Heyyy everyone! This is my first time posting anything on reddit but I’m confused what’s the deal with を because on duolingo sometimes its said as “wo” like it usually is but every now and then its pronounced “o”? Can anyone explain why this is because I don’t understand it, is it like は where it changes to “wa” if you put it at the end of something? And also when do I use it like “o” instead of “wo”??
12 comments
can you give an example of what you’re talking about?
は can be either a particle or part of a word, as you’ve said, but を is always (with some outliers) used as a particle
like the other comment said, を is a particle. It’s pronounced お, but (I might be wrong about this), when they refined the kana they kept わ and を because they were widely used.
I don’t know the exact reason but my assumption, because Korean has similar instances, is ease of pronunciation so its smoother.
For the most part を is pronounced ‘o’ with exceptions in songs and formal/professional environments
Please listen to this song if you haven’t already: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsLsBs4oW30
This is TK from Ling Tosite Sigure singing an unplugged version of Unravel. TK’s pronunciation of を shows that it can be pronounced differently. He pronounces it (perhaps stylistically) as a mix between a /v-f/-/o/ sound (as in a mix between a “vo” and “fo”). At some points, it’s a deeply exhaled /o/ sound.
He does it in this song too (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMh0yLzNF2U), but not as much. I link it because it’s a newer song and I think it’s kinda cool. All around fun to listen to とおもいます.
I will say that songs aren’t really where you’re supposed to focus on listening to how Japanese sounds in everyday conversation, but it can’t hurt to hear the different variations of certain sounds.
The hiragana character を originally represented the sound ‘wo’, however the pronunciation in modern Japanese has almost entirely dropped the ‘w’ part and now sounds basically like ‘o’. Most Japanese speakers will use this pronunciation most of the time, so if you’re just starting out it’s safe to always go with this pronunciation. This character is almost exclusively used as a particle in modern Japanese (that is, it goes after a word to show that the word is the object of a verb).
As you get more proficient in listening you might notice that occasionally people pronounce it with that ‘w’ sound (although it’s a little different than an English ‘w’ sound). The most common times to hear it are in songs or speeches, or other occasions when people are trying to enunciate extremely clearly or differently from everyday speech. There are also some people who just pronounce it that way all the time, and some who pronounce it that way some of the time.
The difference between は and を is that the pronunciation of は depends on it’s function in the sentence. The ‘wa’ pronunciation is used when it is a particle (marking the topic of the sentence) and the ‘ha’ pronunciation is used when it is just a regular part of a word, for example in 花 (はな), meaning flower. を’s pronunciation doesn’t really change, but when it does it depends on the occasion or person, rather than the part of speech. を is, for all intents and purposes, only used in one way, as an object marker, and you will have no problems just pronouncing it ‘o’ all the time, you don’t need to remember any special rules.
I just wanna chime in and say it’s for this reason that duolingo isn’t great for Japanese. Japanese is extremely complicated and the simple style of duolingo can’t explain WHY things are the way they are which makes things very confusing. I’ve also noticed that it’s really bad with kanji pronunciations, kanji can have multiple readings, for example, 中 can be pronounced なか/naka or ちゅう/chuu and I’ve seen duolingo use the wrong audio for the word it’s in.
Definitely nothing wrong with using duolingo if you just wanna casually learn, but if you’re serious about learning Japanese I’d use something else. Personally I downloaded the JapanesePod101 Ultimate Getting Started audiobook from audible which was a great introduction in terms of speaking/listening, Japanese Ammo on YouTube is also great! Imo duolingo is much better for brushing up on Japanese than learning it from scratch.
This questions has had some fantastic answers already. Just a small note. The ‘wo’ sound in speaking is most noticeable when it follows a words that ends in ん 本を読みます（ほん を よみます）for example. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b29dqY8pMY&t=3m20s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b29dqY8pMY&t=3m20s)
It seems we’re more grammatically strict about using お or を in modern days comparing to the past. If you read old books or see old photos, you can find people used to use を more freely.
Well.. I guess we still do… like, we normally write オタク, but if you want to express more nerdy and funny way, we write ヲタク or simply ヲタ instead.
を is pronounced like o when it’s a particle but like wo when it’s a letter, お is most commonly a letter and I don’t think it changes if you use it as a particle
So really を is like は in the fact that they both change when used as a particle
If you don’t know what a particle is: a particle is some form of giving context to the sentence, it’s essentially like the + in 1+1=2. And just like every symbol in math has a meaning so does every particle in Japanese, は connects the subject and other parts of the sentence, を connects a noun and a verb that happens to it like “I eat apples” りんごを食べます.
