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- "九時ごろにかいしゃへ行きます。"
"九時ごろにかいしゃへ行きます。"
Translation:I go to the office at around nine o'clock.
172 Comments
Just if someone is having difficulties:
に - The に particle have many meanings, but one of the most used ones is related to moving from a place to other.
かいしゃに行きます - "I go TO the office"
へ - The へ particle also have a meaning of going somewhere, but the difference is that it is more vague.
かいしゃへ行きます - "I go TOWARDS the office"
Hope this helped someone
Could they be the equivalents of "a" and "hacia" in Spanish, respectively? In English those two would be "to" and "towards" but they aren't exactly equivalent, hacia is used much more often
Actually, a is more common than hacia in daily speech. Im a native spanish speaker.
I am too, I may have just slipped a bit there, a is definitely more common, even in the context of direction giving
I am not a native Spanish speaker, but for years i have felt Spanish speakers can naturally read and pronounce japanese romanji with a nearly correct japanese accent.
Yeah Japanese pronounciation is pretty straightforward to me, romanized Japanese is uber easy to read. Only "hard" sounds would be the h which in our language is mute, the sh which isn't hard to say at all and the j isn't present either, but all three of those are pretty easy to pronounce. Having the vowels be exactly the same and some other similar features such as no distinction between b and v is pretty nice, too
That is correct, Spanish just lacks the "j", but if you hear at the correct pronounciation of Spanish "ll" then you have it, not a hard sound anyway. The "ñ" is similar to "ny" and then apply this "principle" with other consonants and you get the diphtonges (kind of, IDK how to explain it...)
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Actually because in portuguese we do pronouce the "j" its actually a lot easier than spanish, european portuguese, not brazilean portuguese
Same with Portuguse natives, Japanese overall is an easy language to pronounce because the Vowels reads practically the same
Is what you meant that "hacia" is more common in Spanish than "towards" is in English?
Nope, he meant that "a" (to) is more common in Spanish than "hacia" (towards)
How do you pronounce に and へ in this context? The audio is confusing me.
- 1056
に as a particle is pronounced as "ni", same as it is as if saying a word with it like にほんご (nihongo). へ On the other hand is pronounced as "e" (like え) instead of "he" when used as a particle. ^^
I'm not sure but I associated the particles with their (seemingly) equivalent markers in Korean:
に - location-marking particle, 에
へ - direction particle, ~(으)로
Wondering if someone knows whether these associations are correct!
학요에 가요 is equivalent to がっこうに行きます(i go to school for lecture e.g.) Q: where are u now? A: 지금 학요로 가고 있다! I am on the way to school. (Move towards to school direction) which is equivalent to がっこうへ行きます。
Could に be similar to I go TO the office whereas へ is more like, I LEAVE FOR the office?
The second being more like an informal leaving. Youre heading there, but you may stop somewhere else or take a different route or whatever. You are strictly going there, but rather leaving to go there?
While "leave" is another verb in Japanese, the concept seems to be about right regarding the difference between に and へ in this context. However, it has nothing to do with informality, unless I misunderstand what you mean with "informal".
I do find the へ vs に quite confusing. In the sentence above both are used, and yet the translation is that at 9 I go 'to' and not 'towards' (in the direction of) the office.
Thanks for the explanation! But I'm wondering, are both particles required in this sentence? Would sentence with just one of them be correct?
yes in this sentence, the 'ni' particle indicates "at 9 o'clock" whereas the "he" particle indicates the direction of travel which in this case is "to the office".
- 765
Yeah, you must always use ni for time. I had it explained to me that 'e' is used when you will be staying at a location, but 'ni' is more for going to do an action at a location.
I still get them confused which to use when as far a location marker. But if you treat them as interchangeable for location, people will generally know what you mean.
And I've heard that: に - this is the one you wanna use when going to school or to work or to another country へ - this one is only for going in a direction for example going north きたへ or going south みなみへ, but, Japanese people misuse it all the time and say stuff like 学校へ行く even though it's technically incorrect
I just had a thought and wondered if it works, could anyone who actually knows the answer let me know?:
Could へ in this context be thought of almost like the word 'for' is used in english in certain contexts. Like "I leave for the office at 8". I feel like this gets the idea of direction across better than 'towards'. Does this work out?
