Can anyone check whether my Japanese sentences are correct or not?

[chldudghks0517]

Hi all,I'm currently using the GENKI II book and workbook for studying Japanese.The questions that I encountered, and my answers, are written below.

・・・

Question: 子供の時、何が一番ほしかったてすか。今もそれがほしいですか。
My Answer: 僕は子供の時彼女がほしかったです。今もそれがほしてす。 (Does this sound like I'm treating someone (girl friend) like an object?)

・・・

Question: 今、何が一番ほしいですか。どうしてですか。
My Answer: 今は日本人の友達が一番ほしいです。日本のことをたくさん勉強したいですから。

・・・

Question: 時間とお金とどちらがほしいですか。どうしてですか。My Answer: 私は時間のほうがほしいです。理由は、時間は買えない大切なのだし、一度過ぎたら二度と絶対帰って来ないだし。

・・・

And, is there any difference between 休み(holiday) and 休日(holiday)?

Thanks for answering in advance! ：）

 

[Angel Valis]

I don't think the first one sounds like you're treating someone like an object any more than saying, "I want a girlfriend," in English does.

In your second sentence, are you saying you want to study many Japanese things or that you want to study Japanese things a lot? The way you're using たくさん is modifying 勉強, if you want to say "many Japanese things", たくさんの日本のこと is the way to go. Also, I'm not sure I would have gone with 勉強 here myself. To me it sounds odd that you want a Japanese friend to "study" Japanese things. Though one of the native speakers on the board could better tell you if that sounds alright contextually. I probably would have gone with something like, たくさんの日本のことについて習いたいですから。

As for number three...I'm not entirely sure what you're saying here aside from your first sentence. Though that could just be me; I definitely need to practice more myself.

時間は買えない大切なのだし
I honestly have no idea what this is supposed to mean. "Time can't buy important things"? Is the の supposed to be もの or is it standing in for another noun? I'm not sure if the context is clear enough to have の performing its stand-in role here. Or is it casual んです? If it's supposed to mean what I said, then the sentence would be better constructed as: 時間は大切なこと(もの if you're only talking about physical things)を買えないし

一度過ぎたら二度と絶対帰って来ないだ し
"If (something) passes, then you will definitely never be able to return"? So if you let something pass you by, then you may never get the chance at it again? I really don't know, hopefully someone else will try to help with this one. Though 絶対 needs to be 絶対に to be an adverb.

As for the difference between 休み and 休日, 休日 is more polite/formal. Like how 本日 is the more polite/formal version of 今日.

 

[Mike Cash]

Small points, and a native speaker will likely come along and correct my corrections:

#2. したいからです, although the difference is very small and inconsequential.

#3. 戻るinstead of 帰る.

休み is 大和言葉 and 休日 is a compound made using borrowed readings. Also, 休み may it may not be the whole day; it could be just a few minutes break, for example. 休日 is always a whole day off.

 

[chldudghks0517]

I don't think the first one sounds like you're treating someone like an object any more than saying, "I want a girlfriend," in English does.

In your second sentence, are you saying you want to study many Japanese things or that you want to study Japanese things a lot? The way you're using たくさん is modifying 勉強, if you want to say "many Japanese things", たくさんの日本のこと is the way to go. Also, I'm not sure I would have gone with 勉強 here myself. To me it sounds odd that you want a Japanese friend to "study" Japanese things. Though one of the native speakers on the board could better tell you if that sounds alright contextually. I probably would have gone with something like, たくさんの日本のことについて習いたいですから。

As for number three...I'm not entirely sure what you're saying here aside from your first sentence. Though that could just be me; I definitely need to practice more myself.

時間は買えない大切なのだし
I honestly have no idea what this is supposed to mean. "Time can't buy important things"? Is the の supposed to be もの or is it standing in for another noun? I'm not sure if the context is clear enough to have の performing its stand-in role here. Or is it casual んです? If it's supposed to mean what I said, then the sentence would be better constructed as: 時間は大切なこと(もの if you're only talking about physical things)を買えないし

一度過ぎたら二度と絶対帰って来ないだ し
"If (something) passes, then you will definitely never be able to return"? So if you let something pass you by, then you may never get the chance at it again? I really don't know, hopefully someone else will try to help with this one. Though 絶対 needs to be 絶対に to be an adverb.

As for the difference between 休み and 休日, 休日 is more polite/formal. Like how 本日 is the more polite/formal version of 今日.

Thank you for answering!

My answer for Q1: Great. I just thought that I may be speaking in a manner that treats someone as an object. Seems that's not the case.

My answer for Q2: I wanted to say "study a lot of things about Japan" or as you put it, "study many Japanese things". I think "たくさんの日本のこと" is a perfect fit for what I intended to say. And, I just searched the dictionary and found out that "習う" is a better word choice for "勉強する" because what I really wanted to say was "to learn" many Japanese things but didn't have that "to learn" word in my Japanese vocabulary, which eventually made me use "勉強する".

My answer for Q3: What I intended to say in "時間は買えない大切なのだし" is "Time is (時間は) a precious thing (大切なの) which can't be bought (買えない)". And the "の" in that Japanese sentence refers to the time (a thing) so perhaps "もの" is the appropriate word? Or is "こと" more appropriate?

"一度過ぎたら二度と絶対帰って来ないだ し" > "[If it (time)] passes (or goes by) once, it will never return the second time" is what I wanted to say. And thanks for correcting "絶対" in my sentence. It should have been "絶対に" indeed.

Thank you again!

---------- Post added at 08:06 ---------- Previous post was at 07:57 ----------

Small points, and a native speaker will likely come along and correct my corrections:

#2. したいからです, although the difference is very small and inconsequential.

