Alone or with friends

[Beetle]

Minasan konnichiwa.

I would like to ask "did you come to the party alone or with friends"

Would it be

Hitori ka tomodachi wa paatii ni kimashita ka.

 

[masaegu]

Minasan konnichiwa.
I would like to ask "did you come to the party alone or with friends"
Would it be
Hitori ka tomodachi wa paatii ni kimashita ka.

If I were you, I would rather learn the kana before I ever worried about sentence structures.

 

[undrentide]

You need to use 'particles'.

alone, on your own : hitori "de"
with friends : tomodachi "to"

Paatii ni wa hitori de kimashita ka, soretomo tomodachi to (kimashita ka)?

 

[Mike Cash]

If I were you, I would rather learn the kana before I ever worried about sentence structures.

Maybe he just doesn't have an IME or know how to use it.

 

[Zlarp]

Maybe he just doesn't have an IME or know how to use it.

Mike Cash giving an empathetic reply. I am impressed.

 

[Beetle]

ども ありごと。
I now have IME turned on. Thanks for your replies. Using the particle と for "with" is some thing I didn't know. In my sentence I used か as the English "or". Is それとも a more polite expression?

 

[DWolfs]

Yes that's right, but when you use the particle か meaning "or", you can only use it between nouns... as far as I know.

 

[Angel Valis]

それとも is simply a conjunction. Also, remember that Japanese is a high context language, so you don't necessarily have to include everything in a sentence if it can be understood from context. Simply asking 一人でパーティに来ましたか or 友達と来ましたか should be acceptable since if the answer is no, then it implies the opposite case.

And to nitpick a bit, it's どうもありがとう, don't forget the long vowels.

 

[Toritoribe]

Agreed.

A: パーティーには一人で来たんですか。
B: ええ。 or いいえ。友達と。

This would be more natural as a flow of a Japanese conversation.


か can connect clauses and phrases.
e.g.
一人で来たか友達と来たかのどちらかだ。
行くか行かないかわからない。

 

[Mike Cash]

Mike Cash giving an empathetic reply. I am impressed.

Stick around and you'll gradually discover you don't know me half as well as you think you do.

 

[Beetle]

Can you please tell me what this kangi symbol means? 来

 

[Angel Valis]

Can you please tell me what this kangi symbol means? 来

It's the き in きました. In Toritoribe-san's reply, the verb appears in it's short-form past conjugation, きた.

 

[Beetle]

Thank you

 

[Zlarp]

Stick around and you'll gradually discover you don't know me half as well as you think you do.

I said I was impressed, not surprised. I said from the beginning that I like you, sir

 

[Mike Cash]

I said I was impressed, not surprised. I said from the beginning that I like you, sir

That phrasing would typically be construed as being indicative of surprise. I like you, too.

 

[Zlarp]

That phrasing would typically be construed as being indicative of surprise. I like you, too.

Mmh... yes, it would. I guess I am just making a distinction between different kinds of surprise. You know, one being surprise at something completely unsuspected and surprise at something that expresses its facets in an unusual way. I guess if my extremely limited Japanese knowledge is any indication, you could call it the 物/者 letting you see a bit more of the 事 - if that makes sense.