を Particle (Human Emotion)

を Particle (Human Emotion) Japanese Grammar Lesson

Grammar Type: Particle

Essential Meaning: Due to / Caused by / Regarding / Over (marks a cause for some human emotion)

Construction: 

• Noun / Noun Phrase + を
  • E.g. 死しを [Over the death of X]
  • E.g. 死しんだことを [Over the fact that X died]

Notes:

• を (Human emotion) marks a noun or noun phrase that serves as the cause of some inward human emotion. It pairs with inwardly-pointed verbs of emotion such as よろこぶ [To be glad]、悲かなしむ [To be sad]、懐なつかしむ [To miss / To yearn for], and 悩なやむ [To be worried]. These verbs are generally intransitive and thus cannot be used with the normal accusative case-marker を (Direct Object). However, some verbs such as 恐おそれる [To fear] straddle the line between transitivity and intransitivity depending on the context and depending on which dictionary you consult.
  • E.g. ジョンは父ちちが死しんだことを悲かなしんだ。 [John was sad over the fact that his dad died.] In this example, John’s dad’s death is the cause of the inward emotion 悲かなしむ [To be sad]. So the dad’s death (父ちちが死しんだこと) is marked by を (Human Emotion).

• There are three things to note about を (Human emotion):
  • (1) を (Human emotion) is very literary and you are unlikely to hear it in spoken Japanese. Instead, you can use ので to convey the same general idea of emotional causation, as in the following examples.
    • E.g. ジョンは父ちちが死しんだので悲かなしんだ。[Because his dad died, John was sad.]
    • E.g. 私わたしはひろしが大学だいがくに入学にゅうがくしたので喜よろこんだ。[Hiroshi got into university, so I was glad.]
  • (2) The main verb in sentences with を (Human emotion) is typically either in the past tense or in the stative ている / ていない form, except when making generic statements as in the following example.
    • E.g. 誰だれでも親おやの死しを悲かなしむ。[Everyone is saddened by the death of their parents.]
  • (3) With emotive verbs that are comprised of い-Adjective Stem + む (e.g. 悲かなしむ [To be sad], 懐なつかしむ [To miss / To yearn for], 惜おしむ [To regret], 楽たのしむ [To enjoy], む can be replaced by がる when talking about a third person’s inward emotions.
    • E.g. ジョンは父ちちの死しを悲かなしがった。[John showed signs of being saddened by his father’s death.]

Example Sentences:

ジョンは父ちちの死しを悲かなしんだ。[John was saddened by his father’s death.]

ジョンは父ちちが死しんだことを悲かなしんだ。[John was sad over the fact that his father died.]

ヨーロッパ人じんはまた戦争せんそうが起おきることを恐おそれている。[Once again, Europeans were worried that a war my break out.]

クリスは京都きょうとでの一年いちねんを懐なつかしんだ。[Chris felt nostalgic about her year in Kyoto.]

マイクは英語えいごができないことを悩なやんでいる。[Mike is worried about the fact that he can’t speak English.]

WILD Examples:

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