Hot answers tagged syntax
20
While sawa's answer does cover the basic construction rules, it's definitely worth it to go over the different use cases of わけ. Grab a comfy chair and your favorite beverage, because this is a long one.
The best and most complete analysis I've found of this use of わけ is in this 2001 paper by Atsuko Yokota:
文末【ぶんまつ】表現【ひょうげん】「わけだ」の用法【ようほう】 : ...
18
Chris です。
さん is never used (except jokingly perhaps) to refer to oneself. The same goes for other common endings such as くん, ちゃん, さま, 先輩 and 先生.
That's because these endings usually convey a kind of relation: for instance, さま conveys respect, くん and ちゃん convey some endearment and while さん conveys very little meaning, it does convey separation. You ...
15
お仕事は？ Oshigoto wa? is basically short for お仕事は何ですか？ Oshigoto wa nan desu ka?
あなたは仕事ですか？ Anata wa shigoto desu ka? means "Are you work?" and is nonsensical†.
は wa (not わ BTW) is the topic marker.* Just asking 〜は basically means "About ~..." and only hints at the actual question. Leaving things unspoken is a very typical thing in Japanese. "About (your) ...
14
Japanese has many particles (助詞), and they behave in many varying and different ways, so it's helpful to categorize them before we can see how they can be combined. The semi-traditional classification you'd find in Japanese dictionary usually goes along these lines (note that many particles can fall into more than one of these categories as they have ...
10
Usually, you have a sentence like:
後輩がサイフを開く
koohai ga saihu wo hirak-u
'the junior opens the wallet'
where the subject takes が and the object takes を.
There is a morpheme -(s)ase- 'let', 'make' that expresses causative. The way you use it is that you embed the sentence, and change the embedded subject が into に, take another subject that will be ...
10
As ssb and fefe wrote, the sentence consists of two clauses which share the main verb あります. In this particular case, it would be easier to read if the author put a 読点 (“、”) in the sentence:
白い箱はカウチの上に、緑のランプは机の上にあります。
However, unlike commas in English, 読点 in Japanese is rarely (if ever) grammatically required. Authors are free to use 読点 wherever they ...
9
Although it's sometimes hard to tell whether these are single particles put together or a different syntactic element made of two kana, I think it can happen:
は will very easily follow a に or a で. For example:
日本には美しい都市が多い。
僕には彼女の言うことが分かった。
英日の翻訳と日英の翻訳では、英日の翻訳を希望する人のほうが多いようです。
(and many cases where it might be hard to decide whether では is really two ...
8
There are many instances where one particle immediately follows another. Examples:
アメリカでは何語が話されていますか。
車には一人分の空きがあった。
ごめん、僕にも責任があるんだ。
どんな子供でもそのくらい答えられる。*
雹が降るのを見たことがありますか。
彼は走るのが速くないわけではない。
Although it is very difficult to exhaustively explain all of the possibilities, one thing in particular stands out to me as a rule:
Because the ...
8
わけ is a noun meaning 'reason', but it might be better translated as 'circumstances' as Matt comments. When you put it at the end of a sentence, you are turning that sentence into an appositive clause modifying that noun. When the predicate is an adjectival noun (also called na-adjective), you need to change the ending into the adnominal ending (-な). The ...
8
You are asking what や in 大きすぎやしないか is.
I think that it is a colloquial deformation of は, as is explained in this entry in Daijirin. According to this explanation, it was originally 大きすぎはしないか, in which particle は was used to emphasize the part 大きすぎ.
When attached to certain verbs, it is often further contracted as in わかりやしない → わかりゃしない, 聞きやしない → 聞きゃしない. ...
7
I'd like to supplement Boaz's excellent answer with some concrete examples, for those members who learn better by example.
Using this categorization system, you can say that linking particles may generally follow grammatical role particle when they indicate a role in a sentence...
僕に難しすぎるよ。It is too difficult for me.
僕には難しすぎるよ。[Others may find ...
7
At the risk of going slightly off-topic, I'm going to agree 100% with Kentaro and say that putting the demonstrative determiner (learned a new term today!) in the middle sounds more literary. But there are cases where you can (and indeed must) use this "literary" form in everyday Japanese to avoid ambiguity. Take the following examples:
絵を描いたあの子供 ...
7
Just like adjectives, verbs in Japanese can be used to describe nouns. In this situation, the 連体形 of the verb is used, which happen to be the same as 終止形 (the form used to end sentence) in modern Japanese.
In this formation, a sentence is not formed. It only gets a descriptive phrase, which can be used as part of the sentence (as a noun phrase). So the ...
7
Certainly vocabulary helps, but you can get quite far by considering the structure of a sentence.
Nouns are usually written in kanji (or katakana) and are practically always followed by a particle (を, が, は, から, etc.) (unless they are followed by a copula で, だ, です, etc.)
