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Recently, the が particle has been a little iffy for me especially with
adjectives.

Some nouns when modified by an adjective can seemingly use が and は
interchangeably while others cannot, is this correct? Can you guys confirm my
understanding here and elaborate/explain some of the nuances I may be
misunderstanding.

So, from my understanding the following 3 examples are grammatically correct
and translate as follows. However, is there any fundamental difference between
example 1 and 3 where one sentence uses は while the other uses が ? What kind
of situations would one use が as opposed to は in these types of sentences?

1.) アイスクリームが美味しいです -> Ice cream is delicious

2.) アイスクリームのほうが美味しいです -> Ice cream is more delicious

3.) アイスクリームは美味しいです -> Ice cream is delicious

However, there seems to be a subset of adjectives like 好き, 嫌い, 上手, 下手 and so
forth in which は would be inappropriate and not make sense. Is this correct?

4.) アイスクリームが好きです -> I like Ice cream (appropriate usage of particle, が）

5.) アイスクリームは好きです -> I like Ice cream (doesn't make sense needs が）

Thanks!
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2014-03-12T15:16:47.853
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2014-03-12T18:21:43.957
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question
particles adjectives particle-は particle-が
Use of が with certain adjectives
The use of は in your example for 好き is fine, but the nuance is slightly
different:

> アイスクリームが好きです。  
>  I like ice cream. (The item "ice cream" is stressed in this sentence).

versus

> アイスクリームは好きです。  
>  I like ice cream, but .. (there are other things I don't like).

More generally, は can mark the topic of a sentence. But it can also be used in
a contrastive sense, which occurs in your example. Another example:

> どちらがおいしい？  
>  魚はおいしいけど、肉はぜんぜんおいしくない。  
>  Which one do you like to eat? I like fish, but I really don't like meat.
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2014-03-12T18:15:26.840
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が sounds like you have a topic already, for example you're talking about
desserts at a particular restaurant:

> アイスクリームが美味しいです。  
>  _Out of the desserts at this restaurant, the_ ice cream is delicious.

This is just how you express the comparative in Japanese:

> アイスクリームのほうが美味しいです。  
>  Ice cream is more delicious.

は sounds like you want to talk about ice cream "out of the blue":

> アイスクリームは美味しいです。  
>  _Let's talk about ice cream._ Ice cream is delicious.

These "adjectives" are adjectives English, but in Japanese need a "topic"
(marked by は) and a "subject" (marked by が), where the topic is usually
someone (X). If X is not given, it is assumed to be you (私).

> [Xは] アイスクリームが好きです。  
>  X likes ice cream.
>
> アイスクリームは [Xが] 好きです。  
>  Ice cream likes X.

There is a different は, used to mark contrast:

> [Xは] アイスクリームは好きです。  
>  X likes ice cream. _But doesn't eat anything else._
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2014-03-12T18:15:55.633
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2020-06-17T08:18:27.500
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