Can I always use が to mark the subject when talking about phenomenon


I understand that `が` can be used to describe a phenomenon.

`雨 が 降って います。`

But in Japanese, there are always many exceptions.

So, does this have any exceptions?

Like I can use `は` or `を`?

雨 `は` 降って います。

雨 `を` 降って います。




Note, the OP amended their question after this answer.

This is a bit of an strange question. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding you but the
fact that you are talking about weather has nothing to do with the choice of
particles. The same rules apply to weather as they do to anything else.

Let's take your example sentence:

> 雨 **が** 降っている。

This would be what you might say if you looked out of the window and noticed
it was raining. This が marks the subject of the sentence and is called the が
of neutral description in this example. A lot has been written about it on
this site. I'll try to find some links later.

が can be replaced with は, but the whole sentence would have a different
implication. If someone told you it was supposed to snow today and you looked
out of the window and saw rain you might say:

> 雨 **は** 降っている。

This は marks the topic of the sentence and in this case it adds a feeling of
contrast between snow and rain. It would be like the English sentence "(it
isn't snowing) but it **is** raining".

The particle を marks the direct object of the verb and it has no place in this
sentence at all. 降る is an intransitive verb and cannot take an object.

The things I've talked about above aren't specific to weather they apply to
all of Japanese. I suggest you read up a bit more on what the particles are
and how they work.

> But in Japanese, there are always many exceptions.

Again, this statement suggests to me that you don't yet have a good
grammatical foundation to your learning. Japanese is a remarkably consistent
and logical language once you understand how it's put together. Obviously,
exceptions exist, but far fewer than any other language I'm familiar with.

