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を

o

を is not the object marker. It is the path.

The picture A line your action sweeps along. Whatever that line touches takes を. を is the line an action sweeps along; に is the single point it lands on.

Particles

Where the picture shows up in を

  1. what you take hold of

    お弁当を買いました。

    obentō o kaimashita

    I bought a lunch box.

    A lunch box lifted off the shelf and travelling with your hand into the basket

  2. what you work on

    この書類をコピーしてください。

    kono shorui o kopī shite kudasai

    Please make a copy of this document.

    The document pressed flat on the copier glass as a bar of light sweeps across it

  3. the path you sweep along

    毎朝この道を歩きます。

    maiasa kono michi o arukimasu

    I walk down this street every morning.

    Footprints laid in a row from one end of the street to the other

  4. the place you come out of

    七時に家を出ます。

    shichi-ji ni ie o demasu

    I leave the house at seven.

    The front door swinging open and a body passing out through the frame

  5. the stretch of time you pass through

    長い冬を過ごしました。

    nagai fuyu o sugoshimashita

    We got through a long winter.

    Three calendar pages turning one by one as the winter is crossed

    Understand and like take が in Japanese, not を: 日本語が分かります。

All of it in one picture

を is the line your action leaves behind it. Take the lunch box and the line stops at the object; copy the document and the line sweeps once across the paper; walk the street and the line stretches out along it. Step outside and the line runs from inside the house to out; get through a winter and the same line is drawn over time instead of ground. So stop asking what を means and ask what the action swept through — all five answers are one line.

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