What does adding お at the end of a word change?


An example would be: "watashi wa cake o(お) tabetai". What does the お do? I
tried on google translate and it seems it gives pertenence to that thing..like
it belongs either to you or me..but I still need actual clarification.




There are three particles in Japanese which are typically spelled differently
than they're pronounced:

  1. は (pronounced _wa_ rather than _ha_ )
  2. を (pronounced _o_ rather than _wo_ )
  3. へ (pronounced _e_ rather than _he_ )

Although you're hearing it correctly, in this case it is actually the particle
を, marking a direct object:

> （わたしは） **ケーキを** たべたい

This particle comes directly after the word or phrase it marks, like particles
usually do in Japanese.

* * *

We have direct objects in English, too. But in English, we don't have a
particle like を. Instead, we mark direct objects with word order:

> **I** want to eat **the cake**.

Here, we can tell **_I_** is the subject, and **_the cake_** is the direct
object. Why? Because of their location. If we switch them, the meaning changes
completely:

> **The cake** wants to eat **me**.

Japanese word order is much more free than in English, because the Japanese
language has little words like を and doesn't have to rely on word order all
the time.




There are three particles in Japanese which are typically spelled differently
than they're pronounced:

  1. は (pronounced _wa_ rather than _ha_ )
  2. を (pronounced _o_ rather than _wo_ )
  3. へ (pronounced _e_ rather than _he_ )

Although you're hearing it correctly, in this case it is actually the particle
を, marking a direct object:

> （わたしは） **ケーキを** たべたい

This particle comes directly after the word or phrase it marks, like particles
usually do in Japanese.

* * *

We have direct objects in English, too. But in English, we don't have a
particle like を. Instead, we mark direct objects with word order:

> **I** want to eat **the cake**.

Here, we can tell **_I_** is the subject, and **_the cake_** is the direct
object. Why? Because of their location. If we switch them, the meaning changes
completely:

> **The cake** wants to eat **me**.

Japanese word order is much more free than in English, because the Japanese
language has little words like を and doesn't have to rely on word order all
the time.

