Hello, this is my first post. I’ve made it to season 3 of TextFugu and so far it’s been plain sailing.

Then I got to が & は. Or more specifically, the following example in the Expanding On Loving And Hating chapter:

Q: わたしのくるまはすきですか？

A: いいえ、あなたのくるまがきらいです

Can anyone please explain to me why が is used in the response? In an earlier example on the same page, in which the question was “いぬ が すき ですか？” and the response “はい、いぬ は すき です”, Koichi gave the following explanation: “Because dogs have already been identified, you can answer using は, which puts the emphasis and importance on whether or not you like them (i.e. what comes after は)”. That makes perfect sense to me.

In the car example, however, presumably the car doesn’t need to be identified (perhaps the two speakers are sitting in it) – hence the use of は in the question – so why would the respondent emphasise the car part of their response as opposed to whether or not they like the car? I’m confused!

I know that Koichi says it’s not the end of the world if you get these particles mixed up, but I don’t feel as though I can move on until I get a more solid grasp of the differences between them. Thanks in advance for any help.