Particles used with verbs
In this section, we will learn some new particles essential for using verbs. We will learn how to specify the direct object of a verb and the location where a verb takes place whether it's physical or abstract.
The direct object 「を」 particle
The first particle we will learn is the object particle because it is a very straightforward particle. The 「を」 character is attached to the end of a word to signify that that word is the direct object of the verb. This character is essentially never used anywhere else. That is why the katakana equivalent 「ヲ」 is almost never used since particles are always written in hiragana. The 「を」 character, while technically pronounced as /wo/ essentially sounds like /o/ in real speech. Here are some examples of the direct object particle in action.
Examples
（１） 魚を食べる。
- Eat fish.
（２） ジュースを飲んだ。
- Drank juice.
Unlike the direct object we're familiar with in English, places can also be the direct object of motion verbs such as 「歩く」 and 「走る」. Since the motion verb is done to the location, the concept of direct object is the same in Japanese. However, as you can see by the next examples, it often translates to something different in English due to the slight difference of the concept of direct object.
（３） 街をぶらぶら歩く。
- Aimlessly walk through town. (Lit: Aimlessly walk town)
（４） 高速道路を走る。
- Run through expressway. (Lit: Run expressway)
When you use 「する」 with a noun, the 「を」 particle is optional and you can treat the whole [noun+する] as one verb.
（５） 毎日、日本語を勉強する。
- Study Japanese everyday.
（６） メールアドレスを登録した。
- Registered email address.
The target 「に」 particle
The 「に」 particle can specify a target of a verb. This is different from the 「を」 particle in which the verb does something to the direct object. With the 「に」 particle, the verb does something toward the word associated with the 「に」 particle. For example, the target of any motion verb is specified by the 「に」 particle.
Examples
（１） ボブは日本に行った。
- Bob went to Japan.
（２） 家に帰らない。
- Not go back home.
（３） 部屋にくる。
- Come to room.
As you can see in example （３）, the target particle always targets "to" rather than "from". If you wanted to say, "come from" for example, you would need to use 「から」, which means "from". If you used 「に」, it would instead mean "come to". 「から」 is also often paired with 「まで」, which means "up to".
（４） アリスは、アメリカからきた。
- Alice came from America.
（５） 宿題を今日から明日までする。
- Will do homework from today to tomorrow.
The idea of a target in Japanese is very general and is not restricted to motion verbs. For example, the location of an object is defined as the target of the verb for existence （ある and いる）. Time is also a common target. Here are some examples of non-motion verbs and their targets
（６） 猫は部屋にいる。
- Cat is in room.
（７） 椅子が台所にあった。
- Chair was in the kitchen.
（８） いい友達に会った。
- Met good friend.
（９） ジムは医者になる。
- Jim will become doctor.
（１０） 先週に図書館に行った。
- Went to library last week.
Note: Don't forget to use 「ある」 for inanimate objects such as the chair and 「いる」 for animate objects such as the cat.
While the 「に」 particle is not always required to indicate time, there is a slight difference in meaning between using the target particle and not using anything at all. In the following examples, the target particle makes the date a specific target emphasizing that the friend will go to Japan at that time. Without the particle, there is no special emphasis.
（１１） 友達は、来年、日本に行く。
- Next year, friend go to Japan.
（１２） 友達は、来年に日本に行く。
- Friend go to Japan next year.
The directional 「へ」 particle
While 「へ」 is normally pronounced /he/, when it is being used as a particle, it is always pronounced /e/ （え）. The primary difference between the 「に」 and 「へ」 particle is that 「に」 goes to a target as the final, intended destination (both physical or abstract). The 「へ」 particle, on the other hand, is used to express the fact that one is setting out towards the direction of the target. As a result, it is only used with directional motion verbs. It also does not guarantee whether the target is the final intended destination, only that one is heading towards that direction. In other words, the 「に」 particle sticks to the destination while the 「へ」 particle is fuzzy about where one is ultimately headed. For example, if we choose to replace 「に」 with 「へ」 in the first three examples of the previous section, the nuance changes slightly.
