Question on Adverbs

sdrafahl

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24 Sep 2021

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• 24 Sep 2021

• #1

Hi I am in the early stages of studying Japanese and I noticed something that I have not seen an explicit rule about. There seems to be particles when dealing with noun like 'no'. However in some places no particle is necessary and its like English. For example in the Genki book there is a question regarding the time "tookyoo wa ima nanji desu ka". Part I am wondering is why can "ima" and "nanji" be sandwiched together like that? Curious if there is a general rule? If I find more examples I will post them here.

 

Toritoribe

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22 Feb 2008

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• 24 Sep 2021

• #2

Please refer to the following thread. 今 "Ima" is relative time, so に "ni" is not used after it.

How to use time/days words correctly？

Is there specific particles to use beside words related to time, like days (today yesterday tomorrow etc) or time (like morning, night etc)？ At first it seemed it could be に but I saw in words like 今日 明日 etc its used は as particle, and it seems no particles are used in some sentences But theen...

jref.com

As for 何時 "nan ji", 何時に "nan ji ni" refers to a moment something is done/happens, for example 明日何時に起きますか "Ashita nan ji ni okimasu ka? (What time will you wake up tomorrow?)". What is asked in your question is "what time it is in Tokyo" so に "ni" is unnecessary.

 

sdrafahl

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24 Sep 2021

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• 24 Sep 2021

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• #3

I need to find another example but I am more wondering about nouns you can just put next to each other.

 

Toritoribe

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• 24 Sep 2021

• #4

今 "Ima" functions as an adverb by itself without any particle, similar to "now" in English.

いま【今】 の解説
［名］（副詞的にも用いる）

goo

NTTドコモが運営するポータルサイト「goo」。今話題のニュースやドコモのキャンペーン、サービス紹介などお役立ちコンテンツを展開しています。

dictionary.goo.ne.jp

The definition ［名］（副詞的にも用いる） means "noun (it also can be used adverbially)".

As for 何時 "nan ji", there is no problem that a noun is attached to です "desu" directly, right?
e.g.
彼は学生です。Kare wa gakusei desu.
He is a student.

 

mdchachi

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• 24 Sep 2021

• #5

It's not a matter of being "next to each other" or not. It's that those two words aren't directly associated. You could also reword the sentence as "ima tookyoo wa nanji desu ka." And you might say "ima" and "tookyoo" are sandwiched together but that's the wrong way to look at it.
A lot of the time words don't need particles similarly. senjitsu, ashita, kinou, etc.