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- "東へ行きます。"
"東へ行きます。"
Translation:I go to the east.
40 Comments
"Going" is a present participle and implies you are already on your way so the japanese would use 行きがけます not 行きます
626
But then, "I will go east" shoud work. "I go to the east." It's certainly not wrong, but I never heard that. Is that really native English?
- 2299
Yes, but a little old-fashioned sounding. Probably something you'd hear in old westerns or any movie trying to capture that style or a "days gone by" sense (i.e., Lord of the Rings), so more literary these days.
The reason "I go to the East" (notice the capital "e") is acceptable English is because "East" is considered a place and can be referred to as a noun.
I believe へ is being used as a particle, but I've never seen it used before. Does anyone know how it's classically used?
Roughly speaking, "へ" means "to" in the sense of "towards" or "the direction of," while "に" is more like "to" as in "this is my destination," generally putting more emphasis on where you end up. I suppose you could think of it as a "journey" vs. "destination" distinction. If someone better understands the subtlety, please feel free to jump in.
Also important to note is that "へ" is pronounced as "え" when it is used as a particle.
According to my Japanese professor (who is Japanese), it is interchangeable with the "ni" particle and is pronounced without the "h" sound when used as a particle.
- 1364
Should "I go eastwards" also be accepted, or are there nuances I'm missing that would make this answer wrong?
Absolutely: in fact the "~ ward" suffix closely resembles the へ particle in its function.
- 626
The meaning is to go towards east. So it should be right. For me, as a non-native English Speaker it sounds better that " I go to the east."
"I will go east" should be accepted. "I will go north" was accepted just a few questions ago.
Yes, let's report a few times to contribute to it's addition. Despite "heading" being idiomatic it's very used and natural.
The subject is implied. If you dont include a subject the sentence would translate as, go east, but the verb is not in command form so it makes no sense.
That's because Japanese does not require subjects, while the English language does. Anytime you see a sentence without a specified subject, assume it's 'I'
- 495
Nah, I prefer to.. Go west! Life is peaceful there. Go west! Lots of open air. Go west! To begin life new. Go west! This is what we'll do. Go west! Sun in winter time. Go west! We will do just fine. Go west! Where the skies are blue. Go west! This and more we'll do!
To speak frankly " I go to the east" is ugly. "I am going East" should be perfectly acceptable along with any sensible combination of "I /we/ he/ she /it" , go, am/are/is going, will go (to the ) East/Eastward should be accepted. Literal transliteration is one thing and may show the construction of the sentence in the original, albeit that "East to go" is plainly ridiculous in English. Good translation is quite another, tasking us with the rendition of the idea of going in that direction, euphoniously in our own language. Confusing the two in such fashion is damnably frustrating and not at all helpful.
The purpose here is not translation but learning. Translation is simply the method we use on duolingo to further our learning of the language. When you learn a language you have to grasp the differences between the new language and your native language. If the new language does not use the same verb form for a continuous verb as for the simple present tense or simple future tense, that is something we need to learn. Even if this leads to less natural sentence structure in the translation, because our goal is to learn and not to produce a translation for use, we should overcome the natural irritatation. So long as both versions of the sentence are grammatically correct and retain the important points for our lesson (the points of Japanese usage) we should have achieved our purpose.
I mean I'm not saying you are wrong, but in this case "I will go east" is more natural in english and as a japanese translation. There are some sentences that are definitely awkward, I assume is because much of this stuff is automatized from a database somewhere.
"I will go to the east" , " I am going east", both should be correct East is a direction, not a place. so even " I go towards the east" is better.
The new update is stupud im not kearning anything thry dont explain grammr or anything like that its so stupid
- 425
I have found some explanations in the lesson header itself. Also the comments are usually helpful because someone has given a nice explanation.
but, didn't you know you should go west... live is peaceful there... go west... xD I see myself out
What is wrong with "I go towards the east?" or "I will go towards the east?"
should accept "I head east". This is a valid translation for movement in a fuzzy direction.
