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- "Where am I?"
"Where am I?"
Translation:私はどこにいますか？
44 Comments
The literal translation is more like "where is here", which is more similiar to "what is this place".
I just answered: どこですか and it was accepted. So the ここは part appears to be optional.
I just did the same, twice in a row, and was rejected. Perhaps it has been amended?
You should report that, in my opinion. It seems strange that they would accept どこです because while it may colloquially be acceptable if spoken with an questioning inflection, it's grammatically incorrect.
Why is the particle は? Shoudn't it be に since its a location or am i just remembering wrong?
に is more for showing direction, e.g. going somewhere. In this sentence, ここ is the topic
For indicating an end goal, one should use "ni". "He" indicates the direction of movement ("I go to Japan" vs "I go towards Japan"). For example:いえにいきます translates to "I go home", while あなたへおならをする translates to "I fart in your general direction".
I'll be try to remember to give you a lingot for this later when I can use the website.
The particle "ha" (pronouced wa) indicates that the word before is the subject, as "ni" does as a complement of the verb.
It is, I tried it and it isn't accepting it. It should, with a notice that says "yeah this is a pretty informal way of asking"
It means this. Remember the こ、そ、あ、ど series: こ refers to something near the speaker, そ refers to something near the one being spoken to, あ(そ) refers to something not near any participants in the conversation, and ど is inquisitive.
So, [ここはどこですか] is asking where is here, literally.
I don't think it's technically incorrect, but it's definitely not what Japanese people would say in the same situation. Remember, they tend to avoid using 私 if they can and ここ does that quite neatly.
To me, 私はどこですか actually sounds a bit more literal, like "where is me?" which you might say if you lost track of your physical body or if you looked in a mirror and couldn't see yourself.
I'm wondering if asking 「私はどこですか？」 wouldn't make me sound like a loon... >.>
Since どこですか doesn't supply a subject to the sentence, so it really just means "Where is it?" or "Where?" If a subject was already given earlier in a conversation, for example "そのいぬはかわいかったでした" (that dog was cute), and someone responded "どこですか?" they'd be asking "where is it?" どこですか is especially wrong in this context since you can't really ask "where am I" without stating the subject, being "I," so you'd use "わたしはどこですか," which is specifically asking where you are.
The correct question should be - where is this place - based on the answer duolingo provided
Where am I = わたし は どこ ですか. But even then the japanese version does not make any sense in real life usage although it is grammatically correct
Why do they even require us to use a particle? Strictly speaking, the は particle is unnecessary here.
I answered (incorrectly) koko wa desu ka, and I'm guessing that's "as for this place, it is?" Which is closer to "does this place exist?" (is this real?) rather than where is this place? Am I thinking right?
Not quite, I think it's simply ungrammatical.
Instead of thinking of です as "is" or even "to be", I tend to think of it as a kind of equals sign because it avoids the confusion of "is" being used for "existence" in English. です works by equating the subject, indicated by は, to the object which comes right before です.
Here's a couple of simple examples from earlier in the course:
・(私は)アメリカ人です the implicit subject, "I" = "American person"
・(あなたは)イギリス出身ですか？ the implicit subject, "you" = "originate from England"?
・それは何ですか？ "it" = "what"?
As you can see, the exercise here follows the third pattern, becoming "here/this place" = "where"?
You asked if by leaving out どこ, it becomes "is this real" (which actually follows the second pattern, "this place" = "real"?), but by leaving it out, you leave the equals sign hanging which essentially makes it ungrammatical. (Note: "does this place exist" no longer has "is/am/are" as the main verb, so you would have to use a different verb from です.)
The gap in the equation can theoretically be filled in by context, but at this point absolutely anything goes. ここはですか sounds like you're confirming the implicit subject of someone else's sentence, where they gave only the object.
What a great answer. Seen in that light, it makes a lot of sense. Thank you for taking the time to be thorough.
Close, but the verb います takes the particle に, not で.
で is used to indicate the location of an "action" verb. Since "existence" is considered a "state", not an "action", で can't be used.
どこにいますか is wrong? Why? it actually would be closer to the english sentence... I think...
I don't think it's technically incorrect, but it's definitely not what Japanese people would say in the same situation. The implied subject of that sentence is almost always a third party; "where are you", "where is it", etc.
To me, if the implied subject was 私は, it would actually sound a bit more literal, like "where is me?" which you might say if you lost track of your physical body or if you looked in a mirror and couldn't see yourself.
Im reviewing the coments Because i answered the question... WHERE AM I. and my correct answer was どこですか。why??? Am i here???
I typed "doko desu ka?" and it said it was correct, although, wouldn't that mean something like "Where is it?"?
It can also be "where is it", depending on the context. In our case, we are assuming "it" is referring to "my location".
Duo took 私はどこですか But that's not really what you'd say in the implied situation, right?
