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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
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
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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
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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. ^^
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?
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.
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"? ^^
The word かいしや ( 会社 ) means company or corporation not office. 事務所 じむしよ means office.
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.
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"
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.
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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?
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!
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.
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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 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".
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!
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.
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"
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
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
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
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