おひおう! So why are they both used in this exsmple? Plus they had the '行き'. どもう
It should presumably be おはよう, which means "hi" (or rather "good morning", since it isn't used after about 10 o'clock). While this Japanese word is pronounced more or less like the English word Ohio, it is not spelled the same way (due to historical changes of English pronounciation which are not being reflected in English spelling) but rather as ohayou.
In addition to the misspelling of おはよう which someone else pointed out, you also misspelled どうも as どもう.
The particle ni is also used after specific times. So you wouldnt use it after saying every day but you would use it after saying today at 9 pm.
Why do we use to paricles for the same purpose, why do i have to say to and towards?
Ni is if you are being more specific. I'm going somewhere to do a specific thing when i get there. I'm going "Ni" the shops to buy a new BluRay player. Whereas "He" could be more like, "I'm just nipping out "He" the shops".
I think "I go to the office around 9 o'clock." should also be an acceptable answer. It is still grammatically correct in English.
- 1397
九時 = 9 o'clock
ごろ = around
に = at
九時ごろ would have been fine in this sentence. The same as how "at" in English is optional in this sentence, the に particle in Japanese is optional here too. ごろ is already adverbial.
But since they did choose to say ごろ + に this time, it could be argued the translation should reflect this superfluous way of speaking by unnecessarily saying "at" + "around"? ^^
In my Japanese textbook it says goro should not be followed by ni in most cases and I've been looking through all the comments for an explanation like yours. Thanks a lot!
I think they're trying to emphasize the particles because they're so important and they need the learners to recognize their meanings, and uses. If they didn't attempt to mark them somehow it would be a disservice to anyone trying to learn the language through this program.
"I get home at nine" is modified by "around", so "i get home at around nine" is the more formal usage. Dropping the "at" is colloquially correct. I personally tend to use the phrase, "i get home right around nine," so it gets even worse haha!
"right around" is an oxymoron tho. you either get home right at nine, or you get home around 9. around could be 9:15 just as easily.
Eh, but it's still correct colloquial usage. Language is about as logical as people are, not very.
'he' pronounced 'e' is similar to 'ha' pronounced 'wa', for similar reasons? Because of its use as a particle?
From what i've read, yes. へ is always pronounced as え when used as a particle.
Particles are pronounced different many times because in there old alphabet they were pronounced that way and it didn't change with té rest of the language.
They're different words. 仕事 (しごと) means "work." Although you may work at the office, someone's work not be at the office. :)
Actually, kaisha is better translated as company. Which is why it's fairly synonymous with 'work'.
An office is jimushou.
Shigoto is work, or job/task in general.
Thats true, you can't use かいしゃ when you don't actually mean the company (or refer to their location) but maybe a specific office room or want to know if work is hard.
You just misspelled office which is jimusho (じむしょ/事務). The last syllable is short.
I was able to understand "九時ごろにかいしゃへ行きます" meaning "I go to the office at around nine o'clock", but am confused by the presence of both に and へ. If へ means "to", then what is the function of に? And should there be a は somewhere in this sentence?
に is a versatile particle that you'll have to get used to. It can be used to indicate many things, ranging from direction, and, in this case, time. へ as a particle is always read as "え" and is only used for direction.
So, basically the "ni" is referring to the time piece- "AT around 9"- and the "e" is referring to the direction piece- "TO the office"? Am I understanding right?
Hi, a Japanese guy said the に here is to indicate the specific time. The へ is to mean 'to'. The へcan be replaced by another に、 where the second に would then mean 'to'.... Ok? :-)
Particle は could be added before the sentence, 私わ...
but Japanese often omitted the subject I (watashi) because in the real conversation, we know the context.
The word かいしや ( 会社 ) means company or corporation not office. 事務所 じむしよ means office.
I'd wager it has to deal with trying to translate it over to English. While 会社 means company, it can used as a destination in Japanese. In English, you only hear phrases like "I'm headed to work/the office" and never "to the company".
