Sorry, I'm a beginner and just came across with this sentence in my Marugoto textbook, ひなつまりって何ですか？ Is it just the same as ひなつまりは、何ですか？Does the て here works as a connective to link the subject and the question together. Couldn't find any explanation online about this. Thanks.
〜って何ですか、〜は、何ですか、any difference?
- Thread starter fulufulu
- Start date
- 6 Mar 2003
- 9,317
- 9,444
You made a typo. I'm sure you meant まつり not つまり.
It's short for
ひなまつりというのは何ですか？
It means almost the same thing as what you said.
"What is Hinamatsuri?" vs "What is the thing called 'Hinamatsuri'?"
This is a very handy sentence pattern you can use for learning/asking about the language.
Anytime you hear a new word you don't recognize, you can use it. For example,
Q: ダブチってなんですか？ or ダブチってどういういみですか？
A: ダブルチーズバーガーだよ
It's short for
ひなまつりというのは何ですか？
It means almost the same thing as what you said.
"What is Hinamatsuri?" vs "What is the thing called 'Hinamatsuri'?"
This is a very handy sentence pattern you can use for learning/asking about the language.
Anytime you hear a new word you don't recognize, you can use it. For example,
Q: ダブチってなんですか？ or ダブチってどういういみですか？
A: ダブルチーズバーガーだよ
- 22 Feb 2008
- 18,266
- 4,926
Notice that it's って, and not just て. This って is not the particle て to connect clauses. It's said that って is the euphonic change of とて or the shortened version of という/というのは, as mdchachi-san wrote.
って の意味
２［係助］名詞、名詞的な語に付く。
１ ある事柄を話題として取り上げて示す意を表す。…は。…というのは。「あなた―親切な人ね」「彼―だれのこと」
[補説]２の語源については、係助詞「とて」の促音添加、「という」「というのは」の音変化などとして扱うこともある。
－って
2〔…というものは〕
配管工って何をする人
A plumber ― what does a plumber do?
お前ってやつはだめだな
You are really useless [no good].
私って本当はわがままなのよ
Actually, I'm a very selfish woman.
初めての時ってだれでもそうだよ
Everybody's like that [Everybody feels that way] the first time.
～って何ですか？ is an expression to ask the meaning/definition/explanation of the word. On the other hand, ～は何ですか？ is not used for this meaning. For example, 職業は何ですか？ means "What is your occupation?", not "What does a word 職業 mean?".
Note that ～って何ですか？ can be used as the same meaning as ～は何ですか？ especially in colloquial conversations. In this case, って sounds softer than は.
Either way, you can't use ひなつまりは何ですか？ instead of ひなつまりって何ですか？ in your example.
- 6 Mar 2003
- 9,317
- 9,444
Why not? Isn't it like saying:
What is a hinamatsuri?
compared to
What is "hinamatsuri"?
- 22 Feb 2008
- 18,266
- 4,926
ひなつまりは何ですか？ is understandable, but grammatically incorrect when asking about the meaning of the word because ～というのは…です is an expression for explanation or definition. There is no problem with ひなつまりとは何ですか？, but just は is invalid.
