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- "ここのカフェはコーヒーがおいしいです。"
"ここのカフェはコーヒーがおいしいです。"
Translation:This cafe's coffee is delicious.
90 Comments
There actually is a reason for the は being there (although saying このカフェのコーヒーはおいしいです would also be perfectly correct). The は indicates the topic, which is sometimes, but not always, the same as the subject in an English sentence (represented here by the particle が). The は particle sometimes can translate to "As for..." (for example, わたしはせんせいです could translate to "As for me, I'm a teacher") So here, it's basically wanting to say, "As for the cafe here, the coffee's delicious". That would be a rather awkward sentence in English - and yes, they should be using この instead of ここの - but the rest of it does make sense for how Japanese works.
634
A little late to comment, but on a side note to your example, you should not call yourself "sensei" if you want to say that you are a teacher. Instead you should call yourself "kyōshi" and others "sensei". A bit off-topic, but anyways :)
634
From what I've understood, "sensei" is more like an honorific and therefore calling yourself sensei sounds kinda weird. It basically means something like "someone with knowledge". Kyōshi is more neutral term for teacher and therefore you should use that when talking about yourself or teachers in general.
I disagree very much.
My job description on legal documents for my bank said eigonosensei and nobody ever batted an eye at me calling myself sensei. It could be that nobody wants to correct the gaijin, but i think this is a technical respectfulness point that is technically true by grammatical politeness, but sensei is still logistically useful for daily conversation.
It technically is wrong to just translate it as "tasty", even if not dictionary-wise. おいしい is a compliment so it's generally meant as an exclamatory, so it's in superlative form.
In layman's terms, a compliment in japanese is generally a high-tier compliment, not a low-tier one. You don't tell someone they look nice, you tell them they're beautiful, cute, et.c.
2324
"in this cafe"? "at this cafe"? is there a difference that the former is a wrong answer?
To actually answer the question, there shouldn't be. If you call someone and they ask you where you are currently, you pretty much always answer with "at the, at this" not "in" unless you're in somewhere, but it's not incorrect to use either.
In the case of this particular phrase however, "the coffee in this cafe" is fine, since the cafe is an establishment and therefore a location which you can be in.
At the Japanese school they taught me きっさてん, at the school here the book says コーヒーショップ (the teacher allows me to use きっさてん) and now Duo uses カフェ, all for the same thing. Anyway, I will continue to use this https://www.wadoku.de/entry/view/5007342
709
That confused me, too. I think it's the difference between accenting the location ("The cafe that is here") and the company. (I.e., chain restaurants can have multiple locations, and one location may be better (to taste) than another.) That's just my guess, though.
379
"In this cafe" implies that the cafe is filled to the brim with coffee. Like a huge, cafe-shaped coffee mug. As a USian, "at this cafe is more natural to me.
English language really doesn't do implications like that. Let's say you're calling someone while you're sipping some posh-named overpriced cup of coffee and you sit around in a Starbucks, and the question of where you are, you will almost never say "i'm at Starbucks", you're always "In Starbucks", or "in the café at the some place" if it's a smaller or integrated café. You almost never say "at the cafe", unless you're both in the same location.
624
As a New Zealander, I would use 'in this cafe' for people or things that are inside, or 'at this cafe' for people or things that are outside (if there are tables outside, or it's an open-air cafe).
379
Respectfully I disagree with both of your points. English LOVES to do implications. The dirtier the better. And I would almost never use "in" a store.
I know a lot of you say it would be better if we use the "の" particle :
"" このカフェのコーヒーがおいしいです ""
This Cafe's coffee is delicious.
But as for that sentence , it's also a possible translation too.
The Particle "は" means " as for " , (you do remember that somewhere, right ?) , this is the most common definition of this particle . "は" = As for
ここのカフェは = As for this Cafe , ... ( koko no kaffe wa )
And the rest will be easy ... "が" indicates the subject , so the subject here is Coffee
コーヒー が= the coffee ( the subject ) ( koohii ga )
おいしい = Delicious . ( i-adjective) ( oishii )
( HERE , i recommend to use delicious rather than tasty , since Duo didn't accept "tasty" as a correct ANSWER for some people) it still the same meaning though
So , the whole sentence would be like this : - " As for this coffee , the coffee is delicious " And it has the same meaning as : - " This Cafe's coffee is delicious " -
- I hope it helped you , & understand there is another way to say it without the " の " particle .....
Have Fun 楽しんで (たのしんで) ^_^
709
The main change in nuance is this:
Duo's sentence: "As for this cafe here, the coffee is delicious."
Your sentence: "As for this (here) cafe's coffee, it is delicious."
The main change in nuance is talking about the cafe vs the cafe's coffee. The sentences say slightly different things, so they don't really work as interchangeable translations.
Remember, the purpose of this site is to teach and test the translating ability of learners. We're not here to extrapolate meaning, we're here to learn grammar and vocabulary. The speaker is talking about the coffee in association with the cafe, but the primary point is about the cafe itself. That's why it's not a viable translation. You'd have to make an entirely new sentence with the corresponding English and Japanese translations in order to make it standardized so that learners don't get confused.
For example, the speaker in Duo's sentence may be rating various cafes. "This one makes good cake, this one has bad service," etc. It's just that this particular one has good coffee. The subject is the cafe, not the coffee, unlike in your sentence, where the coffee is the main focus.
Good analysis, but you're misinterpreting the Japanese. In a sentence with 〜は and 〜が, the focus is on 〜が, so in this case the コーヒー. Therefore, if you changed it to ここのカーフェのコーヒー, there would actually be more emphasis on ここのカーフェ!
However, I agree with you that using の would change the meaning and require a new sentence. Just remember that you have to think with the Japanese sentence in mind, not the English translation.
107
Is it a competition to made most unnatural english phrase to piss off users?
You have pretty high chances to win Duo...
709
"to made most unnatural english phrase"? I don't know... Your own chances seem to be pretty high at winning if that's the competition.
709
"The coffee at this cafe is very delicious" was marked wrong. I guess it's just not the exact wording.
Thanks for your reply. Yes, I've seen someone saying that about おいしい、so I asked some Japanese friends about that. Some of them never use the kanji, others prefer to always use it, and others do depending on the mood. If that's the case with listening exercises, I will switch to the word bank option instead of keyboard in those questions. Thanks again
709
Hmmm it's hard to say on that. "From," specifically, would be "kara," but this sentence is really just saying "As for the cafe here, the coffee is delicious." "The coffee from this cafe is good" may work ("very" would be "totemo") though it's a liiiiiittle too far from the literal meaning for a language practice setting, I think.
319
Grammarly right, but the better expression in English is "The coffee of the cafe is delicious/tasty".
709
The point of the exercise is to translate the sentence's words and grammar, though, and the Japanese word for "delicious" is here. When learning a language, you're not translating ideas because that gets to be more difficult to measure how well you're learning the actual language. Translating into colloquialisms comes after you've got the vocabulary and understanding of the foreign culture.
624
yes, you'd never see a solecism such the 'the rocket's red glare' in something as formal as the US national anthem...