Why don't the listening exercise accept kanji ? 九時頃に会社へ行きます is OK with the reading exercise but not the listening :( Also I can't report properly this issue, since there's no "My answer should be accepted" option in the report.
This is mighty annoying.
Unfortunately due to the way that Duo is programmed the listening exercises will only accept one single "best" answer. This works fine for other languages but causes problems for Japanese which uses multiple writing systems. The contributors currently have no way of fixing this problem or adding other options (only one answer is acceptable and changing the 'best' answer will change every instance of that sentence throughout the course). The staff is aware of this issue but there's no current timeframe for if/when it will be fixed.
For now using the word bank is the best option as it always provides the desired writing format. Alternatively you can hit "can't listen now" to skip it, or far less ideally, memorize what is and isn't acceptable for each individual question.
In this sentance, a.m. is understood. It is not necessary to say it.
I wrote "i go to the office at 9" and got it wrong ... o'clock is normaly omited by native enghlish speakers in this context so i feel my answer should have been marked correct
There isn't a 'ko' anywhere in this sentence... It should sound like 'kuji goro ni kaisha e ikimas'
九時ごろに - Around 9 o'clock "ku ji goro ni"
かいしゃへ - to the office/company "kaisha e"
行きます - go/will go "ikimasu"
The kanji 行 is pronounced い in this sentence as part of the verb "go".
It is "kou" when used as a noun or combined with other kanji, so clicking on it individually in the lesson the audio may pronounce it that way since it does not recognize the context it is being used in. This is the reading it takes in 銀行 "ginkou" - "bank"
I am sad i had to scroll all the way down to find that comment! Thank you very much!
Question for the native speakers: in my Japanese class we were told that after ごろ you must not put the に particle because it is not an exact time specification. に is only used for exact times. So I was wondering if maybe this sentence is wrong or if this is more of a colloquial thing that is not as strict as other rules.
Some exercises where you type what you hear won't accept kanji. In this case it is 会社. I don't why it is like this, because it is right, but they probably just haven't fixed it yet. 会社 works fine on the translating exercises.
It marked me wrong because I wrote 「かいしゃ」 in kanji when asking me to transcribe text read aloud!
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I keep getting these listening tests wrong because I use the "wrong" mix of hiragana and kanji. Why do I have to spell 会社 in hiragana?
when I put the kanji for "office" (会社), it says it's incorrect. Yet, it teaches us the kanji for office. ?????
I hate that they teach us the kanji, but then don't let us use it in the listening exercises.
I don't understand why my typed answer 九時ごろに会社へ行きます is not accepted. Isn't 会社 the kanji for かいしゃ？
I was in the same situation, and it seems in other sentences it accepts the kanji. As far as I know it's a mistake in this exercise. I reported it.
As you've seen, the Japanese do not use spaces. I've only been studying Japanese for 5 months, but topic markers (or particles) help identify parts of the sentence like the subject, time of day, direction of travel, relative location. It's my best understanding of the concept at the moment. I hope that helps!
There's no topic marker (は) in this sentence, but essentially it emphasizes the topic/theme/focus of the sentence. One way to think of them is to translate the sentence that uses them by starting "As for [X], ..." The topic is not necessarily the grammatical subject, but it can be.
As others have noted, it depends on the location. In some English-speaking countries, this is common. I'm from the US, and in my area, I hear "at around" fairly often. "I get home at around 9." "I got to work at about 8." (About is used more often for past tense, I believe.) I'm not sure if it's grammatically correct, lol, but it is commonly used in some areas.
I believe it is grammatically correct. I use it in conversation as a stall while talking. "I go to work(pause)at(pause still thinking) around 9:00"
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How can we have both the "ni" and "e" particles in the same sentance? If "ni" translates as "to" or "at," and "e" is more vague meaning something like "towards," whats the point of having both in the same sentance?
Maybe because an English sentence can have two of the same word? "I was at the office at 9." Japanese is a little more useful here, actually.
