The Inclusive Particle (も)

At first glance も appears to be quite a simple particle to use. Its most basic use is to create the meaning of “also” by taking the position of the topic particle as in the below example sentences.

However, it is important to note that the topic particle has not been made redundant—it is being implied from the context and thus doesn’t need to be shown.

In other words, it does not replace the topic particle grammatically. This becomes more obvious when we use も in place of the object particle.

Here Kawamura-san remains as the topic sentence (and thus would not need to be repeated).

You may have noticed that in the above example sentence the inclusive particle も replaces the object particle を. This an except to the general rule for the も particle. As we shall see below, when used with で, に, と it is appended to the original particle.

In fact, you may see をも used in combination but this is extremely rare practice and certainly never used in conversation—formal or otherwise.

The Position of も

It’s worth just taking a moment to think about the following two sentences:

They both translate as the same in English but the meaning in Japanese is subtlety different: the former implies that someone else also drank water other than Mike; the latter that Mike drank something as well as water. In English the true meaning of the sentence would only be clear from the context or the preceding statement.