How to treat embedded questions and が


What is the difference between following sentences?

> できるかどうか分かりません  
>  できるかどうか **が** 分かりません

Both seem to have about similar amount of hits on google for an exact phrase.

When reading about embedded sentences they don't tend to mention が to follow
them, so it's probably not が would be grammatically required. If that is so,
what is its function?

[This](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/13038/9719) mentions that を can be
used, but no mention of が

[This](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/25361/9719) asks about と, which
seems to make it a quote, but don't know if it necessarily changes the meaning

[This post](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/39320/indirect-
question-marked-with-%E3%81%8B%E3%81%8C) seems close but the answer bottom
makes it seem like が is required by the nature of 分かる while other sources
teach it without it.




The が here emphasises what comes before it. You could imagine it as a response
to a question:

> Speaker A: 何かが分かりませんか。
>
> "Is there something that you don't understand?"
>
> Speaker B: できるかどうかが分かりません。
>
> "I don't understand whether I can do it or not."

It emphasises that Speaker B is unsure about _that_ specific thing, the
important part of the sentence being not that Speaker B is unsure of
something/anything, but that Speaker B is _specifically_ unsure of whether or
not he/she can do it.




In our daily conversation, we tend to omit が and を. For example, we write ケーキ
**を** 食べますか？ but we say ケーキ食べますか？

It is the same for できるかどうか分かりません and できるかどうか **が** 分かりません. The former is
casual and the latter is for former writing.

を is used because of 知らない. Please memorize を+知らない and が+分かります. This is
standard grammar.

For these sentences 雨がいつ降るかと大変楽しみにしていましたが、なかなか雨が降りません。and
雨が降ることを大変楽しみにしていましたが、なかなか雨が降りません。The former gives me a feeling that the person
is looking forward to the rain more. As another user has mentioned- more
excited to the rain.

