"I ask Mr. Tanaka to close the door."
Translation:田中さんにドアをしめてとたのみます。
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田中 さん に ドア を 閉めて と 頼 みます。
たなか さん に どあ を しめて と たの みます。
tanaka san ni doa o shimete to tano mimasu.
Tanaka -san (listener) door (object) to_shut (quote) to_ask (nonpast)
To Tanaka-san, "the door, please shut", I will ask.
I tried using と for door (which Duolingo was using exclusively in earlier lessons) instead of ドア and it didn't accept it. Classic Duolingo.
1995
That would work except that you then do not have the と for「と たのみます」. See ayamedori's response to November-06's question below for more explanation.
What is the と in between しめて and たのみ？I hope somebdy can explain the structure as I find it confusing. Thanks in advance.
In this case, と is a quotation particle. Think of it as quotation marks; the sentence basically says:
"to close the door", I ask Mr. Tanaka.
Especially in cases like this, I agree it can be a little confusing to English speakers. Here is a detailed explanation about quoting in Japanese.
I would even go further in your explanation, saying that the broken English translation could
"Close the door", i ask Mr. Tanaka.
This can explain the て form of しめて as a polite request (on top of explaining the と as the quotation marks). Otherwise, "to close the door", i ask Mr. Tanaka would be ドアをしめるとたのみます。 but I'm not sure that's a correct sentence...
- 191
Would it be awkward in Japanese to separate the quotation from the verb? As in: ドアを閉めてと田中さんに頼みました。
Not weird at all. I think it should be accepted. It's a matter of what you wish to emphasize -- either that you made the request of Tanakasan or that the request was to close the door. Your sentence is the latter.
I understood what this exercise wanted me to do I thought that 「と」was only used for quotations not for requests of actions.
- 1360
I got this wrong because I put watashi wa in before the rest of it... Everything else is right....