Question Question about いつも

Zizka

Sempai

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14 Apr 2016

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• 12 Feb 2020

• #1

For the following sentence:
"My grandmother always drinks hot water at dinner."

The right answer is:
祖母は晩ご飯でいつもお湯を飲みます。

Since いつも is an adverb, why not simply put it before 飲みます, as in "always drinks". This is something I've witnessed multiple times where I'll make syntax mistakes when it comes to adverbs.

Could someone explain this to me as clearly and simply as possible please?

 

Zizka

Sempai

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14 Apr 2016

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• 12 Feb 2020

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• #2

Another example of where I'd make a syntax mistake:
"You should book a hotel early."
'Early' here is an adverb of 'book'. So I would put 'early' before book as in 'book early'. But 早く comes right before ホテル which makes no sense to me whatsoever. The hotel isn't early, it's the booking which is is early.

 

Toritoribe

松葉解禁

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Fifteen-year veteran

22 Feb 2008

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• 12 Feb 2020

• #3

Unlike in English, the word order is not so important in Japanese. For instance, there is no problem with the following orders.

いつも祖母は晩ご飯でお湯を飲みます。
祖母はいつも晩ご飯でお湯を飲みます。
祖母は晩ご飯でお湯をいつも飲みます。
晩ご飯で祖母はいつもお湯を飲みます。
祖母はいつもお湯を晩ご飯で飲みます。
いつも晩ご飯で祖母はお湯を飲みます。
晩ご飯でいつも祖母はお湯を飲みます。
etc.

The key is the combination of "noun + particle", since particles indicate the function of the preceding noun. Thus, you can't separate "晩ご飯 and で" or "お湯 and を".

 

Zizka

Sempai

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14 Apr 2016

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• 12 Feb 2020

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• #4

Ah! So I was right to put いつも right before the verb then. duo lingo was telling me I was wrong.

 

S

SomeCallMeChris

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Ten-year veteran

5 May 2013

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• 12 Feb 2020

• #5

Zizka said:

duo lingo was telling me I was wrong.

Click to expand...

This is half of why I'm not a fan of these sorts of apps, or similarly complex question sets in apps like Anki or Memrise...

There is very often more than one right answer, sometimes dozen of possible correct answers. English and Japanese are both
extremely flexible languages, each in their own way.

I mean, flashcards for memorizing vocabulary are great, but when flashcard apps try to do too much it gets very messy very fast.
You can do what you want, but if it were me I would use a grammar book or site to learn grammar and a flashcard app strictly to
memorize vocabulary.

 

Zizka

Sempai

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14 Apr 2016

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• 12 Feb 2020

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• #6

Regarding 早く, does it have to before ホテル?

 

S

SomeCallMeChris

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• 12 Feb 2020

• #7

Zizka said:

Regarding 早く, does it have to before ホテル?

Click to expand...

No. It can, but if anything, putting it closer to the verb is more normal. Both 早くホテルの予約を取る and ホテルの予約を早く取る mean 'to make an early reservation'.

✖ ホテルの早く予約を取る won't work well though. ホテルの予約 is the thing that you 取る (or する if you'd rather), so you can't just go sticking an adverb in-between the halves of the direct object.