"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.
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...
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.
I understood what this exercise wanted me to do I thought that 「と」was only used for quotations not for requests of actions.
