I’ve just learned a bit of Japanese and that を is an object marker, something you use before most (action?) verbs. But before あります and います, you use は or が, does this indicate that they behave like です?
Many, many, verbs in Japanese as well as English do not have direct objects.
At some point in studying Japanese you will be introduced to the distinction between 自動詞 (jidoushi), which are intransitive and 他動詞 (tadoushi) that are transitive. 自動詞 won’t use を (as a fairly general rule).
There’s also a passive in Japanese, and can be used as a passive without an object (though there’s some subtlety here since the Japanese passive has a strange history – there is a grammatical form, known as the suffering passive, where you do have an object).
2 comments
No.
Many, many, verbs in Japanese as well as English do not have direct objects.
At some point in studying Japanese you will be introduced to the distinction between 自動詞 (jidoushi), which are intransitive and 他動詞 (tadoushi) that are transitive. 自動詞 won’t use を (as a fairly general rule).
There’s also a passive in Japanese, and can be used as a passive without an object (though there’s some subtlety here since the Japanese passive has a strange history – there is a grammatical form, known as the suffering passive, where you do have an object).
So the object marker test won’t help you here.
You might also omit the object even for 他動詞.
です is just a contraction of であります