"先週、日本の友だちに電話をかけました。"
Translation:Last week, I called my Japanese friend on the phone.
84 Comments
Why friends is wrong? They didnt specify the number of friends he/she called :/
There is no difference between singular/plural in Japanese. x-tachi or x-ra can be understood as "a group around x" or "a group of x", so it is kind of plural. But without it, it can still mean both one or more than one.
The first time I heard a Japanese friend using a form like "Tanaka San-tati" it took me a minute to understand that it meant "Mr Tanaka and his family"
No because tomodachi already has Tachi in the name, it's the dachi.
Otherwise it would be perfectly possible.
Could this also mean "I called my Japanese friend" instead of "I called my friend in Japan"?
Technically. But I think this would rather be 日本人の友だち, otherwise it sounds like the friend is somehow officially representing the country of Japan.
It's not only 日本人の友だち. It should be changed to 日本にいる友だち.
日本の友だち is very unclear Japanese. The meaning is friends in Japan, including foreigners in Japan.
日本の外国人(がいこくじん) means foreigners in Japan. → 日本にいる外国人
日本の日本人の友だち means Japanese friends in Japan. → 日本にいる日本人の友だち
日本 で 友達 (my friend in Japan) 日本 から 友達 (my friend from Japan - pretty sure kara is ok to use here)
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What would "friend in Japan" be as opposed to "friend from Japan" versus 日本人の友だち (Japanese friend)?
I would say the options you have are 日本の友達 (lit. Japan's friend - friend from Japan) and 日本人の友達 (lit. Japanese('s) friend). In some cases, the even more literal 日本から友達 might be ok for friend from Japan.
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I was about to say 日本に いる 友達 but I see that I have already commented as much almost directly below. This literally means my friend (who is or being) in Japan.
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It IS a clumsy Japanese translation - it would be more natural to say either nihonjin no tomodachi - my japanese friend or nihon ni iru tomodachi - my friend (who is) in Japan.
Im having issues with particles here. Wouldnt In Japan be 日本に and from Japan 日本で？Its been a while since I studied Japanese and Im trying to figure out why I got "Friend from Japan" marked wrong
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Nihon de - you are in Japan in general, the general area of Japan - you're not pointing out where you are in Japan specifically or pointing out specifically that you are in JAPAN as opposed to some other country. Nihon ni - you want to specifically point out that you are in the country of Japan, as opposed to perhaps another country.
I feel the same about this one. It is quiye confusing and needs to be clearer.
I put last week I phoned my japanese friend surely this ought to be accepted also
Did you try putting in the comma after "last week"? The English translation will otherwise assume you will put that phrase last (after all, the natural inclination in English syntax is to place time expressions last).
Duo translation ignores punctuation marks. Also time doesn't need to be last in a sentence. "I called my friend in Japan last week " and "Last week I called my friend in Japan " are both normal ways of using English. Neither is more usual or correct.
I dont understand 日本の友だち... for me it doesnt sound right. Can someone explain?
I don't know if it is similar in Portuguese, but in Spanish: amigo de Japón.
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That's correct. の is a possesive particle, so 日本の友達 means friends from japan or friends OF Japan.
It's strange. It doesn't make sense, and that's the general consensus. I got this question right and I needed to come here to comment on it.
can someone please explain what determines the singular and plural form of friend(s)? 友だち vs ??
友達 is both plural and singular. The context is what will inform you of which it is. 私たちは友達です。"We are friends". Could refer to a group of more than 2 people. あなたは(私の)友達です。Singular, "You are my friend." 'My' in parentheses since 私 is usually inferred and omitted.
The problem is, how can one determine in this example sentence if 友達 is plural or singular? Semantically speaking, it is possible to call one friend or multiple friends within the timespan of a week.
Is there be a distinction between phone and telephone in Japanese? Got marked wrong for using one over the other
I answered this one like an old person and got it wrong. "Last week, I phoned my friend in Japan." It makes sense in English...
