"何がこまりましたか？"
Translation:What is the trouble?
58 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
The thing is sometimes Duolingo is very literal and sometimes is interpretative... Like this.
So the kanji is a guy laying on a bed, seemingly in a coma (こま). I like it.
515
The kanji was actually a wood surround by walls, leaving no room to grow. But man, I like your interpretation of a guy (while having a extra limb... Or something big between the legs( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°))
- 2696
I think what Jacques is getting at is that troubled is essentially a synonym for worried. I too was thinking "What were you troubled by" or "What was troubling you."
The Japanese sentence is in the past tense, so what TROUBLED you should be okay
"Komaru" is one of those Japanese verbs that references something in the past to tell you about the present. Something happened, and now you are in the state of being troubled. When you ask "nani ga komarimashita ka?" you are seeing that the person is currently troubled, and are asking what happened to cause that state.
Another example of this kind of verb behavior would be saying "kaze o hikimashita", which literally means "I caught a cold", but is explaining that now, currently, you have a cold.
"I caught a cold" is actually a good example, as you have the same construct in English there. "Caught" is past tense, but is often used in a context where you imply that you currently have a cold. E.g. "How're you doing? - Not great, I caught a cold."
Or, for that matter, consider the even more ubiquitous "I have got" to mean you possess something, where "got" is past tense.
Yes...it is in the past tense, so their translation is incorrect I, speaking to my Japanese husband, probably would be asking him: What was the problem? What was wrong?...again, idiomatic, not necessarily a LITERAL translation
I don't think this Japanese sentence is appropriate when someone wants to ask someone who seems to be in trouble...
I would ask,「何（なに）かありましたか？」、「何（なに）かお困（こま）りですか？」、「どうかしましたか？」or「どうしたんですか？」
「何（なに）がこまりましたか？」this is asking about a sort of specific things,
A：先週（せんしゅう）日本（にほん）に行（い）って苦労（くろう）しました。
B：何（なに）が困（こま）りましたか？
A：まず英語（えいご）がなかなか通（つう）じませんでしたし、あとWi-Fi環境（かんきょう）も整（ととの）っていませんでした。
I agree this sentence sounds a little off. It sounds like person A said something like "こまりましたねえ..." and person B is like "何が'こまりました'？？？".
I agree.
Also I want to add, if I wanted to say the English answer in Japanese I would say "Nani o nayande iru n desu ka?" (Sorry about no Japanese keyboard)
I wrongly thought it meant: "What got you in trouble?" How would you translate this sentence?
I think that idiomatically, you would have been good with that, but they have to try to stick as closely to the literal, textbook translation as possible...
Some Japanese constructions use past tense to express a present meaning, in the sense of, you became troubled at some point in the past, and you are (we're assuming) still troubled as a result of that. IsolaCiao gave the example of "I caught a cold", which is the same principle applied to English.
since こまります means "be in trouble" and the subject is 何, i wouldve thought the litteral translation would be "what was in trouble? "
"what was troubling you?" is an acceptable and frankly better translation than their. This app is very frustrating
I've explained in another comment in this thread, but the translation is not wrong, the verb in the past tense reflects that something happened that has resulted in you currently being in a state of trouble. A Japanese person says こまりました (komarimashita) when they are in a current state of trouble.
- 444
I feel like "What's bothering you" should also be accepted. Or maybe this is a very Midwestern way of speaking? Do other people not say this?
- 1986
What were you in trouble?← Is this a mistake?
My English confidence is running down "(-""-)"
You can say "why were you in trouble?", but not "what".
"What" is the subject, so the verb is "was" or "is". The object is "the trouble".
It's a difficult sentence to translate even for native English speakers :)
"What is the problem?"is not correct?, i understand the literal translation is trouble but does problem not sound like a better translation in english for this case?
I would translate this as "is there something troubling you?" "is something the matter?". I don't know..the provided one just does not ring well to me
"Komarimashita", even though it is in the past tense, means that you are right now currently troubled.
Would you say this in English? What's the matter? What's the problem? But "what's the trouble?" sounds incorrect. Whats troubling you? Maybe.
- 2696
I have heard "What's the trouble," though not nearly as commonly as the other phrases you mention.