Examples
（１） ボブは日本へ行った。
- Bob headed towards Japan.
（２） 家へ帰らない。
- Not go home toward house.
（３） 部屋へくる。
- Come towards room.
Note that we cannot use the 「へ」 particle with verbs that have no physical direction. For example, the following is incorrect.
（誤） 医者へなる。
- （Grammatically incorrect version of 「医者になる」.）
This does not mean to say that 「へ」 cannot set out towards an abstract concept. In fact, because of the fuzzy directional meaning of this particle, the 「へ」 particle can also be used to talk about setting out towards certain future goals or expectations.
（４） 勝ちへ向かう。
- Go towards victory.
The contextual 「で」 particle
The 「で」 particle will allow us to specify the context in which the action is performed. For example, if a person ate a fish, where did he eat it? If a person went to school, by what means did she go? With what will you eat the soup? All of these questions can be answered with the 「で」 particle. Here are some examples.
Examples
（１） 映画館で見た。
- Saw at movie theater.
（２） バスで帰る。
- Go home by bus.
（３） レストランで昼ご飯を食べた。
- Ate lunch at restaurant.
It may help to think of 「で」 as meaning "by way of". This way, the same meaning will kind of translate into what the sentence means. The examples will then read: "Saw by way of movie theater", "Go home by way of bus", and "Ate lunch by way of restaurant."
Using 「で」 with 「何」
The word for "what" （何） is quite annoying because while it's usually read as 「なに」, sometimes it is read as 「なん」 depending on how it's used. And since it's always written in Kanji, you can't tell which it is. I would suggest sticking with 「なに」 until someone corrects you for when it should be 「なん」. With the 「で」 particle, it is read as 「なに」 as well. (Hold the mouse cursor over the word to check the reading.)
（４） 何できた？
- Came by the way of what?
（５） バスできた。
- Came by the way of bus.
Here's the confusing part. There is a colloquial version of the word "why" that is used much more often than the less colloquial version 「どうして」 or the more forceful 「なぜ」. It is also written as 「何で」 but it is read as 「なんで」. This is a completely separate word and has nothing to do with the 「で」 particle.
（１） 何できた？
- Why did you come?
（２） 暇だから。
- Because I am free (as in have nothing to do).
The 「から」 here meaning "because" is different from the 「から」 we just learned and will be covered later in the compound sentence section. Basically the point is that the two sentences, while written the same way, are read differently and mean completely different things. Don't worry. This causes less confusion than you think because 95% of the time, the latter is used rather than the former. And even when 「なにで」 is intended, the context will leave no mistake on which one is being used. Even in this short example snippet, you can tell which it is by looking at the answer to the question.
When location is the topic
There are times when the location of an action is also the topic of a sentence. You can attach the topic particle （「は」 and 「も」） to the three particles that indicate location （「に」、「へ」、「で」） when the location is the topic. We'll see how location might become the topic in the following examples.
Example 1
ボブ： 学校に行った？
- [Did you] go to school?
アリス： 行かなかった。
- Didn't go.
ボブ： 図書館には？
- What about library?
アリス： 図書館にも行かなかった。
- Also didn't go to library.
In this example, Bob brings up a new topic (library) and so the location becomes the topic. The sentence is actually an abbreviated version of
「図書館には行った？」 which you can ascertain from the context.
Example 2
ボブ： どこで食べる？
- Eat where?
アリス： イタリアレストランではどう？
- How about Italian restaurant?
Bob asks, "Where shall we eat?" and Alice suggests an Italian restaurant. A sentence like, "How about..." usually brings up a new topic because the person is suggesting something new. In this case, the location (restaurant) is being suggested so it becomes the topic.
When direct object is the topic
The direct object particle is different from particles related to location in that you cannot use any other particles at the same time. For example, going by the previous section, you might have guessed that you can say 「をは」 to express a direct object that is also the topic but this is not the case. A topic can be a direct object without using the 「を」 particle. In fact, putting the 「を」 particle in will make it wrong.
