Particles が and を

What You Will Learn in This Unit

In this unit, you will learn the rule by which the particle を marks the object of an action, and the rule by which the particle が marks the subject of a sentence and introduces new information. You will also learn the predicates that take が, the が used after interrogative words, and the basic difference between the particles は and が.

を Marks the Object, が Marks the Subject

The particle を attaches to the object of the action performed by a verb, that is, the object noun. Place を after the object noun, and then place the verb that expresses the action. Whether the noun ends in a consonant or not, the form is the same を. The letter is を, but it is pronounced [오].

As the table shows, the two particles attach to the same position but have different roles. を marks the target of the action, and が marks the subject that performs the action or has a state. The noun before が is usually new information or the thing that the sentence specifically wants to point out.

Predicates and Interrogatives That Take が

In Korean, some verbs such as 좋아하다, 잘하다, and 알다 take 을/를 on their object. In Japanese, most such predicates take が instead of を. All of the predicates in the following table take が.

ある and いる are predicates that express the existence of things or beings. Their conjugation is covered in Unit 22. The predicates in the table above do not take the particle を.

When the interrogatives だれ (who) and 何(なに, what) are in the subject position, they take が after them. Because the question asks about the subject, が is used rather than は. When answering such a question, the subject is also followed by が.