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I’m currently halfway through Season 5 and I’ve saved up a small list of questions that I have had since the earlier seasons (so as not to be spammy!). But I would appreciate help on these:
Question: がくせい が しつもん し に いきました <– On one of the TextFugu questions, why is the が emphasizing the student? Wouldn’t a は in this case make more sense since there seems to be much more to emphasize after がくせい?
Question: The only difference between 行きます and 行く is the latter is used casually? When you say “dictionary form”, does that also suggest it is casual?
Question: Does かわらない mean “nothing can be changed”, “there is no difference” or both depending on the context?
Question: The only difference between 勉強した and 勉強しました is that the first is casual and the second is formal?
Question: On one of the TextFugu Worksheet questions, why is it 食べた instead of 食べる in 「寿司を食べたはずだった」? I thought the だった at the end is already enough to suggest that it is past tense “I expected to eat sushi”, so doesn’t having both 食べた and だった together suggest “I expected the sushi was eaten” instead of “I expected to eat sushi” (TextFugu’s correct answer)? I’m very lost on this one!
1. Frankly, I kinda think “が emphasises one while は emphasises the other” is not an overly helpful way of thinking about it. Whether you use が or は depends somewhat on context, and there’s no context for example sentences. Among other things, は implies the assumption that the listener knows what the speaker’s referring to. So, in English, if I opened a conversation with “Koichi did something” you’d be going “oh yeah, that Koichi”. But if I opened with “the student did something”, you’d be going “what student?”. So that’s why it’s が.
Short version: don’t think too hard about it at this stage. =)
2. Yes. Dictionary form is casual (though don’t confuse that with the idea of “speaking like a dictionary”, because that’s completely different. =P )
3. Well, “nothing can be changed” is the potential form of the verb, which in this case would be 変われない. You’ll learn about potential form later, if I recall correctly. Fun fact: かわらない is also an い-adjective meaning “unchanging”.
4. Yes. Though I’d perhaps use “polite” rather than “formal”. There’s about three levels more formal you can get. =)
5. That’s… complex. Let me see if I can find an answer I gave before. Be nice if the search function worked…
Found it: http://www.textfugu.com/bb/topic/past-casual-and-はず/
Thanks for the elaborate answer! I feel I might have asked the fifth question in a confusing manner after re-reading it just now (it looks very poorly constructed = =;)
To sum it up, TextFugu’s translation for 寿司を食べたはずだった is “I expected to eat sushi”. I thought if you wanted to say “I expected to eat sushi”, you’d say 寿司を食べるはずだった instead.
After reading your response in the link you provided, I think our answers were similar, but read as a different person?
For 寿司を食べたはずだった
Your answer = I had expected you’d eaten sushi (but you’ve just told me you ate something else instead)
My answer = I expected the sushi was eatenCan it be seen as both depending on the context, or is my response technically / grammatically incorrect?
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This reply was modified 11 years, 2 months ago by
Context. It’s all-important in Japanese. =)
That said, while I understand the translation you’re trying to get at, “the sushi was eaten” is a passive verb, which’d be 寿司が食べられた.
Thank you very much for the help Joel！ 感謝しています！
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This reply was modified 11 years, 2 months ago by
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