Grammar Labs
Lesson 8 of 8
Starter Particles — は, を and も
about 8 minutes
After this lesson you can
- Mark the thing a verb acts on with を.
- Use も to add a second case to something already said.
Words this lesson teaches
- も
- also, too
- を
- marks the thing a verb acts on
- のみます
- to drink
- たべます
- to eat
- よみます
- to read
- わたし
- I, me
What it explains
を is written one way and said another
を is pronounced exactly like お and appears in modern Japanese only as this particle, which makes it the easiest character in the syllabary to place: if you see を, something is being done to the word in front of it. Verbs like のみます, たべます and よみます all take it; います and あります do not, because nothing is being acted on.
も replaces, it does not join
も takes the slot that は or を was holding and drops them entirely: わたしは → わたしも, パンを → パンも. With particles like に and で it behaves differently and attaches after them, but the three starter particles are all replaced. Because も always means the same thing as something already mentioned, a も sentence on its own tends to leave a listener waiting for the half you skipped.