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- "I am in front of you."
"I am in front of you."
Translation:あなたの前にいます。
60 Comments
441
Can someone break this down for me please? Why is の being used in this sentence? In another example, the sentence was 前にテーブルがあります。 Does this mean that if の is used, then that is the thing behind the other one (in this example, "あなた" is behind the subject - in other words, the subject is in front of あなた)? And if it's が then that thing is in front of the subject (テーブル is in front of the subject)? Also, when does 前に go at the beginning of the sentence and when does it not? Thank you hahaha
The の particle here is denoting possession, in a way. If you wanted to say that a chair is to your right, we do the same thing in English (YOUR right, it belongs to you) - so あなたの右 would be doing the same thing - "you" "possession" "right". However, in Japanese, the subject, or in this case the reference point, is often dropped if it's understood - especially when the subject is "I" or "you" (saying "わたし" all the time makes you sound conceited, and あなた also can mean "dear/darling/honey" like what you'd call your spouse, so it's actually rarely used - people tend to address others by name instead), so when the subject is dropped, the location begins the sentence. For these location sentences, there are two ways they can be formatted: you can say either: (Subject)が(reference point)の(direction)にいます・あります or (Reference point)の(direction)に(subject)がいます・あります So just like in English we can say 'the chair is next to the table' or 'next to the table is the chair', in Japanese we can say いすがテーブルのよこにあります or テーブルのよこにいすがあります.
Does that help?
what I understand is that の specifies in this context the positioning. ex. あなたの前に means in front of you. when の is left out like in your sentence, we should get within this context that the speaker talks about the front of themselves (私の)前に, 私の is just not needed. テ一ブルがあります means there's a table. so if you place 前に in the beginning of your sentence, it should be translated into "there's a table in front (of me)."
I'm learning Japanese as well so I still have a hard time organizing my own comprehension hahah. there sure are many people who could explain better the grammar and structure of this kind of sentences.
- 1097
As you're talking to the other person anyway, is it okay to just say 「前 に います」 when he/she asks 「どこ に いますか？」?
my case
when i ask「どこ に いますか？」
if someone say「前 に います」.
I ask 「どこの？」（どこの前？）or 「なんの？」（なんの前？）
So are you asking someone to clarify 'what' they are in front of, or 'who' they are in front of?
yes, that's what she's saying. the answer 「前にいます」 was too imprecise to her original question "where are you?"
This coldly translates to "(As for me,) The space is front of you is where I exist"
I thought the が made the topic implicit, and therefore 私. I guess this is starting to make sense... The implicit topic may be 'you', right?
So you're confusing subject with reference point here. "you" is the reference point for the direction (in front of what? In front of YOU). "I" is the subject. The subject needs to be referred to with the は・が particles. So the formula for these sentences would be either:
(Subject)が(reference point)の(direction)にいます・あります or (Reference point)の(direction)に(subject)がいます・あります
So like in English "the cat is to the right of the dog" or "to the right of the dog is the cat"
が is similar to は except it refers to an implicit or non specified object of the type. It's like "a cat" versus "the cat." However, it can indicate the noun of a subordinate clause. https://www.wasabi-jpn.com/japanese-grammar/ha-vs-ga-five-points-you-need-to-know/
you can totally use です, just then the structure would change a bit - you would use は instead of が, and no に. So （わたしは）あなたのまえです works just fine.
Found a reddit thread about this: https://www.reddit.com/r/japanese/comments/3q6r8c/%E3%81%A7%E3%81%99_vs_%E3%81%84%E3%81%BE%E3%81%99/
(私の)前にあなたがいます is "you're in front of me."
あなたの前に(私が)います is "I'm in front of you."
note what comes before 前. の attached to the word before it explains the positioning of 前に here. you can think of it as a possession: 私の前に (I's front > front of me) vs あなたの前に (you's front > front of you).
nb. within the context, 私 is usually implicit and not mentioned. you can drop out what's in the (...) and be perfectly understood.
Ah a simple typo, but my main question is why is it wrong for mae to come first? If the particles are correct why does the order matter? We were regularly told that the order didn't necessarily matter as long as the particles were correct
Sorry. I should to say "Please do not move words like that". The particles are correct now. But the particles of words will be wrong when they are moved. '前にあなたの' is not correct.
