"とうきょうのおじさんはおげんきですか？"
Translation:How is your uncle in Tokyo?
32 Comments
135
How do i know its not "my uncle"? I'd assume i'd need "anata no" or persons name+no if this is a stand alone sentence?
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In English, is the specific words necessary? Can I say 'the uncle' or 'an uncle'? For example, the mother and the child are talking about a man of their relative. He is 'my uncle' for the child the other the same man is 'my brother' for the mother. Are they use each words?
In that specific case, the mother would almost always say just "uncle", "your uncle" or "Uncle (name)". Neither mother nor child would be likely to say "the uncle" or "an uncle"; this phrasing would have to be either a joke or referring to the concept of an uncle. Similarly, if speaking about the mother's father, both are likely to call him grandfather, using the child's frame of reference. If the mother was speaking to her husband, however, she would be far more likely to refer to these people as her brother and her father, but this varies by the individual, their age, their family, and where they live.
But if talking about your uncle in Tokyo, I would always say "your uncle in Tokyo" rather than just "uncle in Tokyo" even if it is not possible that I have an uncle in Tokyo. In Japanese, does the phrase 「東京のおじさんはお元気ですか」 always refer to your uncle in Tokyo, or could it be my uncle in Tokyo? Is there any way to tell besides context?
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I remembered that you call him by 'name' instead of saying uncle. Different from you, especialiy children don't call adults by their personal name. We call my uncle to 'おじさん'. I don't know this sentence's context. But this sentence is natural. Because in the relatives, many people has the same surname. Because they are originaly one family as sisters and brothers. Therefore we add some words for distinguish them. If you have two uncles who live in Tokyo, you call the town's name instead of Tokyo, maybe.
'The child's frame of reference', I think that this is the same.
Children calling uncles by their name is a little weird in English too. They would do it if it wasn't clear who was being spoken about though they might also do this to.
How is the uncle 違いとおもう。特定なおじさんに口にしそうだけど、誰か知りません。[how is an uncle] が 『あるおじさんはお元気ですか』とにているでしょう。意味がない文章。こんな都合では名字を使います。
でも、ある家族について話したら、こんな文法を使えます。例えば: "The family was in a car accident." "How is the mother?" 家族では母だけが"Mother"ですから、使えます。でも、母の名字をわかったら、言う方がいいですよ。
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@JohnLabell Thank you for your explanation! I see. A/an and the is very difficult for us.
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There is one uncle in Tokyo and one uncle in Chiba - How is the uncle in Tokyo? becomes a legitimate question. Context is everything.
Shouldn't it be "Tokyo ni" rather than "Tokyo no", since the uncle is in Tokyo, not belonging to Tokyo?
"AのB" doesn't always imply B belongs to A. Sometimes you can consider "Aの" as a modifier, e.g. Nihonjin no yuujin (日本人の友人) = my Japanese friend.
No, it's a perfectly normal thing to say in Japanese. the scope of "no" is a lot wider than just belonging to somebody.
Would "How is your uncle from Tokyo?" look different? Because that answer was incorrect. I'm not native English, but that phrasing feels more natural.
You would say "とうきょうからおじさん" "your uncle from Tokyo", which implies that he lives somewhere else now. "とうきょうのおじさん" lives in Tokyo.
I answered "Is your uncle in Tokyo doing well?", which is an accurate translation, I think. Am I incorrect?
Can someone explain why it says おげんき instead of just げんき ? Both of them are used in this lesson and I don't know the context for using one over the other
You use it to be polite when talking about someone else, but not when talking about yourself. Someone will ask you お元気ですか？but in responding you would use simply 元気です。
In English and Japanese i should be able to say "my Tokyo uncle... As opposed to my Toronto uncle. That is correct in both languages.
I don't understand why duo dislikes me using the kanji for 東京. It seems to me that it is detrimental to discourage the use of the correct kanji...
My answer and the actual answer are a complete match and it said I was wrong. Dude, not cooooooooool.