#3. 戻るinstead of 帰る.

休み is 大和言葉 and 休日 is a compound made using borrowed readings. Also, 休み may it may not be the whole day; it could be just a few minutes break, for example. 休日 is always a whole day off.

#2 Thank you for pointing out the small difference between " したいですから" and "したいからです". I believe small differences like this need to be taken into account.

#3 So, would my sentence then look like this? " ... 二度と絶対戻って来ないだ し" ? Or is it better without the "来る" at the end as in " ... 二度と絶対戻らないだ し"

And, the difference between "休み" and "休日" is clearer to me now. Thank you, again.


And thank you to JREF administrators who are working hard behind the scenes, making JREF an awesome place!

 

[Angel Valis]

の standing in for a noun sometimes confuses me, so it may be fine as is(someone else will need to comment on your exact usage of it here). こと is more appropriate for time, I think, since time isn't tangible (もの, in this sense, is used with concrete physical objects).

And this illustrates some of my own problems with Japanese; once you explained yourself in English, I could definitely see how you were using Japanese to say it. I really need to work on that haha.

 

[chldudghks0517]

の standing in for a noun sometimes confuses me, so it may be fine as is(someone else will need to comment on your exact usage of it here). こと is more appropriate for time, I think, since time isn't tangible (もの, in this sense, is used with concrete physical objects).
And this illustrates some of my own problems with Japanese; once you explained yourself in English, I could definitely see how you were using Japanese to say it. I really need to work on that haha.

Agree. "の" can be really confusing as it has various uses.

For me, "の" is a real pain when when it is used to modify something.
i.e.
私の財布 (my wallet; possession)
先生の山田さん (Mr./Ms. Yamada who is a teacher; position)
東京の大学 (a university in Tokyo (not Tokyo University); location)
3時の約束 (a meeting/appointment at 3; time) < I
雨の日 (a day of rain, or just rainy day; status) < I just couldn't get my head around this one for a long time!
木の机 (a desk made out of wood, or just wooden desk; material)
123の4567 (123-4567; telephone number)
and the list goes on.

 

[Toritoribe]

Hi all,I'm currently using the GENKI II book and workbook for studying Japanese.The questions that I encountered, and my answers, are written below.

・・・

Question: 子供の時、何が一番ほしかったてすか。今もそれがほし いですか。
My Answer: 僕は子供の時彼女がほしかったです。今もそれがほして す。 (Does this sound like I'm treating someone (girl friend) like an object?)

・・・

Question: 今、何が一番ほしいですか。どうしてですか。
My Answer: 今は日本人の友達が一番ほしいです。日本のことをたく さん勉強したいですから。

・・・

Question: 時間とお金とどちらがほしいですか。どうしてですか。 My Answer: 私は時間のほうがほしいです。理由は、時間は買えない 大切なのだし、一度過ぎたら二度と絶対帰って来ないだ し。

・・・

And, is there any difference between 休み(holiday) and 休日(holiday)?

Thanks for answering in advance! ：）

1)
There are typos 今もそれがほしいです.

彼女がほしかったです is no problem, but それ is not appropriate. それ can't be used for a person.

2)
日本のことをたくさん勉強したいですから
日本のことをたくさん習いたいですから
日本のことをたくさん勉強したいからです
日本のことをたくさん習いたいからです

These all make perfect sense.

3)
The pronoun should be もの, since the one correspond to もの is a noun 時間. Whether it's concrete things or abstract concepts, もの is used for nouns, and こと is used for clauses or phrases as a pronoun.
e.g.
○本は大切なものだ
☓本は大切なことだ

○愛は大切なものだ
☓愛は大切なことだ

☓本を読むのは大切なものだ
○本を読むのは大切なことだ

☓人を愛することは大切なものだ
○人を愛することは大切なことだ

Also, it's better to put お金で before 買えない.
You can use the polite form 来ませんし but 来ないだし is wrong. You never say 彼は来ないだ, right?

時間はお金で買えない大切なものだし、一度過ぎたら二 度と絶対帰って/戻って来ませんから。


I suppose you are composing those sentences as a practice, but those answers could sound repetitive in a real conversation. For instance, 彼女です。今もほしいです。 would be more common for #1.

 

[chldudghks0517]

1)
There are typos 今もそれがほしいです.

彼女がほしかったです is no problem, but それ is not appropriate. それ can't be used for a person.

2)
日本のことをたくさん勉強したいですから
日本のことをたくさん習いたいですから
日本のことをたくさん勉強したいからです
日本のことをたくさん習いたいからです

These all make perfect sense.

3)
The pronoun should be もの, since the one correspond to もの is a noun 時間. Whether it's concrete things or abstract concepts, もの is used for nouns, and こと is used for clauses or phrases as a pronoun.
e.g.
○本は大切なものだ
☓本は大切なことだ

○愛は大切なものだ
☓愛は大切なことだ

☓本を読むのは大切なものだ
○本を読むのは大切なことだ

☓人を愛することは大切なものだ
○人を愛することは大切なことだ

Also, it's better to put お金で before 買えない.
You can use the polite form 来ませんし but 来ないだし is wrong. You never say 彼は来ないだ, right?;-)

時間はお金で買えない大切なものだし、一度過ぎたら二度と絶対帰って/戻って来ませんから。


I suppose you are composing those sentences as a practice, but those answers could sound repetitive in a real conversation. For instance, 彼女です。今もほしいです。 would be more common for #1.

Thank you "Toritobe" for such a well-explained answer!

I definitely need to take down your comments in my Japanese language notes.