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This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Survival Phrases Season 2 . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
28 Responses to “Survival Phrases S2 #8 - Can You Speak English?”
Tuesday at 6:30 pm
Hi mina-san! We hope you find this Survival Phrases lesson useful
Tuesday at 10:54 pm
Estimados Amigos;
Con el placer de siempre, el escucharlos siempre me recuerdan a mis amigos Japoneses.
Que por alguna razón u otra ya no están en contacto conmigo.
Realmente la forma de enseñar de ustedes es muy agradable, en esta lección aprendí otra forma de decir en japonés, si la persona ¿habla Ingles? Creo que poco a poco, hablare Japonés algún día.
Muchas gracias.
Sinceramente.
Carlos Ruiz Checa
Tuesday at 11:08 pm
Carlos Ruiz Checa san, 英語を話せますか?
Wednesday at 8:13 am
I like it. I think that it is very important to learn this. I have now, learned something that it important for me, Thank you Japanesepod101.
Wednesday at 9:34 am
Dear Jpod, I was taught that it is incorrect to use を in this type of potential sentence. That the correct form was が。Or is my Japanese too old fashioned? Thanks, Sumiko
Wednesday at 9:40 am
Thank you for your comments!!
We think that this is a good phrase to use in Japan if you get stuck.
Wednesday at 10:14 am
Sumikoさん,
Good question!! It is perfectly acceptable to use either を or が in this type of potential sentence
Wednesday at 10:43 am
Good question . yes I can speak english sometime may be find dictionary . so but not problem. I can
thank you very much
Wednesday at 10:50 am
Another variant that I’ve seen in Japanese phrasebooks is “Eigo ga dekimasu ka?” I don’t know the level of politeness for this one when compared to “Eigo, hanasemasu ka?”
Wednesday at 11:13 am
Arian I.-san
I would say the politeness level of those phrases are the same.
It’s just that the skill the speaker is talking about is different.
“Eigo ga dekimasu ka?” literally means “Can you do English?” Of course it means “Do you UNDERSTAND English?”
Whereas “Eigo (ga) hanasemasu ka?” means “Can you speak English?” or “Do you SPEAK English.”
I hope this helps.
Wednesday at 1:16 pm
So when is it not acceptable to use を for potential sentence?
Thanks m(_ _)m
Wednesday at 2:32 pm
Hi every boby or some guy I glad at talk about with japanese ohio gosaimuse ogenki desu ka
Wednesday at 2:35 pm
yes ican speak english
Wednesday at 3:14 pm
>Arian I. says:
Wednesday at 10:50 am
Another variant that I’ve seen in Japanese phrasebooks is “Eigo ga dekimasu ka?” I don’t know the level of politeness for this one when compared to “Eigo, hanasemasu ka?”
The difference between those are that GA focuses on the “Eigo”, that means You can speak ENGLISH, while wo is more showing off that you “CAN” speak English.
Thus:
英語を話せます means I CAN speak English
while
英語が話せます means I can speak ENGLISH.
>Fayefei says:
Wednesday at 1:16 pm
So when is it not acceptable to use を for potential sentence?
Thanks m(_ _)m
wo must NOT BE USED with dekiru! That is grave mistake! Dekiru must use ga!
英語を出来ます is wrong, correct is 英語が出来ます
other from that wo is mostly not used in potential, only for special verbs, such as aruku or deru, as in:
その森を夜一人で歩けない
そのもりをよるひとりであるけない
I can’t go trough that forest at night.
Wednesday at 8:14 pm
I’ve only had to use this phrase twice since I’ve been here, and only because it was really important. Most times I had to ask if they spoke Japanese.
Friday at 12:06 am
こんにちは、
In the lesson, Sachiko-san said 英語”を”話せますか?,
but, according to Naomi-sensei’s comment above, it’s “Eigo ‘ga’ dekimasu ka?”
「を」と「が」はどちらでも正しいですか?
Friday at 8:30 am
メー: Read my post
Friday at 11:05 am
Enerccio-san
Thank you for the great explanation!!! とてもわかりやすいですね。
We really appreciate it!
メー -san
Right. Both 「英語を話せますか」and 「英語が話せますか」are correct!
Friday at 12:07 pm
Naomi-san:
どうも
for everyone else, if you are unsure on how to use potential, just use koto ga dekiru, and you are of the hook. Simply attach koto ga dekiru to plain (! must be plain verb, do not use any polite forms in the middle) for of verb and you can say the same thing.
英語が話せる
will become
英語で話すことが出来る。
Monday at 4:17 am
doo mo arigato gozaimasu Japanesepod101.
Monday at 11:42 pm
Tuesday at 5:50 pm
i know very good english
Thursday at 10:32 am
オウムは日本語がわかりません。英語を話せますか?
Is オウム the right word for parrot? Mine seems amused when I speak Japanese, but so far he only speaks English.
Thank you Enerccio-さん for explaining that stuff with the particles so well, as they still confuse me.
Thursday at 2:02 pm
Jason-san,
yes, オウム is the right word for parrot.
If you keep talking to your parrot in Japanese, he/she is going to be able to speak Japanese!
Sunday at 9:42 am
I read that for verbs ending in す (like 話す) you build the polite form with changing す into します.
I have seen 話します in the Lesson 9 expansion section in the learning center. 彼は英語と日本語を話します。
So what is the difference between 話せます and 話します?
Monday at 1:19 am
Saturday at 6:32 pm
Salivia Bakerさん:
“彼は英語と日本語を話します” means “He speaks (or he will speak) in English and Japanese”
“彼は英語と日本語を話せます”means “He can speak English and Japanese”
Saturday at 11:40 pm
ケリーさん
教えてくれてありがとうございました。(I hope this does mean “thanks for telling/teach me”)
So 話せます is the potential form. being able to do something. I see. This helps a lot! thank you again.
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