"今、とりがなきましたか？"
Translation:Did a bird just chirp?
26 Comments
132
They cannot be all intuitive. Like the bird kanji is not, but the chirp kanji is, because you already know the bird one.
I thought it was a hat selling dog? Maybe the dog was trying to sell hats to the birds?
I don't know, "right now" would suggest it's still happening, "just now" suggests the action is completed. "The bird chirped just now" vs "The bird is chirping right now". Maybe it's a regional thing.
- 18
You are correct about how I would use it as well; I assume what Nicole meant is that since the sentence uses past tense, "just now" would make more sense than "right now", or "now" by itself.
Duolingo: Did birds sing right now?
Me, incorrect: Did birds sing just now? 2018-02-09
I also feel that "just now" should be an accepted answer.
Given that the sentence is past tense (Did…? / …ましたか), this implies the possible action has completed and is not still happening.
The phrase "right now" implies a present-continuous tense, meaning that the action described is still happening. Therefore "right now" seems like a contradictory translation to the ました.
However the phrase "just now" implies a completed action, which is no longer happening. This makes more sense.
To better illustrate, here are—in my opinion—natural English translations for three Japanese variants:
今、とりがなきましたか？ (Did birds sing just now?)
今、とりがないていますか？ (Are birds singing right now?)
今、とりがなきますか？ (Will birds sing now?)
Now, a bird chirped? Sure isn't right. A bird chirped now? Was that a bird chirping now? Did that bird chirp Now? (Of all moments to choose!!) now?... or now?.. How about now?
Those dernn chirping birds! Always shattering the sweet silence like that!.. All at just the worst timing too.
None of it sounds like a natural english question to me. -.-
"Did a bird chirp now" sounds weird in English. It feels a bit like you're trying to say now in the sense of 'something has changed'.
It's more natural to use some variation of 'a moment ago' like 'just now'. Looks like Japanese is cool with just saying 今 though since there's no confusion!
Sure they do.
"Did you just hear a bird/did you hear a bird just now?"
"Did you just hear someone knock on the door/Just now, did you hear someone knock on the door?"
"Did you see that shooting star just now/did you just see that shooting star?"
- 18
You're right that "now" on its own sounds weird for a past tense event, but "just now" seems fine.
Yes. If an animal or bird is making the sound, you use the kanji 鳴く. If a human is crying, you use the kanji 泣く.
鳴 is なる. 鳴門 is なる+と. It means "whirlpool", which is why the character Naruto in the manga has a spiral symbol on his stomach and his headband. The spirals also resemble narutomaki (鳴門巻), a type of fish cake with a spiral pattern, often served on soup and ramen, which the character often eats.
I ended up thinking it was "Now has a bird chirped?" As if they were waiting for it to happen. Could it be interpreted that way out of context?
