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- Topic: Japanese >
- "どの国に行ったことがありますか？"
"どの国に行ったことがありますか？"
Translation:Which countries have you been to?
66 Comments
Absolutely horrible English. Yes Which countries have you been to? is correct and the English sentence should be corrected.
What rule of English grammar was broken in the DLJapanese translation?
Not a rule of grammar but one of semantics. Normally “I have been there” is used to mean “I went there and came back”
may 31, 2020 the official sentence is "Which countries have you been to?"
no idea what it was before but i guess i'm glad lol
1116
Well, technically it should be "to which countries have you been" so that it doesnt end on a proposition but I won't tell.
- 347
There's actually nothing technical about that rule. It's an arbitrary one made up on the basis that English should emulate Latin grammar.
- 397
Much in standard English is that way. And yet, it is considered more proper. Rules of any language did not fall out of heaven :)
Not really, Japanese people use kanji a lot, it's just that using 事 would be incorrect in this case, as こと is a particle
OHHHH
（所）に - to (a place)
いったこと - the experience of going
が
ありますか - is there
is this it?
Please correct me if i'm even slightly off, it's most important to have a correct example for everyone to see
- 1192
Depends on what you mean by "incorrect". Some Japanese people would write the kanji, and actual usage is an important part of language. But the correct grammatical usage in this sentence is to write it in kana.
In short, こと is "thing." It's basically the intangible version of 物. So in this case it effectively makes the concept of "having gone to a country" a noun.
- 1192
In English, this question is in the present perfect tense, have + past participle of the verb. Japanese does not have a present perfect tense. The equivalent of asking a person if they have the experience of doing something is
(past tense of the verb) koto ga arimasu ka?
行ったことがありますか？
itta koto ga arimasu ka?
Have you been to ~ ?
- 1197
To better understand it, ~に行ったこと means "the fact that you have been to~"; Once the subject has been to that place, such fact exists, but not existed, at the time the question is asked. So it is in present tense. You would use past tense if the time reference is in the past: 去年アメリカへ行ったことがありました。Last year I had been to America.
Yes, while this is correct English, many people often don't speak this way. I only use this sentence structure when writing.
Why is it not "どの国に行ったのがありますか"?? That was the form we used a lot in the sections before
Because this construction requires こと. -たことがある is a set construction expressing what is technically referred to as the "experiential aspect", that is, a form indicating that one has had the experience of doing something.
- 592
Mexico, Canada, Costa Rica, Colombia, Panama, Jamaica, Australia, Japan, China, South Korea, Singapore, the UK, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Morocco, Italy, The Vatican, Greece, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam.
I know the Japanese run the "i" in ni and itta together, but to my ear, unless this is written down, "に行った" , you appear to be missing the vital part of the verb. The audio pauses after "ni" sound, then goes on "takoto... ". Is he/she saying this correctly? Don't like my chances of understanding in Japan if that's correct?
- 1192
"Have you been going to?" implies that you are continuing to go to those countries. 行ったことありますか is asking about past experiences that are finished. Which countries have you had the experience of going to?
- 1192
どの is an adjective that needs to attach to a noun; it can't be used by itself.
どちら is a pronoun that can stand on its own. It would need の after it to modify another noun (どちらの国).
is the 'i' sound from the end of 'kuni[country]' really held all they through the 'ni' and the 'i [go verb] until the ta?
No one has yet addressed the issue of being unable to hear the somewhat necessary "行っ"in "行った".
I typed "Which countries have you went to?" and got it wrong. ❤❤❤❤ my english sucks xd
Acceptable English, and should pass, but it's not natural use in most english countries
Wow, John Dryden has a Duolingo account? When you're not sure about the idiomatic construction, you can use the capitalisation as a hint.
"To which countries have you gone" was marked wrong. Duo likes dangling infinitives.
I tried this with the sneaking suspicion that it would be marked incorrect.
