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- "このおちゃはまずいです。"
"このおちゃはまずいです。"
Translation:This tea tastes bad.
43 Comments
Isn't this INCREDIBLY rude to say? Wouldn't it be better to say something like このおちゃはちょっと。。。
In informal settings like to family or close friends, this would okay to say. However, just as you said, in a more formal setting like in a restaurant, you wouldn't want to upset the chef/cook and so you would leave the sentence open so that what you are trying to say, is implied.
My teacher always used mazui for disgusting. So, "this tea is disgusting ". I think they brewed it too long.,or left it out too long after brewing. Both would make tea gross.
Wouldn't "This is bad tea" also work? It's basically another way of saying the tea tastes bad
In that sense, it would mean the same thing but in order to differentiate it, the sentence is written differently. Saying "This tea is bad" in comparison to "This is bad tea" is not the same as to how you are presenting the sentence. Regardless, the japanese sentence is literally saying Kono (this) ocha (tea) wa (particle) mazui (tastes bad) desu (to be) so it would have to translate into "This tea tastes bad."
Well, that would require you to write the japanese sentence differently.
これはまずいおちゃです。
I don't know if this construction has a grammatical name in English or Japanese, in the German course there were two ways of separating adjectives.
The predicative adjectives: Subject is/are adjective.
And the nominal adjectives: Subject1 is/are adjective+subject2 Or: Adjective1+Subject is/are adjective2
In German, and I think also in Japanese, the adjectives may change form according to this separation.
Any native that can clarify this? どういたしまして in advance.
Have a good day.
"This is bad tea" would probably be これはまずいお茶です. これ=this, まずい=bad, お茶=tea, です=is. However, I don't think it would matter which one you use in conversation, as they have the same meaning, just different wordings.
While it's used for taste, too, it's not limited to that. It can also be used in a "bad" situation.
Here is a helpful lesson on the KSAD rule. http://www.japaneseprofessor.com/lessons/beginning/demonstratives-the-ko-so-a-do-series/
If u have watched jjba the antagonist dio says "kono dio da" which means "it was me dio" so i often think "this dio" because u refer to something close by. IK its a bad example but it help me
Would "This tea is bad-tasting" be closer to the way the sentence is constructed? I know "This tea tastes bad" is smoother in English, I am just trying to get a feel for the architecture of the grammar.
I'm having a really hard time discerning the は before the まずい, the audio is so fast. I know it's there but far out the speed makes it difficult to learn
これ (kore) means this and it's independent pronoun, you use it to point at things
この (kono) means this thing, you can't use it alone, it's dependent pronoun, you always must put something with it
for example: kore wa nan desu ka?? what is this? - independent
kono ocha wa... this (thing) tea is... - dependent
That's how I understand it...
As a lover of all kinds of tea (green or otherwise), I am personally offended by having to type this sentence.
(Note: I'm kidding! Seriously, though... :P )
I love how they keep the honorific particle お even for a disgusting tea. To me it sounds a bit like "your honorable tea is disgusting".
I am a native speaker, and I would say that bitter is also right in the sense of tea.
I am reaching my limit, as far as the strait jacket imposed on translations into English! You guys have got to expand the range of synonyms the software will accept! Even the simplest, most logical variations on how to say something are summarily rejected. What's worse, sometimes in favor of positively ninny-sounding "correct" answers!
I realize it takes a lot of work, and I'm grateful for what you have done already, but please, please do something to soothe the nerves of those of us who don't have all day to try to figure out the byzantine mysteries of what someone has decided is THE ONLY valid translation for something that, clearly, has many more translations.
Then suggest them; that's what the flag button is for. And remember, the course is still in beta, so instead of berating the course developers, you might be better off having a go at other users for not flagging and suggesting enough alternatives for you.
Also, synonyms though some words may be, "bad", "disgusting", "gross", "undrinkable", etc. have subtly different nuances which don't necessarily correspond to the usage of まずい in Japanese. This is all a learning exercise, so maybe the course developers want you to learn some Japanese synonyms too, and that would be made easier by restricting the translation of one word to the one nearest English equivalent.
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"This tea tastes poorly / badly" both not accepted. ): We don't use 'bad' as an adverb where I'm from.
If you use it as an adverb,
A. That would mean that the tea is bad at tasting, and
B. The sentence would be ひどく味わいます.
