Questions + particles (Doko)

[Armando]

Hi,

What is the difference between:

Otearaiwa doko desuka (おてあらいはどこですか)
Otearaiwa dokoni arimasuka (おてあらいはどこにありますか)
Otearaiwa dokoga arimasuka (おてあらいはどこがありますか)
Otearaiwa dokowo arimasuka (おてあらいはどこをありますか)

Regards,

 

[Toritoribe]

The first and second one are the same in meaning, and the rest is ungrammatical.
Did you read our replies in your previous post, by the way? Any response?

 

[Armando]

The first and second one are the same in meaning, and the rest is ungrammatical.
Did you read our replies in your previous post, by the way? Any response?

Yes I did read those in my last post, but it seems the topic changed and it was more a dicussion about the possibility to have nani + something than the actual differences in combining particles and question words.

doko+wo arimasuka I was kind of expecting to be wrong in that one (but believe it or not in some translators is accepted as "where are you going to be"), but seems that doko+ga is possible at least in some translator apps is accepted and pretty much it translate really similar to doko+ni once again I'm just starting to realize that particles works for a lot more than I thought at the beginning or maybe I'm reading too much into it.

PS. otearaiwa doko desuka I translated as Where is the bathroom? and otearaiwa dokoni arimasuka I think that is where do you have the bathroom? (same essence slightly different meaning).

Thanks for answer.

 

[Toritoribe]

Do not trust machine translators.

が is the subject marker, whereas どこ is not the subject of ある. That's why it's ungrammatical.
Both どこですか and どこにありますか are asking about the location since the copula and the verb ある express existence. There is no difference, as I said.

 

[Armando]

Do not trust machine translators.

が is the subject marker, whereas どこ is not the subject of ある. That's why it's ungrammatical.
Both どこですか and どこにありますか are asking about the location since the copula and the verb ある express existence. There is no difference, as I said.

有り難う御座います

 

[Mike Cash]

doko+wo arimasuka I was kind of expecting to be wrong in that one (but believe it or not in some translators is accepted as "where are you going to be")

Do not trust machine translators.

You can put feces into your coffee maker instead of coffee grounds and the machine will still make a cup of brown liquid for you. You should be equally as reluctant to trust machine translation as you would be to taste that "coffee".

 

[mdchachi]

The good news is that you can say all four of those sentences in Japan and you will be understood and you will be told where to find the restroom.

I'd also recommend not accepting any "tea" from Mr. Cash should you happen to meet him.