Some more Japanese questions since at this point I’m not sure if it’s me or Duolingo. I have been cross-checking things Google Translate but I’d rather get another opinion here since we all know how machine translation can be…
日本では 玄関で靴ぬを脱ぎます。
This translation was marked as wrong: “In Japan, take off your shoes at the entryway.” It wanted, “In Japan, you take off your shoes at the entranceway.” I call BS on this since it’s never established who this is directed toward so it could be anybody or nobody.
My room is on the fourth floor
This translation was marked as wrong: “私の部屋には四階あります”. It wanted, “私の部屋は四階にあります”. Seems like either should be valid with the only difference being on the topic emphasis? Google Translate gives the same result for either.
I went back to some older lessons and got this early one:
英語が話せます
This translation was marked as wrong: “I speak English”. It wanted, “I can speak English” which again seems completely context dependent.
If it is not established, I think that you can just assume that the subject is “one.” You are right that it could just as easily be translated as “I” or “You” or “We” without any other context. So “one” is your safest bet in the absence of that context.
This would mean “My room* has four floors (in it).”
*Room can be interpreted to mean “apartment.”
The particle has to be attached to the thing that is being referenced, so “on the fourth floor” becomes “４階に.”
For the most part, where し (or り or い, etc.) before the ます in polite speech is replaced with a せ (or れ or え), it means can. In earlier lessons, you may have come across “する事が出来ます,” but changing the i sound into an e sound is a shorter and quicker way of doing it.
ETA: There is another dead giveaway that the meaning is “can” there. Notice that を has changed into が in the sentence. This is because it literally means “speaking English is possible (for me),” changing the subject into the thing that you can do. In casual, spoken Japanese, this distinction no longer really exists (people will use both を and が with “can” all willy-nilly) but the distinction is still expected in written Japanese.
Yes. This is the strongest form of imperative, though, so it sounds really harsh. Like you are barking an order.
It would be better to say 脱いで (as in 脱いでください) but without the ください, but that’s very casual.
There is also 脱ぎなさい, but that honestly sounds like you’re talking to a child.
Again, ah-ha! I completely glossed over the せ ! I think this is called the causative conjugation? It’s never actually explained (like so many things) in the lessons how 話せ and 話し are actually different conjugations of the same 話す verb. I also don’t recall this form from my classroom education, but it might be time to dig out my textbooks and do some review because it’s been a lot of years.
Frustratingly, Duolingo will only tell you what it thinks you got wrong but never why which isn’t awesome for learning from mistakes. (Yeah, sure I may not repeat it through rote memorization, but I much prefer actually understanding the rationale behind things.)
ETA also, thank you so much for jumping in and helping me with these questions. I really appreciate it.
You are about to get to a stage where you will be introduced to potentiative (can) verbs like 話せる, causative verbs (make/let) like 話させる, passive verbs (be spoken) like 話される and passive/potentiative/causative mixtures.
This is where it starts to get really complicated. At this stage, you will always want to be aware of the root form of the verb and what exactly is being added to the root in addition to (or instead of in casual speech) the ます. There are cases where a verb can be either passive or potentiative (like 食べられます can mean “able to eat” or “be eaten”), and the addition of causatives just muddies the waters further. Also, in extremely polite speech, verbs will be turned into passive verbs even though the meaning is not passive.
Keep your eyes on the roots and the paths that they are taking at the end of sentences. It is not intuitive and the rules vary from word to word (for example, 食べる becomes 食べます, but 走る becomes 走ります). You will pick it up if you focus on the verb endings, but it will require explanation beyond the simple “right” and “wrong” that Duolingo gives you.
Does anyone have a recommendation for a good program for learning Thai? Duolingo doesn’t offer it. I downloaded a program called “Ling,” and within 24 hours was somehow getting text-phishing in Thai on my phone. Prior to Ling I’d never received a single text in Thai before. So I’m a bit suspicious of that one. Any recommendations?
Indeed! I love how everyone does the thing where they just speak English louder, thinking he’s speaking Chinese… what is it with English speaking people… er… people who speak Bearla…
What a sweet little movie! I give it 5 faces with hearts…
(Yikes I’m more than a year and almost 400 posts behind in reading this topic. How did that happen??)
Officials believe it’s the first Somali language immersion program of its kind in Minnesota—and possibly in the nation.
Students in a dual language immersion program will receive instruction half the day in Somali, and half the day in English. In current research, the dual language immersion model is emerging as the best option for students no matter what language they speak at home, said Lori Posch, executive director of learning and teaching.
Wherever you find tourists in English-speaking countries, you’ll find Australians on a working holiday. Whistler, Canada, is legendary in Canada as a place Australians go to work for a couple years. So much so that Canadians call the town Whistralia.
…made me wonder about measurements in languages other than English before the metric system was adopted (helps when reading literature). However, what is used in conversation today depends upon the country and the context (height, weight, cooking, etc.):
