を

About

When used as a direct object marker, the を particle marks the recipient of a transitive action: the direct object. For example, in the sentence 「マイクがピザを食たべる」, を marks ピザ as the direct object of the transitive verb 食たべる, "to eat". The general structure is 「direct objectをtransitive verb」, although this is often altered in spoken language.

Direct objects are named as such because they are directly affected by the verb that is done to them. A ball gets thrown, a pizza gets eaten, a book gets read, etc. (This is in contrast to indirect objects, which are paired with intransitive verbs, and marked by the に particle instead.)

Summary

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  を marks the direct object of a sentence.

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  Direct objects are acted upon by transitive verbs.

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  Direct objects get their name because they are directly acted upon by a verb.

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  を may end a sentence in cases where the following verb is omitted.