Hey guys, I found this sentence:
いつも行きたいと思っているがお金がないから行けない
and was wondering if it shouldn't be：
いつも行きたいと思っているのがお金がないから行けない

if both are ok, whats the deference ?

The が in the first one acts as "but"

The が in the second acts as a subject marker particle, which causes the sentence not to make too much sense.

awesome man, thanks for the help.

No problem. It's important to ask questions and get things cleared up so you don't make the wrong assumption about a word or phrase and then consequently use it in the wrong way. Well, if you do it's not the end of the world, just hope that someone will correct you. Let me tell you, you'll never forget someone correcting a phrase or expression that you were so confident in using and realizing it doesn't make sense in the situation.

が is acting in both sentences as 'but'.

The の just adds an explanatory nuance. Both sentences are fine.

louis89 Wrote:が is acting in both sentences as 'but'.

The の just adds an explanatory nuance. Both sentences are fine.

I agree with this answer.
The sentences are the same.

no it's not. The が in the second sentence is acting as a subject marker because the の is making the bit before it a noun. The second sentence sounds like "the reason I'm always wanting to go is because I don't have money, so I can't go." which doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

No, you're all wrong. The second sentence is gobbeldygook. The が isn't a subject marker or anything because the sentence is grammatically broken.

This would be a grammatically correct sentence, but nonsense nonetheless:
いつも行きたいと思っているのはお金がないからだ。


If you want to use the explanatory particle after 思っている, then you also have to put a copula there. There should also be a comma after the が with or without the のだ/のです:
いつも行きたいと思っているの[だ/です]が、お金がないから行けない。

いつも行きたいと思っているのがお金がないから行けない。
→ お金がないから、「行きたい」といつも思っているのがいけない！
I have no money, so thinking "I want to go" all the time is wrong [I have to stop doing this]!

考えすぎてしまった…

JimmySeal Wrote:No, you're all wrong. The second sentence is gobbeldygook. The が isn't a subject marker or anything because the sentence is grammatically broken.

This would be a grammatically correct sentence, but nonsense nonetheless:
いつも行きたいと思っているのはお金がないからだ。


If you want to use the explanatory particle after 思っている, then you also have to put a copula there. There should also be a comma after the が with or without the のだ/のです:
いつも行きたいと思っているの[だ/です]が、お金がないから行けない。

Sorry, you're right. I misread his post and thought he'd found both of those sentences, which made me think well, a Japanese person wrote them, how could they be wrong?

As consolation, you could also make it correct by doing this:

いつも行きたいと思っているの。が、お金がないから行けない

The first sentence (いつも行きたいと思っているがお金がないから行けない) means something like "I've been wanting to go there. But I can't afford it."

I think most native speakers would take the second sentence (いつも行きたいと思っているのがお金がないから行けない) as something along the line of "The guy who's been wanting to go there can't afford it."

The point is that の in the second sentence is most likely interpreted as the informal version of 者 (もの, person, people, ...) or 物 (もの, stuff, thing, ...).

If you make a pause after の and が, and if you say the sentence with the specific intonation/cadence indicated by luis89's version "いつも行きたいと思っているの。が、お金がないから行けない," then the sentence means basically the same thing as the first one. This version has a more informal tone. It can also sound like a line by a girl in a scripted speech.