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BASIC question, sentences

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breathingjapanese
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Joined: March 8th, 2016 5:46 pm

BASIC question, sentences

Postby breathingjapanese » March 9th, 2016 10:17 am

Hello! I'm two days into my Japanese studies so this will be very basic questions. I'm just starting to understand how you build sentences (I hope!).

Are these sentences correct?

doko wa watashi no biiru desu ka
Where is my beer?

are wa karuma no anata desu ka
Is that your car? (far away from us both)

arera wa karuma no anata desu ka
Are those your cars? (still far away from both)


And can someone tell me how to say "When can we take a beer (together)?" or a like?
Is it SOMETHING like:
itsu wa biiru (particle?) kumikawasu desu ka
or
kumikawasu wa biiru (particle?) itsu desu ka
?


Thank! I'm really going all in towards learning Japanese. I must look like a fool when I go around town and talking for my self :) "hajimemashite. watashi wa Christian desu. yoroshiku onegaishimasu." or just naming trams by numbers.

mmmason8967
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Joined: January 7th, 2012 12:24 pm

Re: BASIC question, sentences

Postby mmmason8967 » March 9th, 2016 10:47 pm

breathingjapanese wrote:doko wa watashi no biiru desu ka
Where is my beer?

The particle wa marks the topic of the sentence, and the topic is either something that you're going to give further information about or it's something that you're going to ask a question about. A question word like doko or dare or donna can't be a topic because you can't do either of those things with it. In this sentence the topic is the thing you're asking a question about - watashi no biiru.

You can use desu for what something is but not for where it is: for that you need to use the verb arimasu. The place where the something is is marked with the particle ni, so the sentence looks like this:-

Watashi no biiru wa, doko ni arimasu ka.

マイケル

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breathingjapanese
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Joined: March 8th, 2016 5:46 pm

Re: BASIC question, sentences

Postby breathingjapanese » March 10th, 2016 10:54 am

mmmason8967 wrote:
breathingjapanese wrote:doko wa watashi no biiru desu ka
Where is my beer?

The particle wa marks the topic of the sentence, and the topic is either something that you're going to give further information about or it's something that you're going to ask a question about. A question word like doko or dare or donna can't be a topic because you can't do either of those things with it. In this sentence the topic is the thing you're asking a question about - watashi no biiru.

You can use desu for what something is but not for where it is: for that you need to use the verb arimasu. The place where the something is is marked with the particle ni, so the sentence looks like this:-

Watashi no biiru wa, doko ni arimasu ka.

マイケル


Domo arigato gozaimasu!

Your answer cleared up a lot of question marks in my head. This was extremely helpful in so many ways! I really should wait for my next lesson BUT I'm to eager :)

community.japanese
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Re: BASIC question, sentences

Postby community.japanese » March 15th, 2016 8:26 am

マイケルさん、
こんにちは。 :)
breathingjapaneseさんを手伝ってくれて、どうもありがとうございます。
Breathingjapanese さん、
Konnichiwa.
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