Sentence Structure help!

[mirandatothemax]

Okay I know homework help posts are a nuisance, but I don't have great resources at school to get help so this seemed like my best option to get some feedback from people who speak Japanese! Thank you in advance to anyone who is patient enough to read this and help me out!

I am having some trouble on this assignment for my Japanese class. Keep in mind this is Japanese 1 so I need to use the most basic terms that might not be what fluent speakers would realistically say. The point of this is to practice proper Japanese sentence structure. I have written out the questions and filled in all of my answers, and I would really, really, REALLY appreciate help with the questions I commented on in parentheses, and any other incorrect answers.

The assignment is to, using the following English sentences, fill in this chart that has the following 7 categories in Japanese, with the appropriate potential particles, in this order:

Who (は), When/time (に), with whom (と), Place (へ or に or で)/Activity (に), Object (を), Verb (~ます or ~です), Question (か)

Example: 1. Mrs. Goto often checks homework at the library.

Who: ごとう せんせい
When/Time: よく
With whom: N/A
Place/Activity: としょかん
Object: しゅくだい
Verb: チェック します
Question: N/A


2. My friend came to my birthday party at 6:00 pm last night.

Who: わたしの ともだち
When/Time: きのうの ごご ろくじ (how should I phrase "6:00 pm last night" using きのうの _____?)
With whom: N/A
Place/Activity: birthday party (is what in Japanese or spelled out in Katakana?)
Object: N/A
Verb: きました
Question: N/A


3. I talked with my classmate at Starbucks yesterday.

Who: わたし
When/Time: きのう
With whom: (how do you say "classmate" in Japanese?)
Place/Activity: Starbucks (how do you spell in katakana?)
Object: N/A
Verb: はなしました
Question: N/A



4. Mr. Tanaka went to Seattle Center this afternoon.

Who: たなかさん
When/Time: きょうの ひる (is this okay to express this afternoon?)
With whom: N/A
Place/Activity: Seattle Center (how do you spell in katakana?)
Object: N/A
Verb: いきました
Question: N/A



5. I did homework with my friend at the library.

Who: わたし
When/Time: N/A
With whom: ともだち
Place/Activity: としょかん
Object: しゅくだい
Verb: しました
Question: N/A


6. I have a breakfast about 6:30 every morning.

Who: わたし
When/Time: まいあさ (I wouldn't need to say ごぜん since まいあさ implies a.m. right?) ろくじはん
With whom: N/A
Place/Activity: N/A
Object: あさごはん
Verb: たべます (Or would the verb be arimasu since the English sentence says "I have" instead of "I eat"?)
Question: N/A


7. I usually take shower about 9:30 at night.

Who: わたし
When/Time: たいてい ごご くじはん
With whom: N/A
Place/Activity: N/A
Object: シャワ-
Verb: あびます
Question: N/A

8. I sometimes watch CNN News on TV at 7:00 am.

Who: わたし
When/Time: ときどき ごぜん しちじ
With whom: N/A
Place/Activity: テレビ ("on TV" would be the location of the object right?)
Object: CNN News (how should I spell this in Katakana?)
Verb: みます
Question: N/A

9. Is it 4:00 am now?

Who (subject): いま
When/Time: ごぜん よじ
With whom: N/A
Place/Activity: N/A
Object: N/A
Verb: N/A
Question: か


I really appreciate any corrections or help! I think I understand most of it but some of the small details can be really confusing! Thanks

[Columbine]

Originally Posted by mirandatothemax

Okay I know homework help posts are a nuisance, but I don't have great resources at school to get help so this seemed like my best option to get some feedback from people who speak Japanese! Thank you in advance to anyone who is patient enough to read this and help me out!

If you make all your posts for help in one thread (eg the one you first did) it will make your questions much easier to find. It'll also help keep the forum tidy. Before I dive in, a few questions:

1) Where's your japanese dictionary? Many of your vocab and spelling questions could be easily solved if you look them up. There are also internet resources like Tatoeba Tatoeba: Collecting example sentences (search an english or Japanese word/phrase and it'll give you example sentences), Kantango: kantango allows you to look up japanese words for their kanji, or kanji for their reading, and wikipedia Japan, Wikipedia, which is especially good for looking up modern brand names and things in japanese- you can even just do the search in English and it should take you to the right japanese page if there is one available.

2) Out of interest, are you using a specific text book?


4. Mr. Tanaka went to Seattle Center this afternoon.

Who: たなかさん
When/Time: きょうの ひる (is this okay to express this afternoon?)
ひる is specifically 'lunch'. Here you've said 'today's lunch(time)'. Think more in clock terms than 'stages of the day' terms.

