べんきょうをします or べんきょう します

[JockZon]

Hello! In class I've learned that you say benkyouwo shimasu, but now I've seen benkyou shimasu.

I want to say that I've studied japanese.

Should I say
私は日本がべんきょうをしました。
or
私は日本をべんきょうしました。
Thanks for your help.

/Joakim

[Brian]

I think when you use the verb する with a noun the を particle becomes optional since the noun+suru combination can be treated as one verb, so you could put either
べんきょうをします。
or
べんきょうします。

私は日本をべんきょうしました。
^ Would be translated as I studied Japan
「Don't forget 語 （ご）, 日本＝Japan　日本語＝the Japanese language」

"I studied Japanese" would be:
私は日本語を勉強しました。
watashi wa nihongo wo benkyou shimashita.

Hope that helps
頑張ってください。

http://www.guidetojapanese.org/particles2.html

[Jason]

I think when you use the verb する with a noun the を particle becomes optional

Not all the time. I don't know how to explain it really, but sometimes it just sounds 'wrong" without を, somestimes it sounds wrong with. 勉強をする sounds very weird to me. But so does ゲームする.

[JockZon]

Thank you and sorry for forgetting the "Go". I know that it should be there

[RobGillon]

I agree that 勉強をする sounds odd. Technically, it's right, I guess because it comes after a long "o" sound it just sounds awkward. I've always been taught that if a noun can be a verb, then just stick on する (without an を) and that's it. To me ゲームする sounds fine, but I guess a more correct version would be ゲームをする.

[JockZon]

The thing is that my teacher is from tokyo so she must be right, right? Is it just after an ou that you should skip the wo and put it in front of the noun-verb?

[Jason]

The weird thing is that even though ゲームをする sounds better to my ear, ドライブをする doesn't. So I would say when in doubt, leave the を in if you don't know. Though I'm not sure if there's really a hard and fast rule for this.

[JockZon]

Maybe the "rule" is べんきょうをします but you do speak without the wo and this rule is going to be erased. Someone that could confirm this? Someone that knows the grammar.

[RobGillon]

From Tae Kim's Guide to Japanese:

When you use 「する」 with a noun, the 「を」 particle is optional and you can treat the whole [noun+する] as one verb.
（１）　毎日、日本語を勉強する。- Study Japanese everyday.
（２）　メールアドレスを登録した。- Registered email address.

So his answer would be that you can use を if you want to, but it's more normal not to.

His examples actually reminded me of something so basic that I can't believe we've all overlooked it! If you say 日本語を you can't then say 勉強をする because then you'd have two を's

[Jason]

Is there a rule against having more than one を in a clause?

[JockZon]

Maybe you use a wa instead of wo, because you can use more than one wa.

Nihongo wa benkyou wo shimasu.

I've been tought to say "wa benkyou wo shimasu."

[RobGillon]

If that's what you've been taught, then I guess it's fine, it just sounds a little odd to me.

There's no rule against having two を's in a sentence, but Japanese people would tend to avoid it as much as possible, just like you'd avoid having two subjects, topics etc. Apparently, Japanese people especially hate having two に's (as a particle) in a sentence, so much that it would make someone cringe.

[JockZon]

It just sounds weird to me to be thought something that sounds wrong from I teacher who's japanese. Well, I will learn from the you 'cause you probably know it better than me.

[RobGillon]

I'm not saying that your teacher is wrong, perhaps the way she is teaching it is the *strictly* correct version. But as for Nihongo wa Benkyou wo Shimasu - I'm not sure but I think that says "The Japanese language studies (something)".

Maybe for now you should stick to what your Japanese teacher tells you is right, but just be aware that most suru verbs don't have a wo normally - though it is purely optional, and not necessarily wrong to put it in.

[JockZon]

And I'm not saying that you're saying that my teacher is wrong so that's okey. I believe you. My theory was that I've been taught the strict version and the reason that som many thinks that benkyou wo shimasu sounds wrong, is that you usually say wo benkyou shimasu. I will do as a swedish proverb says: "Eat poop, one million flies can not be wrong".