What do these characters mean?
- Thread starter xar
- Start date
The7thSamurai
Master of the Universe
- 4 Feb 2005
- 765
- 27
First one means reading, second one means writing, third is not Kanji, it's Hiragana for "wo". It can be used to help form words or word stems, it is also used to mark the object of a sentence in which case its pronounciation changes to "o".
McCrutch67
先輩
- 20 Jan 2005
- 103
- 7
を is sometimes pronounced "wo" in songs. Not that important but I hear it in songs and on charts it's always in the "wo" spot. Probably better not to say it like that though.
The7thSamurai
Master of the Universe
- 4 Feb 2005
- 765
- 27
Elizabeth said:
My Japanese teacher said that sometimes words are spelled out in hiragana and not kanji if the kanji is "too hard". I just assumed that in that case you would find words with the "wo" hiragana in it if there is a "wo" in the pronounciation of the word. Are you saying that there are no words in Japanese which have a "wo" syllable? (I can't think of any off hand and I'm too lazy to research it).
The7thSamurai
Master of the Universe
- 4 Feb 2005
- 765
- 27
Ok, it was bugging me so I decided to do a quick search of a dictionary and yeah I found that there are no words with the syllable "wo" in it. Does this seem strange to anyone else? So "wo" is only ever used as an object marker hey. Cool.
deadhippo
先輩
- 9 Apr 2005
- 383
- 30
xar said:
in that order as already stated is
kanji for read (in general)
kanji for write (in general)
particle
the particle doesnt really have a meaning but is more likely than not preceded by the object of the sentence
for example 読書をします, read books
読書を薦める recommend reading - in this case the particle is necessary
as for pronunciation of this word を sometimes when japanese people pronounce this word clearly it sounds like wo to us non-native speakers but not to japanese people themselves - possibly connected to the preceding word it has this effect - or so I'm told
Aria28
後輩
- 4 Jun 2005
- 13
- 0
About that "wo" hiragana.....
Those who've learnt a little about hiragana know that they come in regular series of 5:
"a" "i" "u" "e" "o"
"ka" "ki" "ku" "ke" "ko" etc....
before 1946, there existed a series like that, although incomplete:
"wa" "wi" "we" "wo" (not that there is no "wu" -don't ask me why, LOL)
in 1946, in an effort to simplify writing, the Japanese Ministry of Education made "wi" and "we" obsolete. "wa" remained what we know today, while "wo" became "o" and, as was already pointed out above, remained only in use as the particle that singles out the object marker (pronounciation as "wo" from what I understood, can still be used for rhythm purpose, i.e. in songs or poetry -but I'd need to check on that one)
Those who've learnt a little about hiragana know that they come in regular series of 5:
"a" "i" "u" "e" "o"
"ka" "ki" "ku" "ke" "ko" etc....
before 1946, there existed a series like that, although incomplete:
"wa" "wi" "we" "wo" (not that there is no "wu" -don't ask me why, LOL)
in 1946, in an effort to simplify writing, the Japanese Ministry of Education made "wi" and "we" obsolete. "wa" remained what we know today, while "wo" became "o" and, as was already pointed out above, remained only in use as the particle that singles out the object marker (pronounciation as "wo" from what I understood, can still be used for rhythm purpose, i.e. in songs or poetry -but I'd need to check on that one)
