"Where is the yard?"
Translation:にわはどこですか？
24 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
If the question word (どこ) comes 1st you would use が but since it isnt the topic you use は
Such a good one! After hundreds of questions I still haven't gotten my head around the whole "subject object topic" terminology. I speak two other languages fluently and can't even apply those concepts.
I do not think to say "にわが、どこですか?"
Excuse me. I will add a bit. I do not think I usually say that. It is only a sense of native. However, I can not predict everything because I do not know what sentence is before this.
すみません, I don't know whether they were right or not, but I think the person was trying to say "どこ(は)にわがですか?"
But I repeat, I'm just a learner still and I am only interpreting what this person thinks is right, I have no clue if it is and would not kind an answer. :))
が has mostly been used at this point for the "exists" verbs あります (inanimate) and います (animate), which have been paired with questions several times. The "exists" verbs were why it was a が particle though, not the question part. Hope this help!
Yeah, thanks a lot. I've been using other resources for Japanese before Duolingo and got quite surprised when I saw this. I guess I wasn't paying much attention if the question has ある or いる in it.
1331
裏庭には二羽庭には二羽鶏がいる。(Uraniwa ni wa niwa, niwa ni wa niwa niwatori ga iru.) -> meaning : There are two chickens in the back yard, and two in the front yard.
It is a japanese tongue-twister
The audio didn't work for me on this question. Because the particle makes the same sound as the syllable before it (niwa wa ...) Are they pronouncing both wa's or blending them together like waa?
When は is used as a particle it is pronounced as 'wa'. Just a rule of the language.
What is the practical difference between niwa wa doko desuka and doko wa niwa desuka?
The は particle is marking the subject of the sentence. One useful, but clumsy translation is to translate it to "as for x".
So にわ は どこ です か？becomes "As for park, where is it?" while どこ は にわ です か？would become "As for where, park is it?" which doesn't make that much sense!
Just adding to what you said, どこはにわですか can sort of make sense, if you're looking over landscaping blueprints and you want to know which parts of it are the yard, as opposed to parts of the house or pool.
In conversation isn't it common to leave out some of the particles? An example might be, "にわ,どこですか?" instead of "にわはどこですか？"
I've heard ...はどこだ instead of ...はだこですか on another app for "where is ..." , is it just an informal shortening or something?
Yes, だ is the informal/plain version of the copula です (not when it's being used to add politeness to adjectives). The question particle か is also frequently dropped in informal language when it's obvious your sentence is a question, e.g. when it contains a question word like どこ, and can be simply replaced with a rising intonation in speech.
Isn't the word for yard actually "ya-do" isntead of "niwa". "Niwa" actually sounds more like the croatian word "njiva" that actually mean something like field. Where did "niwa" come from?
