"What will we do today?"
Translation:今日は何をしますか?
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I feel more comfortable with は being dropped. One thing that confuses me is that in the English translation, technically the invisible dropped 'we' is the subject, not today 今日. So if you did not drop the subject 私達は, you would have two は ie (今日 は、 私達は 何を しますか. Can someone explain? I know that "Today" can be a subject (eg 今日は暑いToday is hot) but in this sentence, 今日 acts more as an adverb of time.
1342
It is not wrong but it is not natural. Nobody speak like that. 今日は何をするの? or 今日は何をするのか? sounds much better. Other choices of the question ending that fit here include だい、かい、かしら.
1342
する is the verb "do" and します is the polite form. Nothing to do with timing. ます itself couples with the verb in Renyou-form to become the polite form. In this case し is the Renyou-form of する.
1342
The subject can also be you or I in this sentence. It is not necessary to use しましょう to make the subject "we"
I'm not 100% sure, but I would've said 今日は何をしましょうか to incorporate "we". But the ましょう form of ます hasn't been introduced yet.
1342
If there is already an itinerary then it is -しますか. If the activity is not planned, then -しましょうか. Because しましょう has a nuance of inviting others to do something together. If it is planned, then it is unnatural to invite.
Well, that depends, on what you want the answer to be. There is a difference. Even though sometimes situations both would be possible.
何をしますか in the sense of FUTURE is more like "what are we (or whoever) going to do, what is the plan?" (asking for information on something that is already decided, e.g. the content for the lesson, the plan for a trip/ the next holiday...)
しましょう is more like "should" and mainly used for suggestions.
何をしましょうか。What should we do? (asking for suggestions/ opinion)
x しましょうか? should we do x? (making a suggestion and asking for opinion or agreement)
x しましょう! Let's do x! / We should do x! (saying that it is good idea to do x, you want to and plan to do it, but still give the others the hypothetical possibility to decline. It's a little more polite because it's less direct than します, but still a strong suggestion.)
The topic (marked by は) is usually first, especially if it is a mention of time as it is here. Then the "neutral" word order is to have the object (marked by を) immediately before the verb. If you put anything else between them, that gets emphasized: "Yes, yes, but what shall we do today?" (and I suspect putting the topic there makes it especially odd). You can read more about this at https://8020japanese.com/japanese-word-order/
1342
Typically the topic is placed at the beginning. But it has some flexablilies.
- 今日は 私たちが 何を しますか ok
- 私たちが 今日は 何を しますか ok
- 私たちが 何を 今日は しますか unnatural
I think as long as the direct object sticks with the verb, other particle phrases can move around quite freely.
1342
Sorry was not paying attention 2 years ago.
今日は 私たちが 何を しますか <- not OK because there is a question word "何" and we can't use が for 私たち (We can't use が if a question word is after the particle).
1342
There has to be a subject particle after 私たち. It cannot be が because the question word is not the subject. So it must be は and the complete sentence is 今日は私たちは何をしますか (Although it is grammatically correct, it is not natural to include two は like this in the sentence, so either dropping the first は, or dropping the whole 私たち phrase altogether.)
Not a native speaker, but I don't think you generally interpolate "time" clauses between object and verb. I've just gotten used to the idea that, barring some extraordinary reason for emphasis, "kyou" always goes right at the beginning.
Also, "watasitasiha" wouldn't be included unless the purpose of the question would be to ask: "What are WE doing today?".
1342
The rule is "action noun" + を + する(します) can omit the を to become "action noun" + する(します)
何(なに) is a question word which is not an action noun.
し is part of the verb します、the polite non-past conjugation of the verb する "Do"
ます is just a verb ending, it itself is not a word and cannot stand on its own.
今日は何をしますか
今日は - On the topic of today (today)(topic particle)
何を - What thing (what)(direct object particle)
しますか - Will you do (Do)(Question particle)
が puts stress on the word that comes before it. You wouldn't put the new information particle が before a question word like 何 since it is not "we" that is important, but the thing we want an answer to "what"
我々itself isn't necessarily wrong but it's formal and usually used when speaking on behalf of a company or group, so it sounds a bit strange in normal conversation
I really wish Duolingo had some leniency with typos when typing in Japanese, "今日は何おしますか" wasn't accepted. I get that it's the wrong "o" as the particle, but I hate having it not count after it took me like 30 seconds to type that all out with the 12key keyboard. Just tell me I have a typo and let it slide, owl. Please
1037
Totally disagree. What you typed doesn't really make sense. I think Duo's too lenient even with English typos. And if takes you 30 seconds to type 今日は何をしますか (that took me maybe 4 seconds?) you need more practice.
1037
In principle you could have it with a second topic marker after it but I suspect that wouldn't be natural in most cases - more likely you'd change "we" to be the topic and omit the one after "today". Grammatically 'we' is actually the subject but at least one other poster has suggested explicitly marking it as such (with 'ga') wouldn't be natural here either.
1342
In my theory there can be two は in a sentence but they cannot be both a topic marker. One is a topic marker, the other one can be a contrast/stress marker. The topic is usually at the beginning of the sentence, and the other は is probably the contrast marker. 今日は私たちは何をしますか。今日: topic, 私たち: contrast (to someone else in the context).
I had a similar discussion in my は vs が article as well https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/35559111.
1037
So if you felt "today" was logically the topic and you needed to ask "as for today, what will we do"? and it was important to clarify you meant "we" (vs you/I/ they etc), would you use a second ha particle?
1342
Sorry I can't think of a way to express this with は alone when we need 今日 as a topic but 私たち not as a contrast.
That's why this sentence alone doesn't sound natural 今日は私たちは何をしますか
What I would do is to change 今日は to something else like 今日といえば. For example this sound quite natural => バレンタインである今日といえば、彼女たちはいったい何をするつもりでしょうか。