- Forum >
- Topic: Japanese >
- "I will climb the mountain, t…
"I will climb the mountain, then go to the river."
Translation:山にのぼって、それから川に行きます。
29 Comments
620
As 3d9y2 has said, the primary function of the ~て form is to join two verbs or two phrases to represent a relationship or a sequence. ~て does not mean a command by itself - ~てください is. It shows the verb before て and ください has a relationship (requesting the other party to do something).
620
It is important to note, by appearance, ~て form means a command, but actually not. It is because ください, which means "please could you give/do me," is omitted. (Much like わたしは is omitted from most of the sentences, or ありがとう which omits the ございます that follows for a complete sentence.)
After seeing this question multiple times, I've finally decided to post an answer. The て ending is not the imperative. The imperative forms are <sub>なさい、</sub>え、~ろう、and ~よう。 Get out! = 出て行け!出て行きなさい! Eat! = 食べよう!食べなさい etc. ~て indicates incompletion. It means there's more to come. It is used to join the first verb to another verb for sort of a "compound verb" like 出て行く or 変えてくる or 返してください。(Notice the last one is the "polite command" you were talking about, which is an oxymoron in Japan. It's a request, not a command because imperatives are rude by nature.) It is also used to connect clauses together.
620
山を登る and 山に登る are both correct but with a different meaning.
山に登る - mountain as a destination.
山を登る - mountain as a pass-through point. e.g. 山を頂上(ちょうじょう)まで登る I climb to the top of the mountain.
Grammatically, It actually could be either, but which one you use depends on your purpose for going.
It's true that に can be and is used for more specificity, emphasizing the destination (and purpose in having gone), while へ is a more generalizing particle, indicating emphasis on the journey to a destination, not necessarily with a purpose in mind.
Also, however, any へ can be replaced with に, but not every に can be replaced with へ.
The greatest weakness to Duolingo is that it doesn't give you specific direction as to what is most naturally spoken by a native to the language..
Could we use ...のぼりまして... instead? Or is only the plain form grammatically correct here?
P.S. I think, I've already found an answer But maybe someone has something to add?
620
まして is allowed but is too formal in common use cases. It is certainly common in formal letters.