Question: Prepositions

[HebrewTaija]

How would one go about using prepositions? I'm currently trying to find the word or suffix for "to" among others. I'm trying to translate "Key to the Eternity of Life and Death" and I currently have "Kagi ___(what goes here?) Eisei no Shisei." Also, I would like to know if there are articles that belong in that phrase and what they are. All help is appreciated.

 

[KrazyKat]

I would use ...の鍵（かぎ）。 This is the 'possesive' NO.
There are no articles in Japanese.

 

[HebrewTaija]

so just the standard の<no> should be used in this case?

 

[Glenn]

The basic meaning is "a key of eternity..." isn't it? Anyway, that's almost moot, because the way to say "X to Y" is by placing の after the "to" particle, but in the case of に の overrides it. You can do it with へ, but I think 。。。への鍵 isn't quite the meaning you want. By the way, I think 永遠（えいえん）would work better for "eternity," unless you mean it more like "eternal world."

 

[Mike Cash]

How would one go about using prepositions? I'm currently trying to find the word or suffix for "to" among others. I'm trying to translate "Key to the Eternity of Life and Death" and I currently have "Kagi ___(what goes here?) Eisei no Shisei." Also, I would like to know if there are articles that belong in that phrase and what they are. All help is appreciated.

Japanese doesn't have prepositions.

If you have to ask, the chances that you are going to actually manage to "translate" anything are nil.

 

[Elizabeth]

I would use ...の鍵（かぎ）。 This is the 'possessive' NO.
There are no articles in Japanese.

My vote is for 永遠への鍵。 Just using the の could mean it is a key already in possession of eternity -- or anyway it sounds vaguer to me. Sorry OP -- you're probably long gone, I'm just now catching up on the tail end of the threads I missed while away.

 

[J C]

If you want to be a bit pedantic, 死生 is actually "Death and Life". "Life and Death" = 生死 (せいし).

You could use 解法(かいほう) instead of 鍵 - which means the "key to a solution" - depends on how metaphorical you want to get. I'm not sure if 鍵 has the same metaphorical meaning as "key" does in English.

I'm not quite sure how to put it all together.
Maybe: 永遠への生死の鍵

 

[Mikawa Ossan]

I'm trying to translate "Key to the Eternity of Life and Death"

What exactly are you trying to mean by this?