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Question with grammar

GoldCoinLover

後輩
24 May 2004
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Hey guys, I need help with some Japanese particles. I want to say "Have you met Kevin?", I thought it would be ケビンが会いましたか. Because the subject is kevin, I thought that the subject marker particle "ga" would work. But it turns out this means "Has kevin met him/her?"

Why does this happen? It turns out the correct way to say it is with the particle "ni" instead of ga. It is amazing in Japanese how changing one particle in a sentence can make it mean something else entirely. I hate the particle "ni", it has too many uses. I don't see why "ni" is used and not "ga". I can conjugate simple verbs, but the grammar particles always get me. Can someone please explain why ni is used instead of ga? 2 native japanese people corrected me and said to use ni instead of ga.

Thanks
Kevin
 
ケビン会いましたか is correct. .

Have you met Kevin?: the subject = "you", the object = "Kevin"
Has kevin met him/her?: the subject = "Kevin", the object = "him/her"

Probably you are completely misunderstanding it from the first...

subject
(grammar) In a clause: the word or word group (usually a noun phrase) that is dealt with. In active clauses with verbs denoting an action, the subject and the actor are usually the same.
"In the sentence 'The mouse is eaten by the cat in the kitchen.', 'The mouse' is the subject, 'the cat' being the agent."
subject - Wiktionary

object
(grammar) The noun phrase which is an internal complement of a verb phrase or a prepositional phrase. In a verb phrase with a transitive action verb, it is typically the receiver of the action.
object - Wiktionary
 
Not always. に has so many functions, to indicate the location(公園にいる: be in the park), destination(駅に行く: go to the station), temporal point(10時に寝る: go to bed at ten), etc., as you wrote. But it isn't used for the subject.
 
に is closer to を in actual use than to が because in many cases both answer the question "Whom or what is the subject acting upon?" Kevin ni aimshita? :Who did the subject meet? Kevin ? But this being Japanese, there are some verbs, like sawaru, au, hantai suru, sansei suru, katsu, makeru, etc. that always take に not を.

I recommend buckling down to memorize them - it's a short list - and not racking your brains too hard to figure out the logic behind it. :)
 
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