nihongo wo benkyou shitai

• It marks the direct object of the sentence. In other words, it comes after the thing being acted upon by the verb.

• Used in causative sentences to mark the person made to do.

This is a tricky one and essentially you can ignore it. If you want to know why, read on! Japanese grammar enforces the ‘double-o constraint. This means that a sentence cannot have more than one をparticle in it. This can cause problems in causative sentences as を is used to mark the person or thing made to do something. If you the have a verb that also takes the を particle, you have a problem. In such cases the person who is made to do in causative sentences takes the に particle.

English: I made him open the window.
Jenglish: [I][him][window][open]
日本語： 私は彼に窓を開かせました。

• Marks the location where movement begins.

The particle から has a similar function, but usually implies a point-of-departure and a direction. から can be better translated as ‘from’.

English: I’ve left the station.
Jenglish: [I][station][left]
日本語： 私は駅を出ました。

• Indicates a space on, in, across, through or along something or someone moves. It is NOT used to indicate to.

• Indicates movement from a smaller to larger place. This can mean either physically or conceptually. For example, consider the sentence

English: I’ll get off the train at Basingstoke.
Jenglish: [Basingstoke][at][train][get off + plan]
日本語： ベージングストークで電車を降りる予定です。

# posted by Dave Hoggan @ 11:42 pm