Learn why there are two kana for O
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| Hi everybody! Hiroko here. Welcome to the Ask a Teacher series, where I’ll answer some of *your* most common Japanese questions. |
| The question for this lesson is… |
| Why are there two different kana for 'O'? |
| You should have noticed that these two characters (お and を) are both pronounced “o” in Japanese sentences. You may be wondering whether you can use them interchangeably. |
| First, I will tell you the history. お and を had different pronunciations in the Nara period around 1300 years ago. |
| お was pronounced ‘o’ and を was pronounced ‘wo’. However, the language have been changing, so お and を have the same pronunciation ‘o’ these days. Nevertheless, their functions are different. |
| Let’s think about the sentence おいしい おすしを たべます． |
| The sentence has three ‘o’s． |
| The first お at the beginning is part of the word おいしい. It means “delicious.” When a お is part of a word, the お is used. |
| The second お comes before すし．すし is a complete word without お. おすし is a polite version of すし. The function of お here is showing politeness. It’s called the honorific prefix. We also use お here. |
| The third one, を, is a particle that is called the object marker. It’s independent and is put between an object and a verb, おすし and たべます. This is the only time when you would use this kana to write the 'O' sound. |
| Here is one more example: |
| おもしろいお話を聞きます。It means “I listen to an interesting story.” The first お is a part of the word that means “interesting” – おもしろい. The お in お話 is an honorific prefix and 話 means “story”. Then を is placed between an object お話 and a verb to mean “listen to” 聞きます, and it’s an object marking particle. So, the letter を is used. Their functions are different, but the pronunciations are the same. |
| I hope this makes sense to you. |
| Do you have any more questions? Leave them in the comments and I’ll try to answer them! |
| またね！ |
16 Comments
HideWhat Japanese learning question do you have?
I'd like to know if is there any exception for the " 'o' honorific before the noun " rule. Thank you for the lesson!
Hi Jess,
Thank you for the comment!
You can say that "o" is a prefix for noun. And there is another prefix, "go".
Both are used for animate or inanimate one.
Keep studying with JapanesePod101.com
Cheers,
Miki(美希)
Team JapanesePod101.com
Hi shamvil,
Thank you for the comment and sorry I didn't answer earlier.
Regardless of whether it is a subject of an object, you can use a prefix "o" for nouns.
Besides "o", there is another prefix, "go". For example,
sushi -> o-sushi
kazoku (family) -> go-kazoku
Hope it helps you.
Keep studying with JapanesePod101.com
Cheers,
Miki(美希)
Team JapanesePod101.com
Hi Rafael,
Thank you for the comment and sorry I didn't answer earlier.
To be exact, there are 3 types of honorific expressions(Kei-go）. The one is a way to respect a person(Sonkei-go), the other one is a way to speak modestly(Kenjō-go), and the last one is to speak just politely(Teinei-go).
Honorific "o" is used to speak politely. Of course you can say "Oishii o-sushi o tabemasu.".
Let me add that all the 3 types of expressions are for respecting a person you talk with eventually.
Keep studying with JapanesePod101.com
Cheers,
Miki(美希)
Team JapanesePod101.com
So お can be used to show respect towards an inanimate object?
何 ?
こんにちは
Its really interesting but also very different, there are objects that can be called with politeness, are there ways to use politeness towards subject too?
Like in turkish language, a casual you would be *sen* while a polite you would be *siz*
or like in hindi language, a casual you would be *tum* while a polite you would be *aap*
Additionally, are there more ways to call certain objects politely?
like おすし
よろしおねがいます
shamvil
Ramel san,
Konnichiwa.
Thank you for your post.:smile:
Yuki 由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com
Perfect:thumbsup:
Savannah san,
Konnichiwa.
It might be your first language influence.
‘wo’ sound is not used any more…
I recommend you to say ‘o’ even though people can understand what you mean as a Japanese language learner.
:smile:
Yuki 由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com
Hi, Konnichiwa!
I thougt that the honorific "o" was used to pay respect to people one is talking to, but as i saw in the video there are honorific in substantives like "sushi".
What is the meaning of the honorific in this context, without referring to someone, like in the prase "Oishii o-sushi wo tabemasu" (I eat a delicious sushi\polite\ :sweat_smile: - is that correct?). I understood it's a polite way to say sushi but i don't fully understand the necessity of using in this case and when to use honorifics in general.
Best regards,