は and が in 私が死んだら

Question

I just learned about が and は. I just want to say "If I died" in Japanese. So I typed it. All I see is 私が死んだら

Can I say "私は死んだら" (は is put to emphasize what comes after は. So I think in the sentence "If I died", we should emphasize "died" (死んだら should be the main focus)

I don't understand why we use が here. (I learned that が is used to stress what comes before it) In this case, I have no idea why we stress 私.

Answer 1

Assuming you already know the basics, here are the relevant rules you may be missing:

• が is normally used to mark subjects in subordinate clauses.
• But は is still used in subordinate clauses when contrastive meaning is important.
• Both contrastive-は and exhaustive-listing-が "emphasize" something before it, but in different ways.

Therefore, 私が死んだら is the normal way to say "when I die" or "if I died". 私は死んだら is fine when the contrast between 私 and someone else is important. It's like "if I died" or "in my case, however, if I died".

私が死んだらこの日記を読め。
When I die, read this diary.
(が is used because no contrast is made.)

彼が死んだら彼女は悲しむ。私は死んだら彼女は喜ぶ。
If he died, she would feel sad. If I died, she would feel happy.
(私は is used in a subordinate clause to contrast my case with his case.)