I'm sorry, I'm just not understanding why. Is there a specific order the particles need to be in? Possessive first then Location? It's just not something I remember going over in my college classes.
Think of it this way: [あなた] [の] [前] [に] [います] [You] [<-(possessive of)]<- [front] [is where] [I <-(implied) am] "Your front is where I am" It would sound weird(er) if you said "Front your is where I am." The fact that 前 comes after あなたの is important because it signifies that 前 is possessed by あなた because of の. If it were not in this order, it would be hard to tell what あなた is possessing; and in much larger sentences, that could turn into a tragedy.
It's the place 'in front' that belongs to 'you'. Thus the order and usage of the possessive.
The "no" particle must come after the thing that will be the possessive.
"Anata no..." = "your" "watashi no..." = "my"
And the thing being possessed always comes after. Also, possessives can always be restated as "the [noun A] of [noun B]". So you could think of "no" as the "of" in English, with reverse order.
"Sabaku[desert] no Gaara[a person's name]" = "Gaara of the desert".
If your watch anime, or any Japanese media, just try to remember a common phrase or nickname if it'll help you remember word order.
'あなたの' explain for '前' in this sentence. 'in front of you'. ’Therefore it is good that the order is kept.
Note that the の particle establishes a relation between two nouns, and as such, it needs to be between its two "operands". In the case of other postpositions like を and に establish a relation between what comes immediately before them and the sentence as a whole (or, equivalently, the main verb of the sentence). So if you move the あなたの to after the 前に it no longer refers to it, but would somehow try to modify the main verb います in an ungrammatical way; あなたのいます doesn't mean anything.
- 2131
"no" means a posession, so "anatano" means "your". Similar to how you say "on your left" or "on your right" in english, "anatano mae" means something like "on your front".
Alia is correct it's for a location, I don't know why she got downvoted
It's hard to get your head around direction as a location, but in front of (前) represents a physical space, and just like the other questions (on top of the table, at the restaurant, outside, etc) requires に after to mark a location/direction, in front of also needs the に
It's the same structure as previous questions but with different kanji.
Hope this explains further
If I say 前にいます wouldn't the あなたの be implied? I mean, Duolingo accepted 後ろにいます for "i am behind you".
It would mean something like "I am in front" or "I am ahead." Like in English, you could deduce that "in front" is "in front of you," but it could also mean in front of some other thing we were talking about previously.
- 660
Sounds like something Jason Bourne would say to Japanese Simon Ross while in Japan to avoid the CIA
Okay, this is just xD... How many meanings does 前 have, someone help me please.
really only the one: in front of (but that can be space as well as time, so it can also mean 'before')
so what you're saying is it has the meaning of "in front of", "before" and "between" and time description in just one kanji xD ?
- 533
I don't understand why it's "I am in front of you" And not "You are in front of me" If it's "あなたの前にいます"
あなたの前 = Your front
私の前 = My front
Although they are basically the same, saying "I am in front of you" is like saying "I am in the area of your front." for "you are in front of me" you are saying "you are in the area of my front"
Basically, although they are realistically going to be used in the same way, using あなたの前 is literally your front, so they want to make it as literal as possible
My answer, 前にいます、was accepted, so あなたの may be left out? The case is similar to Spanish "estoy frente a ti" vs "estoy enfrente" -leaving out "de ti" assuming it is the person you are talking to.
- 405
it literally says "in front of you" is 目の前, no other translation suggested, and yet rejects 目の前にいる
- 457
います is used when you are talking about humans or animals ('living things') and あります when you are talking about things that are not alive, for example 椅子
In the tips it says to do a specific placement for the position and that placement keeps changing on different sentences.
Am meant to be invisible in this? And duolingo tells me how to talk about nudity in summer later on... I think we have all had the "excuse me I am an apple" thing so I ask you this... What exactly is Duolingo teaching us?
My answer is: 私はあなたの前にいます。Is my answer fine or is the 私は always redundant in this case?
- 629
I really hate how Duolingo keeps on changing around the particles in this set of exercises without any proper explanations.
