"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.
Ahh, sorry - I read a few comments way below that says that は does not necessarily mark the subject but the topic. So if you drop the subject (ie 'we'), you can use the adverb of time as your topic.
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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.
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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.
Do you have a website link that could better explain Renyou-form or other forms and when/where to use them
Why does this refer to "we" instead of "you/I"? Why isn't it something like 今日は何をしましょうか？
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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"
the "we" part isn't clear for me. Is there a way to use 私たち to focus on the we part ? or is it irrevelant ?
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.
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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.
I like that. I wanted しましょう but it wasn't available, so I wondered if Duo wanted to distinguish "What will ..." from "What shall ..." Had the English been "What are we doing today?" I would have been quite comfortable with しますか.
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.)
I'm wondering this too. I think しましょう isn't necessary per se, but is it also fine to use in this way, or does it sound off?
No. は does not (necessarily) indicate what the subject of the sentence is. It indicates the topic, which can be other parts of the sentence as well. It means more something like "As for today, what will we (or I or you, depends on context) do?".
何を今日はしますか。 isnt correct? isnt the whole point of particles that u can move things around? or must を come directly before a verb?
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/
if you wanted to be more specific with wanting to say "we" would it have to be at the very start of the sentence? or could it go right before the verb?
kyou wa nani ga watashitachi shimasu ka? (sorry no JP keyboard.)
That sentence makes sense to me.
Like saying,
As of today, What will we do?
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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.
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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).
kyou wa nani ga watashitachi shimasu ka? = "What will do us today?" And it has been two years now!
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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?".
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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.
Yet it is very easy to imagine someone saying, お前なにしてんだ "What the hell ya doin'?" without any を.
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)
Why does this need a direct object particle? Can't it simply be 'What to do' , 何 しますか?
The sentence states "we". Thus 私たちは今日に何をしますか should be correct. 今日は何をしますか？Does not indicate to who the question is directed.
You'd still probably get marked off for that odd-sounding 今日に. Drop the に or replace it with は and it should be accepted.
In the tips particle "wo" is not necessary but why the hell particle wo is needed here? Also why there is no watshitachi here?
is the "を" part of the verb? because otherwise i don't understand its placement
を is the direct object particle, the thing a transitive verb is acting on. Here it is marking the unknown 何 as the object.
The verb is します, the polite form of する "do"
何をする [What] [do] - To do what
パーティーをする [Party] [do] - To do a party, (to have a party)
I wrote 今日は我々が何をしますか [trying to avoid the suggestions and get used to using IME]. Is this wrong, and if so, why? Thanks in advance.
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
~します Do (present, habitual), Will do (future) An action that happens regularly or will happen in the future
~しています Doing (present continuous) An action that is ongoing
Well, what happens if want to be explicit about we? Should I say:今日, 私達は何をしますか。
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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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。
How can I know the difference between we and you, like i will say the same if it was "what will you do today"
