- Forum >
- Topic: Japanese >
- "I do not like books that are…
"I do not like books that are not interesting."
Translation:面白くない本は嫌です。
35 Comments
I've always been told by peopke from Japan that 好きじゃない is more preferential over 嫌 or 嫌い。 But also, being in Japan alot I've never heard anyone use 嫌 in the way as this program.
It's used more in a way of disagreement with someone or something.
459
That makes it more confusing when it was translated in another question as yes/no. Good to know, though.
「いや」 can mean "no" when spelled with the kanji 「否」, more recognisable from its more common readings 「いな」, 「いいえ」, 「いえ」, and 「いいや」, though 「いいえ」 is more commonly used and spelled in hiragana.
Am I correct in assuming that it's used as a verb rather than an adjective in this sentence?
I think this is mostly due to direction of the statement. ありません is used for things that "exist" like inanimate objects. So your statement is closer to "There is no like for books that are not interesting" which may be considered a bit odd. I have not seen ある and あります used on emotions in this way before, however there are sentences in English such as "There is no love lost there." that are ambiguous and may require ある to make sense in Japanese.
This is incorrect. ではありません is the formal form of じゃない so would be gramatically correct in the sentence. Although, it would be a bit strange to use that formal language when talking about kinds of books that you don't like.
I think a better English translation is "I do not like uninteresting books."
Is there any reason this might not be a good translation?
- 430
If I understood your question (non-native English), yes it can.
For example, if your friend compliments your new accessory 「かわいい！刺繍（ししゅう）が上手いね！」 you can answer 「ありがとう。でも私が作ったんじゃなくて、買ったんです。」 = "That's so cute! You're so good at embroidery!" "Thanks. But I didn't make it, I bought it." Or if you get strange looks for asking to sleep in the same bed/room with your male friend: 「苗字（みょうじ）は違うけど夫婦（ふうふ）なんです。」"We've got different surnames, but we are husband and wife."
- 1296
I wish they dropped the whole いやん/いや thing. That ん in there altogether. Very inconsistently required/accepted and thus very confusing, and it's definitely not grammar for N5.
That is true, but if you ever intend to go to Japan/speak in Japanese in real life, you should be able to at least identify it.
- 1296
Yes, well, there are later levels to learn that for. This course is just way too all over the place.
Luckily DL doesn't have to stick to JLPT levels. Using の/ん is one of those things that don't exist in English so learning it at early stages is the right thing to do. Besides の/ん is pretty much fundamental in Japanese.
- 539
Duo just rejected 面白くない本は嫌んです。 I don't see what's wrong with it. It's a bit strong maybe, but the spoken English changes with stress or even just by separating "don't" into "do not" . . .
I agree. I consider myself roughly N5, and Ive been to Japan recently, and at my level Im very lucky if i understand a sentence. Whether or not to use n is the last of my concerns at this time.
The English isn't a good translation. I think, "I find ununinteresting books unpleasant" would be better. Otherwise, people look for words like kirai.
Duolingo tried to balance literal translations with translations that get across the same message in the same tone. “I find uninteresting books unpleasant” is correct but stilted, and doesn’t match the Japanese.
- 1402
Most likely because 嫌い (きらい) is a な-adjective, not an い-adjective. It's one of the very small number of な-adjectives where the kanji form ends in い, making it easy to forget 嫌い isn't an い-adjective. ^^;
So it's probably rejected in the same way that the following for "I like interesting books" would probably be rejected on Duolingo...
面白い本が好き
...which is because a な-adjective (like 好き or 嫌い) being used predicatively should be followed by the copula (だ, です,...). At least this is what virtually all resources teaching Japanese require their students to learn for using な-adjectives.
For い-adjectives (高い, 小さい,...) the situation is different. The い at the end of い-adjectives is itself effectively the copula for this class of adjectives. The reason です is often still added after い-adjectives is merely for the sake of adding politeness/formality to the sentence.
嫌いだ or 嫌いです
好きだ or 好きです
高い (with optional です to add politeness/formality)
小さい (with optional です to add politeness/formality)
This is my guess as to the reason your answer was rejected anyway. It might actually be for a different reason? ^^
- 1770
“面白くない本が嫌いです” is accepted as of Feb 2021, so you may be right about the です being required.
Hmm i dont get this sentence. It translates to me that He like broking books because 嫌 before was like dont you have to neglect the 嫌 too?
- 389
should be i do not like uninteresting books adding the 'that are not' confuses the issue by making the sentence more difficult and less colloquial
