if the sentence 私は犬が大好きだ was swapped to 私が犬は大好きだ in what way does it change?

[dusky elbow]

I understand the first one is correct but why would the 2nd one be wrong?

[mossy dawn]

Understanding when が is used and when は is used is one of those persistent puzzles of Japanese. It takes a long time to get a grasp on it, and an even longer time to fully understand it. At my level, all I can tell you is that the second sentence just sounds strange. The same way I would tell someone a sentence sounds strange in English, my native language. I would read up on some grammar resources discussing が and は but don't expect it to make sense right away.

More generally, we don't answer questions like this here in this server. Rather, we point you towards resources to find the answers yourself. Please read FAQ #1 in the #❓faq channel for an explanation on why.

[dusky elbow]

Ok thank you I was just wondering if it would change the actual meaning of the sentence maybe to like "dogs love me" rather than "I love dogs"

[queen flare]

The fundamental problem here is that you started with a sentence that is mildly unnatural and now you're asking a question about a sentence that people aren't likely to say. That would be a good way to do experimental science or reverse engineering.

This lock can only be opened with its key.... except what happens if the key is worn down and not exactly the right shape? Does the lock still open?

But that's a bad approach to acquiring language. Or... Okay, there's currently a very polite but heated academic argument between people who believe that babies learn language by experimenting on people and those who insist that language is very complicated imitation. Refold follows that second camp. If 犬は私が好きだ is falls into the category of "things that people don't say" then you don't have to imitate it and there's no good way to find out what it actually means. If you do the experiment and ask people what it means, they'll often be able to tell you that it should mean what you want it to. But people don't communicate that way, so it sounds weird or is confusing.

Observations show that other patterns of words are used in real conversation. 犬が好きですね。https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-amJb2WGCY&t=204s 犬に好かれる https://youtu.be/SyqpDPMhOP4?t=36 If I search 私は犬が大好きthe results I get are people talking about how to teach English.

Refold's answer to this situation is that we're not going to worry about it. We're not trying to reverse-engineer a formal language - that kind of thing can wait for later. First we need to get comfortable with the language, sit inside it and listen and discover how to have fun. Getting scientific about it can happen later, and it's optional.

[mossy dawn]

I was hoping you would pop in Glass because the first sentence felt weird, but still (technically) correct. The second one felt weird in that it's probably incorrect, or at the very least, something I have never seen and don't expect people would ever say.

But in the end, I wasn't exactly sure.

[queen flare]

Well, I try to be not-too-sure myself, which is why I searched for examples in Google and Youglish.

[mossy dawn]

[dusky elbow]

Thank you for your advice. I really do appreciate it.

[queen flare]

Sorry that it's not the most actionable advice. "Don't think about that" isn't very satisfying.

Also the way that 好き and 好くare used is just weird. You can probably find better discussions of particles with 食べたい。But! The best way to make those patterns sink in will be to hear people talk about liking and being liked and wanting to eat.

[dusky elbow]

I think it is actionable for me, I am using a j1pk deck off the anki site which is sentences and I was doing as it says just try to recall the reading and recognize the word but as I started on grammar I started analyzing my reviews grammar out of curiosity. Don't think about helps more than you think. This gets me out of anki quicker and back to the actual grammar lessons and more time watching stuff and having fun. 😄

[queen flare]

Ooh, excellent! I'm glad I didn't make things seem too difficult.