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こんいちは！
So I have a question about “going to do something”: My example is “Today I am going to study in a park.” vs “Today I am going to a park to study.”
I guess in the first sentence “am going to” is the same as “will” so it’s expressed in the present/future tense in japanese?
きょうは こうえんに べんようします。I will study in a park.
And in the second sentence the emphasis is on “going to the park”, in order to study, and I guess it’s the “in order to study” that’s tripping me up.
きょうは こうえんに(で？） べんきょうしに いきます （？）
(side note, so many questions! Is the verb I’m using above for “to study” actually “to do (します）+ study (noun) (べんきょう)?
Can anyone help clarify? ありがとう!
エリク
AnonymousIf you’re trying to say “Today I will [am going] to study in the park,” then it should be 今日、公園で勉強します.
If you’re trying to say “Today I will go to study in the park” or “go to the park to study,” then it should be 今日、公園へ勉強をしに行きます.
A shorter way to say that is 今日、公園へ勉強に行きます.
You may also say “Today I will go to the park in order to study,” which would be 今日、勉強するために公園に行きます.
And yes, the noun “study” can be a する verb, so “to study” would be 勉強（を）する.
I second Tsetycoon.
There are really two places one could get confused here. The first is the tendency of using the present progressive tense to talk about the future instead of using the more grammatically correct terms “will” and “shall”. For example, one might say “What are you doing next weekend?” as opposed to “What will you do next weekend?” The second sounds a little stuffy but add a little clarity.
The second point of confusion is that we use the verb “to go” for many different things. In particular, to talk about the future even when nobody is actually going anywhere. For example, contrast “I’m going to the store,” with “I’m going to eat oatmeal.” “Going” means two very different things in these sentences. If we look at the second sentence, “going to” can be replaced with “will”. In the first sentence it could be replaced with “traveling”. (This rest of this paragraph is confusing.) The first sentence also brings back the issue mentioned in the previous paragraph about using the present progressive to talk about the future. Does “I’m going to the store” mean I’m on my way right now, or does it mean that I’ll go later. Probably the second and the sentence could be written in the grammatically confusing though natural form of “I’m going to go to the store,” or in the less natural but more clear form “I will travel to the store.”
Keeping these two points in mind it is possible to rewrite sentences so that the meaning is more clear. This will make it easier to think about putting them in Japanese. Below, I’ve written translations of the more clarified versions of your sentences. Each contains two forms: a) a very explicit form, and b) a more casual, natural form.
1a. I will travel to the park and study. – 公園に行って勉強する。
1b. I will study in the park. (same meaning as above) – 公園で勉強する。2a. I will travel to the park in order to study. – 勉強のために公園に行く。
2b. I will travel to the park to study. (same meaning as above) – 公園に勉強しに行く。As an aside, I find some of the constructions that arise due to the odd uses words tend to take on in English (I’m sure other languages as well) quite funny. “Going to go to…” was mentioned above, but there is also “I would have had to have had…” meaning “I would have needed to have possessed…”
Thanks so much, both of you. Very helpful. thisiskyle- Y ou’re definitely right about rephrasing sentences in English in order to properly translate them, it’s a habit I need to get into. I’m realizing that often the explicit meaning of my sentence in English isn’t even clear to me, so translating into japanese has been a nightmare!
Thanks again for the helpful explanations,
Eric
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