subject and object

Some Japanese sentences have subject and object.

In literary Japanese, I am told, the subject of Japanese sentences almost always must be followed by wa は and the object by o を, like this

watashi wa nattou o yolokonnde tabemasu
わたしはなっとうをよろこんでたべます
I will eat nattou joyfully

Unfortunately, manga Japanese is far less simple than literary Japanese:

If you read o を after something, it is always the object.

If you read ga が after something, it is always the subject.

If after a word you find wa は, mo も or nothing, it may be subject or object.

Example. If you ask several people "who is going to eat the nattou?" somebody might say

watashi ga わたしが "I (am)!"

and if you ask somebody what is he going to eat, he might answer

nattou o なっとうを "the nattou"

Japanese subjects do not always correspond with Japanese subjects

When you tell a Japanese something like "Beutelrattenlattengitterkastenattentäter" and you get

DOITSUgo wa wakalimasenn
ドイツごはわかりません

as an answer, everybody with two hours of Japanese lessons can tell this means "I don't understand German". As, in English, "German" is the object, we could expect this to be the object in Japanese too, so it could carry o を sometimes. But that doesn't work like this.

The recipe "object in English, o を in Japanese" works seven out of ten times. It will always work when the verbs tabelu たべる "eat", kuu くう "eat", mitsukelu みつける "find", milu みる "see" are involved.

However, with some verbs, like wakalu わかる and osoloshii おそろしい and ulayamashii うらやましい, it doesn't work at all.

Ask a Japanese in Japanese, "can you understand any foreign languages?". You might get this answer:

EIgo ga wakalimasu
エイごがわかります
(I) understand English

And a question like "can anybody here understand Hittite inscriptions?" might elicit an answer like:

takamoto hakase ni wakalimasu
たかもとはかせにわかります
Dr. Takamoto understands (them)

When the word wakalu わかる is used, whatever is understood may carry ga が and never carries o を, whoever understands it is always followed by ni に.

The word ulayamashii うらやましい means "I feel envy". When you show your new car to a friend, she might say ulayamashii ne うらやましいね as a compliment: "Wow, I wish I had a car like that you know!" (don't show your new car to a non-friend, she might think you are trying to make her feel envy). As the context almost always makes the reason for the envy clear, this word is almost always used alone. But if the situation doesn't make clear what are you envious of, you must use more words:

kuluma ga ulayamashii
くるまがうらやましい
I envy car
I wish I had a car like that

The motive for the envy always has ga が added to it.

The same happens with passive verbs, what in English would be the object (of the active verb) carries ga が:

tsukawalelu
つかわれる
will be used

dougu ga tsukawalelu
どうぐがつかわれる
the tool will be used

keiji ni tsukawalelu
けいじにつかわれる
will be used by the policeman / the policeman will use it

In classical Japanese, with potential verbs and i-want verbs, what in English would be the object carries ga が, wa は, mo も, never o を:

ishi ga tabelemasu
いしがたべれます
(I) can eat stones

nattou ga tabetai
なっとうがたべたい
I want to eat nattou

Unlike wakaru, the subject of these cannot carry ni に, only wa は or mo も:

kono doubutsu wa ishi ga kuemasu
このどうぶつはいしがくえます
this animal can eat stones

neko wa nattou ga tabetagalanai
ねこはなっとうがたべたがらない
the cat doesn't want to eat nattou

In manganese, however, with the object of these verbs you can use either ga が, o を, wa は, mo も or nothing.

subject and object
How to Read Japanese Manga
-NAI / -ANAI verbs

Copyright (c) 2003-2008 Jordi Mas Trullenque.
email: jordimastrullenque at gmail dot com
http://purl.oclc.org/NET/manga/subjobj.en.html
Last revised: 2008-10-20