6. I have a breakfast about 6:30 every morning.

Who: わたし
When/Time: まいあさ (I wouldn't need to say ごぜん since まいあさ implies a.m. right?) ろくじはん that's right. When you use a 'time of day' word like 'morning', the am/pm part becomes redundant.
With whom: N/A
Place/Activity: N/A
Object: あさごはん
Verb: たべます (Or would the verb be arimasu since the English sentence says "I have" instead of "I eat"?) No. Translation is rarely so literal. if you were to say あさごはんがあります it would be 'i am in possession of a breakfast' rather than 'i have a breakfast (as in, i eat it).
Question: N/A


8. I sometimes watch CNN News on TV at 7:00 am.

Who: わたし
When/Time: ときどき ごぜん しちじ
With whom: N/A
Place/Activity: テレビ ("on TV" would be the location of the object right? yes. You can also think of で as 'by means of'. so, はしでたべます= by means of chopsticks, I eat. テレビでききました i heard (about it) by means of the television.)

[mirandatothemax]

Thanks so much! If I have any more questions I'll be sure to post them here and not in a new thread. I don't have a Japanese dictionary yet but I'll have to get one asap! I think my book is just called Tanaka? Or at least that's all it says on the cover in Hiragana and it's pale blue and yellow. I can't find any information on it online for some reason.

(I can't use characters on this computer right now so I have to spell things out in English)

So for #4 is "when: kyoono gogo" (this afternoon?) correct?

and for #2 would the place/activity be watashino tanjoobi pa-ti-? Because if I didn't include "watashi" it wouldn't be clear that it was my birthday party, right?

[mirandatothemax]

From the other thread which I'll move over here and delete the other one..


"On Monday I met my sister at the train station."

The basic constituents are the time, the place, who, and the action, which are respectively, monday, the train station, my sister (and I) and met. You can pretty much swap these around as need be. Let's translate those basic words first:

月曜日　げつようび
駅　えき
姉　あね
合う　あう　（あいました）

To say 'on monday' of course, we need the particle に：　げつようびに
To say 'at the train station', we need the partlcle で：　えきで
Unlike in the English, we don't really need to emphasis my involvement- it's already obvious, so we'll drop the 私は（わたしは）for now.
which leaves the tricky bit : あね. It could be に　or it could be と、depending on the nuance.

So we could have: げつようびにえきであねとあいました。
or equally,
げつようびにあねとえきであいました
both of which imply a sense of 'togetherness', or mutuality. My sister had expected to meet me and I had expected to meet her. It also suggests we kind of hung about together a bit. Lit: "met with older sister"

Compare with:
げつようびにえきであねにあいました
it's the same thing; I met my sister at the train station on Monday, but the nuance is different- in this case, one party came into contact with the other. E.G. I may have expected to see her, but it's also ~possible~ it was by chance or she hadn't expected to see me. It has slightly less of the 'hung about a bit' nuance too- perhaps we just bumped into each other, said hi and dashed off our separate ways. Lit: "met to older sister"


Since my teacher is super azn and made the English sentence "I meet with my friend at Everett Mall this weekend" do you think she meant "I met" instead? The sentence makes more sense in past tense right?

I know saying watashiwa at the beginning of everything is redundant but I think since I'm learning such basic sentence structure my teacher wants me to include it. So "I met with my friend at the Everett Mall this weekend"

my basic components are

who: my friend (and I)
when: this weekend (is just shuumatsu okay or is there another part needed to make it specifically this weekend?)
where: Everett Mall
verb: met

So I'm getting confused with the beginning since I'm trying to start with "watashi" and not just the time. I know more Japanese than we've learned in class so it's really confusing for me to try to separate what I've learned in class from words I knew previously from living in Japan!

Watashiwa shuumatsu ni Everett Mall de tomodachi to aimashita?

We haven't learned how to say "with" or use to/ni in that context, so would there be any other simpler way to put this or is this the most basic way?

[Columbine]

Originally Posted by mirandatothemax

Thanks so much! If I have any more questions I'll be sure to post them here and not in a new thread. I don't have a Japanese dictionary yet but I'll have to get one asap! I think my book is just called Tanaka? Or at least that's all it says on the cover in Hiragana and it's pale blue and yellow. I can't find any information on it online for some reason.

(I can't use characters on this computer right now so I have to spell things out in English)

So for #4 is "when: kyoono gogo" (this afternoon?) correct?

and for #2 would the place/activity be watashino tanjoobi pa-ti-? Because if I didn't include "watashi" it wouldn't be clear that it was my birthday party, right?

Have a look in the inside cover; if you can find an ISBN number or the authors name, that might help.

きょうのごご should be fine.

yes, it's probably best to use わたし　there, you need to put one more particle in though: わたしのたんじょうび＿＿＿＿パーティ　

Originally Posted by mirandatothemax

Since my teacher is super azn and made the English sentence "I meet with my friend at Everett Mall this weekend" do you think she meant "I met" instead? The sentence makes more sense in past tense right?