Where to start? I offered: " I called a Japanese friend on the telephone last week." , which may not be the most elegant translation, but in essence is correct. Nevertheless, it was rejected as a proper answer. The given answer however, is ridiculous. 日本の友だちい literally: "Japan's friend", which I suggest is best translated as "a Japanese friend " is not the same thing as "my friend in Japan". In the original sentence there is no direct indication that the friend is indeed in Japan, but it does do more than to suggest that he is 日本人 . If that is what was intended and for the avoidance of doubt, it would probably be better phrased as わたしの日本に友だち . On that (mis) construction there is no particular reason why the friend should be "of Japan" i.e. Japanese, but he would at least be in Japan. While I am at it , why is "phone " preferable to "telephone"? I know that this is in beta, but this is starting to feel as ropey as all Hell.
I really hate these typed translations because it is so hard guessing the right answer. Like, what's the difference between this "correct" answer and what I typed? "last week, i called my friend in Japan by telephone"
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I am not English speaker, can someone answer me why my answer is wrong? "Last week I called my friends from Japan."
That sentence is ambiguous: it could mean that YOU were in Japan and called from there to speak to friends who were someplace else.
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Could this be ok: "last week I talked on the phone with my Japanese friends". How do you distinguish snigular or plural friends?
I translated it with "a Japanese friend" instead of "my Japanese friend" and got an error. Isn't "a" correct aswell or is tomodachi that specific?
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just a minute ago the right answer was " I called my friend in Japan..." now it says "my Japanese friend". That does not make any sense, does it? I thought 日本人would be Japanese person...?
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Isn’t this a potential form of the verb 書きます? If so, this should be translated as “I could call...”
what's wrong with "I talked to my friend in Japan by telephone?"
first time, didn't accept last week, I called my friend in Japan on the telephone saying telephone should be phone, second time around "last week, I phoned my japanese friend" it responds "Last week, I called my Japanese friend ." Someone needs to teach this thing real English. (yes I reported both, just venting)
'My friend in Japan' is suitably ambiguous... since we don't know if the friend is japanese or not, or even if he/she is in japan at this time.
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Technically both should be accepted since tomodachi is both singular and plural and the context of the sentence doesn't give you context clues for how many friend(s) you are calling
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Thanks for your reply, AnaLydiate. I didn't forget the Last week part, I just didn't include it in my cautionary comment above. However, I think I figured out that to (tele)phone might be something along the lines of 電話denwa でde 呼び出すyobidasu (?) where yobi might mean to call, but I have no clue about dasu. I'm going to quit experimenting around on this one and just go with what DL suggests.
"Last week, I called my japanese friend." Would be the best and most natural translation. due to "denwa wo kakeru" means "to make a call" / "to call" thus "denwa wo kakemashita" = "i called" so 「友達に電話を掛けました」 means "I called my friend". Hope this helps.
In English, what's wrong with: I called over the phone my friend in Japan. Sounds goid to me but it was not accepted
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There's a lot in the Japanese that just doesn't translate into natural sounding English. Also if you included all the information that is in the Japanese sentence into an English translation a lot of it would be overstating or stating the obvious eg. you wouldn't say "I call over the phone" - for one, it sounds like you are literally yelling at someone over the top of your phone. Also in English you wouldn't say you're calling someone on the phone because it's overstating - if you say I called my friend or I gave my friend a call, people already know that you called them on a phone - they are not imagining you calling to them across a room or across a park or at the gym - it's understood that when you say you called a friend in this context that you called them on a phone so there's no need to include that information - like saying I hammered the nail in with a hammer or I vacuumed with a vacuum cleaner. And as for 日本 の 友達 I think the most accurate and natural sounding English translation for this is probably (my) Japanese friend because my friend in Japan would be 日本 に いる 友達 (nihon ni iru tomodachi). Not all Japanese (or any language for that matter) translates perfectly into English and you just have to choose the right balance of what information to include and what makes for a natural sounding English translation while still conveying what the Japanese says. There's also the matter of different word orders for different languages. In English the basic word order is subject verb object, in Japanese it is subject object verb.
Leading with Last week. ( sorry but there seens to be no way to edit a typo once you post on the app)
"Last week, i dialed the phone number of my Japanese friend" was reported as wrong answer. Duo lingo most with on these subtle differences as these become frustrating
