椅子が台所にあった。
Is が natural here for a sentence without a context? doesn't this sound like " what was in the kitchen is the chair" or an answer to "what was in the kitchen?"

Last edited by undead_saif (2009 September 22, 7:57 am)

I would like to add that when you say that sentence without any context. It makes slightly more sense because it's new. When you use は, it might sound like the person you are talking to acknowledged the chair, you two were talking about the chair, or something about the chair is obvious (like the listener knows you've been staring at it for a while).

が might in some contexts sound like it's answering a question such as, "台所にあったのは何？” But without context, this doesn't sound like the case.

が does emphasize what's before it but not so much as if you were shouting that word at someone. In this instance 椅子 is important because it's carrying out あった and 台所 is just the place it happened to あった in.

I don't know if I made it too clear, but in short, は sounds like the chair is an established topic.

Sorry, I think you have it backwards benkyou.

You are right that が generally stresses what it marks, where as は builds anticipation as to what will come, essentially throwing the listeners attention forward. However, は typically notes something as "this particular something" eg this particular kind of furniture. It is generally accepted that the best translation for は (but obviously not in all cases) is As for. So in this case. As for the chair, it was in the kitchen (to say nothing of the other pieces of furniture/(something that is comparable to this chair)).

You can see how it builds anticipation. The neutral sentence is to say が in this case, which does stress the chair, but if you have not introduced it as a topic then you need to use something so the stress is mostly negated. If it is already know as the topic, then 台所にあった is the neutral response.

It is also worth noting that in the case that speaker and listener both are aware of this chair and aware each other is aware, then は is used, the sentence becoming something like "The chair was in the kitchen". が is more "There was a chair in the kitchen".

For a really good explanation of the difference between は and が check out Making sense of Japanese by Jay Rubin, or if anyone is interested I know of a book in Japanese that explains it (need to check what it is).

開く（あく） means:

広辞苑 wrote:

そこを塞いでいた物が除かれ、通り抜けができるようになる

aka, "open something that was closed (or more accurately, eliminate something that was blocking) so that it can be passed through".

It is used to refer to doors being opened (so you can walk through), people getting out of a seat (so you can sit down), cars leaving parking spots (so you can park), freeing space on your computer (so you can download more AV), etc.

Obviously this does not apply to opening a computer file, so one is left to choose from ひらく or はだく.

はだく refers to a big open place, not the physical act of opening something, so that's also out (it's also a pretty rare word).

We are left with ひらく.

The problem you are having is from relying on bad dictionaries/definitions. EDICT is virtually useless and even the Green Goddess is seriously lacking compared to just about any monolingual dictionary.

Last edited by Jarvik7 (2009 September 28, 11:50 am)

Zorlee wrote:

I have a Japanese OS X, and when I open a file it says:
ファイルを開く。
Should I use "ひらく" or　"あく"? My guess would be "ひらく", but that´s just my gut-feeling.

In this particular case, the presence of that を is a hint -- you want a transitive verb and あく is intransitive (except for the special case of 自分の目や口をあく, apparently. I didn't know that :-)).

What can I do to improve this? I´ve experienced this in a lot of reading-material, when I know several readings for a kanji, and the kana-ending isn´t giving me a clear guide on how to read it.

I don't think there are all that many cases, once you weed out the transitive/intransitive issues. Other than that, as Jarvik7 says, where there are two near-synonymic verbs with the same kanji particular nouns or classes of noun will take one verb and the others the other. I dunno, maybe read enough stuff with furigana to pick up the patterns?

Ryuujin27 wrote:

重箱の隅をつつく

I thought something like 'scrap the bottom of the barrel', which kind of gets the meaning but at the same time doesn't. But that's what you get for trying to think of a matching English idiom from just the literal Japanese :p

When looking it up, someone called it a 辞書的な表現. I'm not sure exactly what that is supposed to mean, though. More of a phrase you'd find in a dictionary than one people would normally use? (Though people do seem to use it, so many this person isn't correct/I'm wrong.)

