Tae Kim’s guide states:
“When you use 「する」 with a noun, the 「を」 particle is optional and you can treat the whole [noun+する] as one verb.”
What does this mean? Does this mean that the clause 「日本語を勉強する」can also be written as「日本語勉強する」and still be grammatically correct?
3 comments
It means that many nouns such as 勉強 “studies” can be turned to verbs by adding する OR をする.
勉強= studies
勉強する= to study
勉強をする= to *do* (your) studies
It’s mostly interchangeable at face value but changes focus a bit.
This is one of the things that Tae Kim gets wrong, tbh. It’s definitely not grammatical to say
> 日本語を勉強をする
and
> 勉強をする
also sounds bad to me. On the other hand, it’s 深呼吸をする more often than 深呼吸する。You can find examples of both, but the first is much better.
Uh-oh. This almost looks like na-adjectives vs naru-adjectives. Different words fit into different grammatical patterns, for no reason other than “that’s just what people say.”
Sometimes adding する to a noun makes it a verb
Sometimes the same thing is done with をする、but that makes an intransitive verb because otherwise it would have two を phrases in the same clause and Japanese grammar *really* doesn’t like that.
日本語、勉強する is possible, but it’s “zero particle” and the meaning is closer to 日本語は勉強する but with less contrast.
With beginner grammar guides like Tae Kim or Cure Dolly, you have to accept that they’re very incomplete and sometimes mistaken or misleading. More serious grammar references like Imabi or the Japan Times Dictionaries – those are less incomplete but often far more confusing.
My sense of it is that if you want to keep the をする when you add an object, you do something like 日本語の勉強をする (“do Japanese studies”) rather than repeat the を.
日本語勉強する sounds a bit “me Tarzan you Jane” to me.