[Lingo] Re: [tlug] Correct particle to use

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

Keith Bawden writes:

 > I asked the Japanese bloke who sits next to me at work and he said
 > that hon ga/o yomeru are interchangeable and that he cannot explain
 > the difference. I then went and asked two other Japanese here and they
 > both said the same thing.

Ask their mothers.[1]

A look at the first page of Google results for 「を読める」 suggests
that being a subordinate clause may have a lot to do with it.  「◯◯
を読めるよう」 alone occurs 4 times in 12 instances.

Ask them if they can say 「bawdo君は日本語の本を読めるかい？」


Footnotes: 
[1]  "How to get a Japanese wife, part 1: call her at home, and say to
her mother 「◯◯と申します。お嬢様はいらっしゃいますか。」"  No Japanese
mother can resist the chance to scold "Even a gaijin speaks better
keigo than you."  (You may not get the girl, but her mother will never
let her forget you. 8^)