There are also differences in meaning that we don't see just by looking at the English equivalents. For me, に when used with 行きます implies that you went to a location with a purpose in mind, whereas へ simply marks your destination purely for the sake of direction. Examples:
えいがかんに行きます = I'm going to the movies (implied that you'll go to the theater and then see a film) えいがかんへ行きます = I am going to drive to the theater (no implication, you might be driving there just to pick up a friend, who knows, all you said was the location you're traveling to).
i would have definitely use じむしよ for office instread かいしや because it means corporation not office.
While かいしゃ literally means "company", it's often used to refer to the place of work as well.
Why do i not hear the kanji just before きます ? I just hear : kaishiya he kimasu (kaisha e kimas). What is this kanji just before ?
I think since the kanji is pronounced "iki" and the he particle is pronounced "e", it kind of almalgamates when speaking into one "eiki" sound. Not sure though, just guessing!
The one who wrote this sentence is probably more used to formal English found in literature. "At around" is fairly common in certain locations as well.
After checking the above mentioned ごろ in Google I came up with a relevant kanji 頃 (koro). This is why a reasonable question arouse: which one pronunciation is correct?
I think they might be etymologically related, but two different words. Niko from nihongoshark dotcom uses ごろ frequently without extra explanation, but 頃 more rarely: the first time it was buried in a stream of keigo (...１時頃に...: I'm assuming, from context, that this is the "formal" way of saying 1 o'clock), and the second time he used 頃 he explained it as follows.
子どもの頃の話。 こども の ころ の はなし。 A story from my childhood. Literally: “child + の + time + の + story Note: 頃 means “at that approximate time,” and it usually used in a set phrase as 子どもの頃 like above to mean “when I was a child.”
Later he translates that character specifically as "in those days".
According to EDRDG, when it's used as a suffix to a time specification (to mean "around"), it's generally written in kana and pronounced ごろ.
I typed "around 9 o'clock I go to office" and it didn't accept it, it says it should be "around 9 o'clock I go to my office". which part indicates it's MY office?
In American English, at least, you can't say "go to office" without some sort of article (e.g. "a", "the", "my") before "office".
How do I tell when it's I go to the office, rather than telling someone else to go to the office?
The Japanese sentence is not in the imperative/command form, so it can't be telling someone else to go to the office. However, you could use the sentence to describe someone other than just "I" (e.g. you/he/she/it/they/we) going to the office, since the subject is implied in the Japanese sentence.
Since we are not going in the general direction but actually towards the office, why wouldn't/couldn't it be "九時ごろにかいしゃに行きます。"?
Is the first part ku + ji pronounced kuchi when speaking? Also how do I pronounce Japanese "j"? Like in jungle or in you?
I go around nine o clock to the office, is for me the same as: I go to the office at nine o clock. Don t make ıt too complicate for People with little Englisch knowledges. Otherwise it is greate. Thank you.
"at nine o clock" is a specific time at which you plan to go. 九時に
This sentence has the word ごろ "around" in it though which means you aren't going there exactly at 9, but at some time close to 9. 九時ごろに
why does かいしゃへ come after 九時ごろに ? Could the sentence be written as かいしゃへ九時ごろに行きます。?
It still technically works, but if you said that to someone in Japan they would look at you weirdly. Typically a description or piece of information comes in the beginning. It's just like if we said "At around 9:00, I go to the office." vs "I go to the office at around 9:00." In Japanese it should normally be the first option when dealing with telling time.
The topic is nine o'clock. Then the next part before the particle literally translates as at an early age which basically in this sentence means at around. The particle means go to in this sentence and usually means to or towards and it goes after the prepositional phrase or the topic. After the particle, comes the verb and the object simultaneously. If this helps, please consider donating a lingot which I am in need of!
The formal version of this sentence is "九時頃に会社へ行きます。" Lucky I'm a Chinese learner...
Why does it sound like that symbol after へ is not being said in the audio clip?
Is it just me, or does this sentence reads backwards when translating to English?
Because it's a particle it's pronounced properly as 'e' instead of 'he' (think を which is often pronounced as 'o' instead of 'wo' as well) and very fast - just tacked onto the end of かいしゃ.
