"What picture will you draw?"
Translation:何のえをかきますか？
51 Comments
何 by itself means "what". When you add の to it it means "of what". え is just "picture", so it makes "what will you draw a picture of?"
758
何絵 (nani e) means "which picture" (like there are several pictures in front of you, and you will choose one of them to draw).
From Wasabi:
何 + noun
Meaning: Which
何駅で降りますか (Which station will you get off)?
何色が好きですか (Which color do you like)?
何味がお薦めですか (Which flavor do you recommend)?
何の絵 (nan no e) means "what kind of picture".
何の
- what kind; what sort
Maybe saying "what will you draw a picture of?" would make the meaning of the Japanese a little more clear than "what picture will you draw?", but I don't think that 何絵 would be appropriate in this case.
どれ is more like "which one", i.e. there are options in front of you and you can point to the one you are talking about
何 + [noun] is asking of the category of items in [noun], which one are you talking about. You can't necessarily point at all of the options
Yours would mean "What kind of pictures do you draw?" and plus you kinda put the no in the wrong place I'm not sure why, I think, honestly treat my comments with a grain of salt I'm still learning too
The の at the end is used more in informal situations in which です is not used. For example: 昼ご飯を食べるの? (Will you eat lunch?). In your sentence, there should be a の at the beginning (何の絵) to make the sentence mean "WHAT will you draw a PICTURE OF?", as IsolaCiao said.
- 118
But isn't this last example exactly what the question asked us to write? It's not a "picture of what", it's a "what picture".
Why doesn't Duolingo teach you about the structure of sentences in Japanese? It's unreasonable to expect you to know it if they won't teach you about it! Duolingo, you REALLY need to fix this.
They do give brief explanations for each unit under the light bulb. It is understandable that they can't go in to deep because there is so much to explain. That's why it's nice that we have this feature where we can help each other. Also for detailed explanations apps like Human Japanese are excellent, if you don't mind paying for an app, I highly recommend that one.
何の絵 refers to the SUBJECT of the drawing. That would be, What will you draw a picture OF? For example, a drawing of a dog. "What picture" should translate to どの絵。 Reported it.
In a different question, "I do not draw" was translated into "えを書きません". With that, why is "何のえを書きますか" not accepted as a valid answer?
Can someone explain the usage of の in this sentence please? And is 何 pronounced nan here? Thanks haha
Yes, "nani" together with other words (not sure if every time) get pronounced as "nan".
It depends on the letter I think. Don't remember when it's Nani, but definetly when o is following.
Is the "no" really necessary here??
I mean, look at the English sentence, it's not "a picture of". It's "which" picture.
- 19
There is a difference between "which" and "what kind of". "Which" means you have a possibly limited set of pictures to choose from. While the question in exercise asks about the theme
- 762
How does "what picture" indicate that they are among about the type of picture?
"You will draw a picture of what?" is the better literal way of translating it, but it's not really a natural English sentence.
For this example, "What kind of picture" isn't really just pulling words out of a hat. The の acts like 'of' in English but in the opposite word direction (何のえ = "A picture of what"). You can ask "What picture will you draw?" or "What kind of picture will you draw?" and they mean almost the same thing.
However, if the example was asking about a movie or something with a title, then "What kind of movie" (どんな映画) would imply asking about the description of the movie, whereas "A movie of what"/"What movie" (何の映画) would imply asking for the title.
- 762
What picture are you drawing to me means of a set possible pictures drawing which are you drawing. I would translate 何のえをかきますか as "What are you drawing a picture of?"
You could argue that either way with "What picture are you drawing".
Using 'which' instead of 'what' almost certainly implies you are drawing one of a set of possible pictures. But asking "What picture are you drawing" doesn't necessarily imply that.
"What are you drawing a picture of?" is also a good translation. But I'd say "What picture are you drawing?" is just as valid. They're just nuanced differences in word order
What about this: えは何を書きますか Earlier we had お名前は何ですか Can't use similar construction here?
Can を be replaced with は here? In some other examples with questions, often を or は could be used, but I didn't know if the grammar is different for this example.
Not in this kind of sentence. Specific acts like drawing something (or eating something, reading something, basically "do something to something else") need the を. は would be used for more general questions. 絵を描きますか。Means "Are you drawing a picture?" while 絵は描きますか。would mean "Do you draw pictures? (at all)". If you want to translate it literally, the は sentence could be translated as "Concerning pictures, do you draw them?"
When speaking the か isn't always necessary and I keep forgetting that this is duolingo and getting it "wrong" uhg
の is used when you specify something. What kind of picture. You could also just say 何を描きますか。to say "What are you drawing?" without specifying it's a picture. 何は isn't really used anywhere I think, at least I don't know any sentence where I would say it.
- 762
Appropriate, as 書き means to write, and 描き means to draw. They may be homonyms, but they are different words.
Isn't the English from Duolingo lacking precision in this case ? (Related to the usage of 何のえ instead of 何え and following all discussions below)
- 118
Doesn't that "no" make the sentence mean "Will you draw a picture of what" instead of "What picture will you draw"?
- 94
Yeah, can anyone help out on how "draw" should ne pronouced in kana? Thanks x
Duolingo's audio pronounces 描き as えまき. Isn't it かき? Is anyone else hearing えまき?
