I am trying to understand the sentence for Wanikani:
二十一頁の二番はクラスでします
The translation given is:
We will work on question 2 on page 21 in class.
Can someone explain the last part? i.e.クラスでします. I haven't come across any similar examples online.
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2Related (for で): Why is particle で used instead of particle と in 家族で出かける (Kazoku de dekakeru)?– aguijonazoCommented Dec 7, 2021 at 23:50
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2 Answers
二十一頁の二番はクラスでします
Nothing too mysterious happening here.
The で simply marks where the action is taking place, i.e. in class.
します is just the polite from of する i.e. 'to do', which they have liberally translated as 'work on'. So a literal translation of the whole sentence would be "As for number two of page 21 we will do it in class.
Edit
As you can see from the comment chain my explanation of で as 'where' is controversial. In this case the more likely usage is "as a", i.e. クラスで = as a class. See the link provided by @aguijonazo
answered Dec 7, 2021 at 22:31
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1That's certainly one possible interpretation but doesn't seem very likely. Why would they move to a different place to solve this particular problem? I would understand this クラス as referring to a group of people, not a location. I would say 教室 if I mean a classroom. Commented Dec 7, 2021 at 23:47
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I see your point but to me, in English at least, I see very little difference between 'in class' as a location and 'in class' as a group of people. I also don't see why で would imply movement. I can easily envisage a scenario where the teacher is telling the pupils what homework questions to do this evening and says that they will do this particular question in class (maybe it's a more difficult question). That seems like a perfectly legitimate and likely use to me. Happy to correct if I've failed to understand something here. Commented Dec 8, 2021 at 8:19
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I am questioning your explication that で marks where the action is taking place. Why would you specify where you are going to solve Q2 in page 21 unless you solve other questions in some other place? Commented Dec 8, 2021 at 8:33
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Well, I gave what I thought was a reasonable example with the homework scenario. Do you not think that is legitimate? If not I will change the answer. Commented Dec 8, 2021 at 8:35
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As I said, your interpretation is possible. It just doesn’t seem very likely to me. If the teacher said クラスでします in your scenario, I would still understand クラス as a group of people, as opposed to each student doing it individually. If the teacher’s focus is on where that activity will take place, she would more likely say 教室. Commented Dec 8, 2021 at 8:45
Like the previous answer said, the クラスで means "in class" while the します is just a "do" do what? We are going to "do" question 2 on page 21, it sounds weird in english but the japanese do (する) is much more versatile and makes sense in this context.
If there's anything else you might have a doubt about just let me know.
