Can を be use instead of が?

Question

I've heard that を is sometimes used instead of が nowadays. Although it is strictly incorrect it is becoming more common. Is this true ?

For example:

お茶を好きです

車を欲しいです

Answer 1

This article by 東山篤規 is exactly about this topic: 助詞「が」と「を」の置換性について ─文例と世代の比較─ The following table illustrates を is preferred by younger generations in some contexts. The dagger (†/‡) in the rightmost column indicates a statistically significant difference between the two generations.

Roughly speaking, younger people tend to prefer を with できる, 欲しい, ～たい, ～(ら)れる and so on, especially in relatively complex sentences. I personally feel 私は車を欲しいです is a little unnatural (私は車が欲しいです sounds much better), but 車を欲しい人を探す and 車を欲しくなる映画 somehow sounds fine.

Although not included in this table, I think the same tendency is found also with 好き, 嫌い, etc. Still, a simple sentence like お茶を好きです is considered wrong regardless of the generation.

Related:

• Usage of ～を好き outside of embedded clauses
• The difference between が and を with the potential form of a verb