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- "My mother and father are fin…
"My mother and father are fine."
Translation:父も母も元気です。
26 Comments
Why do you complicate using mo? It's more easy and common use "to" [Got very angry]
in this case, using mo twice is a grammar meaning sth. and sth. both
by the way, mo can replace ga and o in some ways like 私は公務員です。 私も公務員です。
I guess to is and more in an including yourself sense and mo more "also" and thus a bit more in a and in two entities that do not include you? Not sure though just noticed these sort of things are sometimes kknda different in japanese
Why is it 父も母 and not 母も父 for the translation? Why is it mother->father in English but father->mother in Japanese?
I'm assuming it's just more natural to say 父も母も in Japanese, unlike in English where it sounds better to say "mom and dad", instead of "dad and mom"
Yes, and same way in Mandarin Chinese as well. It's just more natural to say 父母 or 爸爸媽媽 (father and mother / dad and mom). I don't have a good explanation for the reason behind this either. I only got it right cuz I imagine Japanese to be similar in this aspect.
486
Exactly the same question... I don't remember I've read that 父 has some precedence on 母 (?)
While I'm generally keen on learning "idiomatic" translations, and maybe this English sentence and that Japanese sentence reflect the difference in what's idiomatic in each language, in this case it would make sense to have the English be (something like) Both my father and mother are well (or …are both well), because it would reinforce the meaning of the different grammar better.
(I'm finding the en -> fr course annoying for the opposite reason, it's sometimes very insistent upon such "strictly matching" translation :o)).
Just had this come up again, and I'm still annoyed that they aren't giving the English sentence as either Both my mother and my father are well or My mother and my father are both well (the former would be preferable for matching the meaning of the Japanese grammar here).
"も" replaces "を" and "は" as particles, so there shouldn't be a "は" after the second "も". in this case, when there are two "も" you should think of it more as a set phrase, like "as well as".
"も。。。も。。。"basically means "as well as" or maybe "both" . So: "My father, as well as my mother, are fine." another example: "田中さんも私も学生です。= "both Tanaka and I are students." also works the other way around: "田中さんも私も学生ではありません。" = neither Tanaka nor I are students."
I understand the meaning of "も" and "と" , but I still think the English sentence should be "both my father and mother are fine" or "my father and my mother are both fine" so we can use the "も" correctly with its exact meaning ("also", "as well as", etc.) rather than just an "and"
You could have voted mine up :o)
Yes, it helps also with remembering the Japanese construction to think of it as both ... and.
hmm...I wrote 母も父も元気です Placing mother first...in the sentence, and for some reason It marked my answer wrong? is this a duolingo error?
