Home Forums The Japanese Language "を" Pronounciation Questions

This topic contains 17 replies, has 12 voices, and was last updated by  Kas 11 years, 11 months ago.

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  • #31544

    Melanie
    Member

    1. Is “を” pronounced “oh” in all cases where it occurs as a direct object marker?

    2. Is it generally silent in a sentence when it follows a word ending in an “-oh” sound?
    For example: りんご を たべます.

    Any help is much appreciated!

    #31545

    vanandrew
    Member

    Pretty sure the answers are:

    1 – yes
    2 – no

    Also, is it ever pronounced wo?!

    #31547

    Anonymous

    Yes, it is ALWAYS pronounced as ‘oh’.
    No, you would say that sentence with the を pronounced, similar to something like おおきい. If you just simply said ‘ringo tabemasu’ it wouldn’t sound right.

    • This reply was modified 11 years, 11 months ago by  .
    #31549

    Gigatron
    Member

    I always thought you could on occasion drop “wo” entirely and let context do its thing. Thus, “ringo taberu/masu” would sound right (and I could swear I’ve heard native speakers do just this).*

    For what it’s worth, the only word I could find with a proper “wo” sound that would conceivably be used with any kind of frequency nowadays is “ヲタ” which even then is just a slang term.

    *Disclaimer: I’m an idiot, so I could very well be wrong. :P

    • This reply was modified 11 years, 11 months ago by  Gigatron.
    #31551

    zeldaskitten
    Member

    I’ve heard it sounding like wo in songs.

    =^..^=
    #31552

    Joel
    Member

    Concur with zeldaskitten. Do a YouTube search for practically any version of “Miagete Goran Yoru no Hoshi wo” for a pretty obvious “wo”.

    Also, you can drop を in casual speech. You can drop a lot of things in casual speech. =)

    #31554

    vanandrew
    Member

    @ Gigatron – “ヲタ”? Is that for ota(ku)? I didn’t realise it got abbreviated like that.

    #31555

    ルイ
    Member

    For a sentence with an お sound like りんごをたべます I think, in most cases, it’s more accurate to say that the を works as an extension of the noun than to say that it becomes silent. Kind of like pronouncing it りんごう instead of emphasizing that there is room between the noun and the particle. It’s a subtle difference but I hope you understand what I mean.

    That’s what I’ve been taught anyway.. :)

    • This reply was modified 11 years, 11 months ago by  ルイ.
    #31557

    Just start following AKB members on google plus and you will easily get used to see missing particles ^^
    Actually, this makes a great example now that we are talking about the verb 食べる
    https://plus.google.com/u/0/109544372058574620997/posts/2tmBWuv7eYk

    #31558

    Gigatron
    Member

    @vanandrew: Indeed, ヲタ is a slangier way of saying otaku, though I’ve personally not heard it used that frequently.

    #31574

    I’ve heard a slight w sound in it at times. Not sure if it’s maybe do with the kana it comes after or just the speaker’s accent though. The more you listen, the more you’ll get a feel for it. Such a big part of language learning is getting “a feel for” – or getting “used to” – the ways natives speak and the ways the language is used. Perfectly reasonable to ask questions, obviously, but it’s just something you’ll get a much better answer to over time.

    #31599

    Melanie
    Member

    W-hoa! Thanks for all the great input. Very helpful. In a lot of the audio examples from the Textfugu chapters that を is barely perceptible if at all. It makes sense to think of it as an extended vowel like りんごう… Maybe not all the time but sometimes. Thanks again!

    #31600

    missingno15
    Member

    For Japanese people, there is no difference between オタ and ヲタ.

    However, for people like me and Mark, and seemingly among english speakers, Otaku/Ota are people who are interested in anime, manga, games, while Wota are exclusively idol fans because they want to make that distinction and don’t want to be looped with people who like anime+manga etc.

    #31601

    vanandrew
    Member

    @ missing – thanks, fascinating

    #31602

    vanandrew
    Member

    @ missingno15 – So you any closer to tracking down AKB?!?!

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