Can も replace を when used with 気にしない


For example I want to say

> 俺は彼だったらあなたも気にしない

I know that it should be `あなたを気にしない`, but I couldn't find it being used this
way anywhere online in the meaning "didn't care ABOUT you, too". にも yields no
results whatsoever

If I say it like above, would it be correct grammatically?




If you are asking purely about syntax, replacing を with も is not a problem at
all.

However, your sentence has several other issues.

First of all, あなたを気にしない is not quite idiomatic. あなた **のこと** を気にしない sounds much
more natural. Besides, or perhaps because of this reason, あなたも気にしない would most
likely be understood as:

> You don’t care, either.

Secondly, 俺は should be 俺 **が**. This は takes out 俺 as a topic, but a topic
usually doesn’t go inside a subordinate clause.

After these corrections (and a comma for readability), we arrive at the
following:

> 俺が彼だったら、あなたのことを気にしない。

Though this sounds natural enough, I would prefer:

> 俺が彼なら、あなたのことを気にしない。

Let’s agree on this as the base sentence to which to add the meaning of も, for
the sake of the following discussion.

Now, I understand what you want to say is:

> If I were him, I wouldn’t care about you, either.

However, there is a little ambiguity to this English sentence because it could
be interpreted in, at least, two ways:

>   1. He doesn’t care about you. If I were him, I wouldn’t care about you,
> either. [i.e. I am like him.]
>

or

>   2. He may not care about other people, but he cares about you. If I were
> him, I wouldn’t care about you, either. [i.e. You are like other people (for
> me).]
>

This ambiguity needs to be resolved if the above sentence is to be translated
to Japanese.

Your approach of replacing を with も would result:

> 俺が彼なら、あなたのことも気にしない。

This works only in the second scenario.

In the first scenario, も would have to go with 俺 because that's what you want
to put into the same group as something else, which is the main function of も.
One straightforward solution would be to make the subject of the main clause,
which is 俺, explicit and add も to it, like this.

> 俺が彼なら、俺もあなたのことを気にしない。

However, this sounds not only redundant but also a bit unnatural because 俺が彼なら
somewhat suggests what follows will talk about some contrast between “me” and
“him”, yet the main clause contradicts it.

It would be more natural to say:

> 俺が彼でも、あなたのことを気にしない。

This would be interpreted as meaning either one of the following:

>   1. He doesn’t care about you. In his shoes, I also wouldn’t care about
> you.
>

or

>   2. I don’t care about you. Even in his shoes, I still wouldn’t care about
> you.
>

Some ambiguity remains, but context will take care of the rest.




If you are asking purely about syntax, replacing を with も is not a problem at
all.

However, your sentence has several other issues.

First of all, あなたを気にしない is not quite idiomatic. あなた **のこと** を気にしない sounds much
more natural. Besides, or perhaps because of this reason, あなたも気にしない would most
likely be understood as:

> You don’t care, either.

Secondly, 俺は should be 俺 **が**. This は takes out 俺 as a topic, but a topic
usually doesn’t go inside a subordinate clause.

After these corrections (and a comma for readability), we arrive at the
following:

> 俺が彼だったら、あなたのことを気にしない。

Though this sounds natural enough, I would prefer:

> 俺が彼なら、あなたのことを気にしない。

Let’s agree on this as the base sentence to which to add the meaning of も, for
the sake of the following discussion.

Now, I understand what you want to say is:

> If I were him, I wouldn’t care about you, either.

However, there is a little ambiguity to this English sentence because it could
be interpreted in, at least, two ways:

>   1. He doesn’t care about you. If I were him, I wouldn’t care about you,
> either. [i.e. I am like him.]
>

or

>   2. He may not care about other people, but he cares about you. If I were
> him, I wouldn’t care about you, either. [i.e. You are like other people (for
> me).]
>

This ambiguity needs to be resolved if the above sentence is to be translated
to Japanese.

Your approach of replacing を with も would result:

> 俺が彼なら、あなたのことも気にしない。

This works only in the second scenario.

In the first scenario, も would have to go with 俺 because that's what you want
to put into the same group as something else, which is the main function of も.
One straightforward solution would be to make the subject of the main clause,
which is 俺, explicit and add も to it, like this.

> 俺が彼なら、俺もあなたのことを気にしない。

However, this sounds not only redundant but also a bit unnatural because 俺が彼なら
somewhat suggests what follows will talk about some contrast between “me” and
“him”, yet the main clause contradicts it.

It would be more natural to say:

> 俺が彼でも、あなたのことを気にしない。

This would be interpreted as meaning either one of the following:

>   1. He doesn’t care about you. In his shoes, I also wouldn’t care about
> you.
>

or

>   2. I don’t care about you. Even in his shoes, I still wouldn’t care about
> you.
>

Some ambiguity remains, but context will take care of the rest.

