"田中さんにドアをしめてとたのみます。"
Translation:I ask Mr. Tanaka to close the door.
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と is a particle that is sometimes used for quotes. (So, you could also think of it as: "Tanaka-san, close the door," I said.) Whenever you're explaining what someone said, it's a good place to use と.
と is used to mark a quote, but it also marks a concept. Such as 田中さんがパーティーに行ったと知っています。"I know that Ms Tanaka went to the party." So here it acts like "that" in the English sentence.
In the example Duolingo used it's acting like "to" in "I will ask Ms. Tanaka to shut the door."
In my mind it sounds like "I will ask that (と) Ms. Tanaka shut the door" it may not be the typical way of saying it in English but that is how I remember what the と is there for
Yeah, your way of saying it is essentially the same. Your way comes across as slightly more formal.
さん is an honorific title that means Mr/Mrs/Ms. It shows that in this sentence Tanaka probably isn't a close friend of the speaker.
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Technically speaking though, さん doesn't directly translate into Mr/Mrs/Ms; you could use it in scenarios where Western titles like that wouldn't make much sense. So I think that just "Tanaka" should be accepted in this instance.
Also, reported it, but for some reason even though it suggests Mr/Mrs/Ms on hover, Duo only accepts "Mr" right now for this specific question...
Imagine a situation where this sentence could be used, for example, it's a meeting. Tanaka is late. He enters the room and leaves the door open. In this situation, if address Tanaka, you are likely to say: 田中さん、ドアを閉めてください。 But before you would say that, you would probably think first: 田中さんに"ドアを閉めて"と頼みます。 - I'll ask Tanaka to close the door.
In this case, it's in the て from because it's a direct quotation. The と in here takes the role of quotation marks. Direct quotation is often used in Japanese, but it's translated roughly the same way than the indirect quotation.
Nothing to do with quotation. Here the te-form is an imperative—as in やめて, Stop it!
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You're both right "ドアをしめて" is reported speech - it's what the three speaker is asking 田中さん to do and しめてis in imperative form because the speaker is asking たな加算to do something for them.
With たのむ you use に to reffer to the person you are asking something. But we could have found a sentence like this : 田中さんが わたしに ...... とたのみます。 (tanaka asks me to......)
i said "shut" the door because i was half awake... is there a different verb for shut... or is this a miss
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Duo seems to prefer close to shut. We just need to keep reporting it until they change it to accept both.
This should either be the future tense or past perfect tense in english. You would never say "I ask Mr. Tanaka to close the door." You would say either "I will ask...” Or "I asked ..."
It's like saying in japanese 住みます。It just doesn't make sense if it's not 住んでいる。
"I asked" is past tense, not past perfect. Past perfect would be "I had asked". It can't be past tense anyways, that would be たのみました
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The present simple implies "I (hereby) ask . . ." or "I (habitually) ask . . ." so the correct translation here should surely be "I'll ask . . ." (will or shall is a more difficult question).
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OK, it's just that you seemed to imply that you didn't realise that when you said in brackets that "will or shall is a more difficult question"
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No, I realize that there are people like you who think so, and I fall somewhere in the middle. I mean yes will is used for predictions, and is therefore usually technically incorrect for the intended first-person singular meaning, sounding irresponsible and such, but there are also exceptions. Hence I recommend to use I'll instead of I will or I shall. Too many ignorant people on both sides . . .
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SeanFogart4 I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. Also, it still sounds to me like you think I'll and I will do not mean the same thing.
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They do, or at least I think so. At least some of the time, even in proper English. Plus there are so many people who use only I will incorrectly like this site. It's a regular Americanism. Conversation teachers seem to go rather with I am going to, which is supposedly more common, as it is on this site also.
But I'll is a contraction and not formal English, and is also short for I shall. Plus it's just so much shorter.
Sorry, but my very first instinct is that this sentence is plain wrong. It should be を instead of と, because that's the structure you use for たのむ (sb + に+action+をたのみます). This sentence simply doesn't read like a quote.
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Everything before と (well, between 田中さん に and と if you want to be REALLY exact) is a subordinate clause - it's reported speech. We didn't personally witness the speaker telling 田中さん to shut the door - the speaker is telling us that s/he is asking or will ask 田中さん to shut the door. That is why it is とand not を. I asked Mr/Ms Tanaka to "reported speech/speaker's account of what happened". Thoughts are also conveyed in this way - 何々 と思います where the information in front of とis the speaker's thoughts.
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Unless you have a reason for making 'ドアをしめて' the focus of your sentence by putting it at the start then you're just messing around with the Japanese word order (SOV) for no reason. There's really no reason to chop the sentence up so much like that.
"I will ask Mr. Tanaka to close the door." Leaving the word "will" out of the sentence makes it sound awkward.