も means “also”, but…

I usually see も along with 私 or other subjects. (Ex: 私も人間です。) However with 私, apparently people just use it in the start of their introduction, then they omit it when the introduction goes on, or just omit 私 in general. I feel like if I say 「私は猫が大好きです。」 Then say 「私もチーズケーキが大好きです」, I might feel like I’m using 私 too much, when you can easily omit it. Is it possible to use も while omitting the subject?

7 comments
  1. The answer to your question would be 猫も好きです。犬も好きです。It sounds unnatural and rigid, which is fine depending on your level. It would sound better to say 私は猫も犬もカエルも好きです。

  2. 「私は猫が大好きです。チーズケーキも大好きです。」

    ×私もチーズケーキが大好きです→I also like cheesecakes like you(or somebody). The position of も matters here.

  3. も only applies to the word directly before it (the word it’s “attached” to). By saying 私もチーズケーキが大好きです, you’re saying “I (among other people) also love cheesecake.” To say “I also love cheesecake (among other things)”, you’d need to put the も after cheesecake:

    私**は**チーズケーキ**も**大好きです。

    In this case, you could drop the 私は at the beginning, since you’re correct in that it would be unnecessary and awkward to continuously repeat 私 when it’s already understood that you’re talking about yourself. That could look something like this:

    私は猫が大好きです。チーズケーキも大好きです。

    Or, a bit more concisely:

    私は猫もチーズケーキも大好きです。

  4. Other answers here have explained why も doesn’t work the same way as English “also”, so I’ll add one more case that you’ll probably run into eventually: “This is a spoon. It’s also a fork” is これはスプーンです。フォークでもあります。

  5. 「私もチーズケーキが大好きです」means “I, too, love cheesecake”. If you want to say “I love cheesecake too” you should say チーズケーキも大好き。

  6. Cure dolly has a great grammar series on yt. She explains that 私 should be seen as saying “as for me” and not a stand alone “I/me”. In many cases if the subject has been established, you dont need to repeat it. Its implied, kind of how we will say “it” referring to an object that has already been identified instead of repeating the subject over and over.

    I’m still very much so a newb with Japanese, so someone feel free to correct me if this is wrong, but this is how I understood it worked.

  7. I’d like to add that your initial confusion springs from the simple fact that も doesn’t mean also; or rather, it’s yet another case in which you have to try and understand the meaning of the word/particle itself rather than it’s most common translation

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