A few questions

[dannepenttinen]

A few questions:

Does these two sentences mean the same thing? If so, which one is the most frequently used among daily japanese speakers?

- Nani o shimasu ka (what are [you] doing?)
- Nani o shiteiru no desu ka

Also, I saw this earlier:

- Bangohan o tabemasu ([I'm] going to have dinner).

Shouldn't it be "bangohan o tabetai desu"?

Thanks

 

[nekojita]

Broadly speaking, ~masu usually indicates a future action or a habitual one, whereas ~teiru or ~teimasu forms indicate an ongoing action or state (for example, kekkon shite imasu means that you are married, kekkon shimasu means that you are going to get married).

"nani o shiteiru no desu ka" would be good if you want to ask what somebody is doing right at the moment, whereas "nani wo shimasu ka" might be used if you are asking about future plans or habits (like "What are you going to do next?" or "What do you do on the weekends?").

Similarly, "bangohan wo tabemasu" can mean "I am going to eat dinner", but more generally X wo taberu/tabemasu could mean "I am going to eat X" or "I eat X" (on some regular basis). Using "tabetai" would mean that you want to eat (something) but doesn't mean that you necessarily will do so.

 

[dannepenttinen]

Broadly speaking, ~masu usually indicates a future action or a habitual one, whereas ~teiru or ~teimasu forms indicate an ongoing action or state (for example, kekkon shite imasu means that you are married, kekkon shimasu means that you are going to get married).

"nani o shiteiru no desu ka" would be good if you want to ask what somebody is doing right at the moment, whereas "nani wo shimasu ka" might be used if you are asking about future plans or habits (like "What are you going to do next?" or "What do you do on the weekends?").

Similarly, "bangohan wo tabemasu" can mean "I am going to eat dinner", but more generally X wo taberu/tabemasu could mean "I am going to eat X" or "I eat X" (on some regular basis). Using "tabetai" would mean that you want to eat (something) but doesn't mean that you necessarily will do so.

Ah, this actually makes sense, and probably saved me from many confusing moments. Thank you ! Is there a chat on this forum, in case I have more questions? I really don't want to start a new thread for ever question I have. I always google my questions before asking people, but some things have not been brought up yet, apparently. Again, thanks !

 

[nekojita]

You can continue to use this thread for all your further questions, if you like, or it's fine to open new threads - presuming you're not planning on posting 100s a day

 

[dannepenttinen]

Then I will continue on this thread further on. Actually, I already have another question. I browsed around in the language-section and found a list of various topics, and I read some of them. I stumbled upon the negations, and found out that there are like 4 ways (probably more) ways to say "not to be". First and foremost "dewa nai" (ではない), but also "ja na" (じゃない), "ja arimasen" (じゃありません) and "dewa arimasen" (ではありません).
The first question is about the hiragana used for the words: should "dewa nai" be "でわ ない" instead of "ではない"?

And the main question: how can I tell which form of "not to be" I should use in various sentences?

More questions coming up, hehe

 

[Toritoribe]

The particle は is pronounced "wa".
Topic marker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

じゃ is the contraction of では. ない is non-polite/casual, whereas ありません is polite.