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- "とおくに行きます。"
"とおくに行きます。"
Translation:I go far away.
50 Comments
621
In this sentence, とおく is a noun instead of an adverb. Therefore it follows に to represent the destination of 行く.
- 695
Tom is correct tooi is an adjective and modifies/describes nouns tooku is an adverb and modifies/describes verbs. With Japanese you can make adjectives into adverbs by removing the final i of i adjectives and adding ku or adding ni after na adjectives.
So this would be the equivalent of turning "soft" into "softly" for instance?
- 417
@ AnaLydiate
"fast" has been an adverb in English for approximately 800 years at least; the relevant adjective sense developed from the adverb centuries later
So when something "is", we use the i-adjective, which makes sense. But when something isn't, we use the ku-adverb form?
So if I understand correctly, not being something is a verb in Japanese?
And how does this work in this case where you have to "go far"?
- 695
I'm not sure what you are saying. But there are two groups of adjectives in Japanese. One is group is commonly called 'i' adjectives or "true" adjectives and usually end in -ai, -ii, -ui, -oi - some examples - akai - red, subarashii - wonderful, samui - cold, kuroi - black. 'i' adjectives can modify the nouns that they describe directly - they don't need any help eg. samui hi - cold day, akai boushi - red hat, subarashii geemu - wonderful game, kuroi inu - black dog. The other group of adjectives are called 'na' adjectives and they need 'na' to help them modify the nouns that they describe - some of them even look like they might be 'i' adjectives like kirei - but don't be fooled! Some examples - shizuka, kirei, suteki, rippa. shizuka na kodomo - quiet child, kirei na niwa - pretty garden, suteki na shaatsu - cool/smart shirt, rippa na sensei - great teacher.
Japanese adjectives can be made into adverbs. Adverbs describe verbs or in other words how an action is performed - quickly, slowly, quietly. To make 'i' adjectives into adverbs you remove the final 'i' and add ku - hayai - quick becomes hayaku - quickly, yasashii - kind becomes yasashiku - kindly/gently. To make 'na' adjectives into adverbs you replace na with ni. Shizuka na - quiet becomes shizuka ni - quietly, kirei na - clean becomes kirei ni - cleanly.
I like this explanation--I hope there will be more of this in the course content itself as the beta process continues.
To continue AnaLydiate's excellent explanation, since you asked about negation: if you want to say that something isn't X, you again need to know if it is an i-adjective on a na-adjective. With i-adjectives, you change the -i to -kunai: inu wa kurokunai desu "The dog is not black." With na-adjectives you instead use the negative form of the verb: niwa wa kirei de arimasen "The garden is not pretty."
- 695
With na adjectives you use the negative form of です - で は ありません to show negative. この くつ は きれい で は ありません。These shoes are not pretty. (では ない or じゃ ない in plain form)
I haven't learned とおい yet but I'm guessing it is an adjective because it ends in "i".
The translation in English is awkward. Normally, we would say I am going far away. The translation is something a non-native speaker or child would say.
i said "i am going far away" and it accepted it so i guess they fixed it.
If you read the other comments and do a quick search on jisho.org, you can see that this can actually be used as an adverb AND a noun, unlike other adjectives that are changed into the adverb form. Here, it is used as a noun, as KeithWong9 has already said. This is a confusing and weird sentence that Duolingo has used which does not make sense given the various other questions this lesson gives.
*Please upvote this comment so others can see
Could this also be, "go far away"? Like a command telling someone else to leave?
- 621
First of all, it is an affirmative sentence. For commanding others it would be 遠くに行ってください/遠くに行きなさい/遠くに行け with decresing degree of politeness. It is rude to say so even for the first one however, and it does not quite convey the meaning of go away.
We use 帰（かえ）る normally as in 帰ってください. A more polite one would be お引（ひ）き取（と）りください.
Rude ones include 失（う）せろ, 帰（かえ）れ. Don't say these to others :-)
- 695
Nope, this is present tense. For commands you want the imperative form of the verb. In this instance you would assume that the subject is the speaker ie. I go far.
He told me he was just going to fetch cigs at the gas station.. I'm still waiting..
- 417
The "correct" translation "I are going to go far away" needs to be removed from the system.
EDIT: Add "I are going to go far" to the list of "correct" answers needing a rewrite.
- 695
I doubt "I are going to go far way" was ever considered a correct translation - the English is incorrect. "are" is the wrong form of "to be" to go with "I". There's nothing wrong with the current English translation. If we were going to pick at anything it would be that Duo should really also accept I go far as well. I AM going to go far away is also acceptable.
- 695
piguy - I thought you were referring to the translation at the top of the page. You are right - Duo's "correction" here is wrong. Also thought we couldn't post images in the comments - hooray for progress! This'll clear up a lot of things because I've often suspected that different Duo users see different things in the lessons - not sure if it is because of the devices being used or browsers on computers but from the comments made it sure looks like we don't always all see the same things in Duo lessons - or at least their Japanese lessons.
- 695
PS - hope you reported it. I know it seems like they don't actually read reports or take notice of them but I have had a few emails letting me know that they've read my report and made changes accordingly so they DO read them and make changes. EVENTUALLY.
- 417
Yeah, I reported it (both the correct version and that there's an error in what's there now), but having read threads from contributors mentioning that the "Correct answer contains an error" option is too ambiguous to help them (Unsurprisingly, since it doesn't let them know what "correct" answer contains the problem out of the possibly thousands in the system), I also posted here.
- 695
good idea! The picture will really help with that! That error on Duo's part is HEINOUS.
- 695
Because it doesn't say I will not go far. It says I will go far. I suspect that you are confusing the adverb ending on とおく with the negative ending of true adjectives - in this sentence neither the adverb とおく nor the verb 行きます are negative forms.
- 695
- the adjective has been turned into an adverb ie. describing the verb - not a noun.
- Any 'i' adjective can be turned into an adverb this way.
Is the word for "away" In this sentence? "I go far" Was accepted so i am just curious about the away part
- 621
とおく means "a faraway place" so kind of yes and no to your question. "I go far" and "I go far away" as in the model answer are not as accurate as "I go to a faraway place" imo.
