A quick and easy-to-understand explanation of は versus が in Japanese

In Japanese, the particle は is used to indicate the topic of a sentence, while the particle が is used to indicate the subject of a sentence. The topic of a sentence is the general subject being discussed, while the subject is the specific thing performing the action of the verb in the sentence. For example, in the sentence “私わたしは学がく生せいです” (I am a student), the topic of the sentence is “I” (私わたしは) and the subject is “I” (私わたしが) because I am the one who is a student. In contrast, in the sentence “犬いぬが走はしる” (The dog is running), the topic of the sentence is “the dog” (犬いぬは) and the subject is “the dog” (犬いぬが) because the dog is the one who is running. These particles are often used in combination with other particles to add additional meaning to a sentence.