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- "The US is bigger than Japan."
"The US is bigger than Japan."
Translation:日本よりアメリカのほうが大きいです。
41 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."
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.
If you click on the discussion, you can listen to the sentence from there.
Try opening the discussion in your internet browser rather than in the app.
I just clicked on the sound at the top of this page and it read it in Japanese. How to report a bug: https://support.duolingo.com/hc/en-us/articles/204728264-How-do-I-report-a-bug-
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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.
It's wrong, because もっと can only used to describe something than you can change the amout.
For example,
もっと 水(みず) を ください -- Please give me more water.
もっと 強(つよ)く なりたい -- I want to become more stronger.
Do you have more information on this? Because I can search "アメリカはもっと大きい" on google and get a number of hits. We can't change the size of America, so how does a native speaker saying a sentence like アメリカはもっと大きいと思ってました fit into this rule?
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?
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 (futsuu meishi, normal nouns i.e. 方) and 形式名詞 (keishiki meishi, 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 many Japanese people who write keishiki meishi in kanji.
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?
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)".
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!
This reminds me of math, as a kid. Trying to remember < and > and which one meant what. I'm working on which country egts the より and which gets the ほう。Not to mention, when and where the ほう gets left out entirely.
Alright im really not getting this, can someone break down yori and hou for me?
