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I would like to ask on how to avoid multiple occurrences of the particle ga in a sentence. For example:

詳細{しょうさい}のクエリは削除{さくじょ}フラグが0がありません。

What I meant in the sentence: The Detail query does not contain the condition of "delete-flag equals 0".

Right now I would work around this by using equals symbol or change the verb like fukumemasen.

詳細{しょうさい}のクエリは削除{さくじょ}フラグ＝0がありません。

or

詳細{しょうさい}のクエリは削除{さくじょ}フラグが0を含{ふく}めません。

Is the original sentence's grammar correct? If not, are my alternative sentences correct?

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    The initial English seems weird to me, but what about: 詳細クエリーには、0となっている削除フラグがありません ?
    – Axioplase
    Oct 20, 2011 at 5:52
  • @Axioplase Is there a restriction with the use of the particle が multiple times in a sentence? If there isn't then there is no need to circumvent it? Does it cause ambiguity?
    – Flaw ♦
    Oct 20, 2011 at 11:20
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    I think that your English sentence “The Detail query contains no delete-flag equals 0 [condition]” is ungrammatical, and I do not know what you mean by it. I voted to close the question as not a real question.
    – Tsuyoshi Ito
    Oct 20, 2011 at 11:24
  • I also voted to close because both the English and the Japanese examples in your question are hard to understand.
    – user458
    Oct 20, 2011 at 13:33

2 Answers 2

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I'm a little confused because 0がありません means "there is no zero".

Perhaps "delete-flag equals zero" should be ゼロの削除{さくじょ}フラグ or ゼロと等{ひと}しい削除{さくじょ}フラグ

I'm going to interpret your sentence as :

The Detail query does not contain the condition of "delete-flag equals 0"

Nouns: Detail query, (the condition of) delete-flag equals 0 (Not really a noun phrase unless interpreted as a condition)

Verb: contain

Negatives: (negates existence of "condition of delete-flag equals 0")

The sentence should be of the forms:

[Detail Query]には[Condition of delete-flag equals zero]を[not contain]

詳細{しょうさい}のクエリには ゼロと等{ひと}しい削除{さくじょ}フラグの状態{じょうたい}を含{ふく}めない - Condition of delete-flag equals zero is not included in the detail query.

詳細{しょうさい}のクエリは ゼロと等{ひと}しい削除{さくじょ}フラグの状態{じょうたい}がない - Condition of delete-flag equals zero is not present with respect to the detail query.

Alternatively, I think you can use the ~という construct.　i.e ゼロと等{ひと}しい削除{さくじょ}フラグという. Using this will turn the sentence into ... does not contain "delete-flag equals zero" (instead of condition of ~)

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    I think we need to parse the sentence as follows: 詳細のクエリは ( ( 削除フラグが0 ) がありません )。 So the がありません follows the whole clause rather than just 0.
    – Lukman
    Oct 20, 2011 at 4:54
  • @Lukman, yes that is what I meant in the sentence.
    – Nap
    Oct 20, 2011 at 5:17
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    @Lukman thanks for putting the sentence in parentheses, it's much clearer to me now. I'm not sure if it is grammatical or not. Now I think the question "why can't I have multiple がs in a sentence?" is begging to be asked.
    – Flaw ♦
    Oct 20, 2011 at 5:48
  • @Lukman Is it possible for it to be 詳細のクエリは ( 削除フラグが ( 0がありません ) ) instead? And for your version, I'm having difficulty understanding （削除フラグが0) due to a lack of a verb. I'm assuming the copula だ gets elided when がありません is added after that. i.e. ( (削除フラグが0[だ]) がありません ).
    – Flaw ♦
    Oct 20, 2011 at 11:11
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First, you can have several が, for example if you say "that is Yamada who is blind": 山田{やまだ}さんが目{め}が見{み}えない.

Then, if you have a choice, I'd suggest you break the sentence or rephrase.

Moreover, there are cases where you can turn が into の. For example 私{わたし}が飼{か}っている犬{いぬ}が車{くるま}にぶつけられた。 can become 私{わたし}の飼{か}っている犬{いぬ}が車{くるま}にぶつけられた。

As for your initial sentence, I couldn't parse it properly, but my suggestion in the comment is a way to rephrase.

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  • thanks, the way I parse the sentence is I used the [削除フラグが0] as a noun. But I think the sentence is incomplete so I should add　条件 in the sentence. 詳細のクエリは「削除フラグが0の条件」がありません。Actually, I also try to use の in place of が but for this one the zero needs to describe the value of the delete flag in the query. My question is actually on software query if the sentence does not make sense to you.
    – Nap
    Oct 21, 2011 at 8:22
  • You can't take "削除フラグが0" as a noun, that's the big problem that breaks everything I think. You need to make a correct English sentence first, so that we can translate it. (There are many computer scientist/hobbyists here, and several did not parse your sentence.)
    – Axioplase
    Oct 21, 2011 at 8:44
  • 山田さんが目が見えない does not sound grammatical to me without assuming any context. In which context is it grammatical?
    – Tsuyoshi Ito
    Oct 23, 2011 at 22:50
  • @TsuyoshiIto: Answer to the question "誰が目が見えませんか" (which is easier, and has two が's as well).
    – Axioplase
    Oct 24, 2011 at 3:57
  • That question itself sounds weird to me, although I do not say that it is incorrect. 目が見えないのは誰ですか sounds much more natural. The reason is probably because 誰が目が見えませんか contains two が, and therefore I consider that there is indeed a tendency to avoid using more than one が in the same clause.
    – Tsuyoshi Ito
    Oct 24, 2011 at 4:00

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