Examples
（１） 日本語を習う。
- Learn Japanese.
（２） 日本語は、習う。
- About Japanese, (will) learn it.
Please take care to not make this mistake.
（誤） 日本語をは、習う。
- [This is incorrect.]
（１） 何できた？ - Why did you
（１） 何できた？
- Why did you come?
（４） 何できた？
- Came by the way of what?
kara:
from / because
de: why / by
the japanese need more particles >..<
After reading up a bit, I
After reading up a bit, I found that there actually is a way to tell how to read なに. It is read as なん before "t~," "n~", and "d~" sounds, but なに everywhere else.
i see you use a different
i see you use a different kanji for town than i would use
isn't 町 machi? town?
is the kanji you took more used in common writing?
thankyou
For sentence 10 and 12. I've
For sentence 10 and 12.
I've checked with my Japanese friends and they've commented that using に for these two sentences make them sound unnatural.
They've also said that in general, for time concept that is not "countable" on Watches or Calendars such as 今日、今朝、明日、来週. They said it's better to do away with に.
I wonder if this makes sense to you?
Hi there, shouldn't 帰らない be
Hi there, shouldn't 帰らない be 帰ない since 帰る is a ru-verb ? Both of them in WWWJDIC and means exactly the same, but google only shows instances of 帰らない.
帰らない is correct because 帰る is
帰らない is correct because 帰る is actually a u-verb (Godan conjugation). It's one of the exceptions to the rule that all verbs ending in "ru" are ru-verbs (Ichidan conjugation).
This is a tricky one. The
This is a tricky one. The problem is that, although "帰る" ends in a "る" it conjugates as an u-verb. The ます-form is "帰ります", and the ない-form is "帰らない."
It's kind of like how "きれい" (adj. meaning "beautiful") ends in an "い" but is actually a な-adjective instead of an い-adjective. When you come across exceptions like these you just gotta memorize them, though luckily there are very few in Japanese.
I ran into this a little
I ran into this a little while ago. 帰る's actually a godan verb. Hence why you'll always hear 帰ろう as the volitional rather than 帰よう. And 帰れ's the imperative form rather than 帰ろ.
帰る is not a -ru verb!! The
帰る is not a -ru verb!!
The rule for -iru and -eru endings has a few exceptions. This is a -u verb
I am new to Japanese but, I
I am new to Japanese but, I would say using de ha depends on what you want to draw the listener’s attention to as the topic.
For example:
昨日は何をしていた？ Kinou ha nani wo shiteta? What happened yesterday?
そうだね、レストランでは Sou da ne, resutoran de ha … Well, as for at the restaurant
The speaker marks the topic (at the restaurant) then goes on to say what happened.
そうだね、レストランは Sou da ne, resutoran ha… Well, as for the restaurant
The topic is (the restaurant) which is not useful if I want to talk about what happened at the restaurant.
Ni wa is the same but I understand it as directly in the restaurant
De wa I understand to mean it is in or out side (at) the restaurant.
That could be worng. That is just how I understand it.
In the sentence structure
In the sentence structure explanation, it says that the only conventions are that only a verb is needed, and it needs to come last. But one of the examples here is "暇だから。" Does that mean から is a verb or is this an exception?
「暇だから」 is what Kim calls a
「暇だから」 is what Kim calls a "state-of-being": the main word is a noun (「暇」), rather than a verb. (「から」 in this case is a conjunction meaning "because" or "since". 「だ」 is merely the declarative particle: in this case, it indicates the end of the noun-clause.)
Anyone can explain which
Anyone can explain which particles can be omitted and which particles never can be omitted in normal contexts.
I often heard 大阪行く？without へ or に.
The same with other particles like を、が、は、
ありがとう。
By the way, it is possible to
By the way, it is possible to use を with certain particles, but it is rather advanced and fancy language. It is possible to say をも, をば(をは), and をか, but again, it's advanced language. It's nice to know it exists so you won't be surprised later though.
