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In the light novel that I'm reading, the protagonist says

「人の趣味に文句つけるなよ！」

After performing the research, I've finally worked out this translation,

"Don't complain about a person's hobby!"

Unfortunately, it relies on 文句 being a direct object...possibly. I couldn't find any examples for translating 文句をつける without breaking the phrase apart.

Here are some of the examples that I found when を was included. (src: http://www.mahou.org/Kanji/3667/?example)

彼は何でも僕のすることに文句をつける。 He finds faults with everything I do. [M]

彼はいつもあれこれと文句をつける。 He is always complaining of this and that.

I'd like to know if the を particle is missing because it's a casual conversation. Or does the above-listed phrase have a different meaning altogether?

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  • Your intuit on casual conversation is discussed here.
    – Louis Waweru
    Commented Apr 8, 2015 at 4:23
  • Ah, it looks like this is answered at the very end in one of the answers. The question was mainly about something slightly different, so I hadn't read it through. I'm still a bit confused over whether this can happen in story writing but I guess I can make the supposition that if Osaka dialect is sometimes portrayed, why not a realistic everyday conversation?
    – MingShun
    Commented Apr 8, 2015 at 4:33
  • If it's authentic to the character, perhaps it's better for the author to forget about the rules.
    – Louis Waweru
    Commented Apr 8, 2015 at 4:39
  • 1
    The question is why cannot we drop the を in 気をつける ?
    – oldergod
    Commented Apr 8, 2015 at 8:21
  • 1
    Well, you can: 気つけろ・気ぃつけろ・気ィつけろ etc.
    – user1478
    Commented Apr 8, 2015 at 16:30

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That kind of を drops quite often in casual conversation; you say

文句つけるな （文句をつけるな）
文句言うな （文句を言うな）
ケチつけるな（ケチをつけるな）
ケーキ全部食べちゃった。（ケーキを全部食べてしまった。）
うどん買っといて。（うどんを買っておいて。）
宿題やんなさい！（宿題をやりなさい。）

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