in a sentence like 明日でいいよ。in contrast to saying 明日がいいよ。

Here the nuance between で and が is relatively subtle. They both imply that
tomorrow is OK. The で here gives the nuance that tomorrow is one among many
days that are also OK, or that some other day may be preferred but tomorrow is
also OK. The が has a nuance that says tomorrow is specifically being singled
out as OK or preferable.

So to apply this nuance to the sentence

> "What's wrong with a great hero being unemployed"

the で would add the nuance that, being unemployed is one among many options.
What it adds to the logic of the sentence is the disclaimer that the speaker
already recognizes the many other possibilities other than being unemployed
and that these other options may even be considered preferable and clarifies
that the speaker is not trying to say it is the only or the best option.

Don't get confused because you can also say 車でいいよ。and 車がいいよ and it is the same
で as the earlier examples but it is not the same when you are using the で as a
'with' where you can say 車で行くよ but 車が行くよ or 車は行くよ has a very different
meaning.
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2016-11-15T00:41:20.090
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answer