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- "Where is the cold medicine?"
"Where is the cold medicine?"
Translation:風邪の薬はどこにありますか？
26 Comments
I think 風邪の薬（かぜのくすり）is hardly ever used in everyday speech. Japanese people usually call it 風邪薬（かぜぐすり）
sorry, what is the kanji after 何 and why can you put it there. i looked at the dic already but the single kanji alone seems not match with this context
2043
I am Japanese . " doko ni arimasu ka " is a little more polite than " dokodesu ka " . But in everyday conversation , there is no problem in using either . We feel happy if you speak positively Japanese . I'll do my best to study languages like you do ! By the way , is my English correct ? Bye .
- 2046
Thank you for clarifying that. Your English is great, except for your use of the adverb "positively," which is now pretty rare, and is only used to amplify an adjective, e.g. "I am positively delighted to hear that." You probably mean something like "We feel very happy if you speak Japanese" or "We feel happy if you speak any Japanese" or "We feel very happy if you speak Japanese at all." Thank you again for your help.
- 2043
Thank you for your early reply and kind explanations . I want to be able to use English better .
Also, it is only a little thing but if you did not have spaces before your punctuation, like full stops / periods, it would look perfect!
- 2043
Mr.Adrian . Thank you for your comment . Learning English is difficult for me . But it is fun ! I will work hard . Thanks ! Bye .
You can also use positively to mean "favorably". 例えば "It's better to speak positively about other people" => 他の人について好意的に話すの方がいいです。
yes . and this is exacetely what he/she said , they are the same , the only difference here is if you want to be "more" polite or not .
- 1439
By that logic くすりは isn't needed either... So you'd say it should even accept どこにありますか for "where is the cold medicine" then?
Absolutely *(for a translation with enough context, but not a learning exercise with no context).
You'd be amazed how much native Japanese speakers will leave to context, especially in casual speech. Unfortunately for us learners, the point is that, being native speakers, they already know what it is they're leaving out and where it should have gone.
Shouldn't the sentence for English should be more like "where is the medicine for cold"
Hate to be that guy, but 寒い薬 would also be incorrect; it should be 冷たい薬. The accepted answer on this StackExchange question has a great explanation of the difference.
Actually, I was reviewing an old lesson the other day and it used どこにありますか。 It did kind of throw me off, and I considered using it here, but chickened out and went with the more familiar どこですか. Which it also accepted.
Either are accepted, and you don't even need the ですか, just 風邪の薬はどこ？ is fine.
