kinou wa shigoto o yasumimashita.

topic particle

Breakdown of kinou wa shigoto o yasumimashita.

• を: direct object particle
• 昨日きのう: yesterday
• 仕事しごと: work

Questions & Answers about kinou wa shigoto o yasumimashita.

Why is there は after 昨日 rather than に, and what does it do?

• は here is the topic marker, so 昨日は means “as for yesterday…”
• Time words like 昨日, 今日, 明日 can drop に when they act as adverbials.
• Choosing は instead of simply omitting a particle also adds a slight contrastive nuance: “Yesterday (unlike other days), I took the day off.”

Why is 仕事 marked with を? Isn’t 休む intransitive?

• In 仕事を休む, 休む is used transitively: “to take a break/absent oneself from [something].”
• The thing you’re absent from (in this case “work”) gets を.

I thought 休む meant “to rest” and was intransitive. How can it take を?

Japanese 休む has two main senses:
• Intransitive “to rest” (木陰で休む).
• Transitive “to take a break/absent oneself from [work, school, etc.]” (会社を休む).
Both share the same spelling but differ in whether they take を.

What tense and politeness level is 休みました, and how would I say it informally?

• 休みました = polite past form of 休む (“took the day off”).
• Casual/plain past is 休んだ, so you’d say 昨日は仕事を休んだ in informal speech.