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- "おなかがすきましたか?"
"おなかがすきましたか?"
Translation:Are you hungry?
60 Comments
Good question. I had to do a google research and it came up with お腹がすいていた. Details at https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/1187/what-is-the-past-tense-of-%E3%81%8A%E8%85%B9%E3%81%8C%E7%A9%BA%E3%81%84%E3%81%9F
929
Ok, so your friend is listening to their friend tell a story about their trip to a restaurant but your friend is also cooking. How, in that context, would he clarify whether he means "were you hungry" or "are you hungry"
692
Cos it means literally - has your stomach emptied? So in natural sounding English - are you hungry.
空く (to become empty -- with the stomach, it's used to indicate hunger)
空いて (て-form of verb, used to combine it with other actions)
空いている (sort of literally "to become empty and be", but a more natural translation accounting for that idiom would be "is becoming empty" or in this case "is becoming hungry")
空いています (the same, but more politely, replacing the verb ending with ます)
Whereas with the past form, you have 空く -> 空きます -> 空きました (became empty, is hungry)
So it's sort of the same as asking if the person is hungry (if their stomach became empty) vs. asking if they're getting hungry (their stomach is emptying).
692
Technically, with no context, both should be valid. If Duo doesn't provide context then they should be set up to accept all valid answers.
462
Japanese onomatopeia are commonly used in everyday speech for stuff well beyond animal sounds. For a large collection see https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/japanese-onomatopoeia/
"Is she hungry?" would probably be translated as 「彼女はお腹が空きましたか?」 or in kana only 「かのじょはおなかがすきましたか?」
This version without the topic marker は could refer to anyone, though without other context the listener is a good bet, as you wouldn't likely be asking about yourself. If you were talking about someone else immediately beforehand, it could refer to that person though.
The verb 空くmeans to become empty so it's not that the stomach was empty in the past, but that it became empty then.
It's just idiomatic that in order to say someone is hungry in Japanese you say their stomach became empty.
Not unless "she" was the topic of discussion before this was said. In duolingo there's no context available so it shouldn't be making weird assumptions like that. I didn't run into the same bug when I did this question, but it seems others did.
Literally, this sentence is:
お腹【おなか】stomach
が identifier particle (kind of like pointing a finger directly at the noun before it)
空きました 【すきました】past polite of 空く a verb which means "to become empty".
か question particle
So a closer translation for what this is saying is "Did the stomach become empty?" - it doesn't specify whose stomach, you're supposed to know. Without context, a reasonable listener would assume you meant their own stomach.
greenfrench, I had the same question. A native speaker explained for the meaning "like" (literally, "is pleasing to" in Japanese) "すき" is followed by "です". Cale explained the grammar and showed the kangi, which are pronounced the same but indicate different meanings. Thank you Cale, I did not have the kanji for "to become empty". I am new at kangi and so need to identify a picture with each one to remember it. This one was easy. It reminded me of a figure with a wide skirt and arms spreading out to indicate "more space" or "empty".
692
It does not need to be fixed. The error lies with your understanding of how the Japanese should be translated. おなか が すきました - literally - My stomach emptied. If your stomach emptied then it is currently empty right now ergo if your stomach is empty right now then you are currently hungry. This is why it is translated as "I am hungry". My stomach emptied - past tense - meaning I am (currently) hungry.
Could someone please explain why they have such a long phrase for being hungry?