The meaning of を as I heard from Youtube's Takanori Tomita

J

Janet Merai

先輩

10 Mar 2007

122

3

• 4 Sep 2008

• #1

Takanori Tomita's podcasting had me curios about a certain Hiragana character's usage in one of his podcasting videos.

Is "（w）o / を" really used for conjunctions like:

おすしをたべます - I eat Sushi
おすしをたべました - I ate Sushi

Here is his video:


Are they really good to use for conjunctions and not wa?

I kind of see the difference now, I was confused in the beginning about the usage of "(w)o" before-hand.

 

Toritoribe

松葉解禁

Moderator

Fifteen-year veteran

22 Feb 2008

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4,926

• 4 Sep 2008

• #2

You'd better to learn first what the PARTICLE is, imo.

The major particles - Tae Kim's Japanese grammar guide
Verb-related particles - Tae Kim's Japanese grammar guide

 

Kirakira1232

素敵な冒険始まる！

6 May 2008

472

16

• 4 Sep 2008

• #3

I wouldnt really call this a conjunction per se...certainly it's function compared to "wa" is very different. "wo" typically marks the object of a direct verb. Like in your example of Taberu/Tabemashita. The particle "wo" indicates that it is the sushi being eaten.

"Wa" typically marks the "topic" or "subject" of the sentence.

Janet-san wa sushi wo tabemashita.

Janet ate sushi.

 

J

Janet Merai

先輩

10 Mar 2007

122

3

• 5 Sep 2008

• Thread starter
• #4

Thank you so much people!
This brings me one step further to understanding the language!

 

Glenn

一切皆苦

8 Jan 2004

7,842

200

• 9 Sep 2008

• #5

I would say that the only vestiges of を's old use as a conjunction (meaning something like "although") is in the conjunction ものを, which usually ends up getting used at the end of utterances in my experience. Ex. 昨日豆乳を買ってきてよかったものを。(~"If I had only bought soy milk yesterday"). It's very similar to のに but more restricted in its use. If any native speakers could weigh in on this it would be appreciated (the memory's a bit fuzzy).

Otherwise, like Toritoribe said, it's a particle.

 

Toritoribe

松葉解禁

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Fifteen-year veteran

22 Feb 2008

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• 9 Sep 2008

• #6

Glenn said:

I would say that the only vestiges of を's old use as a conjunction (meaning something like "although") is in the conjunction ものを, which usually ends up getting used at the end of utterances in my experience. Ex. 昨日豆乳を買ってきてよかったものを。(~"If I had only bought soy milk yesterday"). It's very similar to のに but more restricted in its use. If any native speakers could weigh in on this it would be appreciated (the memory's a bit fuzzy).

Click to expand...

Probably, ものを in the sentence end is mainly used with "the conditional form + いい/よかった", something like すればいいものを/よかったものを, したらいいものを/よかったものを. Thus, ものを can be basically replaced with のに, the reverse is not always so.

○昨日豆乳を買っておきさえすればよかったものを。
○昨日豆乳を買っておきさえすればよかったのに。

○運動会でまたビリだった。一生懸命走ったのに。
×運動会でまたビリだった。一生懸命走ったものを。
("一生懸命走った" is the certain fact.)

「のに」は確定条件の逆接にも仮定条件の逆接にも使え るけど、「ものを」は主に(英語の仮定法のように)仮定 条件の逆接に使う、という感じがしますね。あまり自信 はないですが。