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- "田中さんに花をあげます。"
"田中さんに花をあげます。"
Translation:I will give flowers to Mr. Tanaka.
58 Comments
720
I mean, this is true, but I don't know where it came from. Pretty sure Pablo was talking about the translation Duo provided saying "Mr." when there have been previous sentences saying "Ms." or "Mrs." in reference to Tanaka-san.
468
That's because さん is a gender-neutral honorific, so it works as a suitable translation for Mr., Ms., or Mrs.
720
I know. I'm talking about the English sentences, which used to use Ms. or Mrs. in reference to Tanaka-san and NEVER used Mr. before.
Fellas, most of the time when it's a single Japanese name Duo is using the family name, just like they do in their culture (mostly). Tendency is family name first, individual second. If a single name is used you have to either know what kind of name it is or pay close attention to the context (level of formality / closeness between parties). A complete honorific drop is a severe case of disrespect among acquaintances or casualness between very close people.
In previous lessons we got that Tanaka and Honda are family names. Shigeru and Sakura are personal names. We had lessons coupling personal and family names before. Just relax and let the words soup duo provides sink in and your brain will connect the dots when you are relaxed eventually. For any specifics there's always the comments.
Most important: have fun!
But when translating to English you don't use -san. It's not English, it's Japanese in rōmaji. Adding -san to an English translation is foolish, I'd even go so far as to call it lazy. There's also no context available here to discern whether poor Tanaka here is an equal or a superior. As an equivalent example, you wouldn't call your classmate/friend/junior 'Ms. (Kate) Anderson.' Unless you're being weird and overly, almost creepily formal, you'd just call her Kate, right? So in the absence of such context, both 'Tanaka' or 'Ms/Mr Tanaka' should be accepted as correct for this answer.
863
Indeed, only using the surname is familiar, or even rude depending on context — which is the exact opposite of what -さん is conveying!
215
Well, when you give only one flower to Mr Tanaka means two things : you are mean and you are insinuating that Mr Tanaka is homosexual...
218
Just pretend you're Yoda and that every day is Talk Like a Pirate Day, and you'll get the hang of it.
387
In this lesson, the sentence 姉にスカートをもらいます is "My older sister gives me a skirt", and this sentence 田中さんに花をあげます is "I give flowers to Mr./Ms. Tanaka" - so would I be correct in saying the particle に here is indicating the person to whom the verb is referring? Just want to make sure I understand this usage of the particle correctly.
I know it has been a long term practice for educators to be giving an English interpretations of Japanese verbs in their present tense form by using the word "will". However "will" is actually refers to future time and often in future tense. So, if possible I would try to drop the modal verb "will" and just use a verb which in present tense form. And I know that makes the sentence in English sound a bit more stilted, but in actually it is more of an accurate reflection on how the Japanese sounds, which is very stilted.
720
Maybe it's a different word in Japanese. I'm not an advanced enough student to say for sure, though.
720
I think that referring to someone to his or her given name in Japan is kind of like giving a hug in the west. There's a certain level of familiarity required for it to not be uncomfortable, and it's indicative of that level of familiarity.