Basics of Particle: も

The も (mo) particle is often miscompared to the English words "too" and "also", however, in Japanese, it is used to mark a word that is part of a set that belongs together; it may also replace the topic は or subject が particles.

In English, the words "too" and "also" can be interpreted in different ways; take the sentence "She also speaks Japanese", this could mean she speaks Japanese in addition to other languages like English, German, Malay and so on. It could also mean she speaks Japanese in addition to other people.

To understand what is meant by "part of a set", think about a group of people who can speak Japanese, you also speak Japanese so you say "I can also speak Japanese" by adding yourself to this group of people (using "watashi mo"); unlike in English, this does not mean you can speak other languages but rather you, in addition to other people, can speak Japanese.

Just be careful with the last example here, while in English we may say "today too", do not translate that as 今日も (kyou mo); the one that got added to the group was 彼女 (kanojo). It is much better to think of it as "She too is busy today" instead, even if it sounds odd in English.

Saying 彼女は(今日も)忙しい (kanojo wa [kyou mo] isogashii) is like saying "As for her, she is busy [today too]" as if grouping "today" along with other days in the week she was busy, rather than grouping "her" with other people to say other people including "her" are busy.

Using も in a List

It is also possible to add multiple people or things to a set, for example: "I play the piano. Yuta-san, Miki-san and Shinobu-san also play the piano". While the example below uses も, this is only to demonstrate its use in a list. Instead, ゆたさん、みきさん、忍さんも would be more common.

Using も for "Neither" or "Either"

Other than adding people or things to a set that is similar to "also", も may be used to also add to a set that does not belong to something similar to saying "neither" or "either", for example:

Using も with Question Words

Question words can be used with も to include or exclude everything; the meaning becomes all or nothing depending whether they are used with a negative verb.

Here, いつ meaning "when" refers to a time and adding も creates a set of all possible times; this is the same as saying "always", "all the time" or "at all times". なに meaning "what" can use も to create a set of all possible things that are unknown; this is the similar as saying "not anything" and so on.

It is important to note that 何も (nani mo) and 誰も (dare mo) are generally used with negative verbs such as ない (nonexistent) and しない (to not do).

"Where?" marks all places as part of a set (everywhere), "which?" is indicating all options from a definite set (everything) and "When?" expresses all possible times (always). However, neither "What?" nor "Who?" can be identified as being existing as part of a set; you cannot use 何も to mean "everything" nor can you use 誰も to mean "everyone".

In summary, 何も indicates the absence or lack of something and 誰も indicates the absence or lack of people. If used in positive sentences, we would use でも instead to say "anything" or "anyone" which will be explained better when we cover the でも particle in another lesson.

You may not hear some of these type of question words used as much as there are alternatives that are more common such as みんな (everyone), ぜんぶ (everything) and ぜったい (absolutely / never). Notice that いつも still means "always" in the negative form but interpreted as "never" instead of "not always".

※ These are only mentioned here just so you can recognise them when they are used, otherwise, other words are usually used instead to express similar things.