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- "I walk to my house."
"I walk to my house."
Translation:家まで歩きます。
51 Comments
Here's a good explanation: https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080904112115AAdVVRE#
TL;DR: に would be used if emphasis is the destination (as in answering the question "Where did you go?" with "I went to the house") whereas まで would be used if the destination is not as important as the "going to" is (as in answering the question "Do you go walking?" with "I walk as far as my house.")
733
Ni is a particle it means to (motion towards a specific place) or on depending on the context of the sentence. Made means until and is a preposition not a particle.
According to A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar
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Page 225, まで (made) is "a particle to indicate the spatial, temporal, or quantative limit (or an unexpected animate/inanimate object)." Translations include "as far as, till, up to until, through, even."
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Page 302 "a particle which indicates a place toward which someone or something moves." Translation is "to, toward."
This is more or less what you said but Japanese (unlike English) doesn't have prepositions but has postpositions aka particles.
I think you should have just used the last para: So, using "まで" implies a meaning more along the lines of "I went as far as the lake" or "I went all the way up to the lake". Instead of answering a question like "Where did you go?", it's answering a question like "How far did you go?".
Would be great if duo added furigana (tiny kana indicating the reading of a kanji), wouldn't it?
- 410
"Made" means until. It means you will walk until you reach your house in this instance. If you used "ni", it could mean you walk to your house, but keep going past it. "Made" suggests you stop walking once you've reached home. ^.^
The ni particle can be translated as towards and made like in kara/made as from/until. This means that with ni the house is direction, but with made, it is the destination.
- 733
It is a particle that indicates motion towards a general area - for example if you said 学校 へ 行きます it would mean that you are going towards the general area of a/the school, not necessarily to school - while に would indicate that you are going to school.
- 318
According to @jugglejunk, に is the direction, まで is the destination, but you said に indicates going to school, doesn't that means school is the destination and not direction?
Also, below, @kai19154 said using に could mean walking to your house but going past it, doesn't that means direction instead of destination?
に is destination/target of action or location of existence, it puts more stress on the location you are going to and usually means you are going somewhere with a specific intention. 学校に行きます You go to the school (and stay there for classes)
へ is direction, 'towards', it puts more stress on the movement itself, focusing on the journey rather than the destination. You may stop other places along the way, you may even continue past the location you mentioned. 学校へ行きます You go to the school (you my stop and get a snack, maybe you'll even go past the school to the park once you get there.)
まで is "until". You will stop doing the movement once you reach this place. 学校まで行きます You go to the school (you stop once you've reached the school. You don't have to go inside or anything, but you don't plan on going any further than this point.)
So the focus: に - the destination へ - the journey まで - the upper limit
- 318
That is a very concise summary, thank you!
Wow that means there are some incorrect answers in this forum and those 2 confused me
Isn't also the case that に can only be used with certain verbs? E.g. it wouldn't be normal to use it with 歩く?
Should うち be accepted as well as いえ? They both have the same kanji, but is there some nuance about when to use which pronunciation?
うち refers not just to the physical house, but also to the environment, family, stuff, etc. that makes it one's home. It can also be used to refer to something inside your home (ex. うちの台所は狭い to mean "our/my kitchen is small") You can also use it for someone else's home, like うちに帰りなさい (please go home) So when it is いえ it is the physical house. うち is one's physical house and home. Note that you can't say うちに行きます because you can't "go" to your own home, but you can "return" there, so you need to say うちに帰ります
I thought walking was sanpo does this kanji replace it or is it situational?
- 491
I may be wrong, but I think sanpo is more like "taking a walk" for the sake of walking, rather than walking as a way to get from one location to another.
Doesn't the へ particle emphasize the actual movment itself rather than the destination?
へ and に mean the same thing. The only difference is that へ is used for going from point a to point b explicitly. you cant use へ for things like saying something is inside of something else, for example. 家へ歩いて has the same meaning as this question, but theyre are just trying to teach you a new way to say the same thing. It's important to know both(all of them really).
If they specify "MY house" in the English part shouldn't we be given 私 and の as options for completing the sentence?
- 733
If the sentence doesn't specify that the speaker is going to someone else's house then it is perfectly logical to presume that they are going to their own house.
I think it would be very formal to say it with 私の... so you could just take it from the sentence and it would make sense to the one you are talking to.
- Sanpo- "recreational/relaxing walk"- Stroll. 2. Aruki- General term for Walk. 3. Made- "until/as far as"
まで means "until" so 家まで歩きます。 is more "I walk until I reach my house."
I would always translate a literal "I walk to my house." as 家に歩きます。 (unless, as mentioned, you wanna emphasize the walking part, which I don't see here)
Does this not mean "I walk as far as my house" as opposed to 「いえに歩きます"」The difference being the later statement insinuates the house being the intended destination where as まで gives the idea that something might change or that the intention was to go further?
