View Single Post
(#25 (permalink))
Old
Nokutetsu's Avatar
Nokutetsu (Offline)
JF Regular
 
Posts: 48
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: UK
Send a message via MSN to Nokutetsu
03-18-2010, 12:03 AM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sashimister View Post
Yes, we do. Formality of the occasion has little to do with it. However, you don't have to worry about this phenomenon so much right now. As you read more, you will begin to have an idea of what this is all about.



You are under an illusion, so to speak. People say we connect the two phrases in the opposite order from English. My answer is negative. They say that because they "translate" から into "because". Try translating it into "thus", "therefore", or even "so", and you will see the order of the two phrases can be identical between our two languages.



林檎を食べたいから店に行きます。 Good. Try my method here and you will have "I want to eat apples, so I'm going to the store." Doesn't that say the same thing as "Because I want to eat apples, I'm going to the store."?

映画館に来ますから映画を見たい。 No good. This says "Because I'm coming to the movie theater, I want to watch a movie." Wouldn't a big flip be in order?

本を読みますから図書館に行きました。 Better than the one just above but "strange" to my ear. It says "Because I read (present tense) books, I went to the library." Did you want to say "Because I wanted to read books, I went to the library."? If so, you can change 本を読みます to 本を読みたかった.

On a second thought, if "Because I read (present tense) books, I went to the library." sounds natural in English, then I couldn't really say your sentence was wrong. The "strangeness" by the Japanese standards will remain, though.
Ah, you are right. Since Japanese is different in many ways, I'll need to keep these things in mind when translating in my head.

So, using your suggestion, this is better, perhaps?

本を読みたいから図書館に行きます。
食べ物を食べたくないから店に行きません。

--------------------------------------------------------------

I've also tried to put into practice た(form)ことがある。

これ新聞を読んだことがありますか。
日本のテレビを見たことがありますか。
東南に行ったことがある。

Couldn't find a lot of resources for this and から, so it's most likely these ones are the ones I'll have more mistakes with.


Ahh, the internet. Where men are men, women are men, and 14 year old girls are FBI agents.
Reply With Quote