So every now and then I run into a sentence that doesn't make sense to me in Core 2000. This is one of them.

その質問に対する答えが見つからなかった。
I couldn't find an answer to that question.
対する -- face, be in response to

This is what Core 2000 tells me. And I really don't understand why 対する is there at all. Would it be more like "when faced with that question I couldn't find an answer" ?

Nope, there's nothing to suggest you are the one facing the question, or it facing you.

対する is modifying 答え, so the answer is "facing" the problem if you will. Also, the verb is 見つかる and not 見つける, so if you want to get technical, it's more like "the answer that faces this problem was not found"

Asriel Wrote:Nope, there's nothing to suggest you are the one facing the question, or it facing you.

対する is modifying 答え, so the answer is "facing" the problem if you will. Also, the verb is 見つかる and not 見つける, so if you want to get technical, it's more like "the answer that faces this problem was not found"

Hmm that makes sense. Things like 対する seem to go over my head a bit, because they seem a bit more abstract. Hopefully I'll begin to get the hang of these things.

Out o curiosity is it possible to omit 対する from that sentence? Would the sentence just be wrong if you did? would be have any idea what you just tried to say? or would it be acceptable.

You could probably do it in a lot of different ways. I personally wouldn't think of the veb 対する in my own speech, but you could probably say like 正しい答え or something. I'm not sure what would be the most natural though.

edits: typed so poorly, I actually said the opposite of what I meant :/

In this case, 対する = ある対象に向かう/facing = For
The answer FOR that question was not found.

You can ommit 対する and say その質問の答えは見つからなかった。

This is "The answer OF that question was not found."

に対する, に対して or に対し have the literal meaning of facing or opposing something. The character 対 is used when two things are face-to-face which is why it is used when describing a sporting event: Giants対Jets = Giants vs. Jets. When used in regular sentences it's usually translated as 'to', 'toward', 'for', and even 'in relation to'. So the sentence その質問に対する答えが見つからなかった can be translated as "the answer in relation to that question is not found" or "the answer to that question cannot be found" or "I/he/she/they can't find the answer to that question". If you think about it, every question has a corresponding answer, i.e. an answer "対es" a question.