1

For example, テレビをみませ is "I will watch TV". I would like to say なにをテレビをみますか but I'm not sure the double を makes any sense, for example in なにをみますか the person may answer テレビ but I want to know what is on the TV that they watch?

EX2:

としょかんでほんをよみませ 
I will read book/s in the library. 
なにをほんをよみますか 
What book/s will you read?

EDIT: Note that I am not looking for an adjective answer like good, scary, fantasy, but the specific name of the book/show.

1 Answer 1

6

First of all it should be テレビをみま. You did this twice, so I'm assuming it wasn't a typo.

You wrote:

なにをテレビみますか

You're intuition is correct that you cannot use を twice. For this you use the particle で, which means 'on' in this context:

何{なに}をテレビ見{み}ますか。

Using を doesn't make sense because you are not watching the TV, you're watching a programme on TV. Using を with なに is correct because the answer to the 'what' question is the thing that will be watched.

In your second example you wrote:

なにほんをよみますか

Both 'what' and 'book' are valid objects on their own ("What will you read?"/"Will you read a book?"), but not together. The sentence "What book will you read?" has a single object which is "what book". In this case you can say something like:

何{なん}の本{ほん}を読{よ}みますか。

Aside:

If you did want to ask "What kind of book will you read?" as in scary/fantasy etc., It would be:

どんな本を読みますか。

4
  • The second example is still slightly confusing it almost seems like its saying "whats the book your reading look like?" but the first makes perfect sense, seems i need to learn more before the second will be clear,
    – Faust
    Commented Jun 3, 2018 at 16:47
  • @Faust Sorry, I made a typo in the furigana. I wrote よみみます instead of よみます. Does it make more sense now? Commented Jun 3, 2018 at 16:54
  • Yes now it makes perfect sense thank you!
    – Faust
    Commented Jun 3, 2018 at 16:56
  • Isn’t について also a good alternative to を? Commented Jun 4, 2018 at 1:26

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .