52
I've asked this very question in the past and my research led me to the following definition which (surprisingly) differs from every other answer here so far:
～となる expresses a discrete change, while ～になる can express either a discrete or a continuous change.
You can feasibly use ～になる for everything, since it covers all cases, but in cases where you want to ...
27
The difference between using で and と is the difference between "we went out as a family" and "I went out with my family", I think of it as rather like the French "en famille". 家族で is very common expression and you can also hear this grammatical use when people refer to doing things as a group (グループで／皆でやりましょう).
It is another variation on the use of the で ...
26
へと is used when you are directing your audience's attention to the content that comes after the と for emphasis. 「やや強意の副詞的表現に属することを表す」
Example:
透【す】き通【とお】るような青【あお】空【ぞら】の中【なか】へと白【しろ】いボールが吸【す】い込まれていく
The white ball disappeared into the crystal clear blue sky
透き通るような青空の中 へ 白いボールが吸い込まれていく
Without the と it is simply a statement of fact.
Q: "What did the ball ...
14
The quoting particle と (or って) is tenseless, just as the quotation marks " for direct speech (she said "I want to sing"), or that for indirect speech (she said that she wanted to sing) are tenseless.
The tense is reflected in the verb that is used with the quoting particle, e.g.
～といいました
～といった
～といっています
In your example sentence, the correct tense for ...
13
I feel like this has been asked before, but I can't find it if it has. You've got it spot on with と being the quotation marker; that is Xと言う means that X was literally (more or less) what was said. Using を is more about the meaning/gist/essence of what is said. Here's a pair that I always remember to help distinguish them.
なにを言ってるのか？ → "What are you ...
13
This type of って is mainly used to repeat one's opinion, like "I'm saying ～" or "I told you, ～". So it's still quotative in a sense; the speaker is quoting their own previous statement. For example, depending on the context, 「寝ろって。」 can mean either "[Someone] told you to sleep" (quote from a third speaker) or "I told you, go to bed!".
But って also often used ...
12
The most usual way is to attach と to all alternatives except for the last one:
りんごとオレンジが好きだ。
りんごとオレンジとパパイヤが好きだ。
(Unrelated note: “papaya” is usually パパイヤ rather than パパヤ in Japanese.)
Attaching と to all alternatives including the last one is acceptable.
りんごとオレンジとが好きだ。
りんごとオレンジとパパイヤとが好きだ。
I heard that in older days, と was always attached to all ...
12
Basically, を follows a noun (eg. "車") or a nominal group (eg. "私が運転してる車"), not a proposition.
(This) と follows a proposition, not a noun or nominal group.
行こうを思う is thus not grammatical.
You'd want 行くことを思う for a grammatically correct sentence.
It would mean that you think of the concept of going. It is different from thinking of you going, which would be ...
12
I am going to post a rather simplistic answer just covering the basics.
There are cases (1) where adding a 「と」 is appropriate, (2) where adding a 「と」 is inappropriate, and (3) where only adding a 「に」, not a 「と」, is appropriate.
1) When an onomatopoeia functions adverbially to modify a verb, a 「と」 is often added. In very informal speech, on the ...
11
I think what's really going on here can be traced back to the two different ways 形容動詞 (けいようどうし: adjectival nouns or "な-adjectives") were inflected. If we look under the 連用形 (れんようけい: the "adverbial inflection", for lack of a better term) column under the first table on this Wikibooks page detailing Classical Japanese inflection patterns, we find the following ...
11
Here is how I would categorize these usages. There are probably other ways to explain them, and I do not claim that mine is the best in any sense.
(1) ～ようと思う, ～ようと考える, and ～ようと決める are just the usual use of the particle と which signifies quotation, and there is nothing special about the combination of a volitional and と. For example, I think that particle ...
11
と has quite a few meanings. To name a few...
The case particle (格助詞) と can mean "and" or "with". It attaches to 体言, such as nouns and pronouns. eg:
「りんごとみかん」(apples and oranges)
「わたしと一緒に」(together with me)
The case particle と can also be used as a quotative particle. It attaches to almost anything, eg:
「おいしいと思う」(I think it's tasty) ...
11
That would be one fish tank and two trophies, all of which are placed on top of something (その上). At least, that is how nearly every native speaker would read that sentence.