It does, or else something like "i plan to~", but I think best to stick with what's written there. and keep it in the present.

Originally Posted by mirandatothemax

I know saying watashiwa at the beginning of everything is redundant but I think since I'm learning such basic sentence structure my teacher wants me to include it. So "I met with my friend at the Everett Mall this weekend"

good, just checking! You'd be surprised how many people don't know this.

I can kind of think of 3 ways to say specifically 'this weekend' but I don't know if they'd be something that would have come up in class yet or not. Stick with what you know, you can always ask your teacher for embellishments later.

Originally Posted by mirandatothemax

So I'm getting confused with the beginning since I'm trying to start with "watashi" and not just the time. I know more Japanese than we've learned in class so it's really confusing for me to try to separate what I've learned in class from words I knew previously from living in Japan!

Ok, Columbine's tip- Japanese sentences can break up like little lego blocks. わたしは is almost like a complete little phrase by itself, so in these super-simple sentences, you can put it almost anywhere and it shouldn't upset the grammar at all. Saying わたしはXじに〜is fine. so is Xじに、わたしは〜

Watashiwa shuumatsu ni Everett Mall de tomodachi to aimashita?　

Originally Posted by mirandatothemax

We haven't learned how to say "with" or use to/ni in that context, so would there be any other simpler way to put this or is this the most basic way?

Hmm, there you've got me. Your teacher could be angling at something in particular, but I don't know what it might be, and I can't think of another way to put it. check your book again and class notes; it might be in there, but she forgot to teach it.

[masaegu]

Originally Posted by Columbine

you need to put one more particle in though: わたしのたんじょうび＿＿＿＿パーティ　

Sorry to butt in but that is simply not true.

[Decimus]

Originally Posted by masaegu

Sorry to butt in but that is simply not true.

To clarify (masaegu, please correct me if I'm wrong):
「わたしのたんじょうびパーティ　」　"My birthday party"
「わたしのたんじょうびに、パーティ」　"For my birthday, a party..."
「わたしのたんじょうびで、パーティ」　"As it is my birthday, a party..."

「わたしのたんじょうびのパーティ」 Very awkward emphasis, but should still be (technically) correct. (meaning "My birthday party".) I may be mistaken though.

Since the OP wants to say "my birthday party", putting in an extra particle would be unnecessary.

This should be the correct one:
「わたしのたんじょうびパーティ　」　

[masaegu]

Originally Posted by Decimus

To clarify (masaegu, please correct me if I'm wrong):
「わたしのたんじょうびパーティ　」　"My birthday party"
「わたしのたんじょうびに、パーティ」　"For my birthday, a party..."
「わたしのたんじょうびで、パーティ」　"As it is my birthday, a party..."

All correct. As I'm sure you are aware, the last two cannot end with the word パーティー. The "..." part tells me you're on the right track.

「わたしのたんじょうびのパーティ」 Very awkward emphasis, but should still be (technically) correct. (meaning "My birthday party".) I may be mistaken though.

It's "correct" but too wordy and unnatural. By the same token, "The party for my birthday" is grammatically correct, too, but who would say it?

This should be the correct one:
「わたしのたんじょうびパーティ　」　

Yes. For us native speakers, 誕生日パーティー is one word.

[mirandatothemax]

Well thanks to everyone -- for the latest posts from people who seem to understand what my teacher wants on this novice level, do you have any input on what the translation my teacher is looking for for this sentence?:

"I meet with my friend at Everett Mall this weekend" is her exact "English" sentence, and we haven't really learned anything about meeting people or doing this with people other than using "and" (to). So far my best answer is

Watashiwa shuumatsu ni Everett Mall de tomodachi ni aimasu

Does anyone think there is another simpler form that my teacher might be trying to get? I feel like I over complicate things a lot and it's really easy to do with foreign language! Thanks again　

[masaegu]

Originally Posted by mirandatothemax

Well thanks to everyone -- for the latest posts from people who seem to understand what my teacher wants on this novice level, do you have any input on what the translation my teacher is looking for for this sentence?:

"I meet with my friend at Everett Mall this weekend" is her exact "English" sentence, and we haven't really learned anything about meeting people or doing this with people other than using "and" (to). So far we're at

Watashiwa shuumatsu ni Everett Mall de tomodachi to aimashita.

Does anyone think there is another simpler form that my teacher might be trying to get? I feel like I over complicate things a lot and it's really easy to do with foreign language! Thanks again　

The only question is about the tense. If "this weekend" means "this past weekend", your translation is correct.

Also, are you aware (or have you learned) that "I'm going to meet (someone in the near future)" is あいます, too? This may be what your teacher had in mind.