Please help me! Japanese beginner level question

Hi there,
i am totally freaking out right now since i have an oral exam tomorrow. I hope someone can help me with that.

What i want to say is: I want to go to Kyoto by Shinkansen because i want to see the Heian Shrine.
So what i have is
Shinkansen de Kyoto e itte, Heian-Jingu o mitai desu.
I havent quite figured out if i can combine the te form and the tai form in one sentence.
Or would i have to build the tai form of ikimasu aswell?

Thanks a lot for your help.

ada h. said:

Hi there,
i am totally freaking out right now since i have an oral exam tomorrow. I hope someone can help me with that.

What i want to say is: I want to go to Kyoto by Shinkansen because i want to see the Heian Shrine.
So what i have is
Shinkansen de Kyoto e itte, Heian-Jingu o mitai desu.
I havent quite figured out if i can combine the te form and the tai form in one sentence.
Or would i have to build the tai form of ikimasu aswell?

Click to expand...

That's good. You might want to add the "because" (kara) at the end.

You can also switch the whole thing around e.g.
Heian-Jingu o mitai desu kara Shinkansen de Kyoto e ikitai desu.

I can't tell you which is better for your exam. Depends on what you were taught and what your teacher is expecting.

thank you so much for your fast reply!!!

mdchachi said:

That's good. You might want to add the "because" (kara) at the end.

You can also switch the whole thing around e.g.
Heian-Jingu o mitai desu kara Shinkansen de Kyoto e ikitai desu.

I can't tell you which is better for your exam. Depends on what you were taught and what your teacher is expecting.

Click to expand...

Thank you so much for your help and great feedback.


Could you maybe be so kind and help me with this sentence?

watashi no kazoku wa tooku sunde iru node, amari mimasen.

what i wanted to say was: because my family is living so far away, i dont get to see them often.
does that sentence make any sense.

thanks

ada h. said:

Could you maybe be so kind and help me with this sentence?

watashi no kazoku wa tooku sunde iru node, amari mimasen.

what i wanted to say was: because my family is living so far away, i dont get to see them often.
does that sentence make any sense.

Click to expand...

Sounds (almost) perfect. I read the sentence before reading your intended meaning and that's exactly what I thought you wanted to say. One suggestion: rather than mimasen you might want to consider aimasen. In Japanese, usually "see" is used in a more literal sense.

ada h. said:

Hi there,
i am totally freaking out right now since i have an oral exam tomorrow. I hope someone can help me with that.

What i want to say is: I want to go to Kyoto by Shinkansen because i want to see the Heian Shrine.
So what i have is
Shinkansen de Kyoto e itte, Heian-Jingu o mitai desu.
I havent quite figured out if i can combine the te form and the tai form in one sentence.
Or would i have to build the tai form of ikimasu aswell?

Thanks a lot for your help.

Click to expand...

Your sentence can't express the meaning "because". The -te form doesn't have any meaning by itself. The function is just to combine two clauses, and the meaning is determined by the relation of the two clauses. Thus, it just means "I want to go to Kyoto by Shinkansen and see the Heian Shrine."
Even if the order of the two clauses is opposite (Heian-Jingū o mitakute, Shinkansen de Kyoto e ikitai desu.), it doesn't work well, either. Indeed the -te form can express the cause/reason of the main clause, but the strong mood such like the speaker's will, request, hope or desire can't be the main clause in this structure. The meaning "cause/reason" can work only for the description of a fact, so the past form "Heian-Jingū o mitakute, Shinkansen de Kyoto e ikimashita" works fine.
You need to use "kara" or "node" for the subordinate clause, as already suggested. "Heian-Jingū o mitai node, Shinkansen de Kyoto ni ikitai desu." is the best, since "kara" is too casual for the polite form "ikitai desu". "Ikitai desu kara/node" is not incorrect, but sounds ultra polite.

ada h. said:

watashi no kazoku wa tooku sunde iru node, amari mimasen.

Click to expand...

You need to add "ni" after "tooku".

Watashi no kazoku wa tooku ni sunde iru node, amari aimasen.
or
Tooku ni sunde iru node, kazoku to wa amari aimasen.