"I go from my house to the office by subway."
Translation:いえからかいしゃまでちかてつで行きます。
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I find this really tough because of the length and order, does anyone have any tips?
In English we use Prepositions (in, of, from, to, etc.) before the noun, but in Japanese the noun is followed by its connecting word so it is postpositioned.
Lets break up the sentence:
- I (Subject)
- go (Verb)
- from + my house (Preposition + Object)
- to + the office (Preposition + Object)
- by + subway (Preposition + Object)
To translate to Japanese we adjust the parts order for grammar and turn it from pre to postposition by flipping the pairs:
- I (Subject)
- my house + from (Object + Postposition)
- the office + to (Object + Postposition)
- the subway + by (Object + Postposition)
- go (Verb)
Translate:
- (私は) : (I - implied with context so not needed)
- いえ から (my house from)
- かいしゃ まで (the office to)
- ちかてつ で (the subway by)
- 行きます : (go)
いえからかいしゃまでちかてつで行きます
or
家から会社まで地下鉄で行きます
Nope, just another way of saying it. As long as the particles are in place it's fine.
I wrote :地下鉄で家からかいしゃまで行きます。and it was fine
201
No, に is about location or destination, but in this case you're talking about how the subway is the means by which you get between your house and office, and that requires で. It's the same use as something like "I eat using chopsticks" はしでたべます, "I go using the subway" ちかてつでいきます
If you use the particles correctly and the verb at the end, word order doesn't matter
So you could say かいしゃまで家からちかてつで行きます? My understanding is that while Japanese allows for a loose word order it doesn't mean that word order doesn't matter.
- 201
From what I've read, it's similar to the difference between house/physical residence (いえ) and home (うち) in English.
- 201
They don't reply to the comments here, but if you use the "report" option then I have gotten messages from them saying that they changed things to accept different translations that I suggested. Recently I have been getting quite a few replies to things I've reported in the past, so I think they are starting to get better about it now.
Can anyone please explain why this sentence here is using "de" before "ikimasu" instead of "wo"?
- 201
を marks the direct object, so you can't use it here. The direct object is what the verb is acting on, so for example in the sentence, "I eat pizza", or ピザをたべます, the pizza is what you're eating. But in "I go by subway", you aren't "going" the subway, you're just going, and "the subway" is extra information about how you're going. In English we can indicate this by using the word "by", while in Japanese they use the particle で which is used in many circumstances to indicate the idea of "by means of" or "by using".
Another couple examples:
はしをたべます - "I eat chopsticks" (を particle means はし is the direct object)
はしでたべます - "I eat using chopsticks" (で means that はし is extra information about how the action in the verb is being accomplished)
To expand on the explanation by asterlea, the reason you can't use を with 行きます is because 行く is an intransitive verb, meaning it cannot take a direct object (marked by を). You can't really "go" "a thing" if that makes sense. But you can "go" "by way of a thing", which is what で is saying as already explained.
In technical terms, で in this context denotes the instrumental case. English doesn't really do cases except for personal pronouns, so it will usually be translated into some sort of prepositional phrase ("by subway" in this example). Wikipedia has an article on the instrumental case here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instrumental_case
行う (おこなう) on the other hand is a transitive verb that doesn't literally mean "to go", but uses the same kanji (in case you've seen [something]を行[some inflection] and wondered why it was fine then and wrong in this example) and can take a direct object.
Kanshudo has an example sentence here: https://www.kanshudo.com/example?id=102372&oq=行う
It breaks the sentence down with word meanings, readings, and parts of speech, but I'll transcribe the sentence below in case the site is inaccessible.
右の道を行って下さい。
みぎ の みち を おこなってください。
Take the road on the right.
If you want a deeper look at transitive vs intransitive verbs in Japanese specifically, Tofugu has an article with much better examples of intransitive/transitive verb pairs than 行く and 行う to illustrate the difference. You can find it here: https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/transitive-intransitive-verbs/
「仕事」しごと would be incorrect because it means work 「会社」かいしゃ specifically means office
In other task they used ni. "Takushi ni wa norimasen" or something similar. Why here they use "de"? Do noru and iku use different particles?
うち seems to be more appropriate for your family home rather than いえ as a house you were currently leaving (could be your friends house for example).
would "いえからかいしゃまでちかてつから行きます" be correct? duo says から could be "by" as in "by subway"
also, why can't i put "subway" at the beginning, like "chikatetsu de ie kara kaisha made iki masu"?
When using から as a preposition on a noun 「いえ」then it can only mean "by" as in position - by the house like as in beside the house.
で is more appropriate for when it is the way you are performing the action, so I am going somewhere but it is by using a bike.
