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So usually when there is an omitted part of a sentence its pretty straightforward to know what the rest of the sentence way going to say. However in this case its really confusing me.

This is a scene from an anime where the person speaking is being accused of digging holes on a race track to prevent the other person from winning:

穴？ 一体何を証拠に…

Not only am I unsure of what the renaming part of the sentence could be, but the を particle is also throwing me off, something keeps irking me that it should be が.

I did some googling and 何が証拠になるのか seems to be a commonly reoccurring phrase, but nothing comes up with を.

Any help or clarification is much appreciated.

Ryan
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    "何を証拠に" is an abbreviation of "何を証拠にして", and "して" is very often omitted. https://www.google.com/search?q=%22%E4%BD%95%E3%82%92%E8%A8%BC%E6%8B%A0%E3%81%AB%E8%A8%80%E3%81%A3%E3%81%A6%22. But you can also say, "何が証拠になるの？", if you want to use it as a transitive verb. – kaboc Jul 24 '20 at 10:38
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    @kaboc: [Comments are not for answers](https://japanese.meta.stackexchange.com/q/593/78). – istrasci Jul 24 '20 at 15:54

1 Answers1

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This 何を証拠に is a AをBに ("with A as B", "using A as B") construction, which forms an adverbial phrase.

The literal translation is "With what as the evidence...?" or "Using what as the evidence...?" Something like そんな事を言うんだ or 俺を犯人扱いするんだ is omitted after this.

He could have said 何が証拠だ or 証拠は何だ instead, which is a complete sentence on its own.

naruto
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