> 海の中を泳ぐよ  
>  _umi no naka wo oyogu yo_

"wo" is the direct object particle, so does this mean "swim the in the sea?"
But that doesn't make much sense.

This was from a children's colouring sheet showing a character swimming
through the sea. Nothing else was written.
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2019-02-20T21:29:09.880
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question
particle-を verbs-of-motion
Use of 'wo' in "umi no naka wo oyogu yo"
It actually means "swim through the sea!"(Exclamation added because the
sentence ends with yo.)

Some motion verbs use "wo" instead of "ni" despite being intransitive. See:
[Direct objects of motion verbs and help with the difference between を and
に](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/61071/direct-objects-of-
motion-verbs-and-help-with-the-difference-between-%E3%82%92-and-%E3%81%AB)
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2019-02-20T21:31:10.547
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answer
With verbs of motion,

  * に and へ indicate destination
  * を means 'along (road, river)' or 'across' (going from A to B)
  * で is where you do something (not going anywhere).

The latter case has no real change of location, like swimming in a pool. To me
this is simply the で for verbs of action (swimming in a pool is an action but
does not go anywhere, so in this context it is not a verb of motion).

を is foremost the particle for direct objects, but that does not mean that it
always is. Likewise, に is the particle for indirect objects, but one does not
generally consider that '[place]に' is an indirect object.
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2019-02-21T08:34:40.353
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answer