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何かおいしいものを作る。
I will make something tasty.

I'm reasonably sure that this is a natural sentence that uses 何か in a way familiar to me.

I've just been introduced to the possibility of 何か acting as the object of a sentence. In the above sentence it cannot be an object because this spot is reserved by おいしいもの. I assume 何か works adverbially. But what if I make my sentence less explicit:

? 何か作る
? 何かを作る
I will make something (unspecified)

Can 何か be the object in this case? In what situations would you do this?

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  • How about when you don’t need to specify it is tasty?
    – aguijonazo
    May 2 at 9:27
  • @aguijonazo Sorry, I'm not sure what you are asking.
    – user3856370
    May 2 at 9:38
  • He's suggesting that you drop "おいしいもの" from your original sentence, thus obtaining 何かを作る and questioning if in this case, 何か could be regarded as the object of the sentence.
    – jarmanso7
    May 2 at 9:41
  • @jarmanso7 But that's exactly what I ask about at the end of my question. I don't know if it is valid or when it is the right thing to do. That's what the question is supposed to be about. Maybe I've failed to make it clear enough.
    – user3856370
    May 2 at 9:43
  • 1
    「なんか」の意味と用法 ir.lib.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/files/public/2/22970/…
    – broccoli facemask
    May 5 at 12:34

1 Answer 1

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Yes, it can be an object. In other words, it is perfectly fine for を to follow immediately after 何か:

何かを作る

The other option:

何か作る

is also valid and would have the same meaning, but it is more informal because the particle を is omitted.

You can find some example sentences here.

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  • So would it be fair to say that I can always use 何か as an object unless the verb explicitly takes another object. and that this will always be a natural thing to do? Got to go now. Will do upvoting/ticking later. Thanks.
    – user3856370
    May 2 at 9:49
  • I think that your assumption is reasonable. In my experience, the difficult part of this grammar is not when you have 何かを作る or おいしいものを作る, where the respective objects are clear, but the difficult case is 何かおいしいものを作る. I mean, in the last sentence, what is the object? おいしいもの, 何か or 何かおいしいもの as a whole? Or maybe there are two objects at the same time, 何か and おいしい? I really don't know, but this syntax is very peculiar. My advise is to just get use to how it works and don't bother too much trying to figure out who is the object in such sentences.
    – jarmanso7
    May 2 at 9:55
  • I am inclined to believe that 何かおいしいもの acts as a unit, and that's why we translate it as "some/any delicious stuff", where "some/any" is a modifier to "delicious stuff". But I am really not sure of how 何か modifies おいしいもの...
    – jarmanso7
    May 2 at 9:58

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