"田中さんに花をあげます。"
Translation:I will give flowers to Mr. Tanaka.
44 Comments
Just when I thought I was getting to know Mrs. Tanaka she is suddenly a Mr
Just あげる, rarely 上げる when you give something. やる means the same but a bit impolite.
田中 could be any gender and nothing says that it is multiple flowers like it looks for
19
Correct.
"I give Mr. Tanaka a flower." was marked wrong; Duo corrected it to "flowers". I've reported it. (October 15, 2017)
- 19
You can use a counter to specify the number of [noun]s if it's important. Otherwise, it can be either singular or plural.
Surely "I give flowers to Tanaka" is just as acceptable? "San" doesn't denote gender.
Nope, but it denotes a title. Tanaka is the person's surname, so Mr, Miss, Mrs, Ms is needed.
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.
But Tanaka is a surname. Surnames in English almost always require a title like Mr/Mrs/Ms/Miss or a more specific one like Dr/Professor/etc.
- 257
Indeed, only using the surname is familiar, or even rude depending on context — which is the exact opposite of what -さん is conveying!
- 19
"I give Mr. Tanaka a flower." was marked wrong; Duo corrected it to "flowers". I've reported it. (October 15, 2017)
I put "I give a flower to Mr. Tanaka" and it was rejected. There's no number implied in the Japanese here, so shouldn't "a flower" also be acceptable?
- 19
田中さんは私に花をくれます。
たなかさんはわたしにはなをくれます。
(あげる is used when the receiver is respected; くれる is used when the giver is respected.)
I keep messing this up because of how awkward it is to say this in English. I would never say this. I might say "I will give ..," but "I give..."? Am i narrating my own life now?
Does あげます usually mean only that you give someone something instead of offering it to them? Does あげます imply that they took the thing? Because this is the second sentence where I've put "I offer __ flowers" and it's been marked as wrong.
im also wondering is there a better way to say this, as 上げる has a multitude of possible meaning. here is obvious you are giving flowers and not deep frying them, but alas! is this a verb used to express a polite giving (like you suggest in english we may "offer a gift")?
Altough in English we can drop the honorific, but Japanese ALWAYS put the さん (san) after someone's name. So we must practice it (putting Mr. Mrs. Ms.) in English too to make sure we always remember it.
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.
It's not the Japanese present form, it's the Japanese non-past form. It can be used for both present and future tense, so both "will give" and just "give(s)" are acceptable translations.
It seems to me if the communication is formal enough to use さん that お花 should be used, not just 花。
San being translated seems kinda weird, San is an honourific given to everyone, Kun is a male honourific, Chan is a Female honourific, and chan and kun are also interchangeably used with friends it just seems weird for San to be translated when it's just part of Japanese culture
The use of さん adds to the sentence. If the person was spoken of as simply 田中 there wouldn't be a Mr/Ms in the translation, but there is. Tanaka-san = Mr/Ms Tanaka.
Plus, it's a surname. You wouldn't say in English "I gave a flower to Jones". You could say "I gave a flower to Kate", but if you use her last name you'd say "I gave a flower to Miss Jones"
