学校が好き
gakkou ga suki
To say "I like school" in Japanese, you use 学校が好き (gakkou ga suki).
This phrase is used to express a general fondness or positive feeling toward school.
What does it mean word for word?
学校 (gakkou) means "school", が (ga) is a subject marker particle that marks the object of one's liking in this specific grammatical structure and 好き (suki) means "like" or "fond of".
How does it change in a sentence?
Adding だ (da) to the end of gakkou ga suki creates a plain or informal version of the sentence. Another informal variation is 学校が好きなんだ, which conveys the meaning "I really like school!"
How do you pronounce it?
gakkou ga suki
What mistakes should you avoid?
Avoid using the object marker を (wo) with the word suki. Instead of saying 学校を好き, you should use the particle が (ga) as in 学校が好き.
Did you know?
- There is a specialized word 学校嫌い (gakkou-girai) for people who hate school, but there is no single equivalent compound word for someone who loves school.
- While English speakers use 'like' as a verb, the Japanese 好き (suki) actually functions as a 'na-adjective'. This means the grammar behind 'liking' something is structurally closer to saying 'school is likable' than 'I like school'.
- In Japanese, the subject 'I' is often omitted from this phrase entirely. If you are speaking about your own feelings, simply saying 学校が好き is more natural than including a pronoun like 私は (watashi wa).
Examples in context
- 学校が好きだよ。I like school.
- 学校が好きなんだ！I really like school!
- 子供の頃から学校が好きでした。kodomo no koro kara gakkou ga suki deshita.I have liked school since I was a child.
- 勉強も遊びも、学校が好き。benkyou mo asobi mo, gakkou ga suki.I like school, both studying and playing.
Example conversation
Yota and Misaki are chatting after class.
- 美咲 Misaki陽太くんは、学校が好き？Youta-kun wa, gakkou ga suki?Yota, do you like school?
- 陽太 Yotaうん、僕は学校が好きだよ。Un, boku wa gakkou ga suki dayo.Yeah, I like school.
- 美咲 Misakiいいな。私はちょっと苦手。Ii na. Watashi wa chotto nigate.That's nice. I'm not so fond of it.
- 陽太 Yotaどうして？友達はたくさんいるし。Doushite? Tomodachi wa takusan irushi.Why? You have plenty of friends.