What does it mean when you follow the て-form of a verb with another て?
For instance: あーもうプロバイダーともめてて、嫌だよ・・・。

Zorlee wrote:

Jarvik and pm: Thank you guys so much for your time! I really appreciate it!
I really want to make the jump to mono-dics, but I find it really hard at the moment. Maybe I just have to push through it, I don´t know.

Using monolingual dictionaries is always worth it.  At first it's not necessary to go through the entire Japanese definition, and of course you can use an English dictionary to look up the definitions within the definition. As you're doing that little by little, you get more and more used to it and before long you'll be zooming through one definition after another.  And since reading a monolingual dictionary helps you gain vocabulary, your need for the monodictionary itself will become more and more obsolete anyway.  Good luck!  I remember the feeling exactly.  The feeling of frustration was there for some time but once you reach a certain point you may find yourself feeling very proud of your Japanese

Last edited by Nuriko (2009 September 29, 8:17 pm)

SammyB wrote:

Quick question, this sentence from Core2000 got me thinking:

この町は人口が増えた。

Isn't it also possible to express this as:

この町の人口が増えた。

Why would you choose one over the other? Is it just to do with emphasis?

Other examples I have come across recently would be:彼は様子が変だ。　as opposed to: 彼の様子がおかしい。

I think that the ～は～が～だ。pattern is a very common one... um, I asked a friend this question once and got a strange answer (her english wasn't great) but it was something like this:

If we say 私の髪が長いです。then it makes the hair sound like it is not a part of you, as if it has been separated from you. So instead, it's better to say 私は髪が長いです。

Again... I don't know how much sense this makes... doesn't really make a ton to me, but that's what I heard

Nuriko wrote:

Zorlee wrote:

Jarvik and pm: Thank you guys so much for your time! I really appreciate it!
I really want to make the jump to mono-dics, but I find it really hard at the moment. Maybe I just have to push through it, I don´t know.

Using monolingual dictionaries is always worth it.  At first it's not necessary to go through the entire Japanese definition, and of course you can use an English dictionary to look up the definitions within the definition. As you're doing that little by little, you get more and more used to it and before long you'll be zooming through one definition after another.  And since reading a monolingual dictionary helps you gain vocabulary, your need for the monodictionary itself will become more and more obsolete anyway.  Good luck!  I remember the feeling exactly.  The feeling of frustration was there for some time but once you reach a certain point you may find yourself feeling very proud of your Japanese

Hehe, I´ll give it a shot then! Hopefully I´ll be able to do it, if I just take my time! Thank you!

I have a quick question. This sentence popped up in KO2001, and I just don´t fully grasp it.

日本テームは前半２点取ったが、後半３点取られて、逆転された。
The Japanese team scored 2 during the first half but the opponents scored 3 in the other half and the winning position was reversed.

Now, If I were to read it without that translation, I would read it as "The Japanese team scored 2 points in the first half, then 3 points in the second half." I know that 逆転された is added in the end, so is this the word that´s supposed to reveal that the opponent team scored 3 in the second half? Because both times when mentioning points scored the book uses 点る。I´m just confused, since the same verb is used, but the meaning is completely different. Help a brother? Thanks

As well as 取られて being passive (as Smackle points out) you can tell that the Japanese team lost just from 日本テームは [...] 逆転された  , because this also is in the passive form. 逆転する is to move into the winning position from behind; 逆転される is to have your opponent do it to you. So the Japanese ended up losing.

I think it's worth making sure you've got a firm grasp of the passive (and the causative) forms; they do turn up a lot.

Last edited by pm215 (2009 October 01, 8:15 am)

Another one, if you guys have the time:

草原で草食動物が草を食べ、その草食動物を肉食動物が食べる。
Herbivores eat grass on the plain and carnivores eat herbivores.

I know that this is probably basic stuff, but the last confused me a little:
その草食動物を肉食動物が食べる。

I think I would´ve guessed that the carnivores eat the herbivores from the setting, but grammatically speaking - does the が article tell us that they are "the ones" that are eating? I´m so used to hearing/reading: blablaを食べる。where "blabla" is eating. When I first read the sentence I automatically thought that the herbivores were eating, because of the を article, but well... Obviously not!
I´m sorry for my stupidity, and I thank you guys for your patience!

Z...