[Typo] Lesson 1.4

Anata wa nihongo ga hanasemasu ka? あなた　は　にほんご　が　はなせます　か？ Isn't it を instead of が in this phrase? Even in the audio it's said を.

Both ga and wo are correct here. I'm not good at explaining the role of particles in sentences, so it would be nice if Pascal-san would intervene here :)

My Japanese is a bit rusty, but I'll try to help out. Firstly, I just listened to the only-conversation track, and it seems that Sayaka-san says "ga", not "wo". Whether you use 'ga' or 'wo' depends on the type of verb being used. With verbs of ability, 'ga' is used to mark the object, while otherwise 'wo' is used to mark the object. 'Ga' is more often a subject marker, but in this case, it functions like an object marker instead of 'wo'. For example: Unten ga dekiru : I can drive Muzukashii buzurigaku no shukudai ga kakemasu : I can write difficult physics homework. Whereas for normal non-potential form verbs, 'wo' is used. For example: Chuugoku-go wo hanashimasu : (I) can speak Chinese Yamada-san wa raishuu no kaigi no yotei wo shitte iru. : Mr. Yamada knows the schedule for next week's meetings. If this seems a bit arbitrary, it might help to think that in cases with potential verbs, 'ga' is marking the subject of the sentence. 'Watashi wa Eigo ga hanasemasu' might be though of as "As for me, English can be understood". (although hanaseru isn't passive, so maybe don't use this method). Another thing to note is the Ga can be used with verbs of ability (dekiru, wakaru etc.) which aren't in their potential form. i.e. Eigo ga wakarimasu and Eigo ga wakaremasu might be used interchangeably. If there's something horribly wrong with my explanation, please correct me. Off topic: I can't wait for my exams to finish next month so I can study more than 30 mins of Japanese a day :)

You're right, I listened to the whole thing again and Sayaka says が in the full conversation but when they're explaining the phrase in the Full Audio track at 5:20 till 6:10 it's said を by both of them. Anyway, thanks for the reply. :D It's gonna help me a lot once I understand what's a "potential verb" since, as you can see, English isn't my main language.

No problem! The 'potential verb' is a 'can do' form of a verb. In English, French Spanish and many other languages, we add the conjugated for of the verb 'to be able to' in front of what verb we want to make the potential form. For example: 'to be able to eat' -> I can eat. 'to be able to run' -> He can run. 'pouvoir manger' ->Je peux manger. 'Poder ir a la playa' -> Puedo ir a la playa However, in Japanese, you can change the verb ending to make a *new* verb which has the meaning "to be able to" included. Hanasu -> Hanaseru (To speak -> To be able to speak) Kaku -> Kakeru (To write -> to be able to write) There are other structures which mean 'to be able to' that are separate from the verb, for example Vdic + koto ga dekiru, but all of these are covered and discussed in the Rocket Japanese Course. Hope this helps!