As far as I know, no. も
As far as I know, no. も replaces を, and をは would not make sense because in many cases(but not all), the meanings would conflict, (unless you are talking about the は used for contrast in which case it would replace を). か would also be used by itself, meaning "or" and would always follow a verb as a question particle.
I hope you're not confusing
I hope you're not confusing the topic particle 「は」 with the subject particle 「が」. 「は」 indicates a general topic; it is not connected grammatically to the rest of the sentence. There is nothing wrong with using 「は」 with the object of a verb.
For instance, if I wanted to say Bob spent the money, I could say, 「金はボブが費やした」. Though, it might be more likely to go like this:
A 「金は？」
B 「ボブが費やした」
As you can see from the second example, 「～を」 isn't so much replaced by 「～は」 as it is simply understood (because the noun is already the topic) and therefore left out.
I agree, that using で is
I agree, that using で is probably unnecessary. ~はどう？is what I commonly hear. However based on the fact that Bob, specifically says どこで食べる？ in the first sentence could be the reason why it might be acceptable to say ではどう？ in the response. However if Bob had simply said 今夜、何食べる？ I would not see any particular reason why で should/could be used.
I was told that the first 「に」
I was told that the first 「に」 particle in the following sentence is unnecessary and unusual, although grammatically correct, by a few of my Japanese friends who are university students in their early 20s:
「先週に図書館に行った。」 "Went to library last week."
They agreed that it's unnecessary because it is already clear that the event happened last week, and therefore, there is no need to use 「に」 in order to point that out. Hence, the sentence is more naturally written as 「先週図書館に行った。」They further said that this rule applies to any sentence with a similar structure. Thus, (if my understanding of the grammar is correct) a sentence such as "I will go to the library tomorrow" can be written as 「明日図書館に行く。」
Are both their advice to omit the first 「に」 and their explanation for omitting it correct?
Yes, you can omit に in that
Yes, you can omit に in that case. You only need it for concrete times and dates, not nouns like "tomorrow", or "last week".
I'm assuming that you are relatively new to Japanese as well? Did you write the other comment too?
I'd be careful about starting to omit things at such an early stage of learning, because you need to learn the grammatical rules first. The first goal is to learn proper Japanese, not speak like a native. They'll be plenty of that later on. In my experience, I would be careful about taking grammatical advice from my Japanese friends unless they actually do know what they are talking about (as in know the grammar rules, which most natives of any language don't). I've gotten just plain grammaticaly wrong advice from friends before, and learned bad habits and highly substandard language (according to my teacher). Practice with your friends, of course, but just make sure you're learning the right material.
Yes, I'm new to Japanese and
Yes, I'm new to Japanese and posted the other comment as well. I appreciate the suggestion about taking grammatical advice from Japanese friends. While omitting the particles in the examples I cited in my previous comments may be alright, it might be disastrous to do the same thing in another context. Not to mention, "speaking like a native" is not always a good thing. If you learn from natives in an informal context, then your Japanese will most likely be limited to informal language, which can be problematic to say the least.
A group of five my Japanese
A group of five my Japanese friends (all university students in their early 20s) all agreed last night that the following sentence is grammatically correct, but sounds unnatural and is quite unusual:
アリス： イタリアレストランではどう？
They said the sentence is unusual because the 「で」 particle is unnecessary and only the 「は」 particle is needed for the sentence to make sense. Could someone explain why the 「で」 particle is unnecessary?
On a semi-related note, my friends also said that one could simply say 「イタリアはどう？」 and it would have the exact same meaning. They said 「レストラン」 can be omitted because it's already clear from the context.
I don't really know, but it
I don't really know, but it sounds weird to me also because I've never heard anyone say it like that (having lived in Japan for two years). I guess it's because when で is being used to mark a location it is used to mark a location where a verb is happening. With no verb, で is not (normally) used--and this sentence has no verb. If you said イタリアレストランで食べましょうか？ (Shall we eat at an Italian restaurant?), で needs to be used because there's a verb.
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