"The US is bigger than Japan."
Translation:日本よりアメリカのほうが大きいです。
34 Comments
"hou" has a meaning that's something like "direction" or "the way" and the "no" is just the possessive particle, so this sentence translates directly to something like "Rather than Japan, the way of America is big."
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日本よりアメリカのほうが大きいです。(nihon yori amerika no hou ga ookii desu)
To me it's a neutral statement comparing two things.
アメリカは日本より大きいです。(amerika wa nihon yori ookii desu)
To me, there's an emphasis on the US in this sentence. We're talking about the US, and it's the size of the US that's important.
日本はアメリカより小さいです。 (nihon wa amerika yori chiisai desu)
To me, the emphasis of this sentence is on Japan. It's the size of Japan that's important.
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It would help if the narrator would read the correct response after we get it wrong. I thinkbit would be easier to rememeber, and seeing the correct kanji (that I dont know how to pronounce) really doesnt help. I flagged it, and I think others should too.
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If you click on the discussion, you can listen to the sentence from there.
[Edit just to say that you used to be able to click on the discussion to listen to the sound, but there is currently a known problem with Japanese and several other languages where the audio no longer works in the discussions, so as of typing this on 8/30/18, there is no way to listen. Hopefully the discussion audio problem will be fixed soon.]
[Edit 10/14/18 sound is working in the sentence discussions again.]
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Try opening the discussion in your internet browser rather than in the app.
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I don't think so. Perhaps not the MOST correct, but i don't believe that adding もっと doesn't change the meaning, just emphasizes it.
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In this case, I would agree with duolingo that hiragana is the correct usage.
That's a very interesting article! I have to admit I used a translator on it, but from what I understand it's giving specific guidelines for writing for web pages, and making it simpler for customers to read and search your content. As such, are the recommendations general enough to apply to all Japanese language learning?
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I like links with lists like the one above because they’re easy to refer to. To explain more clearly, there are some nouns that are both 普通名詞 (normal nouns i.e. 方) and 形式名詞 (formal nouns i.e. ほう). Formal nouns are more abstract and are about grammatical function rather than meaning. They are correctly written in hiragana, though there are Japanese people who write keishiki meishi in kanji.
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The comparative structure typically uses ga.
AのほうがBより(adjective)です A no hou ga B yori (adjective) desu
Ok... I'm not getting the より in this sentence. How does it connect 日本 to アメリカ?
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I think it would be worth an error report if you said something like アメリカは日本よりもっと大きいです (amerika wa nihon yori motto ookii desu). もっと to me isn't so much a comparative as it is intensifying the adjective, though, like "the US is so big (compared to Japan)".
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Thank you! Meanwhile I wonder if I could directly add もっと before 大きい in the standard answer? Like 日本よりアメリカのほうがもっと大きいです？Thanks!