So, を is pronounced as ‘oh’ when it’s being used as an object marker. If it was just like, within a word, it’d be pronounced as ‘wo’. It’s more commonly used as an object marker though, so most instances where you see it will be in that context. It basically just marks the direct object of the sentence.
You’re also a bit off on your understanding of the は particle. は the syllable is pronounced as ‘ha’, unless it’s being used as a topic marker. Basically, you use it to mark what you’re talking about.
Ex:
わたしはてんぷらをたべる。
“Watashi wa tempura o taberu”
As for me, I eat tempura.
—In actual speech, you actually end up dropping the topic if it’s either assumed or you’ve stated it already. So, a perfectly acceptable sentence would be:
てんぷらをたべる。
“Tempura o taberu”
(I) eat tempura.
Since I can assume from context that I’m referring to myself, we don’t need a topic or topic marker until the topic changes. So, imagine I’m talking to a friend about food we like:
A: さしみがすきだ。B は、どなたべものがすきだか。
“Sashimi ga suki da. B wa, dona tabemono ga suki da ka.”
(To me) sashimi is appealing. As for you (B), what kind of food is appealing?
B: ああ、そうだ。おすしがすきだ。
“Ah, sou da. Osushi ga suki da.”
Ah, so it is. (As for me) sushi is appealing.
In the first sentence, since I’m speaking and there’s no other topic established, I drop ‘watashi wa’ since it’s assumed I’m speaking for myself. In the second, I want to know what my friend likes, so I say ‘B wa’ to establish that ‘B’ is now the topic, then ask the question. If anything, I actually say too much: I could just say ‘B wa’, and from the context of the conversation that could be sufficient to indicate what I’m asking. (I’m ignoring a few rules about politeness and respectfulness, just because it’s too complicated to get into in a short post).
Another one to remember is the movement marker へ. Normally, that hirgana is pronounced as ‘he’, but when it’s used as a particle it’s pronounced ‘eh’.
Ex:
へた, “heta”, “bad at”
どこへいく, “doko e iku”, “where are/is [subject] going”
にほんごのクラスへいった, “nihongo no kurasu e itta”, “I went to Japanese class”.
TL;DR: は is a topic marker and を is an object marker. When they’re used in that context (normally if they show up outside of a word), they’re pronounced ‘wa’ and ‘oh’ respectively.
Notes: Stuck to hirigana/katakana for clarity, there should be kanji in basically all of these sentences.
The simplest explanation, お and を are pronounced the same, both are “o”. But generally speaking, the pronunciation of お as the beginning of a sentence will be heavier than を. This is my understanding.
for example:
* お疲れ様です。(o tsu ka re sama desu)
* 何を食べる。(na ni o ta be ru)
I think that the pronunciation of o in these two sentences is the same, but there is a little difference in strength.
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“は” only when the subject is prompted, read “wa”, otherwise it is “ha”. for example:
1. 君は\君の名は。(ki mi wa\ki mi no na ma e wa)
2. はじめまして。(ha ji me ma shi te)
The は in the first sentence is the subject or main object that reminds you to speak, so we read “wa”. This is very common, because almost every sentence has は.
The second sentence is a greeting, which means meeting for the first time.
For fun read: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yotsugana](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yotsugana). Apparently some region pronounces “じ, ぢ, ず, づ” all the same, some all differently.
I’m from the most common pronunciation region and I guess we’re going to be normalized to that anyways, but sometimes you’ll get different answers from people from different regions with regards to some vague difference in sounds, so you don’t have to think too much about some of these things. (を vs お, じ vs ぢ, ず vs づ)
For even deeper trivia that no learner should not pay attention to, but just for the fun: [There’s even certain pronunciation that Japanese in Chugoku or Kyushu regions do not use nor get the difference](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%BC%BB%E6%BF%81%E9%9F%B3#:~:text=%E9%BC%BB%E6%BF%81%E9%9F%B3%EF%BC%88%E3%81%B3%E3%81%A0%E3%81%8F%E3%81%8A%E3%82%93%EF%BC%89%E3%81%A8,%E9%BC%BB%E9%9F%B3%5B%C5%8B%5D%E3%81%A7%E3%81%82%E3%82%8B%E3%80%82) (I’m one of them), and I bet it’s nowhere to be found in Japanese textbooks. NHK, which is kinda de facto standard of the definition of “the common Japanese” (I guess it’s like “BBC Pronunciation” of the UK), dropped this very pronunciation scheme.