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I am a beginner in Japanese language and I started studying particles は and が
and I wanted a confirmation to make sure I understand things properly.

When it comes to saying "I like you", it should be "わたしはあなたがすきです". Am I to
understand that "わたし" is the object in the sentence and "あなた" the subject? The
use of the particles seem to suggest so. Would a more literal translation be
"You are liked by me."?

Sorry for not using Kanji, I'm not yet familiar with it. I just learned
Hiragana fairly recently.
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2018-06-03T00:04:05.393
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2018-06-07T11:48:26.300
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question
grammar particles subjects
Who is the subject of すきです?
Unfortunately there are not concrete translations for は and が. は does mark the
subject and が does mark the object. In other words, the は marks who/what is
doing the liking and が marks what is being liked.

This does not translate to "you are like by me". It makes decent sense in this
context, but not in every context. the XはYがすきだ is not a passive construction.

For example, if you were talking about food:わたしは、ステーキがすきです。 "the steak is
liked be me" doesn't make sense in English, nor is it the proper translation.
It simply means "I like steak".

The XはYがすきだ structure can be a little confusing at first, because some
beginners want to treat すき as a verb, but it is not.
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2018-06-03T02:29:56.297
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Japanese word order is different to English. These “particles” は (pronounced
“wa”) and が along with を are important for this.

In the example: 「私{わたし}はあなたが好{す}きです」 which translates to “I like you” we
understand the grammatical roles in the sentence in English by word order.

I (subject/agent) like (verb/action) you (topic/object/predicate).

So in English: “You like me” has a different meaning. In Japanese actions come
at the end but the roles of other words in a sentence are marked by
“particles” and “post-positions” (which is different to articles and
prepositions). Aside: there is no “the” in Japanese and no “は” in English so
it is difficult to translate literally sometimes (even if you unscramble the
word order, particles add emphasis).

While there is a more common used word order 私{わたし}はあなたが好{す}きです, the meaning
is unchanged in あなたが私{わたし}は好{す}きです (although you might sound like Yoda). This
flexible word order allows meaning to be preserved so have fun with song
lyrics and haiku poetry. Often it is obvious that you are talking about what
you like so すしが好{す}きです means “I like Sushi” and すしが好{す}きですか？ means “(do) you
like Sushi?”

In this case 私{わたし} “watashi” is “I” or “me”, あなた means “you”, and 好{す}きです is
the verb “to like”. The particles は and が are marking their grammatical roles
in a sentence. The phrase is translated typically as “I like you” although
“you are likeable by me” could also be argued.

**Grammar note** : 好{す}き “suki” (like) and 欲{ほ}しい “hoshii” (want) are
adjectives (descriptions) in Japanese even though they are verbs (actions) in
English. They are combined with です “to be” to form verbs so more accurately:

好{す}き(な) is “likeable” and 好{す}きです is “to be likeable” or “to like”

Similarly 欲{ほ}しい is “desirable” and 欲{ほ}しいです is “to be desirable” or “to want”

We do this in English such as the adjective “happy” used as a verb “to be
happy”.

です is the present/future tense of “to be/will be” rather than the past tense
でした “was”. So “liked by me” would be 好{す}きでした.

**Culture note** : Japanese people don’t use あなた to address each other very
often. While translated as “you”, it is only used between people who know each
other very well such as romantic partners. Saying あなた to someone you’ve just
met can be interpreted as an expression of intimacy or romantic interest. So
あなたが好{す}きです is appropriate but あなたはすしが好{す}きですか？ is like calling someone
“honey” or by a nickname. It is safer to refer to people by last name
田中{たなか}さんはすしが好{す}きですか？ I hope this might save someone from an embarrassing
moment in Japan.
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2018-06-03T03:33:56.713
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answer