0

I’m having major trouble understanding and translating these example sentences.

試験や勉強で忙しくなると、どうして勉強しているのか忘れがちになる。でも勉強は自分のためにしているということを忘れないでほしい。

My translation: When you become busy with exams and your studies, why do you tend to forget your studying? But in order to study for yourself I don’t want you to forget?

My translations don’t make much sense but that’s the trouble I’m having. I understand all the vocab and grammar used but I just can’t translate that into intelligible English.

2 Answers 2

2

Parse it this say:

{どうして勉強しているのか(を)}忘れがちになる。

どうして勉強しているか is the object of 忘れ(る).

「勉強は自分のためにしている」いうことを忘れないでほしい。

The と is the quotative particle.

2
  • All I needed was those two hints (cheers) and I was able to come up with a better translation on my own: "When you become busy with exams and study you tend to forget why you’re studying (in the first place). I don’t want you to forget that you’re studying for yourself." I somehow missed the quotative という but I'm not sure I would have figured out the use of か as an embedded question described more in bob's answer.
    – Mononoke
    Jan 17, 2015 at 17:12
  • 訳は良いと思います!(^^)v
    – user1016
    Jan 19, 2015 at 7:23
1

The mistake you're doing is misunderstanding the usage of "embedded" questions.

My translation:

When you get busy with exams and your studies it can be easy to forget why you're even studying, but I want you to remember that you're studying for your own benefit.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .