Hey all,
having some trouble with figuring out when and when not to use particles.
an example, from the 「何か」grammar point is:
何か食べますか, would you like to eat soemthing.
Why is it not 「何かを食べますか」, as “something” is the object that will be eaten?
I think particles aren’t used sometimes with numbers or counters as well, but I don’t really understand why.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Technically か IS the partical.
Though there are times where there is no partical where it really seems like there should be one.
Remember, most grammar points are just confused vocabulary. they’re often used in set words or phrases, such as 何か or 様な, 様, or even おねがい. theyre all often used in grammar explanations, however they’re all vocab like everything else.
You’ll often find that certain particles are omitted based on formality. You typically won’t omit particles in more formal settings, but if the setting is casual then often times they will get omitted given the context is clear.
That said, when it comes to indefinite pronouns like this, を being omitted seems to depend more on preference and how it flows. It’s definitely much more likely to be seen in formal contexts, but even then it seems like it still gets omitted at times.
Hopefully that helps!
When you speak casual English, you probably skip or shorten lots of words too. In my local UK dialect we often skip multiple words, for example, “I’m going to the shop.” will be “I’m going shop.”
Japanese can work much the same, in fact when I’m speaking casual Japanese, I rarely use を.
(edit: I just wanted to clarify it’s when I’m using spoken Japanese, not written)