Why is it that when you say, a person likes something, it is written as おとうさん は あめ が すき です。
Why can’t I just put おとうさん あめ が すき です。
Translation wise, I don’t understand it–“Dad (is or am) rain (is) liked.”
Like is an adjective in Japanese. Something is likeable I guess.
So… the topic is dad and the subject is the rain.
The rain is likable regarding Dad?
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Trying to say “Dad likes rain”, correct?
は isn’t “is/am” - instead it’s a topic marker that doesn’t totally translate in English. Typically, it can be translated as “as for”. So: “As for Dad, rain is liked” is the direct translation, and more naturally, “Dad likes rain.”
To me, 「おとうさん あめ が すき です。」kinda sounds like there’s Dad-shaped rain falling or something - is that just me? 
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To me, it sounds like the speaker is saying 「あめ が すき です。」 to their おとうさん xP
It would be more natural with a comma though, if that was the case
「おとうさん 、あめ が すき です。」
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This may help or completely confuse you. Good luck 
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This technically means “as for dad, rain is likable”. What it means is “dad likes rain”.
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Yeah I am not by any means an expert in grammar on anything but it helped me understand it a little better this way:
は means: as for, regarding. It has no direct translation but it’s purpose is to say something about the thing it comes before the は.
in this case:
おとうさん は あめ が すき です
would be something like : Regarding my dad, he likes rain.
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Just to undermine everything that’s been discussed so far, it’s perfectly fine to say this in casual speech. The は is still there, though - it’s just being omitted.
お父さん、雨が好き。
On a peripheral side note, if you’re talking about your own father to someone else here, you need to use 父 (ちち) rather than お父さん.
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Yeah the intonation of “father (getting his attention) I like rain” and “father likes rain” would be different even without the は in either sentence, so you could distinguish them.
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Question kind of vague.
If you want to say the rain is liked by your father, then the verb “like” is すく and its 受け身 (passive form) can be used as in
「誰から好かれる人」 the person who is liked by everyone
So you can say
「雨はお父さんに好かれる。」Rain is liked by your father.
probably not a very common way to say this kind of things.
As in your original sentence, 「お父さんは雨が好きです」 in no way you can omit the topic marker は once you decide to mention the topic, your father, because “雨が好きだ” is something attributed to him.
Japanese is a language that is quite forgiving if you can still infer the meaning based on context.
Dropping the は is not a problem here.
I’m Japanese, raised in the west, so I never really learned to read and write. But I’m fairly confident in my conversational skills, and on conversational level, both sentences are perfectly fine.
I would automatically assume that Your father likes the rain, rather than You like rain that resembles your father. Much of Japanese conversation is contextual, and one would almost always assume the most logical choice (this can actually lead to confusion, especially in complicated conversations such as in the workplace).
When reading this sentence, you may find yourself pausing after おとうさん.
When speaking, you may find yourself pausing slightly after saying it おとうさん.
I think someone has mentioned it already, but you should think of は more as “With regards to the thing I just mentioned”.
おとうさん は
With regards to my father…
あめ が すきです
Rain is liked.
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