I hate how badly made the pronunciation is. It is fast, but we are in a begginer's course. And, really, very badly made. There are many different words that they just put the last silabe with the first one of the next word together when speaking. And in this one, "Goro" is speaken as "Rurouni", what the hell.
Check Swisidniak's answer to my comment below (会社 is not recognized you need to use かいしゃ).
Why is に used in this sentence? The way I learned this is that ごろ works as the particle here so に is not needed? We never use に after ごろ in class so I'm confused.
Am I correct in thinking that "に" is the "at" in "at around nine o'clock", whereas "へ" is the "to" in "I go to the office"?
Is the kanji ko silent. I'm hearing hekimusu not hekokimusu? Can someone explain please.
copy-pasting from my answer above:
九時ごろに - Around 9 o'clock "ku ji goro ni"
かいしゃへ - to the office/company "kaisha e"
行きます - go/will go "ikimasu" The kanji 行 is pronounced い in this sentence as part of the verb "go".
It is "kou" when used as a noun or combined with other kanji, so clicking on it individually in the lesson the audio may pronounce it that way since it does not recognize the context it is being used in. This is the reading it takes in 銀行 "ginkou" - "bank"
Duolingo doesn't accept 九時ごろに会社へ行きます. It seems like it doesn't recognize 会社 as かいしゃ.
xeter, I think it was already explained above that it is not programed to accept the kanji, so only the hiragana is able to be accepted even if the kanji is correct. かいしゃ has to be used.
Could the options maybe all be particles? That way it is a bit more difficult since へ was the only particle as a choice and made it easy for me?
Here the へ is the direction particle "e". It is used as "to/towards".
Often in situations if you're unsure if you should use this particle, it can be replaced with に, a more general location particle.
While に is used more for a set location/destination something is located at, へ emphasizes the actual movement towards a location
Well, just saying that you entered it correctly doesn't help anyone. You need to tell us exactly what you entered so that we can tell you either that you're wrong or the course is wrong.
Please do not mark this wrong for answers including "around 9" instead of "at around 9".
"At" is an exact time, "around" is an approximate time - in fact, they should not be used together, even though this is how the Japanese is written.
"At around [x time]" is in fact a contradiction in terms in English - not to be confused with "at about [x time/place]", where "at" is required
Yes, "At around specifically [x time/place]." That makes sense to me, I'm gonna be honest.
This is really confusing. I can't understand the context or pronunciation. What do the individual characters へ行 stand for? How are they pronounced individually? I see へ he and 行 maybe this character is "itte"? I feel like Duolingo is amazing and have been learning Japanese for a couple of months but I wish this app could give more clarity on how these characters are pronounced and how they apply grammatically. sigh
へ is the direction particle "e", here it is used to mark "office" as the place you are going towards.
行 is the kanji for "go", here it is the "i" sound in the verb "ikimasu"
会社へ行きます - kaisha e ikimasu - "( I ) go to the office"
Mega arigato !!!! I really needed to hear it the way you said it. Even though you probably don’t need a lingot...
What sound does ''行'' make??? Because when we listen only to this word or letter (idk) it sounds like 'go' but when we listen the whole sentence it doesn't have sound... like "九時ごろにかいしゃへきます。"
From other comments above:
"行きます - go/will go "ikimasu"
The kanji 行 is pronounced い in this sentence as part of the verb "go".
It is "kou" when used as a noun or combined with other kanji, so clicking on it individually in the lesson the audio may pronounce it that way since it does not recognize the context it is being used in. This is the reading it takes in 銀行 "ginkou" - "bank" "
They are different verbs
The verb here is "ikimasu" - to go
行きます・"ikimasu"・polite present/future conjugation of 行く "iku"・to go
Depending on the context/kanji used "okimasu" could be
置きます・"okimasu"・polite present/future conjugation of 置く "oku"・to put/place
起きます・"okimasu"・polite present/future conjugation of 起きる "okiru"・to get up/wake up
That would be "Goro" (Apologies for the lack of Japanese characters, my computer is acting strange)
When you check the result the pop-up window covers what you typed. It makes it difficult to check the answer against what you typed so you can learn what you did wrong if you missed it.
