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- "あしたはちょっといそがしいです。"
"あしたはちょっといそがしいです。"
Translation:I am a little busy tomorrow.
24 Comments
Hey man thanks for always posting the kanji. I have been meaning to ask you. When you post kanji like this, do only post kanji for words that are usually written in kanji or do you show the correct kanji and leave the nuances to the learner. As of right now, every I regard post you make as they way it would be written 95% of the time.
Sometimes I use kanji for words that are often not written in kanji, but which you will still see kanji used for, especially in more formal writing. I don't use truly obsolete kanji, I.E. those were it is literally never used anymore. Usually those are down to the post WW2 reforms, where many kanji were simplified anyway (meaning there are two forms of some kanji) and others were simply dropped altogether with the words they represent being exclusively written in kana.
I think chotto is used for things that are not physical, like time. Chotto matte (wait a second, literally wait a little) is used a lot in dramas...
This line from Aimyon Kimi wa Rock Kikanai sukoshi sabishisou na kimi ni
was translated by someone as: You look kind of lonely
So sukoshi there probably means a little lonely... So maybe chotto is only used for time?
This is more of an English thing, but to me "I am..." with a future time means something is definitely happening (and won't be changed). It's like saying "this is the future", it's a fact.
"I will..." is a bit softer, used for intentions and plans (that could change), or consequences you expect to happen (you wouldn't say "I am tired tomorrow", but you would say "I will be tired tomorrow" if you're going to be doing something that makes you tired)
Which pronouns should reasonably be accepted in translations of this sentence? It seems there are declarative sentences where pretty much just "I" and "we" are accepted and others where all of them are accepted, but I don't know if there's any rhyme or reason to it, or if it's just beta stage inconsistency.
Honestly I think any? Japanese straight up omits them because they're unnecessary when you have context, so these are "natural" sentences - it's just with single sentences you don't have that context!
But Duo always lays down a few rules about acceptable translations, because you have to draw a line between making sure the student does understand, and allowing freer interpretation that can hide misunderstandings. I think with Japanese you need to at least get into the mindset that if someone just blurts out a sentence with no context, they're probably talking about themselves unless you have reason to think otherwise. Part of learning a language is training your brain to just twig what someone's talking about without needing to think about it
But yeah it needs to be consistent, otherwise it's just frustrating and people will assume they're missing something