If it were the word 「ふたつ」 that was confusing you, it would not be used to count two totally unrelated items such as a fish tank and a trophy when there is one of each. It is not like ...
9
The と (to) of と思います works like the quotes in English. So the part before と must be a valid sentence.
○ 美しい と思います
× 美しい だ と思います (美しいだ is not a valid sentence)
○ 美しいんだ と思います (very strong feeling)
○ キレイだ と思います
○ キレイ と思います
9
Pretty finely nuanced, I'd say. と is a quotative particle, but is also used to described the manner in which something is done, often figurative. ～となる can be used to mean "become like a ~" while ～になる is literally "become a ~".
9
「いつもと変{か}えてたまに外{そと}で食事{しょくじ}しよう。」
And someone translated that to:
"Let's occasionally change where we go to eat out."
Now, I have to say that the original and the translation do not match at all. Frankly, the translator does not seem to be very proficient in Japanese.
The speaker of the original sentence (and his/her group/family) usually eat at ...
8
Just adding to an existing answer because I typically don't think of these two as comparisons, I look at it from a different angle than the OP.
I typically think of this as more of expectation rather than comparison for ～にしては, although comparison could be valid as well but I never think of it like that.
So as @istrasci pointed out, ～にしては means "Considering ...
8
I think it can be replaced with は and というのは here, as in [2] [1] at this Daijisen definition.
According to the 日本語文型辞典, this って indicates a subject, and can be an informal way in speech to state meanings/definitions or to add value/emphasis.
When used after nouns and adjectives to state meanings/definitions, this って can correspond with とは. When used after ...
8
This sentence says "(I) will be fired in no more than 10 days." (time)と待たずに is a common set phrase which literally means "without waiting for (time)".
This と is not "if" nor "then". The role of と here corresponds to the sixth entry of デジタル大辞泉's definition.
６ （数量を表す語に付き、打消しの表現を伴って）その範囲以上には出ない意を表す。…までも。「全部で一〇〇円―かからない」「一〇〇キロ―走らなかった」
8
Both are 100% grammatical and natural-sounding, but since the two phrases are used in different situations/contexts, they are not interchangeable.
「犬{いぬ}と猫{ねこ}が好{す}き」 is said when "dogs and cats" have not specifically been mentioned between the speaker and listener.
The best example of that situation would be when someone asks you the question: 「どんな動物{...
8
What does the と in the sentence mean? Wouldn't 対象する work alone?
No, 対象する doesn't work alone (since 対象 is not a suru-verb).
ＡをＢとする (or ＡをＢにする) means "make A B", so クリーチャーを対象とする (or クリーチャーを対象にする) literally means "make a creature the target", "set/have a creature as the target," i.e., "Your target will be a creature."
Is there a simpler, less wordy, ...
8
This と is a simple quotative-と, and this sentence is a typical example of a rhetoric device called 転置法 (hyperbaton) or 倒置法 (anastrophe). This is very common in Japanese poetry/slogans/lyrics because the grammatical role of a word is mainly expressed by the particle type rather than the word order.
Does word order change the meaning of a sentence?
...
8
「さっきから七夕{たなばた}に関係{かんけい}ねェもンばっかり吊{つ}りさがってやがるなぁ」
These days they only hang things which are unrelated to Tanabata.
These days, on Tanabata, they only hang unrelated things.
First off, both 「～～に関係ある/ない」 and 「～～と関係ある/ない」 are correct and used equally often. To say there is a difference in nuance would be nitpicking. Thus, in the sentence above, the 「...
7
This is obviously a contraction of 寝てると. Not sure if this pertains to certain dialects/age groups etc. though. Haven't heard this one myself in real life.
7
Don't think of the だ as a part of it. 「だと思う」 is just 「と思う」 stuck to the end of a sentence that happened to end in だ.
The only time you might need to add an extra だ is if you use it as a colloquial-ish stand-alone reply in the same way as 「だね。」 and whatnot.
7
From what I have learned and observed, ～となる implies a "suppose if" conditional, something similar to "suppose if it is the case that [X] would become [Y] then" where as ～になる simply means "[X] becomes [Y]".
「請求書のお支払いは現金のみとなりますので、ご了承くださいませ。」 would mean something like "Suppose if you need to pay your purchase by cash, we hope to get your understanding.". This ...
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