Other way around made means you walked to your house and that's it, you went in and did nothing more. Ni implies that you waljed to the house but might have also waljed somewhere else after that. And the emphasis answer is also correct
How do you know "いえまで歩きます" means "I walk to my house" and not "I walk to THE house" ? I don't see anything that indicates possession.
私の家まで歩いて行きます - any reason this should be marked wrong? I'm sure I had a teacher explain that this was a more natural way of saying "walk" (literally, "go by foot").
歩く is the same as 歩きます。I know it's different in terms of style but it does not affect the meaning. Please change this. This kind of stuff discourages new learners
- 733
It does affect the meaning though. 歩くis informal and therefore less polite than 歩きます. Children and elderly people use this plain form, also an older person to a younger person, a parent to a child, a superior talking down to a subordinate - you get the idea. It typically conveys a lower, more familiar level of speech so would be like Duo teaching people to speak in slang.
減らず口をたたきますね。
No, it does not change the meaning, trust me.
"Politeness” is not the word's meaning it is “politeness”
This doesn't have anything to do with politeness though it is often perceived this way by new learners of this language. This has to do with familiarity. The closer you are to someone you would use だ instead of です。Stuff like 謙譲語and 敬語 has to do with politeness.
歩くis not slang or "like slang". Children speak this way to their parents. What I could agree that would "be like teaching someone slang" would be something like ない
→ねぇ。 It is not incorrect to translate "I walk to my house" as either家まで歩きます or家まで歩く 。
- 733
It is not slang but it is hard to convey the difference in level of speech between 歩く and 歩きます in English or to English speakers who don't have the respectful and highly heirarchical society that Japan has and the many layers of speech that reflect that. Yes, 歩く and 歩きます are both present active verbs but they would only be used with certain people and in certain situations and would conversely not be used with certain people and in certain situations and I would argue that that does affect the meaning as it can reveal the speaker's relationship, position, age and even opinion of the person or people they are talking to. Translating I walk to my house as 家まで 歩く leaves us many questions and things to consider - why is Duo using plain form? Is Duo a child? Is Duo elderly? Is Duo talking to a subordinate or maybe just someone that they don't think much of - ie. are they being rude by speaking in a low form of language to a superior or a senior? With 家まで 歩きます none of these issues or concerns arise because 歩きます doesn't introduce the possibility of those alternate interpretations or meanings.
I understand your point is that it's safe to use ～です ～ます and it makes sense because the foreigner learning this language may not understand these things yet so at the start it would be good to learn to speak using this style so as not to step on other people’s toes inadvertently. I also understand it can help indicate a relationship of the people speaking.
However, the meaning of style difference isn't my point of contention. My point is the that both 歩くand 歩きます have the same meaning. What form you use is contextual but does not change the word's meaning. Remember, we aren't arguing about style we are arguing about meaning. If you refer to my first comment, I explain that I understand the style is different and just that either of the two words -歩くor歩きます-should be acceptable because the meaning is the same. What you can glean about who the person is in in relation to others based on the style does not have any bearing on the meaning of the word. For example if you have the utterance スーパーに歩いたand スーパーに歩きました. For both, while the style may be different, has this person walked in a different manner for either of these sentences? No, I don't think that this person has as the meaning is the same. The verb's meaning does not change thus, for the sentence "I walk to my house" both 家まで歩く and 家まで歩きます should be acceptable.
There are so many people in here pointing out that "ni" would have a subtly different meaning. But elsewhere a lot of lessons seem to accept "ni" with other verbs like "iku" for, e.g., "I go to school". Is this a subtle difference between the two verbs "aruku" and "iku" or are the two lessons just inconsistent?
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Could someone please explain the difference in nuance between particles まで, に and へ for me (concerning place)?
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I like to think まで ("to") has a partner, から ("from"), and together they define your trip: from here to home (ここから家まで). In the Duo sentence, they have omitted the から half (now implied), but the meaning remains: your destination is home.
When に is used, my impression is that you are moving to a more specific destination (学校), whereas へ could be to a broader location (日本). This could be why others describe the difference as emphasis on destination vs. journey. But their nuanced meanings are so subtle that they are often used interchangeably.
- 1051
Why here i dont have to say わたつのいえ but when sentense was about my car i had to wite it like わたつの車, how now its clear that the house is mine?
It's わたし（私）not わたつ, and Japanese is all about context. Since you're not walking to someone else's house, then you must be walking to yours.
You'd never use さんぽ / 散歩 for walking "to" somewhere (i.e. for the express purpose of getting somewhere). Or do you mean the fact that the 歩 in 散歩 is pronounced so differently to that in 歩く?
