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は、が

These 2 particles wa & ga both do what in English is the subject, but wa is greater in scope than ga

wa - the main topic particle of the conversation

ga - the subject particle of the sentence

わたし クレイ です。
watashi wa kurei desu.
I am Clay.
[Clay is the topic and now this is known, it won't be repeated unless the topic changes]

ねこ すき です。
neko ga suki desu.
(I) like cats.  
["cats" are actually the 'subject' here.  Maybe this is easier to see "Cats are liked (by me).  Note you could say "watashi wa neko ga suki desu." but it is unnecessary because we have already said "watashi wa" (The overall topic is already known)]

if both are in a sentence, the wa is first

the wa is written with a hiragana ha but pronounced as wa

FOR MORE ON THIS ...

2 questions

Why are there three different alphabets and how do you know when to use hiragana and when to use katakana or kanji?

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