The stem of verbs (including adjectival verbs, or "i-adjectives") is usually written in ...
6
て is a form that is quite basic (called gerund, infinitive, or participle in modern linguistics depending on the researcher) and has different usages. Among the various usages, it can be used as an omitted form of ...てください 'please do ...' or ...てほしい 'I want you to do ...', expressing request with various strength depending on the context, but it cannot be ...
6
Nouns can always take the particles を and が. 形容動詞 cannot take these particles unless they are also classified as 名詞. As far as I know, neither 出色 or 特別 are independently-functioning nouns in standard grammar. One way you can check is by googling the exact phrase "特別を", for example. If hits are low, or if you get hits with 特別 set off from the を by quote ...
6
I think 皆{みんな} can mean "all" when used adverbially, as well as "everyone" or "everything":
でも世界の子供はみんな私を知っています。
"But the children of the world all know me."
You can also use みんな to refer to more than people:
チーズは皆食べられてしまった
"All of the cheese has been eaten."
There's some more examples at the Yahoo dictionary definition for 皆{みな} (for ...
5
As ジョン says, the similarities are very strong between もはや and もう.
The meaning is that something has now reached a certain state, leaving its past state behind. This can imply that the change is irreversible.
彼はもはや犯罪者だ。 He's a criminal now. (he's now reached that point, and there is no turning back from it.)
彼はもう社長です。 He's a company president now. (cast ...
5
In short, -raka and -yaka are compound of -ra + -ka and -ya + -ka, respectively. -ra, -ya, and -ka are all derivational suffixes that add a stative sense.
-ya is rather rare. In the Old Japanese corpus, I can only find three words: nikoya, nagoya, and fuwaya. This suggests that suffix was of only limited productivity then and explains why it was soon ...
5
まっ◯◯ is indeed 真っ, but it does not exactly mean straight. It can mean straight when you use it as 真っ直ぐ, but that's because of the meaning of すぐ. 真っ emphasizes the word that it's connected to. If you look at the meaning of 真 by itself, like "true," then it's a little clearer. So 真っすぐ means that it's "really" straight. まっきいろ would be "really" yellow, or like a ...
5
Flaw's answer is of course correct, but here's another way to look at it.
Start with a simple sentence like this:
犬{いぬ}が好{す}きだ。 "I like dogs."
Since the predicate is a na-adjective, 好きだ, the object (犬) needs to be marked by が. (Your second sentence is ungrammatical for this reason, btw.)
Then, if you want to say something like "I like running.", ...
4
Both works, although it'd be better if あなたは was elided (unless there is a need to specifically refer to the person, otherwise it can have either an accusatory feel or it can have the effect of appearing intimate with the person). に can also be elided.
の at the end behaves something like a sentence softener. It tends to have a feminine undertone. It is ...
4
と is used to introduce a subordinate clause, and is close to the English that. When to omit them with quotations seems to differ between the two languages. I cannot give you an explanation, but let me just illustrate.
Complement of quotation verbs
He said that he likes apples.
He said he likes apples.
× He said that "I like apples".
He said "I ...
4
It is more polite if you omit or not using straight form when asking personal things.
お しごと は
means
お しごと は なんですか？
And following is not correct
あなた は しごと です か
which means "Are you a work?"
4
Your sentence 1 is ambiguous with respect to the scope of 少なくとも:
彼は[少なくとも週に一度]車を洗う
'He washes his car at least once a week.'
彼は少なくとも[週に一度車を洗う]
'He at least washes his car one a week. (He also changes the motor oil once a month.)'
The first meaning is the same one as your setence 2, but the second meaning cannot be expressed by sentence 2.
In ...
4
I don't detect any difference in meaning, but splitting frequency expressions (週に一度, 年に３回, etc) as you did in the second sentence sounds disjointed. As far as general adverbs go, technically you can put them just about anywhere, but most often you'll find them right in front of the verb they modify.
4
Unless it is some sort of elaborate joke,
you should not put -さん after your name.
Maybe a story could be helpful...
Once when writing the minutes (議事録 gijiroku) of a meeting,
I had to write the list of the participants at the meeting.
I wrote it like this, and then sent the email.
●●さん
●●さん
Wallyさん
As soon I sent this email, the reaction from my
...
4
Both ways are correct, but there are lots of ways of saying "where are you going" depending on politeness levels etc. You can also replace the に particle with the へ particle in many instances, and in fact you can go without both に and へ in many informal situations. Often あなたは isn't necessary as it can be determined by context.
In Japanese there isn't any ...
4
Yes it can be used to nominate yourself in specific situations.
I see two main cases.
case 1: Do something for someone but in a question.
as you tried to explain,
But can I also use this to nominate myself to go? For example if a group of people were together and it was decided that only one person needed to go somewhere would it be correct to say "私が行こう"?
...
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