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I have learnt that a noun that is preceding an intransitive verb should go with the GA particle (it is a subject). And a noun that is preceding a transitive verb then it should be used with the WO particle (it is an object).

However, I have also learnt that verbs in Japanese can be connected with TE FORM. So can we connect an intransitive verb with a transitive verb?

If it is yes, then how can we decide which particle to use (GA or WO)? Because in this sentence the Noun is the subject for a verb but also the object for the other?

The pattern is just like this:

NOUN (GA/WO) V1 TE + V2 TE +... In which V(n) can be a transitive verb or intransitive verb.

Could you please give me some examples.

1 Answer 1

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I feel you are a little confused because you have seen some over-simplified explanation about transitive verbs... Perhaps it's best to learn from examples.

  • 私はS 寝ますVi
    IS sleepVi.
  • 私はS 起きますVi
    IS wakeVi (up).
  • 私はS シャワーをO 浴びますVt
    IS takeVt a showerO.
  • 私はS 朝食をO 食べますVt
    IS eatVt breakfastO.

Using a te-from to connect two verbs...

  • 私はS シャワーをO1 浴びてVt1* 寝ますVi2
    IS takeVt1 a showerO1 and (then) sleepVi2.
  • 私はS 起きてVi1* シャワーをO2 浴びますVt2
    IS wakeVi1 (up) and (then) takeVt2 a showerO2.
  • 私はS シャワーをO1 浴びてVt1* 朝食をO2 食べますVt2
    IS takeVt1 a showerO1 and eatVt2 breakfastO2.

(S: subject, Vi: intransitive verb, Vt: transitive verb, O: object, *: te-form)

So, aside from the obvious difference in word order (S-O-V vs S-V-O), I hope you can see there is not much difference.

Just like English verbs, every Japanese verb has a corresponding subject, which is marked by が (or は) but may be omitted. A transitive verb additionally takes an object, which is marked by を. (In other words, a transitive verb takes two arguments, while an intransitive verb take only one.)

Also note that シャワーを私は浴びます is still a valid Japanese sentence, although it sounds clumsy in a simple case like this. See: Does word order change the meaning of a sentence?

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  • Thank you, naruto. I 've got a simple sentence, which is 私は彼が好きで彼を尊敬している。In which you can see that 彼 appears twice, once with ga, and once with wo. I dont know if my sentence is right or not, and can we group the word 彼 ?
    – Ren Chen
    Jul 29, 2019 at 14:29
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    @RenChen Your sentence is perfectly correct. It's not possible to "group" those 彼 because they are used with different particles. But it's possible to "omit" the second 彼(を) because it can be inferred form the context of the first half of the sentence (i.e., 私は彼が好きで尊敬している).
    – naruto
    Jul 29, 2019 at 17:10

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