First Japanese Stack Exchange question :D
I'm reading a Japanese book and one of the chapter got me thinking.
The book wrote it like this:
How many pencils are there ?
えんぴつはなんぼんですか。
Can we not not replace は with を ?
Like this:
えんぴつ を なんぼんですか
1 Answer
を denotes a direct object in a sentence. は denotes the subject. Here, えんぴつ is the subject of the sentence, so it should have a は next to it.
answered Aug 3, 2015 at 12:54
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Rightio, thanks :) My brain learn from seeing patterns. I assumed since えんぴつをいっぽんください (can I have a pencil please) would naturally have a reciprocal question form. I guess I jumped the gun a bit :D Commented Aug 3, 2015 at 13:09
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You're welcome. And just to add to @dotnetN00b's comment above, you can only use を if you have an action verb in the sentence. So for your example, ください is your verb (effectively "please give"), so you use を. But asking "how many" has no action, so it can't use を. Hope that helps you make sense of it. Commented Aug 3, 2015 at 13:15
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ですdoes not takeをas a particle.