U+3082, も
HIRAGANA LETTER MO

[U+3081]
Hiragana
[U+3083]

Japanese

edit
Stroke order
 

Pronunciation

edit

Etymology 1

edit

Derived in the Heian period from writing the man'yōgana kanji in the cursive sōsho style.

Syllable

edit

(mo

  1. The hiragana syllable (mo). Its equivalent in katakana is (mo). It is the thirty-fifth syllable in the gojūon order; its position is (ma-gyō o-dan, row ma, section o).
See also
edit

Etymology 2

edit

⟨mo2 → */mə//mo/

From Old Japanese, from Proto-Japonic *mə.

Particle

edit

(mo

  1. (non-unique topic marker)
    Antonym:
    1. too; also; as well
      ()(なか)さんはビール()でいる。スミスさん()んでいる。
      Tanaka-san wa bīru o nondeiru. Sumisu-san mo nondeiru.
      Tanaka is drinking beer. Smith is also drinking.
      (ほん)(じつ)(らい)(てん)くださいまして、ありがとうございます
      Honjitsu mo go-raiten kudasaimashite, arigatō gozaimasu.
      Thank you for visiting our store today as well [as other days].
      (わたし)くれた。
      Watashi ni mo kureta.
      [She] gave some to me, too.
    2. even
      (ゆめ)(おも)いませんでした。
      Yume ni mo omoimasen deshita.
      I have never thought of this even in my dreams.
      500(ごひゃく) (えん)あれば()える。
      Gohyaku en mo areba kaeru.
      I only need 500 yen to buy this.
      (literally, “I can buy this even if I have only 500 yen.”)
      (さる)()から()ちる
      saru mo ki kara ochiru
      Even experts occasionally make mistakes.
      (literally, “Even monkeys fall from trees”)
    3. (attaching to an indefinite pronoun or determiner) all; every
      (だれ)()っていることだ。
      Dare mo shitte iru koto da.
      Everyone knows this.
      (はこ)(なか)には(なに)なかった。
      Hako no naka ni wa nani mo nakatta.
      The box was empty.
      (literally, “Inside the box, all things do not exist.”)
    4. Used to emphasize amounts.
      何万人(なんまんにん)()た。
      Nanmannin mo kita.
      Myriads of people came.
      2GBある
      2GB mo aru
      an entire 2 gigabytes large
Usage notes
edit
  • (mo) vs (wa):
    indicates the topic is “non-unique”, i.e., the result or conclusion remains the same even if the current topic is changed.
    今日(きょう)いい(てん)()
    Kyō mo ii tenki.
    Nice weather today. (implying something like “the weather was also nice yesterday/the weather is fine as usual”.)
    indicates the topic is “unique”, i.e., the result or conclusion will be different if the current topic is changed.
    今日(きょう)いい(てん)()
    Kyō wa ii tenki.
    Nice weather today. (implying something like “the weather was bad yesterday/the weather has been bad recently”.)
  • (mo) always replaces (o) and (ga), but may follow other particles.
  • When after a verb, the verb is conjugated as (-te) in conventional language and as the dictionary form in literary language: しても (shite mo), するも (suru mo).
Synonyms
edit
Derived terms
edit

Etymology 3

edit

Readings of various kanji.

Noun

edit

(mo

  1. : most
  2. : mourning
  3. : clothes
  4. : algae
  5. : mask, face, surface

Old Japanese

edit

Etymology 1

edit

From Proto-Japonic *mə.

Appears in common use in the Kojiki (712 CE), with the only attested distinction between ⟨mo1 and ⟨mo2. Compare Middle Chinese (MC muwX).

Pronunciation was distinct from ⟨mo1 terms such as (kumo1, cloud) and (simo1, lower, end); pronounced closely to Middle Chinese (MC maw|mawH). This was lost in a later ancient Japanese chronicle, the Nihon Shoki (720 CE), and ⟨mo1 and ⟨mo2 were merged to form one syllable mo. See the Man'yōgana and Jōdai Tokushu Kanazukai articles for more detail on ancient spellings.

Particle

edit

(mo2 → mo)

  1. non-unique topic marker: also, even
Derived terms
edit
Descendants
edit
  • Japanese: (mo)

Etymology 2

edit

The Eastern variant of (-mu).[1]

Suffix

edit

(-mo)

  1. (regional, Eastern Old Japanese) Used to form the conjectural form of verbs, equivalent to modern (-u)/よう (-yō)
    • c. 759, Man’yōshū, book 14, poem 3418:
      , text here
      可美都氣努佐野田能奈倍能武良奈倍爾許登波佐太米都伊麻波伊可爾世
      Kami1tuke2no1 Sano1da-no2-nape2 no2 muranape2 ni ko2to2 ni sadame2tu ima pa ika ni semo
      (please add an English translation of this usage example)
    • c. 759, Man’yōshū, book 20, poem 4418:
      , text here
      和我可度乃可多夜麻都婆伎麻己等奈禮和我弖布禮奈奈都知爾於知加毛
      waga kado1 no2 katayama tubaki mako2to2 nare waga te purenana tuti ni otimo ka mo
      (please add an English translation of this usage example)
Usage notes
edit

This is morphologically an inflectional suffix. It is classified as 助動詞 (jodōshi, auxiliary verb) in traditional Japanese grammar.

References

edit
  1. ^ Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN