New answers tagged grammar
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Is できる always the potential form of する (Nができる)?
Is できる always the potential form of する (Nができる)?
No. できる also carries multiple definitions such as something being done/complete, something being formed/created, etc.
準備ができました → I'm ready ("The ...
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Is it nearly 10 years or already 10 years?
The use of 「なる」 (to become) versus 「なった」 (became) slightly changes the nuance.
Difference Between 「なる」 and 「なった」
「なる」: Indicates a present state or an ongoing process.
Example: 「もう10年になる」 means "...
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What's the subject of かかる?
かかる has two different usages, one with time as the subject, and one with a task as the subject:
その作業を終えるのに2時間がかかる。
To finish the task, two hours are required.
その作業を終えるのに時間がかかる。
To finish the task, ...
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What's the subject of かかる?
No one else answered yet so I will. I really wish someone with better intuition than I would've answered this instead.
Firstly, I highly doubt that “３時間かかる” is a case of particle dropping. This seems ...
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How is the partcile も used after a plain verb?
Semantically it's the same as ても or けれども but it sounds more literary.
See this dictionary entry.
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Is it possible to explicitly say “the restaurant that I'm eating” in Japanese?
If you need to explicitly convey restaurant-as-food in a few words, possible options are:
私がレストランを食べる、そのレストラン
私が食べる対象のレストラン (this is still a little ambiguous)
私が餌として食べるレストラン
Similar examples:
...
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Is it possible to explicitly say “the restaurant that I'm eating” in Japanese?
Both of your examples do not make sense.
私がそのレストランを食べているレストラン
私がそれを食べているレストラン
are both ungrammatical.
I feel like "私が食べているレストラン" is also pretty unnatural. Most Japanese people would ...
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ようとする in passive constructions
volitional-form + とする means "to try to ～" or "to attempt to ～", but volitional-form + としている also means "to be about to ～" or "to be on the verge of ～ing". See: 【...
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Relative tense and absolute tense, is this how it’s determined?
As I said in the comment, it seems to purely be a logical conclusion of that in Japanese subordinate clauses, the tense is always relative to the clause they're embedded in. Your comment indicates I ...
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“望むものや望んできたもの” interpretation
This is technically ambiguous, but the most likely interpretation in this case would be:
what you desire (now) and what you have desired
It's hard to imagine a situation where someone excludes ...
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～ずまじ Is this a double negative?
〜まじ is older form of suffix 〜まい, and in older language, it could be attached to Conclusive (終止形), but 〜ず here is not negative suffix.
You probably heard about -ziru verbs in modern Japanese. Examples:
...
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Valid ways to ask 'what age / how old' questions with 'の時'
Your approach seems to be closer to the original Japanese. The provided answer is structurally closer to "I want to know at what age I will marry".
However, your attempt is not error-free, ...
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What is the usage of this に
Grammatically, Japanese is inherently ambiguous so both interpretations are possible, but when taking context into account, there is only one logical explanation left. Because に is preceded by 内部 &...
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The correct interpretation of a sentence such as “どうして謝る？”, not “謝っている”
The difference is small, and they're typically interchangeable. But どうして謝る can sound like either:
The question is about the listener's intention
Someone is about to start or has just started their ...
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る/base verb and た are just a another version of ている in a relative clause?
I originally didn't want to answer this because it's a bit long and I don't feel confident to provide a complete answer, but no one else is so I'll provide a partial one to the best of my abilities.
...
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ｗhat is the difference between のだった and のだ
Duplicates:
The concept of past perfect in Japanese ～たのでした ～たのです
Why is のだった used
here?
Related: 過去形＋のだ versus 現在形＋のだった
Kurosio's A Handbook of Japanese Grammar Patterns has the following entry on ...
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How to break down 「はよせんか！」 (Kansai-ben)?
Is it: "早くしない(の)か?
Yes, except there's no の element here, it's just 早くしないか！ as in a demanding 'Hurry up, will you?!'
The negative ん ending comes from the old ぬ and する has the old negative せぬ, ...
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The correct interpretation of a sentence such as “どうして謝る？”, not “謝っている”
どうして謝って（い）る？
This is more likely to be a simple and specific question, because it refers to the ongoing event by -ている. It asks the reason for the specific event in front of you.
どうして謝る？
This can ...
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The correct interpretation of a sentence such as “どうして謝る？”, not “謝っている”
Grammatically, "どうして謝る？" could be "Why do you apologize?" or "Why would you apologize?" (depending on context).
"どうして謝ってる？" is "Why are you apologizing?&...
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なんて なんと なんか are they all changeable?
Yes in some usages, no in others.
There are basically three loci to consider:
post-positional particles
In this case, they are all interchangeable. Examples of this usage are after nouns: “恋人なんかいらない”, ...
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Why is 「手伝いにきてください」 OK, but not 「手伝ってきてください」?
While masu-stem + に and the te-form (this derives from masu-stem + a particle て, with a sound change; so it's really just about the choice of particle) are both used to connect a modifier to a verb, ...
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Has -な become more common recently
For the grammar and pronunciation of this pattern, please read my previous post here: Is the word 「やんな」positive or negative?
As for how old the patterns like 止めな/しな are, I can say they've been used ...
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Has -な become more common recently
な when following the plain form of a verb is the plain blunt negative imperative.
な when following the ます stem of a verb is the plain not-so-blunt positive imperative.
Expanding on that, I say "...
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Can I drop the は in this sentence?
That is the subject, as the focus is on the reason. You set anything to は if it is relevant to your main point. If we were to be grammatical, if we drop the は, we replace the が with は, as we should ...
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Why does 写真に収めとこ mean take a picture? And what is the purpose of とこ in this case?
It's not a form of “ところ” here, it would be if it were “収めるとこ. In this case however it's a contraction of “収めておこう” which is the volitional form of “収めておく” as in “to do for later use”. In fact, looking ...
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Meaning of *て*いませんか?
When you say ～ていませんか, the expected/desirable answer can be yes or no depending on the context.
うちの子どもを見ていませんか。
Have you seen my child?
この漫画を持っていませんか。
Do you happen to have this manga?
田中さんを知っていませんか。
...
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Usage of "から” in "大学からアメリカ行ったんですけど"
Your friend is correct. This から means "from" or "since". She is saying she was somewhere else but moved to America when she started university.
EDIT: In this case, "I went to ...
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Meaning of *て*いませんか?
I think there is no difference between 風邪をひいていますか and 風邪をひいていませんか. They are simple yes/no questions. Answer 風邪をひいていませんか with はい if you are healthy or いいえ if you caught cold. Similarly, answer ...
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Noun+なの, when の is the indefinite pronoun?
According to Samuel Martin as explained in his “A reference grammar of Japanese language” the Japanese particle (の) is the conflation of different particles which stems from different etyma.
He lists ...
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Noun+なの, when の is the indefinite pronoun?
That is to say, can you say Ａなの to mean "the one that's A"?
Yes. Just as 安いの means "cheap ones", 安価なの means "cheap ones", too. In this case, の is not a nominalizer but a ...
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Noun+なの, when の is the indefinite pronoun?
To add to @dvx2718's answer which is correct is that the key to your misunderstanding seems to be not realizing that there are two “〜の”. One is a genitive marker, comparable to “of” in English, the ...
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Noun+なの, when の is the indefinite pronoun?
First, な is the way to connect relative clauses to nouns, and NOT reserved specifically for の. In English, you use the word that to connect nouns to relative clauses, such as the man that likes ...
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Can I use nouns/adjectives with ...てもいいです(か)?
Yes, your three examples are perfectly valid sentences. But it would be worth noting that they might sound slightly immature or unsophisticated. Mature adults tend to prefer 無職でも構いません or 無職でも大丈夫です ...
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