How to use を in Japanese
Japanese grammar works by putting small words known as particles after nouns. を is one of those particles. を is written using the Japanese Hiragana symbol which is used to represent the sound wo. Today however it is pronounced o. In modern Japanese, the character を is used solely to represent this particle which represents the object in a sentence. What is an object? It tells you what noun in a sentence is having something done to it. Let’s take a closer look.
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What is an Object?
The most basic sentences in Japanese have two elements. One is a verb that tells you someone is doing something. The second element is the Subject which is who is doing the thing. But, what is the thing that the subject is doing? That is the Object.
https://japaneseuniverse.com/2024/02/18/pac-man-in-japaneseconcepts-behind-development-to-global-icon/An Object is something that experiences the action of the subject. The object may change in some way or may not. Either way, it is on the received end of the action.
In sentences, as John runs, there is no object. John is running and no other noun is experiencing anything. However, in the sentence, John drinks, we know that there is something missing. What is missing in this sentence could be water, juice, or any liquid. This liquid that John is drinking is the Object.
を in Japanese follows the Object
を follows the object in a sentence.
犬が水を飲む
a dog drinks water
In the two sentences above, 水を is the object. If you take the water out of the sentence then you are left to wonder what the dog is drinking.
ジョンが本を読んでいる
John is reading a book
Again, in the sentence above if we take out the book, then the sentence feels incomplete. What is John reading? Is it a magazine? No, it is a book.
Movement through Space with を
Earlier I said that some sentences don’t need an object. For example:
犬が走る
a dog runs
This sentence does not need anything else to be complete. But, if we wanted to add more information we could. Where was the dog running? We may want to know that. Whenever we are talking about movement through space we can use を.
犬が道路を走る
a dog runs down the road
Technically, the road is not considered an object. That is ok though, を works the same way as an object for verbs representing movement. Check out another example,
鳥が空を飛ぶ
a bird flys through the sky
Here, we did not need to mention the sky. The sentence would have been complete. But adding を gives us extra details about where the bird is flying.
When sentences get more complex or depending on the context を may not always just represent an Object. However, if you have a good understanding of what an object is and how を works in these situations mentioned, you should be better able to understand more of the subtle uses of を in different grammatical situations.
So that’s を in Japanese. If you want to learn more Japanese I reviewed a dictionary of grammar series which I personally recommend and use myself.
I also have several other posts on various topics on Japanese Universe if you are interested.
