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- "ごはんをください。"
"ごはんをください。"
Translation:Rice, please.
89 Comments
Actually, while learning English (in Europe, it's a mandatory subject) the teacher told us: "if you cannot count something in units, then it's proceeded by some". In this case, you can't say "one rice, two rices" so it should have some before. It happens the same way with most liquids ("one water, two water..."). Of course, you can say "one glass of water", but you can count glasses.
"Could I have some rice please ?" That is how I said request. It was marked wrong, correcting mgs with "Can I have some rice, please?" I say it both ways, using "can" as more informal and sloppy, and "could" as a little more polite or formal, or even sheepish.
I think both are acceptable in English for said request.
I agree with you, and Duo probably just didn't come up with all the possible ways people would answer this question.
That said though, as you pointed out, "could" is slightly more polite/formal, and there are definitely more polite ways to phrase requests in Japanese. However, prescribing how to match the different levels in politeness between English and Japanese is a difficult task, so Duo should just accept "could" too f(^_^;
I have a pronunciation question. Normally, I thought the particle を was supposed to be pronounced like お and that it was only supposed to be pronounced like を in full words, not in use as an isolated particle, much like how は is pronounced like わ when used as a particle.
But it sounds like it's being pronounced like を in these sentences. Is this a bug or glitch?
I agree that the recorded voice reads "wo." In addition, if you listen carefully to words containing は (in cases where the correct pronunciation is "ha"), you will find the occasional mispronounciation "wa."
My theory is that the pronunciation is determined automatically by the app/web app and that it is necessary to enter the correct exceptions manually.
While I agree with JosuaLore9 that the pronunciation among Japanese speakers plausibly varies, I don't think the inconsistency is intentional.
I was also confused aswell, but i finally have an answer. は will we pronounced ha when it is part of a word, like はじめなして (nice to meet you). は will then be pronounced as wa when it is connecting other words, like how it sometimes means "is" Ex. If you were saying これは, "this is..." Then you would pronounce it as "kore wa" because it is connecting the words "this" and whatever object it is refering to.
Hope this helps!
Came to the comments for this question as well. Best answer I could find while searching the internet is the "w" is pronounced in this case because "を" is preceded by "ん", and saying "wo" helps to differentiate from saying "の" without having to take a pause after "ん". Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.
I hear the "wo" pronunciation as well, but I think it's correct, not a bug/glitch.
I could be wrong here, but I believe Japanese speakers will tell you that お and を are pronounced differently. I think how strongly the "w" sound is pronounced varies regionally, as well as by person, but the reason it's taught as "o" to English speakers is that most people will tend to pronounce it with a hard "w" when the Japanese "w" is much softer.
Is it correct to say that, as it is a question that there should be a か at the end? This seems like what you would say if someone initially asked you what you wanted. Would you say anything different if you just walked into a shop and asked for some rice? It seems to me that it literally translates to "rice please". Which seems like more of a response than a question.
Please correct me if i am wrong or explain this to me a little more :)
The English translation is a question, but the original Japanese sentence is not a question, it's more of a request, I suppose.
An English example would be going into a restaurant, and when you order, there are a few different ways of ordering. We'll look at two different ones.
"Can I get some rice?" or "Rice, please."
Now, I realize that the translation given is actually "Can I get some rice?", but I would say that ごはんをください would actually translate better to the second one, "Rice, please." It's not exactly a demand, but it's certainly not a question. Maybe a polite demand, an order, a request.
So you're correct in your observation that it would translate to "rice please".
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は (wa) is to mean that the previous word is the main subject or topic.
を (o) is to denote that previous word is the direct object, the receiver of the verb.
In that situation, yes they are interchangeable. は can be used to replace another particle, fulfil that particle's grammatical role, and elevate the thing indicated by the particle to the "topic". This is usually done to add emphasis to a negative
sentence or a question.
It should be noted however, that ください is a special class/conjugation of verbs and it follows its own rules, so the direct object must be indicated by を; 〜はください is simply ungrammatical.
Technically, yes you could translate this sentence as "Can I have a meal" in very particular circumstances, but in the large majority of situations it would be used, it should be translated as "Can I have some rice".
That's because ごはん refers to "a meal" mainly when it is used colloquially (e.g. ごはんまだ?), or as a suffix (e.g. 朝ごはん)
"ご" is the honorific suffix. The honorific suffix お (which can be written in kanji as 御) is also pronounced as ご in certain contexts, i.e. typically in front of Chinese-derived words. 御飯 (ごはん) comes from the Chinese word for rice, 飯 fàn, so the honorific is pronounced ご. *Note: there are a few exceptions to this rule, but it holds true for the most part.
I don't think you made a mistake, but explicitly adding the わたし (私) は at the beginning serves more to emphasize that it is you who would like some rice (as opposed to a person next to you, say). This is due to the highly context-sensitive nature of spoken Japanese. Anything that is implied from context should be dropped, especially when it comes to explicitly naming a person (i.e., using わたし or あなた).
As a native English & German speaker, I'm sorry to say I'm not fully familiar with this. I've just heard this fact emphasized from so many different places that it has to be true.
I personally would think that "may I have some rice please?" is a bit too polite for ごはんをください, but semantically there's nothing wrong and politeness is very difficult to equate for English and Japanese. I would recommend flagging your answer for the course developers to add to this list of accepted answers.