"My mother has ten siblings."
Translation:母はきょうだいが十人います。
36 Comments
Because that's not how you count things in Japanese.
"There are X things" Thing がX [Counter for X] あります/います.
There are 3 books = 本が三冊あります。
There are 5 glasses = ガラスが五本あります。
There are 7 plates = 皿が七枚あります。
There are 9 rabbits = ウサギが九羽あります。
冊 being the counter for books, 本 the one for cylindrical objects, 枚 for flat objects, 羽 for birds and rabbits, etc.
When you don't know the specific counter for an object, you can use つ instead.
There is one sphere = 圏が一つあります。
There are tons of different counters; look them up! http://jisho.org/search/counter%20for
Sweet lord almighty... that's a lot of counters! :o So many different counters for various animals. Guess I'm out of becoming a Japanese farmer anytime soon.
Thank you for the link :)
616
I agree with Ginkkou.
If you are determined to put the number together with the noun, you need a quantifier as well as the particle の.
e.g. スマップは 五人の 男性アイドルグループです
SMAP is a boy band of 5 people.
Note the sentence structure and focus are already not the same as in the example of Duo, even in English.
wait so right before this i had one where the only difference was it was dad had eight, it said it was 父 は 八 人 の きょうだい が います。so i tried the same with this one (except there wasn't a の available) 母は十人きょうだいがいます but it said it was wrong? why? and isn't sentence order a bit interchangeable in Japanese as long as the verb is at the end and groupings stay together? i guess it's because the の wasn't there it had to be said in a different way...
母 means "my mother". so saying わたしの母 is like saying "my my mother". other people's mothers are お母さん（おかあさん）
- 616
母 means mother (rather than my mother) and it is a plain word without honorific value. So it is often used on one's own mother. However it can also be used on other people's mother if there's no need to show respect.
You're technically not wrong, but it's so very rude that it's become wrong to use 母 for other people's mothers (the following also applies to 父 - father). If you just say 母, you are humbling or placing your mother on a lower pedestal than that of the listener. This is super respectful and pretty much expected of you. If you use お母さん, you are using the honorific prefix お- and are placing them up (which is a different form of respect). You can use お母さん to talk about your mother and even to your mother, but it's rude to use 母 when talking about someone else's mother (it's kind of like saying that you have the power to humble her or are more important than her).
Does that make sense?
it told me my answer was wrong because I wrote 十人 and not '10'. why would I use '10'?
- 111
I keep leaving out the "i" masu. I haven't wrapped my brain around what the "i" is for in this context.
The verb is "います”. It means to exist but is only used for animate figures. "ます" is part of the conjugation of the verb.
The base verb is いる. Think of '-ます' as something like '-ing', it doesn't stand alone, and it is the polite form of any verb. If you were talking with your friends or family you wouldn't even use ます。
いる means the exact same thing as います, but います is more formal. Kanji link's series explains conjugation fairly well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOXuIYVzyL4&list=PLE6S_Q0SX_mBtzG17ho7YER6vmzCPJ3B4
Why is there no honourific here (right term?) for mother? Usually it's o-(mother)-san, ne?
- 616
Because it is "my mother". The speaker needs to be modest about people or things related to him/her. Plain or modest terms should be used.
- 616
I'm not sure if it is "wrong", but at least it is not needed. Some nouns are already implying plurality or possibility of plurality and it is not necessary to add たち as we would add -s in English. 兄弟 is referring to a class of people by identity. 兄弟たち would be the collective of such people. I think it is acceptable to say something like 母の兄弟たちがみんな海外に住んでいます/My mother's siblings are all living aboard.
I don't understand the difference between 十兄弟 and 十の兄弟 . they seem like the same thing to me and duolingo says one is right and one is not.
Just swapped '父' for '母', and '六人' for '十人' from my response '私の父は六人のきょうだいがいます。' to the other question in this section about the phrase 'My dad has 6 siblings' (which was marked right) and been marked wrong.
Can anyone suggest where I have gone wrong and/or why there is a distinction, please? Thank you.
I think it may have only been marked wrong because you don't need 私の when you say 父 because without the honorifics お さん, it already implies that he is your father. Or it didn't want you to use that kanji yet. I've been marked wrong for using 子供 instead of 子ども
